3 Steps to a Better Butt

In a world where fitness '“influencer” numbers are increasing, it’s becoming more and more important to be able to distinguish good advice from bad. It seems that anyone can hop on instagram, post a few half naked pictures, and begin giving fitness advice even if they have no clue what they’re talking about.

This is especially true when it comes to building a great butt. Any good-looking girl with a decent bum will attract all sorts of attention and begin selling programs on how to build a better butt. Is there anything wrong with this? Well, it depends on what we’re talking about. But in my opinion it is our responsibility as consumers to be aware of what is being marketed to us. It is our job to understand what is sound advice and what is myth or hype.

Believe it or not, glute training is one of the most common places to find false information. The recommendations that most of these instagram models give simply don’t work. They may have the right intention when they are giving the advice, but they aren’t delivering the right message.

Because of this, I wanted to take the time to talk about three steps you should take to build bigger, stronger, better looking glutes based on years of experience coaching hundreds of clients. This stuff works.

STEP #1: Lift Heavy Using Compound Movements

Building better glutes simply means adding muscle order to make them look they way you want to. In order to build lean muscle, the body has to be put in an environment where it has no choice but to build muscle.

Our bodies were made to adapt to the environment we put them in. Take a look at long distance runners. They are on the skinnier side, not carrying much muscle as it is a disadvantage to run such long distances with lots of muscle. Take a look at sprinters. Sprinters are typically much more muscular, as sprinting and explosive movement requires lots of fast-twitch muscle fibers. Our body adapts, and we need to ask it to adapt by building more muscle in our glutes. We do so by sending a loud signal to the body.

Lifting weights sends that signal to our body telling it to get stronger and put on more lean muscle. The greater the load is, the stronger the signal is. Therefore, it is beneficial to use compound (multi-joint) movements to build your butt.

This is the biggest mistake I see on social media. Exercises that are promoted are things like pulse squats, jump lunges, and band work. There is nothing inherently wrong with those exercises, they’re just not going to send the butt-building signal we are looking for.

If you want to build a bigger, better-looking butt, you should program your workouts around squats, lunges, deadlifts, and thrusts. These lifts allow for the loudest muscle-building signal to be send to the glutes.

Think about it this way. If you knew a guy that wanted to build bigger arms and he spend his time bicep curling the air, you would say that’s ridiculous, right? He would be better off doing curls with heavier dumbbells or barbells. The same concept applies here. If you want to build your butt, focus on getting stronger and adding more weight to your squats, deadlifts, lunges, and thrusts using barbells and dumbbells.

Moves like banded kickbacks, jump lunges, and pulse squats will only make you feel the burn. Feeling the burn does not equate to building your butt.

STEP #2: Use Other Exercises to Improve Your Connection

Here is where it can be tricky.

You can do all the big lifts (squats, deadlifts, lunges, thrusts) you want, but if you don’t have a good connection to your glutes, you may not see them grow.

What does it mean to have a good connection to your glutes? It means you have the ability to feel your glutes working as you are doing the exercise through its entire range of motion. This is one of the areas that most people need improvement in. They do a bicep curl but feel it in their shoulders. They do a row but feel it in their arms rather than their back. They don’t know how to squeeze and work the muscles that need to be working.

If you have a hard time feeling your butt do the work, you need to improve your connection. There are a few things I recommend you do to make that happen.

1. Practice flexing. Seriously. If you are sitting down and I ask you to flex your glutes, you should be able to. If you are standing and I ask you to flex your glutes, you should be able to. If you are lying down and I ask you to flex your glutes, you should be able to. Practice flexing your glutes in order to teach your mind how to connect with the muscle. From there, reduce the weight on your bigger lifts, and practice squeezing your glutes throughout the full range of motion. For example, do a squat but practice squeezing your cheeks as you bring the weight up.

2. Use isometrics to help you focus on your glutes. Isometric movements happen when you hold a weight in a fixed position. So an isometric bicep curl would look like you holding the weight midway through a bicep curl for a certain period of time. To use isometrics to connect to you glutes, you could use a hip thrust and hold the weight at the top, squeezing your glutes as hard as you can for a set amount of time.

3. Slow down your movements and focus on the negative. A negative is when you slow down tremendously on the eccentric portion of the movement. This is when your target muscle is lengthening. For your glutes, you could do a lighter deadlift and focus on feeling your glutes squeeze as you come down from the top of the lift very slowly.

Use these methods to practice connecting with the muscles that should be working. Once you have that down, you will be able to send more of that muscle building signal to your glutes.

