Girls are critical of their buttocks: they’re not the right size, they’re not as firm, they’re not as strong. How to achieve your ideal?
For example, Brazilian women pay increased attention to their buttocks by doing regular exercises, and during training they spend half an hour working on the gluteal part of the body. This area is also worked out after 45 minutes of training for the chest and back.
It’s not difficult to give your buttocks the shape of your dreams: just start working in the right direction and during each workout, focus on the desired area.
Types of gluteal muscles:
- The gluteus maximus muscle is one of the largest muscle groups in the entire body. Its main task is the ability to extend, spread and rotate its legs. The gluteus maximus muscle works in conjunction with the gluteus minimus muscle so that a person can not only perform the listed movements, but also sit.
- The gluteus medius muscle is located on the outside of the thigh. It provides support for the pelvic area in a static position.
- The gluteus minimus muscle is located at the bottom of the gluteus medius muscle and is also responsible for maintaining balance.
These three gluteal muscles are key to overall health, strength and endurance. Without the required amount of physical activity, the gluteal muscles will not be able to function to their full potential. Being at rest for a long time, our muscles weaken due to decreased tone. Other small muscle groups also function worse, and the muscles in the lumbar region take the brunt.
The hamstrings also suffer. Injuries to this part of the body are associated with weakening of the buttock muscles. The gluteal muscles must be toned so that the vital forces of the body are always at their best, as well as to train endurance.
The shape of the buttocks is related to the tone of the gluteal muscles . Weak muscles mean flabby, sagging and flat buttocks. And if the muscles are in good shape and are constantly strengthened through physical activity, then the shape of the buttocks will be round and toned.
If you are prone to gaining excess weight or already have a lot of fat in the pelvic area, then first you need to get your body in order and get rid of unwanted numbers on the scale. Proper nutrition and aerobic exercise will help achieve this goal. By pumping up your buttock muscles without getting rid of excess weight, you can get an undesirable result: pumped-up buttocks under an unsightly layer of fat.
Girls gain weight in their hips and buttocks faster than guys. This is the nature of the female body. However, weight loss is no less rapid if you plan your meals and choose an effective set of exercises. You won’t be able to achieve results in one week, so be mentally prepared to work long and hard. However, even after the first workout, the muscles of the buttocks will “clog” and become more toned. If you don't stop exercising, you'll start to notice changes pretty quickly.
The first results appear after a month of regular exercise. During this time period, the body adapts to the new regime and begins to adjust the body. In a month you will lose weight and tone your muscles.
Change your training program periodically: muscles quickly get used to the monotonous load and stop growing. Therefore, it is important to add variety to your workouts to give your muscles a stimulus for growth and development. Change the exercises, number of repetitions, sequence and speed of execution, adjust the working weight.
Exercises for the muscles of the buttocks also strengthen the muscles of the back and abdomen and have a preventive effect on diseases of the reproductive system. They also relieve constipation and regulate bowel function. Prevent the development of radiculitis and help during the recovery period after various injuries.
However, some workouts have a number of contraindications and limitations that should not be overlooked. For example, girls should exercise with caution in the first days of their period; it is better to postpone the exercises for another time. If you have severe discomfort or pain in your back or lower back, it is better to postpone classes. Discuss the set of exercises with your doctor, and then start doing it. Below is a set of exercises for the buttocks at home .
Useful tips
- Concentrate as much as possible while doing the exercises;
- Exercise regularly, training all muscle groups;
- On rest days, give preference to aerobic exercise or yoga;
- Warm up before training;
- Maintain a sleep schedule;
- Monitor your water balance;
- Review your diet and eliminate junk food;
- Use cosmetics to tighten your skin and improve blood circulation;
- Replace elevator rides with going up and down the stairs;
- Do cycling more often;
- In the first month of training, perform a training complex for 40-50 minutes, including 4-5 exercises.
Deadlifts and squats will not help pump up your buttocks
There are more effective exercises for pumping up the buttocks than deadlifts, squats and lunges.
All of these exercises are performed in an upright position and involve hip flexion and extension. However, the greatest activation of the gluteal muscles occurs during another movement pattern—hip abduction.
