Build a Better Butt

WARNING: SOMEWHAT NSFW PHOTOS. SKIMPY BIKINIS AND BOOTIES AHEAD. 

There’s been a recent “revolution” you might say, of big booties. Before, having a big butt was a negative thing, as shown by the infamous question “do these jeans make my butt look big?”. But as of late, the booties women aspire to achieve look more like Iggy Azalea’s and Nicki Minaj’s (although lately the internet has been saying Nicki has implants, who knows?). When most women want to improve their rear, they turn straight to the bodyweight donkey kicks and hundreds of bodyweight squats. While this definitely helps make your booty look better, there are far more efficient ways you can improve your behind.

The best way to improve the way your butt, or glutes look, is to lift heavy weights using movements that target the glutes as the primary movers. Like I’ve said before, lifting heavy weights will build muscle, and help you lose fat. It will NOT make you look like Arnold! Something to remember is that even if your muscles do get larger than you like, it will happen gradually and all you have to do is ease up on training those muscles. After a few weeks, you should notice a decrease in the size of these muscles. The best example I can give you of fitness professionals who train their glutes with heavy loads, is bikini competitors. Bikini is the lowest (read: least muscular) level of bodybuilding for women. The focus is a lean, yet curvy physique, with an emphasis on rounded shoulders, and round, full glutes. Take a look at these professional competitors below:

From left to right: bikini competitors Jessica Arevalo, Marissa Rivero, and Jessica James.

I feel like I should address the fact that many women see improvements with bodyweight-only exercise, and it is entirely possible to do so. It is especially common for sedentary women to see these quick initial improvements. But these are known as “newbie gains,” a period in the beginning of training where the progress you see is very quick. These gains will taper off after a few weeks/months though, and then it will be MUCH harder to change your body, especially with bodyweight-only exercises that don’t put enough stress on your body to see the change you want fast enough. It is important to challenge your muscles as much as possible to see faster results.

So now that we’ve established that lifting heavy is good for you, let me clear something up: if 5 lb dumbbells are challenging for you, there is nothing wrong with you using them. When I say lift heavy, I don’t mean you squat 150 pounds the first time you try a barbell squat. What I mean is you find a weight that is challenging for your body, that you couldn’t do more than 15 reps maximum with. If that means you can do a 120 lb squat, awesome. If that means you can do no more than a 25 lb squat, equally awesome. The important thing is you are challenging your body with a load that is hard. Don’t be ashamed if your body isn’t as strong as others’. Trying to match others is pointless, and you will likely get hurt. There is pride in knowing what your body is capable of, but humility in knowing its limits.

Most people who lift regularly tend to work each body part once, maybe twice a week. However, I would suggest training your glutes two to three times a week. If it’s a big goal you’re working towards, there is nothing wrong with working at it a few times a week, so long as you have a rest day or two in between each workout. Rest days don’t have to just mean no exercise though, you can go for a walk, a light jog, do a yoga class, something that still uses your muscles but isn’t too taxing.* You have no obligation to, but it’s an option even on your rest days. Make sure you are warming up and cooling down properly to prevent injury as well.

*Side note: I’ve done the “active rest day” a little too hard two days after a hard leg workout. We hiked up a mountain. And it was the worst leg pain of my life. Don’t make my mistake.

Repetitions

As far as how many sets and repetitions you should be doing, there are two approaches you can take. The first is to go straight for the hypertrophy (or muscle size increase) range, which is 3-5 sets of 6-12 reps. However, what I think is a more effective method is to spend a month or two focusing on building your strength with 4-6 sets of 1-5 repetitions, and then switching to hypertrophy. When you train for strength, you will still see a size increase, especially if you have not trained heavy before (again, “newbie gains”). The benefit of increasing your strength first is that when you do start hypertrophy, you will be training with heavier weights, and seeing more progress more quickly as a result.

Now to the exercises! These first ones involve heavy weights, but I have a list below for those without access to a gym, of bodyweight exercises that are still very challenging. These movements target the glutes as the primary movers, making them extremely efficient for building up that booty!

