Bootys are the latest craze, but why are they so hard to grow? Firstly, to truly understand how to engage YOUR glutes, you need to know which booty you have. So let’s self-diagnose your rear.
The Flat Butt
If you stand in front of the mirror, side on and say “what butt”, then you have a flat butt. The lack of booty may be due to a downward tilted pelvis. Put simply, when you are active, the muscles engaging are coming from your lower back and hamstrings, not your butt. Therefore not growing your glute muscles.
You will need to learn how to engage your glutes. A little exercise for you is to the sit-&-squeeze. Whenever you are sitting down, in the car, in the office, at the dinner table, you need to squeeze your glutes on and off for around 10 seconds. Try double squeeze and then single squeeze.
Some booty exercises that will significantly help your flat butt are:
- Deep pulse squats
- Butt bridges
- Donkey kicks
- Opposite arm leg lift
The Droopy Butt
A droopy butt is one that hangs low and doesn’t have much of an upper shelf. It also usually has a crease under the cheeks. The reason for this is that you might have an upward tilted pelvis. This mean you have bad posture and stand with a very curved back. Your gluteus muscles are not being activated to give your butt any lift. You need to focus on resistance training and explosive movements otherwise gravity will pull that butt further down.
Some booty exercises that will significantly help your droopy butt are:
- Sprinting
- Hamstring curls on swiss ball
- Box jumps
- Squat jumps
- Heavy squats
The Bubble Butt
You could call yourself lucky. Your butt has a peachy, perky appearance with a shelf and lift. However you might have too much junk in the trunk so maybe you want a more toned booty. You have the tools its just how you use them. You most likely need to reduce jiggle, drop fat and tighten up.
Some booty exercises that will significantly help you are:
- Lunges
- Single leg lying raises
- Sprints
- Step ups
- Heavy squats
Get Engaged
Getting to know your glutes is key to activating them during exercise. Not engaging the glute muscle during exercise is a very common issue. It may be due to wearing shoes too often. So get bear-foot and learn to engage your glutes with these quick and easy, at home yoga poses. Remember to concentrate on squeezing your glutes.
Chair Pose
This pose is great in activating the glute muscles and strengthening the quads and gluteal. After a few seconds you will notice that your quads will start to burn and this is a good sign.
- Start by standing normally and bring your feet together
- Bend at the knees, allowing your inner knees to touch
- Sit as low as possible
- At the same time extend your arms upwards, palms touching until your elbows are by your ears
- Keep your shoulders relaxed
- Aim to keep the weight in the back of your heels
- You should feel no pressure on the kneecaps just engaged glutes and quads
- Keep your back as straight as possible
Half Moon Pose
If you might find some discomfort in the hip joint during this pose that is due to you not engaging all muscles correctly. If you do it correctly though, and feel no discomfort then this pose will really help you learn to engage all three main glute muscles.
- Take the High Lunge position
- Step half way forward with your right foot and straighten your left leg
- Put the weight on your left foot and place your left hand on the ground and with your right hand reach for the roof
- Once stable, bring your right leg up to be parallel with the floor
- Then roll your right hip up and back so the hip faces the side wall
- Concentrate on holding the right leg with your glute muscles only
- Hold for 4 breaths seconds and then repeat on the other side
Downward Facing Dog Leg Lifts
This pose will be working your lower back, hamstrings and glutes. To be able to do this pose you will be forced to engage your backside.
- Start in Downward Facing Dog, hands down, booty up, legs straight and push into the ground with your shoulders.
- Lift one leg back and up behind you keeping your toes pointed towards the ground and your hips level
- Hold for 4 breaths squeezing the glutes and then release
- Repeat on the other side
Once you have learnt how to engage your glutes you should take this knowledge and apply it to all the exercises you do.
Claire Trojkovic is a health and fitness expert from Australia. She is also an international fitness model competitor who has won many champisonships in Australia as well as overseas. The most prestigous being the INBA World Championships in 2013 which was held in Greece.
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