Merry Fitness &

Happy New Rear!!!

6 Simple Exercises To A Fabulous Rear In Fifteen Minutes – Secrets of The Tight Tush”.

By Glenn Greer

 

People are constantly on the lookout for the next great exercise or new piece of equipment to help develop a firm and toned posterior, but the truth is you probably already have everything you need to design a great butt workout. Many of the best exercises can be done with just your bodyweight although more advanced individuals will benefit from additional dumbbells, resistance bands or machines.

However, before getting to specific exercises, let’s cover some basic information about the area you are looking to improve.

By The way, my friend Nick created a great e-book on glute training. You Can Download A Sample By Filling Out The Form At The Bottom.

The butt is essentially made up of one large muscle, the gluteus maximus, which people often refer to as your glutes. Technically there are 3 different gluteus muscles (maximus, medius, and minumus), and the gluteus medius and minimus are actually hip muscles and not butt muscles. To keep things simple, when I use the term glutes,  I will only be referring to the gluteus maximus, since the term glutes is familiar to most people.

For many women, the bumpy backside is a frustrating trouble spot. A virtual fat storehouse, a dumpy derriere is often the downfall of an otherwise fabulous figure. It drags down the body — and your esteem — like an anchor on a ship.

The butt is made up of three separate muscles: the gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus and gluteus medius. The trick is to target each of these areas.

1. Be careful doing exercises if you have a pre-existing back injury. Also, make sure you do not have chronic or acute knee problems. The muscles of the lower back (spinal erectors) are highly involved in the performance of these movements and can receive excessive stress, especially when you use weights. If this is a concern, you should employ unweighted versions of these movements that safely stimulate the hamstrings and the glutes while simultaneously strengthening the muscles of the lower back. The same goes for the knees. I recommend warming up and implementing dynamic warm ups to get blood to the muscles. Always practice the movements before you decide to add resistance.

You may be wondering why I am discussing the low back when it comes to glute exercises, but proper low back function is integral to the correct performance of butt exercises. Many people are never able to maximize the effectiveness of butt exercises because their low back muscles interfere and prevent the optimal contraction of the glutes. The low back and butt muscles often work together in a beneficial way, but over time the low back muscles can end up doing more than their fair share of the work while the glutes relax or contract at a lower intensity. Eventually this leads to a decreased ability to contract the glutes along with increased chances for developing an overuse injury in the low back muscles. If you do not have the ability to create a strong contraction in your glutes, butt exercises will not be very effective no matter how good the exercises are supposed to be. Therefore, let’s take a look at some tips for enhancing glute contraction and performance in all butt exercises.

Tips for Maximizing the Results of Any Butt Exercise

People often focus too much on what exercises they are doing and not enough on how well the exercises are performed. In many cases the difference between a productive workout and an ineffective one is the concentration and mental focus given to each individual set and rep during the workout. These tips will help to increase the effectiveness of each butt exercise and improve the overall quality and results of your workout.

1. Contract your glutes throughout the exercise – Since your goal is to work your glutes (butt) you should consciously try to contract the glutes throughout the exercise. Normally you will feel your glutes working most towards the end of the range of motion, but you should still try to contract the glutes throughout the entire motion. This will help strengthen your brain’s connection to your muscles and allow you to develop even stronger and more focused contractions over time.
2. Stop the set if you feel any other muscle more than the glutes during the exercise – This may seem like common sense, but many people continue performing extra reps even after they stop feeling the muscles they are trying to work. As a muscle fatigues during an exercise, other muscles will try to help out the fatiguing muscle, thus allowing you to perform more reps. Unfortunately these extra reps will not be high quality reps and may actually impair your overall results. Since your goal is to work your glutes, the fact that other muscles are being called on to help perform more reps is a good sign that you have accomplished your goal, which is to fatigue the butt muscles. Instead of performing extra reps that don’t focus on the glutes, take a break and focus on making the next set just as high quality as the first one.

   Note: This tip only applies to exercises designed to isolate the glutes and not to exercises that work many different muscles at the same time, such as squats or lunges.

3. Be aware of your hip position during butt exercises – It is important to keep your hips as level and still as possible during the exercises, because many hip movements are unwanted cheats that will actually disengage your glutes and prevent you from maintaining a consistent contraction throughout the exercise. If you draw a line between your hip bones, the line should be as close to horizontal as possible. The most common cheats involve raising the hip of the leg you are working or externally rotating your hip (turning it away from your body). Both of these movements will decrease glute involvement and may also increase strain in your low back.
4. Maintain a neutral back position – When your back is in a neutral position (maintaining the natural curve in the spine) the abdominals and back muscles work together to provide support for your spine. During butt exercises these muscles should maintain spinal stabilization, but they should not actively help the glutes perform the exercise. During glute exercises it is common for the pelvis to tilt forward, which will cause an increase in the curve of your low back. This is problematic because this position greatly increases the stress on the lumbar spine, causes the low back muscles to excessively tighten, and makes it more difficult for the glutes to contract effectively. In short, maintaining a neutral back position will improve the effectiveness of butt exercises and greatly reduce your chance of experiencing back pain or injury during your workouts.
5. Maintain a slow and controlled pace throughout the exercises – Quick and jerky motions are almost always indicative of cheating, especially during exercises designed to isolate or focus on a specific muscle group. The most common times for this type of cheating to occur are at the beginning and end of the range of motion. At the beginning, people often start with a quick jerky motion, which does 2 things to decrease the effectiveness of the exercise. First, it causes other muscles to become involved to help with the initial boost in contraction speed. Secondly, it builds momentum, which is often carried throughout the movement, further decreasing the amount of work actually performed by the glutes. Near the end of the range of motion, it is common for people to have another burst of speed to increase their range of motion. This is a case where greater range of motion is definitely not better, because the extra range of motion is almost always achieved using muscles other than the ones that should be working. Maintaining a slow and controlled speed will minimize the possibility of cheating and maximize your results.
6. Take slow deep breaths during the exercises – As you may know, the vast majority of people should not hold their breath while exercising, because not breathing will increase blood pressure and the strain on your heart. Breathing is especially important when performing exercises where you need to contract specific muscles while relaxing other muscles. Deep breathing helps promote relaxation in muscles and can be very helpful when learning to relax the low back muscles, which is a common problem for people performing butt exercises. Maintaining a consistent breathing pattern (breathing out when contracting the glutes and breathing in when relaxing them) will also maintain a consistent glute contraction, while holding your breath will increase the chance of other muscles (especially low back and hip)
   becoming involved.

