By Chris and Eric Martinez
March 2012-
ATTENTION LADIES AND GENTLEMAN! You say you want a nice butt. You talk about how you’re going to get your butt in great shape. Well here’s your opportunity to get that butt that you’ve always desired. When you’re in the gym, have these tips on a note pad, journal, I Pod, smart phone, or better yet have them ingrained in your head. Here are 5 tips that will get your glutes to salute! Guys put your egos aside and read on, if you only knew how important it is for men to have strong glutes.
1. You Want a Firm Butt, Hit Some Weight Then
If you are one of those people that believe in traditional body weight circuits being able to shape the glutes sufficiently, then you are dead wrong. Beginners are probably the only people that can get away with body weight circuits because their glutes get a great stimulation from not being used to any type of muscular adaption in that region. As you get experienced, your body becomes more advanced, this is where you need to overload the glutes with weights in order to stimulate muscle growth. As you progress, add in more challenging exercises that include using weights so you get that full muscle stimulation and growth in the glutes. You need to overload the glutes to get them to grow folks.
2. Get Your Booty Under a Bar and Thrust
Now we will cut some of you some slack because this movement has been under the radar for too long, but now that we’re telling you about it, you have to promise to include this into your regimen if you want your glutes to salute. Enter the barbell hip thrust. The barbell hip thrust was invented by Brett Contreras, the godfather of glute training. He said “When the knees stay bent, the hamstrings are placed in “active insufficiency,” which means that they’re shortened and cannot contract with maximal force. Since the hamstrings can’t produce sufficient force, more work is placed upon the glutes to get the job done. This is why bent legged hip extension exercises such as bridge patterns work so well in hammering the glutes.” So, allowing your knees to stay bent, this leaves less of a tendency for your hamstrings to activate and take over the workout. This evidently leads to your glutes firing and getting more stimulation. When placing a barbell with weight under your belly button and thrusting up in the bridge position, this leads to a great workout by overloading the glutes with weight and targeting the gluteus maximus.
3. Squat Deep or Go Home
Uh Ohhh…Squat deep or go home time. If you don’t know what this means, then you probably aren’t squatting right. Research shows that adding resistance to a body weight squat only stimulates the glutes to around 30-40% MVC (maximum voluntary contraction). Okay… but exactly how much resistance, what kind of volume, reps, frequency, and squatting technique are we talking here? Our point is, this research was most likely done on an average Joe or untrained subject and they probably squatted text book style, where they basically stimulate nothing but the quad muscles. But, if you squat deep, past parallel, glutes damn near the floor, you will get much more MVC stimulation in the gluteus muscles and hamstring muscles. If you aren’t buying it, just try a normal text book squat first or famous quarter squat, then a deep squat and then get back to us on which technique stimulated your glutes more.
4. Don’t Be Afraid to Train Those Buns More Than Once a Week
The gluteus maximus is an incredible muscle. It could and should be trained heavily on multiple days of the week. For optimal results, should be trained at least 3 days of the week. Why you ask? Research shows that glutes are not highly active during daily tasks such as walking, walking up the stairs, or getting up from a chair. It’s because your hamstrings are over stimulating your gluteus maximus. So, this leaves the door wide open for you to train your glutes frequently. Also, a lot of the frequency depends on how bad your glutes are lagging. If you have a Vida Guerra butt, then 1-2 days of glute training should maintain it. If you have a Megan Fox butt (flat), then 3 to 4 days of glute training should be sufficient. If you’re in the middle of that, then 2-3 days of glute training should do it. Adjust accordingly!
5. How Many Reps to Get That Booty to Pop You Ask?
A couple of studies showed that the glutes are more slower twitch, than fast twitch: (1) gluteus maximus 68% slow, 32% fast and (2) gluteus maximus 52% slow, 48% fast. For this reason, lighter loads and body weight workouts may be of benefit when shaping the glutes. But, keep in mind that there are still fast twitch muscle fibers in the glutes and fast twitch muscle fibers have proven to be the most amenable to gains in size and strength. So, it’s important to overload the glutes with heavier weight and lower reps to activate all the gluteus maximus fibers. You must not leave out higher reps either because higher reps will really fire up the glutes, deplete glycogen, and give you that pump. So, it’s important to include all rep ranges when training your glutes. Anywhere from 4-6 reps, 8-12 reps, and 15-25 reps, so you can activate all your gluteus maximus fibers. See what rep range ultimately works for you. Just because a book or study says to do lower or higher reps, doesn’t mean you have to stick to that. Everyone’s body is different and reacts differently to certain rep ranges. So try all reps ranges and see what works best for you.
Bonus Tip
If you’ve been frustrated with busting your butt in the gym and you still don’t have a firm, shaped, sexy, and strong pair of glutes then its time to check out our
12 Weeks to Build Your Best Booty Workout.
Wrap Up
Now that you have these 5 tips to get your glutes to salute mastered down, keep in mind that these are tips and methods that we practice and preach when it comes to glute training with ourselves and clients. There are other great tips, methods, and approaches out there on training glutes and from other coaches. But, we feel that these 5 tips can really be a game changer, in this context, a real booty changer for you.
Just remember that to always keep an open mind to training your glutes and to not get stagnant with one method or style of training because there could be some sort of training out there that could bring jaw dropping results to your behind. Last but not least, guys, really take these tips into consideration because strong glutes can have a carryover effect on deadlifts, squats, sprinting, jumping, posture, etc. Oh and by the way women don’t want a guy with a flat butt 😉
References:
(1) Sirca and Susec-Michieli. Selective type II fibre muscular atrophy in patients with osteoarthritis of the hip. J Neurol Sci. 1980 Jan.
(2) Johnson et al. 1973