Weighted Exercises

Glute Bridges

Notice the straight line formed from the shoulders, to the hips, to the knees in figure B.

Lie on your back on the floor, with a barbell above your hips. Wrap the barbell in a foam pad or towel to minimize strain on hips. Perform a glute bridge by lifting your hips (and the barbell) up using your glutes until they form a straight line with your shoulders and your knees, driving through your heels to maximize glute activation. The barbell should rest just below your hip bones, or wherever is most comfortable for you. Lower barbell to floor. Do not arch your back at any point  – there should be a line from your shoulders, to your hips, to your knees, and an arch will recruit your lower back from supporting and stabilizing the movement, to pushing the movement. Make sure to engage the glutes and contract them at the top of each rep, and while lowering the barbell.

Hip Thrusts

Brett Contreras, The Glute Guy.

Hip thrusts are perfomed similarly to glute bridges. Start by sitting in front of a bench, with the backs of your shoulders pressed against the side of the bench. As you use your glutes to lift your hips, your shoulders will slide back so that they are resting on the bench parallel to the ground. Again, do not over-extend your back. A straight line will be formed again, this time parallel to the ground instead of at an angle. Lower your hips while keeping your glutes contracted, and repeat.

Squats

Squats are a fantastic compound movement that recruits many muscles to move and stabilize you. It is important to squat with proper form to prevent injury. Since they are such a complex movement, I’m going to refer you to the Stronglifts website’s description of how to squat. It can be a bit scary having heavy weight resting on your shoulders, especially when you can fail your rep and need to bail out of it, so having a detailed explanation of proper squat form, such as this one, is important. Some key notes:

• squatting is not bad for your knees
• you can, and should, squat below parallel
• don’t round or over-extend your back! back injuries yo.
• drive through your hips as you come up from the movement to increase glute activation, as opposed to quad activation

Here are some squat variations for when you want to mix it up!

• Sumo squat – take a wide stance, about the width of double shoulder width, and squat! You will feel this in your outer hips more than a regular squat.
• Goblet squat – hold a dumbbell, kettlebell, or heavy household object up to your chest, and squat. This activates your abdominals more, as they need to work harder to keep you upright with a heavy weight in front of you.
• Front squat – a barbell squat done with the barbell resting on your collarbone. This is done with a lighter weight than a back squat, as it is also more challenging for your abdominals than a traditional back squat.

Deadlifts

Deadlifts are also a fantastic compound movement, but like squats, they are also complex, and with improper form, you can seriously hurt yourself, particularly your lower back. I will refer you again to Stronglifts, and their page on deadlifting properly. Key points for deadlifting:

• DO NOT ROUND OR ARCH YOUR LOWER BACK. Doing so runs a very high risk of hurting your lower back.
• Do not lift or pull with your arms. The barbell is moved entirely by your legs and core, your arms simply allow you to hold it.
• Contract your glutes to ensure they are being activated properly. This movement relies a lot of the hamstrings as well, and it can be easy to let them do more than their share of the work.

Deadlift variations:

• Sumo deadlift – take a stance similar to that of a sumo squat – much wider than shoulder width apart. Your hands will be placed between your legs, as opposed to outside like a regular deadlift.
• Romanian deadlift – these are done with a constant slight bend at the knees, which activates the hamstrings and glutes more. They can look very similar to traditional deadlifts, so here are descriptions and gifs of the two that you can compare. The traditional barbell deadlift starts with a deeper bend in the knees, and goes to straight legs (but not locked knees!) at the top of the movement, compared to the constant slight bend in the Romanian deadlift.
• One-legged deadlifts – Start with one leg slightly behind you, and as you go to deadlift, allow this leg to raise behind you. These are quite challenging, as you are balancing on one leg and need to stabilize that leg properly while lifting. Start with a very low weight to get used to the movement, and then you can move up to a more challenging weight.

Deadlifts are a very challenging exercise, and can be intimidating to inexperienced lifters. If you feel nervous about it, don’t hesitate to ask a friend who is into heavy lifting to help you out, or a trainer at the gym. In either case, I would suggest asking this person to show you how they deadlift before you have them help you – not everyone practices good form.