Squats-

Learn how to do squats properly by following these seven steps.

1. Do 5 to 10 minutes of warm up before you start squatting.

2. Stand straight with knees relaxed, feet hip-width apart and toes slightly turned out. Fold your hands in a prayer-like position and inhale.

3. Bend your knees, tilt your hips back and slowly lower your behind, like you’re going to sit in a chair. Extend your arms to help maintain balance. Hold your breath and keep your back straight and upper body muscles in a tight contraction, so all the work is done by your legs.

4. Aim to squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Don’t let your behind drop below your knees or your knees go in front of your toes.

5. Lift up slowly from the squat by pushing with your heels and using only the strength of your legs. Stay in control by keeping abdominal muscles tight and your back straight. Exhale as you rise.

6. Work towards doing three sets of 10 to 15 squats per set. To maintain a slow pace, count to three while going down and three on the way up.

7. Once you complete your sets, gently stretch your hamstrings and quadriceps. To get full benefits, spend 30 seconds on each stretch.

Lunges-

Next to squats, lunges are the next best thing for your butt and thighs. This is also a compound movement so, like squats, when you do them you get more bang for your buck.

Form Pointers:

1. Stand in a split stance with one leg forward and one leg back, holding weights if desire.
2. Slowly bend the knees, lowering into a lunge while keeping the front knee and back knee at
   90 degree angles.
3. Keeping the weight in your heels, push back up to starting position.

Key points:

• Avoid locking the knees at the top of the movement
• Keep your front knee behind the toe as you lunge (you should be able to look down and see your toe)
• Keep your abs engaged and the torso upright
• Do this exercise 2-3 times per week for 1-3 sets of 8-16 reps.

Butt Blaster (Also know as the Jay Lo Surprise or the Kim Kardashian Contraction)

 

Position your body so that you’re on the floor on your hands and knees or properly placed if you are using a machine.  Flex your foot and lift your left leg up toward the ceiling, then down toward the floor. Keep your back strong and pull your abs up and in as you lift your leg. Complete all reps on your left leg, then switch legs and repeat.

Step Ups-

Step Ups really do work the glutes and the hamstrings. The trick is to make sure you’re stepping up onto a platform that’s high enough to really activate those muscle fibers, about 15 inches high should be good. Holding dumbbells can add some intensity to the movement.

How to:

1. Stand behind a 15-inch platform or step, weights in hand.
2. Place the right foot on the step, transfer the weight to the heel and push into the heel to come onto the step.
3. Concentrate on only using the right leg, keeping the left leg active only for balance.
4. Slowly step back down and repeat all reps on the right leg before switching to the left.
5. Perform 1 to 3 sets of 10 to 16 reps according to your fitness level and goals.

Stability Ball Leg Curl

1. Lie flat on the back on the ground. Place the heels on top of a stability ball. Rest the arms by the sides.
2. Tighten the abs, dig the heels into the ball, bend the knees, and roll the ball toward the butt.
3. Straighten the legs to roll the ball back to the starting position.
4. Make this exercise more challenging by doing a hip extension and holding the hips up while you roll the ball, or by performing the exercise unilaterally.

Note: I wanted to include this exercise because although there is not a major emphasis on glutes, this exercise destroys the hamstrings and when you pair it with another exercise right after, such as the lunge, the hamstrings get so tired that the glute muscle actually takes over. This is called exercise sequencing.

Hip Raises-

This exercise works your hamstrings, glutes and lower back.

1. Get into the position shown on a yoga mat.
2. Lift your hips up to the second position.
3. Squeeze your hamstrings and glutes at the top and hold for 2 seconds.
4. Slowly lower your body back to the floor.
5. Repeat.

Glenn’s recommendations.

There are so many ways you can put these exercises together. You can do each movement for 3 sets and 15 t0 20 repetitions and then when you are finished with your final set. Rest for about 30 to 45 seconds and then move on to the next exercise. Repeat the set count and the rep count.

What I love to do with my clients and my campers… is perform these exercises in a circuit fashion. The body keeps moving and your taking out boredom by going through a sequence of exercises non stop. When you are finished with the 6 exercises shown, go for a 2 minute to 3 minute walk, power walk or jog. Then hit the exercise sequence again. Perform 2 to 3 cycles.

These exercises are great and there are so many more creative movements that can be added. But, remember that there has to be 3 other additional elements that must work synergistically in order to achieve the results you desire. The greatest exercise program cannot deliver results if any of these elements are missing.

1. Supportive Nutrition

2. Resistance Training

3. Cardio Training

4. Accountability

To learn more about these components, click here.

Have you tried our Adventure Bootcamp For Women or our Women’s Fit Club? (Receive a free week of The Women’s Fit Club)

To Get A FREE Chapter SAMPLE OF THIS E-BOOK, please fill out the quick form.