STEP #3: Use Frequency and Volume to Your Advantage

One of the ways we can measure growth is through muscle protein synthesis. When MPS is higher, more muscle building tends to occur. It is shown that MPS stays elevated for about 24-72 hours after training, varying from individual to individual.

If MPS stays elevated for 72 hours at most, it would be wise to train your glutes more than once per week. That way once MPS begins to fall back down to baseline, another training session can bring it back up.

Another thing that is important to discuss is volume. Volume in exercise is weights x sets x reps. Multiply those three numbers and you get your total volume for a muscle group. Slowly increasing your volume week by week has been shown to improve muscle growth. I recommend that you increase volume by aiming to lift more weight than you did the previous week.

More frequency and more volume can certainly help you build a better butt. However, this is one of those scenarios where more isn’t always better. The key here is finding the happy medium, the balance. You want to be at a place where you are not overtraining and have plenty of room to improve. The goal is to illicit the most amount of change with the least amount of work.

The best thing to do is start where you are, and incrementally add a little bit more. If you have never lifted before, going to the gym one day per week is more than enough. If you have lifted three days per week consistently for the past 6 months, you can either add a bit more glute work to those days. There really is no right or wrong. You just want to make sure you add a tad bit more than what you’re doing now, but not too much to the point of overtraining. You know you’re going too hard if you’re really sore the next day.

TAKEAWAYS

This can be a lot to take in, so let’s strip things down to some key takeaways.

1. Build your butt by lifting heavy with movements that will send the loudest muscle building signal to your body. This includes squats, lunges, deadlifts, and thrusts.

2. Use the above methods and accessory movements to develop a good connection to your glutes, ensuring that they are the muscles doing most of the work in those heavy lifts.

3. Slowly add more volume to your week, and use frequency to increase the volume incrementally. A simple way to do so is by adding five pounds to your lifts each week to slowly increase volume.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

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4 Must-Do Exercises to Build Muscle and Burn Body Fat

If you opened this article thinking there were magic exercises that would solve all of your muscle-building and fat-loss problems, I’m sorry to disappoint.

There is no such thing as an exercise that magically builds muscle and/or burns body fat. However, there are exercises that can make both of those process far easier.

Before we get in to specific movements, we need to briefly discuss what is at the root of muscle building and fat loss in order to fully understand and appreciate the contribution that these exercises can make.

THE ROOT OF MUSCLE-BUILDING

I’ll be honest, building muscle is far more complicated than losing fat. Luckily, there are some things we can keep in mind to keep from over-complicating the process.

Your body builds muscle when it is in the right environment and when it is given a proper signal. What is the “right environment?” Sound health, good sleep, proper nutrition/nourishment, and good hormone function all play a role in have the right environment. What is the “proper signal” that the body should be receiving? The proper signal is a signal that is telling your body that it must get stronger and build muscle. This signal is provided through weight training. There are many factors (sets, reps, rest, etc.) that go into using weights to send that signal. In general, lifting weights with the intent of getting stronger (heavier weights and longer rest periods) and setting personal bests can lead to strength and muscle gain.

THE ROOT OF FAT LOSS

You may have heard of calories in vs. calories out by now.

Calories are the units we use to measure the amount of energy in foods. When we consume more calories in the day than we burn, we gain weight. When we burn more calories in the day than we consume, we lose weight. Eating more than you burn is what is called a caloric surplus. Burning more than you eat is called a caloric deficit. Eating enough to maintain your current body weight is what we call caloric maintenance.

Although it is possible to lose body fat without being in a caloric deficit, being in a deficit may make fat loss far more likely.

Now that we understand the basic concept of building muscle and burning body fat, let’s talk about four exercises that can greatly contribute to your fat loss and muscle building goals.

EXERCISE #1: BARBELL SQUAT

The squat is one of the most revered exercises in fitness.

The squat is a compound movement, meaning the squat involves more than one joint. The ankles, knees, and hips are all involved during a squat. Since this is a compound movement, it involves multiple muscle groups including the glutes, quads, and a little bit of the hamstrings. Outside of the direct muscles that play a role in getting you from the bottom position to a standing position, other muscles are at work.

In order to keep the load (weight) from negatively impacting your spine, your entire core must be braced. The obliques, abs, and many other muscles help you maintain a tight and braced position as you move the weight.

Due to the involvement of so many major muscle groups, the squat likely burns a large amount of calories in comparison to say, a bicep curl. The squat also asks a lot of the heart as it needs to be able to pump blood and get oxygen to the major muscles of your lower body. Do a set of heavy barbell squats for 12-15 reps and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

In regards to building muscle, the squat carries lots and lots of potential. Remember that the movement involves more than one joint. This will allow you to apply a heavier load to the bar, potentially sending a louder signal (that’s the thing we talked about earlier) to build muscle.