Lunges

Walking barbell or dumbbell lunges can be extremely challenging and great glute activators, so long as you are contracting and driving through your glutes.

Step-ups

These can be performed with any sturdy, raised surface (but probably not your kitchen or coffee table). Many gyms have step up platforms for box jumps and weighted step-ups. With either a barbell on your shoulders, or a dumbbell in each hand, place one foot on the platform, and drive through your heel to step up onto the platform, and rest your other foot down. Step back down in a slow, controlled manner. Switch legs and repeat.

Cable Hip Abduction

These target the outer glutes and the hips. At a cable machine, set the cable to the setting lowest to the ground. Secure your ankle into a strap, or roll the handle onto your ankle. Lift your leg out to the side in a slow controlled manner, as far as it will go. Lower to starting position, at the same controlled pace.

Bodyweight Exercises

If you do not have access to a gym, don’t fret. There are plenty of bodyweight exercises that are challenging, and you may have household items that can be used as weights. Gallon milk jugs can be filled with water, or maybe you have a large bag of rice or beans that you can hold while you do these if you want even more of a challenge.

• Unweighted hip thrusts and glute bridges
• Walking body weight lunges
• Squats, and squat variations
• squat jumps
• Hill sprints – find a steep hill. Sprint at about 90% effort 50 meters or so up the hill. Walk down to recover, and take extra time if necessary, then repeat. Just doing a few is a great workout, but I wouldn’t recommend doing more than 10 – you might overwork yourself. Your glutes will be what pushes you up the hill, and it is a great cardiovascular high-intensity interval training (HIIT) exercise.
• Bulgarian split squats – place your foot on a surface about knee-level behind you. Position yourself so that you can comfortably squat down, and drive through your heel as you come up. This movement is much more challenging than it looks, because you are recruiting more muscles to stabilize yourself on the front leg. Some people to position themselves closer to the surface behind you, while others prefer to be a bit farther away, as shown in the second picture.

Diet

While building muscle, make sure you are getting plenty of protein each day, about one gram or more per pound of bodyweight. I realize this can seem like a LOT of protein to people who haven’t eaten and tracked lots of protein before, but you can get protein from non-meat sources such as beans, lentils, seeds and Greek yogurt. A surplus of 100-300 calories per day above your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (or TDEE, the number of calories you burn in a day). Use an app like MyFitnessPal or FatSecret to set and track your protein and calorie intake. I would recommend setting custom goals, as the preset ones tend to be different than what you’re trying to accomplish. Also keep in mind that the time of day/how many meals you eat has never been proven to so do what works best for you when it comes to meal timing and frequency.

One last, very important note. It is incredibly important to remember that you will not see results overnight. Building the body you want takes time, effort, and patience. You won’t get a round bubble butt in a week, but every hip thrust and hill sprint you do will take you closer to your goal. As with all things fitness, you are on a journey, and you can’t sprint to the end of it.

Cleans – my new favorite lift

There’s a guy at my gym that I’ve seen a number of times recently. He always does really intense compound lifts at very heavy weights, and has a very friendly demeanor. So I asked him today if he could show me how to clean:

This be a clean. I don’t know what happened to my original gif, but it got all messed up.

 

and he very kindly obliged. I didn’t realize it but he’s one of the trainers there! He spent the next 40 minutes showing me how to clean properly, since it’s a very complex movement that’s easy to screw up. We started out with a 20lb preset barbell, and then moved to a 45-pound Olympic bar (Oly bars are better than the preset ones, because the weights on them will rotate with you – feels much more natural). I still don’t have the hang of it, but I think I love it, and it’s a great total-body move.

I’ll be spending the next couple of weeks working on it and once I get the hang of it, I’ll be increasing the weight! I had to spend 25 minutes foam rolling afterwards, and I have a sneaking suspicion that my legs are going to be KILLING ME tomorrow anyways.