Hip abduction
This movement is natural for humans. It is present during walking, running, sprinting, throwing, lunging, and exercises to train this pattern are usually performed in a horizontal position.
Hip extension exercises also work the gluteal muscles, but not completely. For example, during a deadlift, the gluteal muscles are activated by only 52%, and in the Zercher squat - by 45%.
At the same time, the most effective exercises based on hip abduction provide more than 100% activation of the gluteal muscles. For example, the hip raise provides 119% activation, the kneeling hip abduction provides 112%, and the bent leg raise provides 111%.
This is supported by scientific evidence. Study A Comparison of Gluteus Maximus, Biceps Femoris, and Vastus Lateralis Electromyographic Activity in the Back Squat and Barbell Hip Thrust Exercises. showed that hip raises activate the gluteus maximus and hamstrings better than back squats. The hip raise activates the upper gluteal muscles by 69.5% and the lower gluteus by 86.8%, while the squat activates only 29.4 and 45.4%.
Based on these discoveries, Contreras proposed an effective plan for pumping the gluteal muscles, consisting of four phases.
How to create a workout program for the buttocks
If your goal is elastic, round buttocks, you will have to try: it is impossible to achieve the goal in one or two workouts, this requires consistency and regularity. It is optimal if your training program includes basic and isolated exercises.
And again, you can’t create beautiful buttocks with squats alone. “When squatting, you need to control a lot - the position of the pelvis, feet, lower back, at some point you need to tilt your back more in order to sort of “pull your pelvis” back. Again, here you need to feel the gluteal muscle very well, if not, then in the squat you will pump up the thigh muscles,” adds Victoria Tyazhina.
You can do a simple test: do 5-10 bodyweight squats and notice which zone feels the strongest? If it’s hips, then for now you should focus on isolated work on the buttocks - perform different variations of leg swings, glute bridges, etc.
We asked Victoria Tyazhina to compose and show us a set of exercises for isolated work of the gluteal muscles.
How to feel during exercise training?
In fact, the same exercises can have completely different effects on your physical fitness and the appearance of another person . It all depends on your body's ability to engage the exact muscles you are training. In other words, squats and lunges will not bring much benefit to your buttocks if you don’t “activate” them first, but they will bring great benefits to that fit Masha who knows how to do this.
Have you ever wondered why you do the same thing as Usmanova, but your buttocks remain flat and your quads are sticky, while she’s doing great? The answer is simple: some girls activate their gluteal muscles correctly, and some don't.
How to tighten your buttocks at home
In principle, nature endows every person with beautiful buttocks, and only a certain way of life and nutrition affects what a person ultimately has at the prime of his life.
The wrong leisure time plus the wrong food - and the butt gets cellulite, sags, and becomes not a beautiful trump card, but an extra burden. It is possible to correct the situation in this case, but, as you might guess, it will not be possible to quickly tighten the buttocks if they are “neglected”. That is why attention to your fifth point must be paid on time, namely from a very early youth. If you lead an active lifestyle and go to the gym, then even small errors in nutrition will not spoil the appearance of your buttocks until old age. If you don’t have enough time for the gym, you can tighten your buttocks at home. However, not only at home. At work
: if the work is sedentary, squeeze and unclench your buttocks 15 times every hour, freezing in the squeeze position. Of course, this must be done unnoticed by others.
On the street
: no matter where - at a bus stop, in transport, etc. do the same exercises - squeeze and unclench your buttocks, but standing straight. Squeezing the buttocks should be done with a slight upward pull. Again, this must be done unnoticed by others, so as not to cause their puzzled looks. However, if you don't care, even better.
At the entrance
: This is an option for those who live on a high floor as it simply involves skipping the elevator. The buttocks are perfectly toned and strengthened if you step up every day, stepping over one or two steps at once. In addition to the buttocks, the lungs will also be trained, the heart muscle will be strengthened, and the legs will gain unprecedented lightness.