Squatting - and squatting heavy should be a regular, consistent part of your training routine.

EXERCISE #2: Barbell Overhead Press

One of the things that shocked me most as a personal trainer was so many people’s inability to reach their hands over their head without pain, pinching, or complete breakdown in posture.

It may seem strange to you to think that some people can’t reach over their head well. But take a second to think about how often the average person needs to reach over their head. Almost never. We often need to reach up and out to grab a cup from the cabinet, but almost never straight up to the sky.

This causes many dysfunctions in posture, as well as a lack of shoulder mobility.

My years of personal training allowed me to fall in love with the overhead press as I saw it transform the way my clients felt and moved.

Aside from posture and a higher quality of life, the overhead press can involve many similar benefits that the squat does.

You see, the overhead press is a compound movement, too. The shoulder joint and elbow joint are both involved, causing the triceps and deltoids to take over a majority of the work. Not only is the upper body benefiting from this movement, but the core is as well. In order to properly press overhead without breakdown, the core, glutes, and legs, must be engaged.

Again, being that this movements involves multiple joints, it brings great potential for muscle building as a heavier load can be applied. More muscles being worked means more calories burned, too.

EXERCISE #3: BARBELL DEADLIFT

Thankfully, the deadlift has become so popular in recent years, as it should. The deadlift has so much to offer.

In our modern lifestyles, we spend a lot of time using the muscles on the front of our body. We reach forward, we slouch, we sit and stand from a chair, and we press some things from time to time. We don’t have enough actions in our lives that call us to use the backside of our body. Thankfully, the deadlift helps us make up for all that work on the frontside.

A barbell deadlift requires the entire back to be at work. It calls for the glutes and hamstrings to fully engage and fire, too. It is a wonderful exercise for the backside. Performing a proper deadlift on a regular basis can help you regain and/or maintain good posture, as well as send one of the loudest muscle building signals to the body.

EXERCISE #4: BARBELL BENCH PRESS

Ahh the bench press, loved by bros and hated by most females, this exercise did in fact make the list.

You may be thinking, “wait a minute, bench pressing works the front of our body. If we spend so much time working the front in everyday life, why do more of it in our workouts?” It’s because most people don’t do the bench press properly.

A proper bench press calls your entire body to be engaged, even your back. Keeping your glutes and shoulderblades engaged will reinforce good posture as you work you chest. As a result, your chest, triceps, and shoulders can get stronger without risking poor forward posture, otherwise known as upper crossed syndrome.

The bench press is also one of the better muscle building exercises. Remember, multiple joints means more load which meals a louder muscle-building a strength-building signal to your body. More muscle also means more calories.

I’d like to wrap it up with this:

For those of you reading, thinking that it seemed like these exercises were only for muscle-building, they’re not. Remember that there is no such thing as a fat-loss exercise, but rather exercises that have a bigger contribution to fat loss. If you don’t know, the amount of muscle on your body is one of the biggest contributing factors to the amount of calories your body burns in a day. The stronger you get, the more lean muscle that your body has, the more calories you automatically burn. Burning more calories automatically is a fat-loss goldmine. And I’m not talking about bodybuilder muscle here. I’m talking about the muscle that gives you that lean, defined, and toned look. Even if your goal is fat loss, focus on getting stronger, as you get stronger, the fat will come off easier.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

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Muscle-Building Myths Debunked

In most of the articles I write, I enjoy talking about “how to do…,” or, “5 ways to…” but this week I wanted to switch it up.

Other than how-tos and ways to improve your health and fitness, one of my favorite things to do is to call out b.s. and debunk common myths in the health and fitness space. I absolutely love shedding light on things that have lead people astray for far too long.

That is what I’m here for today. We are going to shed some light on some muscle-building myths in order to give you more insight on what you REALLY should be doing to improve your lean muscle mass.

MYTH #1 - YOU HAVE TO BE IN A CALORIE SURPLUS TO BUILD MUSCLE

Calories in and calories out seems to be the name of the game when it comes to building muscle and losing body fat.

And it should be. Well, most of the time.

When it comes to nutrition, the law of thermodynamics basically says that our body needs to be expending more calories than we are taking in to lose weight, and taking in more calories than we are expending in order to gain weight. So in theory, we would need to be taking in more calories than we are burning in the day in order to build lean muscle, a.k.a., calorie surplus.

