There’s a lot of false information out there when it comes to how to build a booty. You’ve probably seen “the 30 day squat challenge” and other routines floating around, but if you’ve actually ever tried one you were most likely disappointed with the results.
First and foremost, you need to realize that “building a booty” really just means growing your glute muscles. Now sometimes you might see women that have a nice bubble butt, but don’t really workout or lift weights. This is where genetics come into play (or surgery…but that’s an entirely different topic). Some women are genetically blessed and store a lot of their fat in their butt. But that’s all it is: fat. If that woman were to decide to go on a diet and lose a great deal of fat, she’d lose her butt along the way.
That’s why it’s important to make sure there’s some underlying muscle there as well. Having muscle will give your butt better structure and shape too. So if you’re not one of those lucky ladies who stores their fat in their butt, there’s still hope for you, but you’re going to have to build up some muscle! For a step-by-step guide on how to do this, just keep reading.
Let’s jump right into how you actually put some size on those glutes. First we’re going to talk about diet, then we’ll discuss what role genetics play and how to be realistic about your goal, and finally we’ll go over some of the big movements you can incorporate into your routine to achieve the look you want.
What Kind of Diet Should I Follow?
A lot of variables come into play here. First, let’s talk about “noobie gains”. This is the period where you’ll increase your strength VERY quickly once you stick to a consistent routine. You’ll see PRs (Personal Record — meaning the max weight you’ve ever lifted for a certain lift) almost every week at first. This period can last from six months to a year depending on your intensity and programming. Bask in its glory while you can, because it doesn’t last forever!
The reason I mention noobie gains is because during this period, it’s still possible to put on significant muscle even if you’re eating in a deficit (losing weight). Once you get past your noobie gain phase, if you’re still eating at a deficit you’ll notice your lifts will stall.
In order to put on significant muscle after the noobie gain phase, you’ll need to eat at a surplus (gain weight).
This may seem counter-intuitive, but it actually makes a lot of sense if you think in terms of your body just trying to survive. If you’re trying to put on muscle and you’re sticking to a consistent routing where you lift weights and constantly put your muscles under demand, their natural response is to break down and, simply put, grow bigger and stronger. But this breaking down and growing stronger process takes a lot out of your body.
If you’re not eating enough food and/or not getting enough sleep, your body is going to prioritize its energy. Solely in terms of survival, putting on muscle is not going to be a priority.
Now on the other hand if you’re eating an extra 200-500 calories more than you’re burning every day, getting proper rest, and sticking to a consistent routine where you put your muscles under a high demand, you will absolutely see muscle growth. This is why diet is so important when it comes to growing your glutes, or any muscle group for that matter.
So now it’s your turn to take a step back and look at your current physique. Be realistic. Do you need to lose weight, gain weight, or are you about where you should be but just looking to “tone up”? This question will determine what kind if diet plan you’ll start: bulk, cut, or maintenance.
If you’re trying to lose weight and you need to lose over 15 pounds, you should continue with your cut.
If you only want to lose 15 lbs or less and really want to work on building muscle, eat at maintenance.
If you’re trying to gain weight, you should definitely bulk.
If you’re okay with where you’re at, you can either eat at maintenance for a while or start a light bulk and eat in a slight surplus.
Now that you know your goal, find out how many many calories you should be consuming with a macro calculator. If you want to know a little more about the IIFYM process, check out our Guide to IIFYM.
Genetics and Goals
I do just want to touch on a very important and somewhat overlooked topic. This whole “big booty” fitness craze has recently become a very profitable and sometimes ugly industry. We discussed a little bit about genetics above, so when you’re browsing Instagram looking at all your favorite fitness gurus, keep your own body type in mind. You can’t compare yourself to someone like Beyonce who just naturally carries more fat in her hips.
And as for those Instagram fitness models that always look perfect in every photo, just remember that those photos aren’t a great depiction of what they look like in their daily lives. You can easily twist your body in all sorts of ways to create the appearance of a smaller waist and bigger butt, which is what everyone does. Some days and/or at night you may feel bloated and wonder why these girls always look so perfect. They don’t. They just aren’t posting photos right after they eat a huge burrito.
The last thing I want to go over is recognizing if the physique you’re idolizing is even attainable. And by this I mean…did this person have surgery? This isn’t discussed nearly as much as it should be and I think that’s because it’s still a bit taboo to admit to having some unnatural enhancements in the rear region. My main theory is because it may be seen as lazy. Breast enhancements are generally acceptable because you can’t significantly change your breast size through exercise or diet as you can with your glutes. So if you opt for surgery, it’s not a huge deal. But if you go the surgery route for your butt when others worked hard for theirs, it’s seen as lazy and unimpressive.
One common method to surgically enhance your butt size is through butt implants. Another method is getting a fat transfer, which is where they take fat from one region (commonly your stomach) and inject it into your butt.