I guess the moral of my gym story is if you have a question, don’t be hesitant to ask for help. My experience is probably on the extreme end of fantastic – I got personalized help for the better part of an hour, from a trainer, and didn’t have to pay – but if there’s a trainer at your gym you particularly like, or someone you’ve seen doing something you’re interested in trying, ask for their help. Make sure they’re at least finished with their set before asking though, the last thing anyone wants is to be talked at while they’re pushing or pulling some heavy weights!

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) – Kick the Cardio Bunny Routine for Better Results

I had been writing a post about Fitocracy, but I’m going to put it on the backburner for now because I think addressing cardio is way more urgent (although I can’t wait to post the Fitocracy one either!).

For as long as I’ve remembered, I’ve hated cardio.  Most of the women at every gym I have ever gone to do a slow-pace workout that lasts for upwards of 20 minutes, sometimes as long as one to two hours and it is just so terribly boring to me. I’ve done the same thing before, and it’s just a long, dull struggle of “when is this going to be over!?” I’ve never understood how someone could be content just swinging their legs along the elliptical for an hour.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people who absolutely adore running a few miles, or cycling for long distances or doing other endurance sports, and that is fantastic. But I’m trying to get through to the women who think long runs and long machine workouts are the best way that cardio can burn fat, and that they’re the only way to get in better cardiovascular shape. I think a lot of women do these workouts because they’re never told otherwise. That’s why you see most women spend over half their time at the gym on a treadmill or elliptical or bicycle, with many of them reading a book or magazine, or watching TV, utterly unengaged.

So what should I be doing instead?

I’d like to introduce a novel, somewhat-new concept: high intensity interval training, or HIIT. The idea is that you do shorter bursts of intense work (say, sprints), followed by longer recovery work such as walking or resting. This can be done with sprinting/walking, bodyweight exercises/rest, most things really, as long as you’re exercising at a really intense level, followed by recovery. Then you repeat it. It typically lasts no more than 20 minutes, and I’ve seen programs as short as 4 minutes.

In my opinion, the best part of this is that it’s done for a much shorter period of time than your usual cardio workout. I’ve never seen an account of anyone going for longer than 20 minutes, mostly because you’re just working so damn hard. You no longer have to set aside an hour to get your cardio in, hell you can get your cardio done in under 10 minutes.

There have been tons of studies done on HIIT vs. long, slow-pace cardio – fat loss between the two, cardiovascular improvements, etc. I’m going to pull a lot of my stats from a bodybuilding.com article on HIIT found here,which quotes a number of these studies. One of the most mind-blowing ones reported that:

females following a 20-minute HIIT program, consisting of 8-second sprints followed by 12 seconds of rest, lost six times more body fat than the group who followed a 40-minute cardio program performed at a constant intensity of 60 percent of their maximum heart rate.

I’d like to let that sink it. By spending half the amount of time working out, women were able to lose six times as much fat as the women doing steady-pace cardio. I haven’t found the exact percentages lost, but even if the women doing the 40 minute sessions only lost 1% of body fat on average, the other group would have lost 6%. That’s the difference between marginal fat loss (sure it happened, but you can’t tell) and noticeable fat loss.

After doing HIIT, you will burn more calories in the 24 hours following your workout than if you did steady-pace cardio – about 10% more calories. There is also less muscle loss with HIIT, and it is a much more efficient means of increasing cardiovascular fitness as well.

Okay, I’m sold. How can I start doing HIIT?

Another one of my favorite things is that there’s tons of ways to do HIIT. If you don’t have access to it, you don’t need equipment, or even proper running shoes, so there’s an option for everyone. (Although if you’re going to be running, you should definitely have good running shoes.) Here’s a list of ways to start out:

• follow the 8-week program outlined in the bodybuilding.com article . You can use an elliptical, a treadmill, stationary bike, or run outside. Their program starts with a 1:4 work-to-recovery ratio, working up to 2:1.
• do 8 seconds of sprinting followed by 12 seconds of walking or resting, and repeat for 20 minutes
• Use the Tabata method – perform bodyweight exercises such as burpees, lunges, squats, pushups, tricep dips, v-sits, etc. for 20 second intervals, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Do this for 4 minutes.
• Crossfit – it’s based on functional fitness and high intensity exercise that incorporates weightlifting, plyometrics, and gymnastics. Be sure to research a reputable Crossfit box – you want to make sure your trainers are focusing on form and not reps or time, because doing Olympic lifts and gymnastics with bad form will hurt you. It can be very expensive, but it is less focused on the work/time ratio, and can be a way to incorporate weightlifting and cardio into the same workout.