This is true most of the time, but not all of the time. We also have this thing in the world of health and fitness that we like to call nutrient partitioning. All this means is that your body may send calories certain directions for certain results. The body may send calories that you are taking in for fat gain, or for muscle gain. It all just depends on the signal you are sending to your body.

If you are sending a signal to your body to get stronger and build muscle (a common signal you would send if you are weight lifting properly), the body may “partition” calories to build muscle. All it needs is calories.

We know that calories come from the food that we eat. But, we also have stored energy in our body. So in theory, it is possible for you body to use stored energy to benefit the muscle building signal that you are sending through your training program. In theory, you may not have to be in a calorie surplus at all.

Is this all talk, or is it really a thing?

It’s really a thing.

There is tons of evidence suggesting that the body can use stored calories for muscle building if it isn’t getting excess calories from food. I’ve seen it first hand in plenty of the clients that I’ve trained over the years. Their goal is fat loss, so we have them in a slight calorie deficit (burning more than they take in), yet the body builds muscle.

The body can take stored energy and use it to build muscle! Does this mean that your body turns fat into muscle? Well, not really. All it may be doing is using the stored calories as energy to benefit the muscle building response that the body is getting from lifting. Crazy.

I will say, though, that this is far more common in untrained and overweight individuals. Those that are intermediate, advanced, and/or lean lifters may very well need to be in a caloric surplus to build muscle.

MYTH #2 - DO 8-12 REPS TO BUILD MUSCLE

There are times when I am skeptical toward scientific studies, and this is one of them.

If you were to look at a collection of studies that look at what rep ranges build the most amount of muscle, you would come to a conclusion that most will tell you 8-12 reps is the sweet spot for muscle building.

This conclusion has lead many people to lift between 8-12 reps forever in order to build muscle. Yet, they find themselves getting stuck.

Something that is very hard to take into account during studies is the many individuals’ history with exercise, as well as how long the outcomes of the study affect the individuals. For example, a study may show that 8-12 reps was the best rep range to build muscle for the 6-week study. But what about after that?

If there is one thing that training hundreds of individuals has taught me, it’s that “it depends” is almost always the right answer to any question. Same goes for the best rep range to build muscle.

The best rep range to build muscle depends on what your body has been used to. We know that the body is an adaptation machine. Lift weights and it will get stronger. Do long distance running and it will be come more efficient. It’s pretty fascinating. The same applies for rep ranges and muscle-building. If you’ve been doing 8-12 reps for the past 6 months, it’s likely you haven’t been building muscle for quite some time. You may build more muscle doing 12-15 reps, or maybe even 4-8 reps. If you’ve been feeling like you’re spinning your wheels, it’s time to change it up.

People build muscle doing 4-6 reps. People build muscle doing 15-20 reps. It all just depends on what the body is used to, and what it hasn’t been exposed to.

MYTH #3 - SHOCK THE BODY BY CHANGING YOUR ROUTINE OFTEN

Shocking the body is something that got popular somehow someway with the stereotypical gym bros. The idea is that you always want to keep your body guessing that way it can never adapt and you will continually see progress.

The obsession with shocking the body got out of control, and those wanting to build serious muscle started changing their workouts up far too often.

As we know, more isn’t always better.

Changing your routine is good, but it should only be done every 3-6 weeks. You see, it is good to shock the body and make sure it isn’t getting too used to what it’s doing. But we still want to give it the opportunity to reap the most benefit from the exercise we are giving it. If we change things up too often, our body won’t have a chance to adapt and change for the better.

Our body has to be exposed to a certain routine and stimulus for a period of time for it to improve. Think of it like a skill in a sport. If you want to improve your ability to swing a bat, you wouldn’t want to practice swinging a bat one day and then swinging a tennis racket for another. You would want to get plenty of reps in with the bat. It’s a similar concept with your training. If you want your legs to become stronger, you need to allow them to become as strong as they can with certain exercises, sets, and reps. As soon as progress begins to slow down, that’s the time to switch it up. This window is about 3-6 weeks depending on the individual.

Remember, there is no right answer 100% of the time. It depends on you, so take note of how your body responds, and change things up when it’s time.

THE TAKEAWAYS

If you’re wanting to build muscle, keep the following in mind.

You do not always have to be in a calorie surplus to build muscle. If your body has the right training protocol and stored energy to use, it may be able to build muscle at calorie maintenance or even deficit.

The best rep range for you is the one that you haven’t been doing. You can build muscle in low and high rep ranges.

Don’t spend too much or too little time in a routine. Change things up every 3-6 weeks.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

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Download any of our ebooks or guides for FREE in the “free” tab at the top of the page.