But such small and very useful workouts are not always possible, so the main efforts to tighten your buttocks quickly will have to be done at home. There are actually a lot of exercises for this, we will present the simplest and most effective ones:
- Deep squat
. Stand straight, place your feet shoulder-width apart, point your toes out to the sides and squat deeply (as far as possible) 25 times. - Half bridge
. Lie on your back, try to make a bridge and, lifting your hips off the floor, strongly tense your buttocks. And so 25 times. - Crane
. Sit on the floor, put one leg under you (the knee should be on the floor), take the other by the ankle and pull it up, holding the leg at the highest point as much as possible. Do the same exercise, changing legs. Only 25 times. - Walking on your buttocks
. Sit on the floor, stretch your legs forward and walk on your butt until you get tired. - Folding bed
. Sit on the floor, place your heels on a chair and, leaning on them, lift your buttocks off the floor, straining them strongly. Do the exercise 20 times.
You can tighten your buttocks at home even faster if you buy a training bike. Or regularly ride its most ordinary brother. Add morning jogging to this and... pay attention to the elasticity of the skin on the buttocks. Here regular active massage of the buttocks, as well as honey, vinegar, mustard and yeast wraps, will come to the rescue.
What is important
In order to tighten your buttocks quickly, you need to create a strict training schedule and strictly follow it.
The result will not be long in coming if you devote at least 40 minutes to training every day, or even better - 1 hour. Every day you need to perform all five of the above exercises, repeating each 20-30 times.
Now you can find other exercise options online and, if time permits, you can alternate them, which will only speed up the results. Over time, it will be possible to increase the load by changing the program.
It is very important to pay attention to breathing during training - it should be calm.
Training should bring joy and a sense of satisfaction, otherwise it will be very difficult to tighten your buttocks at home, because there are always thousands of reasons for not doing something you don’t feel like doing.
Elena Tovmasyan for the site
Beautiful buttocks - a profitable replacement for large breasts
Beautiful, elastic and toned buttocks can become the main trump card of appearance. Especially if nature has not endowed you with sufficiently large and firm breasts. Have you noticed that we are mainly talking about the elasticity and fit of the butt, and not about its size? Do you know why? Because size doesn’t matter, and an example of this is the famous butts of equally famous housewives. Jennifer Lopez, for example, whose soft spot is impressive in size, managed to present this “gift of nature” to fans in such a way that it became the main trump card in her appearance. And by the way, she insured this trump card for a billion dollars. But the owner of miniature elastic buttocks, Kylie Minogue, went further and insured her elastic butt for more than 4 billion dollars.
Whether her buttocks have become a substitute in terms of “something to catch the eye on” for her almost absent breasts is difficult to say, let men judge about this, but we suggest that ladies with any body shapes tighten their buttocks quickly and successfully, in order to please themselves first of all.
Four phases of exercise
Perform the exercises of each phase for at least 2-3 weeks. At the same time, do not stop doing squats, lunges and deadlifts. Perform these exercises on leg days and the glute activation routine on other days. It will not take much time and will provide you with increased strength and hypertrophy of the gluteal muscles.
Phase 1: Develop hip flexor flexibility and glute activation
To fully activate your glutes, you need to open your hips, and to do this you need to develop the flexibility of your hip flexors.
Hip flexor stretch
Hip Flexor Stretch
Stay in this position for 60 seconds, then switch legs. When the time is up, try to gently deepen the stretch.
Glute activation exercises
Choose two exercises below and perform two sets of 10 static pose holds for 5 seconds each.
Photo: Julia
Photo: Yulia Obolenskaya
Single leg glute bridge
Lifting the hips with support on the bench
“I don’t feel it when I squat”
“Ahh, why can’t I feel my gluteal muscles during a squat during training?” many gym lovers cry. Why isn't my butt growing? We discussed this issue in more detail in the article “Butt without squats: is it possible?” . It is important to understand that during heavy exercise (deadlifts, lunges and squats), the body compensates for weak, underactive muscles (in our case, the buttocks) by overusing the supporting muscle groups. For example, the hamstrings and lower back.
So there is nothing strange in the fact that these muscles look much more impressive than the treasured gluteal muscles, which simply “play around” during training.
In short, the question is not how to pump up your butt, but how to turn on your gluteal muscles!
10 Coolest Butt Workouts: Opinion from Fitness Experts