Since I started HIIT, I no longer dread cardio, which is damn huge for me. Besides cutting my cardio workouts in half and getting a better result, I feel more accomplished afterwards, similar to how I feel after a hard session of heavy weightlifting. So give it a try, and stick with it for a few months. You’ll probably find you’ll have more free time and faster results, so what’s there to lose?

Why Women Should Lift Heavy Weights

If you’re like most gym-going women, your gym routine looks something like this:  do a 30+ minute workout with a steady, moderate pace on a treadmill, stationary bike, or elliptical, and then go to the weight machines and do many low weight, high rep sequences that target your inner thighs, glutes, and abs. Maybe some arm stuff too. Then you go for a walk or just stretch to cool down. You repeat this for weeks, months, years, and never quite get the results you want. You may look better, but you’ll never reach your dream body.

It’s so sad that we do this. We’re told that a long, boring workout on an elliptical is going to make the fat melt away, and that we’ll look like a bodybuilder if we go any higher than 15 pounds on any machine. When you leave the gym, you don’t feel a sense of accomplishment, and you spend tons of time at the gym to get mediocre results. If fitness magazines were honest, they’d run out of crap to sell you within a year. What most women don’t know is that if you want to lose fat and look better, lifting heavy weights is going to be a huge help.

And yes, I do mean heavy weights. Not the 2.5lb dumbbells that come in hot pink (although those are adorable), but heavy enough to be challenging yourself for each set of, say, 8 reps. Now I’m not trying to belittle anyone who is lacking in strength, and has to use 5 lb weights for certain lifts, but you truly need to be using weights that challenge you. Doing 4 sets of 20 reps with 15 pounds on the leg press is most likely not challenging yourself.

There are so many misconceptions about women lifting heavy weights, and the one that probably pops right into your head is that lifting weights will make you bulky. Well I’ve got great news!

Lifting heavy weights will not make you bulky.

Saying that you’re afraid of looking like a bodybuilder if you lift heavy weights is like saying that you’re afraid of going for a run because you might win the Boston Marathon (thanks for the analogy, r/loseit FAQ). Over the period of many years, female bodybuilders spend hours and hours working out each week, have an extremely specific, restricted diet, and some take illegal steroids. Not all women who compete in bodybuilding competitions do so, but chances are, if they are enormous and you think they “look like a man,” they probably take steroids. Here’s the reason why: the vast majority of women do not produce enough testosterone to get “bulky,” or “huge”. I’ve been researching health and fitness for a year and a half, and in that time, I have seen one single account of a woman who tends to “bulk up” beyond her liking from lifting heavy. Aside from that, I’ve seen hundreds of women talk about their success with strength training.

This lady up here went from overweight and unhappy, to fit and confident with the help of proper nutrition and weightlifting. Click the image to see her story on bodybuilding.com.

Muscle is what is revealed when fat is burned off, and it’s damn sexy. You know the phrase “skinny fat”? Where you’re thin, but not lean? That happens when there is no muscle beneath the fat, and there is no definition and very little shape.

I also want to address “being toned,” or “toning”. “Being toned” essentially means having muscle and being low enough in body fat. It’s a somewhat inaccurate notion, because muscle tone is simply the amount of tension a muscle maintains while resting, but everyone knows what “being toned” looks like. But the big issue is the concept of “toning”. This is a problem because it seems to imply that you can spot-reduce fat. “Sculpting” has the same inaccurate implication. You lose fat when you have a caloric deficit, and it happens wherever your body chooses, and not necessarily on the body parts you’ve been working. You can do as many sit-ups or crunches you want, but if you don’t have a low enough body fat percentage, all you’ll be doing is increasing your waistline (because as we know, working your muscles will make them bigger).

