Health & Fitness
Weight Loss
How to Build a Better Butt: What's Your Favorite Problem Spot?
Can you guess one of the most popular questions?
I'll give you a hint
look directly behind you. We hear a lot about exercises that are great for the glutes such as squats, walking lunges and stationary lunges. However, did you ever wonder what exercises for the butt aren't worth doing?
Hopefully you're aware that your glutes won't get tighter and smaller unless your overall body fat is reduced. You can do all the butt movements on the planet for hours a day, but it won't make one bit of difference unless you lose body fat -- that fact is non-negotiable.
Most of the time people (no fault of there own) don't analyze a movement. They don't think about resistance, proper number of reps, angle of the movement and how the body responds to various parameters.
That being said, here is my list of what won't work for achieving smaller, tighter glutes. Oh, I know you'll read some of my points and say, "yes, but I feel that exercise or those amount of reps in my glutes."
I contend that "feeling it" isn't enough. For example, I can take a pair of 10-pound dumbbells and perform a chest press with slow and controlled movements and feel it in my chest. So what? Do you know what that will get me? Zip… Nada… Zero… The resistance isn't enough to stimulate a change and I'd end up doing too many reps to have any effect. All I would do is increase muscular endurance.
I'm sure that's not the goal you have for your butt.
Now for the "what won't work" glute list:
1- Butt Blaster Machines:
These machines, sometimes called "butt blaster" or "butt burner units," have you positioned on your hands and knees. You place your foot on a platform above your glutes and behind your upper body -- and then push up towards the ceiling with your foot.
This is an ineffective exercise. It places some resistance on the butt, but nothing that will stimulate any type of significant change. It doesn't matter if you perform 10 reps or 30.
You'd be better off performing a lunge, which places excellent resistance on the glutes/legs and allows it to be worked more effectively, or even an angled leg press. Lunges work the legs and glutes.
2- Focusing Only On Butt Exercises:
Some people will do a 10-minute weight workout, 10-minute cardio workout and then spend 20 minutes working the glutes. This will not give you the results you seek. This method assumes that constant work of the butt will make it smaller.
3- Fire Hydrant Exercise:
Have you ever walked in a cardio class and seen people everywhere lifting one leg (with knee bend) to the side.
This is called a Fire Hydrant. Again, an overrated exercise that is ineffective.
Why is it ineffective?
1- A muscle responds to overload and resistance:
You can't simply put enough overload on the back in this position. You'd need the heaviest ankle weights on earth and it still wouldn't work.
2- Very High Repetitions:
This applies to any lower body movement, including the glutes. Very high reps for the lower body (more than 20) will not place enough overload and stress on a muscle to make any cosmetic change. So, the people who perform 100 kneeling rear leg kicks, 50 reps of leg presses etc. are simply training for muscular endurance -- that's about it. One might say that at least they're burning calories, but if that's the goal, there are better ways to burn calories (i.e. cardiovascular exercise)
3- The formula for success remains clear:
calorie reduction to lose fat; cardiovascular exercise to burn more calories, weight training to stimulate the metabolism, including strategic lower body exercises such as squats, lunges and leg presses to tighten the legs and glutes.
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