The only reason I mention this here is because I’ve seen way too many people idolizing a woman who clearly has had work done. Most fitness models and celebrities (looking at you Kim Kardashian) won’t admit if they’ve had work done on their butt, so I just don’t want anyone fooling themselves into thinking these are at all realistic goals. If you’re not sure if someone’s butt is real or not, take a look at their quads. If they have a huge bubble butt, but no muscle in their quads, their butt is most likely fake. It’s very hard to build up that much muscle in your glutes without at least adding a little to your quads at the same time.
What Kind of Workouts Should I Do
So now you have your diet down and you have realistic goals. Let’s move on to the most important part of actually growing your glutes: LIFTING!
First I want to mention high reps vs low reps. Both have their place in growing the glutes. I like to get a mix of both in throughout the week, but in the end it comes down to VOLUME. This basically just means the total amount of weight that you’re lifting.
Let’s say for your workout you squat 190 lbs 5 times for 2 sets. That comes out to a total of 1900 lbs that you lifted!
Now say someone else squats 100 lbs 12 times for 2 sets. Even though they used less weight than you, they actually lifted more at 2400 lbs.
Neither one of these people is in the wrong here. Both rep/set schemes have their place. The person going for weight so heavy that they can only manage 5 reps is building their muscle in a way that’s going to make them stronger in the long run, but might not necessarily give them huge muscles. Someone that stays closer to this routine while focusing on the three big lifts (squat, bench, deadlift) is known as a powerlifter. Going the other route where you do a lot of reps at a lower weight is considered a bodybuilding style routine. In short, when you focus on isolating a certain muscle and put it under a lot of tension, it’s more likely to grow bigger. You’ll still make some strength gains this way, but not nearly as much as the powerlifter.
Personally, I like to have a nice balance between the two. I make sure to lift heavy when it comes to the three big movements, but I also like to add some high rep isolation exercises in there as well.
I do want to mention one more thing before we get onto the exercises. None of this will happen overnight. This image below is the result of three years of lifting. You won’t see major results quickly and that causes a lot of people to get discouraged, but I promise you if you keep at it you’ll have your own success story to tell.
The time is going to pass anyway, so you may as well make the most of it.
The following are all great workouts to add to your current routine. If you don’t have a set routine yet and really want to focus on glute growth, I’d highly recommend looking into Bret Contreras’ Strong Curves. The linked doc contains the routine for beginners (Booty-ful Beginnings), advanced (Gluteal Goddess), and at home (Best Butt Bodyweight). It’s a three month 4-days per week program. I’ve ran Gluteal Goddess twice so far and got amazing results from it, so give it a shot if you don’t already have a program. I also have a pre-made workout tracking tool that you can use to track your workouts if you decide to do Strong Curves.
Alright, onto the workouts!
The Holy Grail — Hip Thrusts
Great to do at both high and low rep ranges. These really isolate the glutes and have been the most effective exercise for growing my glutes.
Barbell Squats
Would it be a glute guide without mentioning squats? Personally, I’m very quad-dominant when it comes to squats, meaning I don’t feel it in my glutes as much. I still think they’re important to add to a routine as they are a great way to build up your overall lower body strength and stabilization. If you’re new to squats, start very light (just the bar) and watch the entire video. You can seriously hurt yourself if you try to go too heavy with bad form. If you try it out and still feel uncomfortable, think about hiring a trainer just to get the movement down. And if you feel any pain stop immediately.
Deadlift
Deadlifts are another great movement to add into any routine. Even though it’s a full body movement, you’ll still gain great strength in your glutes, hamstrings, and quads. There’s a lot that goes into doing a proper deadlift, so make sure you watch the full video (and maybe a few more on form). If you don’t feel comfortable, hire a trainer or ask someone at the gym if they can check your form. There’s also a female-focused subreddit where you can upload form videos to get some feedback from the gals there.
Barbell Glute Bridge
Glute bridges are similar to hip thrusts, but you lay flat on the floor.
Glute Targeted Leg Press
This one looks a little odd, but you’ll definitely feel it the next day.
Walking Barbell Lunges
If you’re able to clear out a little space at your gym, this is a great addition to a routine. These are a little more high intensity and will easily get your glutes burning.
Bulgarian Split Squat
This is a squat variation that I like to do when I’m not feeling lazy (so rarely). A set of 10-12 will quickly leave you out of breath and with glutes on fire.
Goblet Squat
This is a another squat variation that’s great for isolating the glutes. You can start with a lighter weight (10-15 lbs) and work your way up.
Cable Glute Kickback
These are a little easier to do, so I like to add them in at the end of a glute workout. A lot of people do “burnout sets”, which just means doing as many as you can. Doing a couple sets of 20 after some heavy squats will definitely have you limping the next day…in a good way!
Squat Crab Walk
This is another good exercise to do at the end of the workout as burnouts. Just do a couple sets for as long as you can.
Original article and pictures take www.bellebot.com site
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