The weight machines at the gym are often isolation movements (i.e. that leg lifts that target only your quads), but what you’ll want to focus on when you lift weights is compound movements. These movements require more than one joint and more than one muscle group – think squats, bench press and pull-ups, to name just a few. There’s a number of reasons for this. For starters, it is more efficient – you can get a total-body workout doing two exercises if you do the right ones, helping you maximize your gym time. These movements also burn more calories,  meaning it’s not just efficient for time, but it’s efficient for calorie burn. Also, machines give you too much stability – when you do a leg press, you only work your legs and glutes, but if you do a barbell squat, you also have to activate your core and shoulders to hold the barbell atop your shoulders. Compound movements also mimic natural movements: a deadlift is how you should pick heavy things off the ground, a pullup mimics pulling yourself off a ledge (hopefully that doesn’t happen too often though!), etc. Now that being said, isolation training isn’t a bad thing, it just shouldn’t be your primary form of weight training. Personally, I do almost all compound movements and add in a hip thrust or step up here and there to increase my glute size (I’m a mild sufferer of FAB (flat Asian butt) disease, so I try to make mine bigger). This type of accessory work can be added in as you want, but like I said, your main focus and source of training should come from compound movements.

Ignore the scale

There’s something very, very important that you will need to accept on your weight loss and weightlifting journeys: your scale is a dirty, dirty liar.. Take a look at the volume of 5lbs of fat vs. 5lbs of muscle below:

The muscle above takes up much less space than the fat does, even though they weigh the same amount. If you start weightlifting, you may find your weight doesn’t change, or even increases, but your focus should be on how your body has changed. Your water weight fluctuates by up to about 5 pounds per day, which just adds to the notion that weight is mostly irrelevant. Like I’ve said before, unless you are a ballerina or need to reach a certain weight class, your weight does not matter.

Some additional health benefits of strength training include increased bone density, protected joints, and some chronic conditions like arthritis, diabetes and osteoporosis can be managed through strength training. But something I never anticipated that I personally would gain is the unwavering sense of accomplishment and empowerment. My previous cardio and light weight routines at the gym left me feeling…confused, I guess. I didn’t really know what I was doing, and it didn’t feel very challenging, but since it was generally accepted as what women do at the gym, I kept doing it. I would never see results, and relapse into my old habits. Now that I’ve started strength training, I feel like I can do anything. The other day I finally deadlifted my body weight, and then a few weeks later, I deadlifted 180 pounds. For some women, this is nothing. They warm up with this. But for me, this was huge. I’d never had hamstring muscles that I could feel, and now I can recruit them to help me lift 180 pounds. It feels incredible. Doing something you didn’t know you could is amazing.

What you can do when you start

I’m not going to prescribe a specific program for you. Like I said, I’m not an expert, and there are books that go into much more detail, and will help you more than I can. I would suggest picking up The New Rules of Lifting for Women, or Starting Strength. Both outline not only programs for beginners, but they give detailed instructions for the movements you’ll do – deadlifts, squats, bench press, front squats, pull-ups, whatever (Starting Strength is renowned for its incredibly in-depth descriptions of compound lifts). It’ll tell you how to lift with proper form, which is crucial to prevent injury and maximize muscle use. I personally do not follow a set program like this, but I think that these are great ways for beginners to build foundational strength and learn how to properly perform these moves.

If you don’t have access to a gym, or are unable to afford it, take a look at bodyrock.tv. They have great short workouts that incorporate both cardio and body weight exercises that can be adjusted for all levels of athleticism. My only real criticism is that lately they seem to have made their videos and pictures even more overtly sexual than before, which is saying something, so I’m not able to go on their website while at work without feeling weird.

A fantastic way to track your workouts and progress is Fitocracy. You track your workouts there, and earn points for everything you do, levelling up over time. There is a fantastic community filled with groups and member spotlights, and it’s a great way to connect with like-minded people. I love it and would highly recommend it!

Your results won’t come overnight, but you can make a lot of progress in the beginning if you stick with it. Don’t fear hard work, and don’t fear being stronger than you were before. Weight lifting is one of the most empowering things I’ve ever done, so get started! You have nothing to lose but fat 🙂