Myth: Genetics dictate what type of butt you have and there’s nothing you can do to change it.
Truth: You can change the look, function, and strength of your butt through training and diet.
I used to believe the shape and strength of your bum was dictated by genetics. While genetics certainly do play a role in the way your butt looks, there is plenty you can do to change it.
I grew up a competitive swimmer, where on Saturday mornings I would arise at the break of dawn to throw on my speedo and go race, so I was accustomed to seeing mostly bare bodies.
When you’re a kid, you’re impressionable. I definitely noticed different shapes and sizes of my swimming competitors. It would help me quickly assess my competition. Back then strength was the advantage. So someone who was bigger and taller usually turned out to be stronger and had an advantage.
I think this is where my preconceived notion around body builds/genetics was formed. And although I knew you could get stronger I always thought that was confined to your arms, shoulders, and legs. The butt was an afterthought.
Obviously that was a young girl’s perspective, more or less. But I never really updated that line of thinking until…
Time To Change
It wasn’t until many, many years later when a chiropractor told me I had an anterior pelvic tilt from wearing stilettos (and other hot looking high heels:)) that made me consider the importance of glute strength. (Anterior pelvic tilt means your pelvis is tilted forward and your butt is sticking out – no bueno). I apparently, had weak glutes because I was using my hamstrings instead of my glutes to stabilize my core when walking. Over time this can lead to all sorts of imbalances.
Of course, it is hard to make a girl break up with her high heel shoes, until one day I simply had enough. And so the glute journey began.
Here’s what I found out. (Scroll to bottom for before and after pics of my bum).
Fun Facts About Your Glute Muscles
- The glutes (aka bum, backside, butt, dairriere, etc) can be totally transformed -reshaped, strengthened, and tightened.
- You can train them almost everyday, but 3-4 times a week is enough.
- It is the biggest muscle group in your body, and when functioning properly can improve your posture, strengthen your core, and give you the ability to lift heavy things.
- Having strong glutes can prevent back injury and reduce back pain.
- It also helps with powerful ninja kicks, (if interested in performing:)).
How to Effectively Train Your Backside
It’s a two step process of building, strengthening, and shaping the butt muscles and then shedding the fat. Here’s how you do it.
1) Butt Specific Exercises With Weight – We all see these glute challenges where you perform hundreds of squats and lunges, and yes squats and lunges can help, but they can only do so much.
- Targeting different muscle groups – Lunges and squats do a good job hitting the glute max, but miss other deeper and important muscles. So you need a variety of exercises that hit different ranges of motion. Nick gives you some exercises that do just that here, here, and here.
- Add Resistance. Pick up some weights and challenge yourself. Your backside is the biggest muscle in your body and in order to reshape it and get the high, tight, and toned backside you have to strengthen it by building some muscle. (Don’t worry it’s not going to make your backside bulkier and bigger:)).
2) Reduce Body Fat – In order to show off the new shape you have created you have to shed the layer of fat hiding it. Using a 2-prong approach will guarantee you succeed.
- Nutrition – You’ve got to clean up your diet. You need to be eating clean, whole foods. When you have processed foods in your diet, even if they are low in calorie they will inhibit your fat loss. Start tracking what you eat by writing it all down. Then just reduce your overall calories a little by picking nutritient dense foods and cut out carbohydrates that don’t come in the form of veggies. These tactics will help you cut the fat.
- HIIT – You can also supplement your backside training with HIIT. High intensity interval training is an efficient way to get a great workout in a short amount of time. And because of the intensity you will be burning calories all day long. More fat burning. Here’s a workout.
When I started my glute journey this is what my bum looked like.
Today this is what my Better Bikini Bum looks like.
The results speak for themselves, right?
Many people have asked me how I have trained my bum to look like this, so I put the essentials into the BBB Program that will be available to you TODAY, July 13. The Better Bikini Program (#BBB) is all you need to begin your journey of transforming your backside. It is a comprehensive 30-Day program that gives you all the pieces I mentioned above — the glute specific weight training, the HIIT workouts, and the nutrition piece. If you’re interested you can find out more here.
And as always, let me know if you have any questions.
Xo,
Julie
