A great backside, man or woman is always a plus. Don’t you agree? Let’s face it, no one wants to look like they can’t work it! A grand derriere not only attractive but it has a lot to do with a tall, strong healthy posture. Your hips, which are controlled primarily by your butt, are the largest extensors in the body. Without it, we would be bent at our hip with our chest in our knees. Unless you have tight hamstrings then you’d just be a pretzel. Read on and discover how to have the nicest ass you’ve EVER seen!
Leading characters to having a nice A$$
The area of the body most popularly known for as the butt has three main muscles that create its round shape. The gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus and gluteus medius. Mr. Maximus is the largest of the three. In most people, it is responsible for the lower 2/3 of the butts’ roundness. The glute med tops off the 1/3 to create the upper portion of the butt. The shelf is the name some folks are familiar with. And if you’re not, allow me to elaborate! If you look at exhibit A, you can see how the glute med plays a role in widening the hips slightly, also to a lesser degree can help create the coke bottle shape but more evidently, developing the upper portion of the butt. That’s where my glass goes! 😉 In exhibit B, Mr. Maximus resembles the cuff, the bowl, or least likely known as the dump truck! Unless you’re a man! Then in that case, your butt is only called a butt! Please don’t try to think of something cute and cuddly. It’s none of that! It’s just a butt! But I digress… ☺
Exhibit A.
Exhibit B.
ID your type? Necessary exercises to get results…
Ok so now it’s time to have fun with yourself and discover what type you are! If you are unsure how to go about this, follow my instructions! First, grab a wine glass and an envelope! Just kidding… Seriously! Stand in the mirror, and take a side profile picture of your body. In this view we can see the glute med’s and the Glute Max’s total effect on your butt. An individual with more girth in the lower portion and less up top is called an upside down heart shaped booty. The other type is a heart shaped booty with a developed upper part of the butt. Once you have determined where you need enhancement in your glutes, now it’s time put the program together and select which exercises will target which area the best. Here is a list of exercises that target the Glute Max, Glute Med or both simultaneously:
Power Walking up an incline (Glute Max and Glute Med)
Sprinting intervals (Glute Max and Glute Med)
Plyometrics more so frontal plane of movement (Glute Max and Glute Med)
Squats (Glute Max)
Deadlifts (Glute Max)
Hip lunges (Glute Max)
Hip Extension (Glute Max)
Stiff legged DL (Glute Max)
Single leg DL (Glute Max and Glute Med)
Butt Blaster Machine (Glute Max and Glute Med)
Single stiff legged DL (Glute Med Glute Max)
Side Lunges (Glute Med Glut Max)
Standing or Lying Hip Abduction (Glute Med)
Clam shell (Glute Med)
Side Step Band Walking (Glute Med)
Straight Leg Side Plank (Glute Med)
Fire Hydrant (Glute Med)
This is part one of Booty Builders. In part two, I will pick up with what to do if you do not feel the glutes activate during these exercises and how to correct that. Also, an explanation of how genetics play a role and two custom routines for how to develop the glute med and glute max. Other important muscles that assist in developing the glutes to their max potential. For now, you are on your way to have an amazing backside and there will be no butts about it!
Glutes? What Glutes?
If you have attempted several or all of these exercises and still don’t feel your glutes on fire! Mayday! Mayday! We have an emergency! You maybe one of those individuals that shot blanks from your butt! Of all the places to shot blanks you don’t want them to come from your butt! The type of blanks we are talking about is when the glute doesn’t activate and fire at the appropriate time if at all! We call this being Glute Inhibited. Glute Inhabitation is when the muscles in your butt do not respond when a movement pattern that is usually supported by the glute, doesn’t. In glute inhibition, which is half of an imbalance in the hip that is caused by Quad Dominance. On the other side of the coin, we have Quad Dominance. Which happens to be when the quadriceps muscles are overactive and won’t relax enough for the glutes to develop the strength necessary to contract when certain functional movements are performed.
What to do if you’re glutes aren’t firing when you do these exercises????
How to know if your glutes aren’t firing is you feel your quads more when performing these exercises, you have pain in your knees when doing this exercises or lower back pain at any point and time of the day. If you fall into this category you would need to address these imbalances to properly workout your glutes. If you are quad dominate and/or glute inhibited, developing the appropriate muscles to have that great ass in jeans will be compromised by the lack of muscle activation in your butt due to over activation in opposing muscles that also are connected to the hip and spine. So how to rid your body of this ungainly issue and get on your way to buttockularness! First you must teach the overactive muscles to relax with appropriate stretches. Immediately after you want to do some isolated activation exercises in the whole glute region to get those muscles firing at a higher rate. The quicker and more frequently the body can send signals to the area we are trying to activate, the increased likelihood it can develop and become more toned and apparent.