It's 2023, everyone wants a dump truck. Not everyone knows how to build one though, so I'm going to break down eactly what you need in order to build some buttcheeks.
When it comes to growing glutes, the last few years have been filled with; booty bands, restrictive diets & Instagram workouts. Right now, before I tell you everything you need to know, I want you to promise yourself that you won't do another booty band workout ever again. Placing booty bands on a pedestal is shooting your gains in the foot, so wave goodbye to them forever.
Glutes need a few things, like every other muscle, to grow. They need; to be placed under tension, trained frequently, given recovery time, and enough food so they can grow. All of these things are pretty easy to understand, but it's hard to know exactly what a week aboard the gain train should look like so I'm going to run you through it now, starting with nutrition.
1. Nutrition
This is probably the hardest part, because for most females the thought of being in a calorie surplus is absolutely terrifying. You wouldn't expect a flower to grow without water, so you shouldn't expect your body to grow without food. You can absolutely still grow your glute size & strength while in a calorie deficit, it's just going to be a lot harder. So if you're in a deficit, you can still apply all of the training tips, just don't expect massive amounts of growth.
A calorie surplus can be calculated simply by adding calories onto your maintenance level. I would advise eating at a maintenance level and then going up in 100-200 calorie increments. If you're not comfortable eating in a surplus, then stick to maintenance level, because at the end of the day we don't want anyone developing any negative feelings towards food or training.
The part of your nutrition that is NON NEGOTIABLE is your protein. Use a simple calculator online (James Smith has a great one) or just multiple by your bodyweight in kgs by 1.2-2.6 and this will give you your protein goal in grams. Protein is responsible for muscle repair and growth so even if you aren't willing to eat enough calories, you need to eat enough protein.
So what is the main take away from this nutritional guidance? EAT. Don't be afraid to eat if you want to get bigger. It's not 100% vital to be in a surplus, but it really does help.
2. Training
Alright now for the fun stuff. Training is the way you're going to place your glutes under tension and actually get those muscles growing. There are a few things we need to cover in regards to training though; frequency, volume, intensity & exercise selection.
Frequency is needed in order to grow any muscle. If you train your biceps once per month, you wouldn't expect them to grow, right? The same goes for your glutes. You can't train them hard once a fortnight and expect them to triple in size. So instead of doing one huge glute session per week, we are going to split that into 2 sessions so we are satisfying the frequency we need. You can even train them 3 x per week if you're able to recover from the training, but I would stick to 2 just to start.
Volume is the amount of sets & reps we do in each session. It's very easy to develop the "more is better" mindset when it comes to muscle building but let me put it this way. What do you think would be better? One session per week with 10 exercises that are all half assed because there is too much volume OR two sessions per week with 4 - 6 exercises that we train close to failure with. I hope you would choose the latter. Jamming lots of exercises into a session just for the sake of doing them isn't going to get us closer to our goals, but being strategic with our exercise selection definitely will. So how many exercises/sets/reps should we be doing? Studies tell us that 5-30 reps can be used for muscle growth, and we should do 9-28 sets per muscle group per week. This is a huge range, so I recommend sticking to the following just to get started. Four exercises per muscle group in a session is plenty, stick to three sets, and stay in the 6-10 rep range. Of course we can do more reps, more exercises and more sets, but I'm saying this level is enough for you to grow.
Intensity is how hard we actually push ourselves in regards to reps and sets. It's not enough to simply tick off 10 reps and expect results because we did them. Each time we go to the gym, we need to train with intent. By that I mean, if you're aiming for 10 reps, the last 3-4 reps should be a struggle to complete. For every exercise and each set, we should be training towards failure. This doesn't mean that we need to fail each time we go to the gym, but we need to come close to failing - which I call reps in reserve. I like to leave around 3 reps in reserve. So if my goal is 8 reps, I use a weight that would see me fail at around 11-12 reps. Failure simply means we are no longer able to perform another rep with proper form/full range of motion. Next time you're in the gym, or even now, think about the intensity you use. Are you really training hard enough? Do you believe you're using enough intensity to ellicit a growth response?
Exercise selection is tricky. We have likes/dislikes/inefficient exercise/more efficient exercises. People will argue about the best exercises for glute growth until they're blue in the face. I'm going to keep this simple for you guys; train your glutes in a lengthened & shortened position, and put the exercise first that is your priority. Our muscles have shortened and lengthened positions, and for our glutes, lengthened would be when our knee is towards our chest (do it now and you'll feel that your butt cheek is fully stretched). Shortened would be when our body is straight (think about standing up straight, your glute is short). Different exercises put our glutes in different positions. For example, a squat or leg press would put our glutes in a lengthened position because we are bringing our knees close to our chest. A shortened position for our glutes could be a glute bridge which loads our glutes when they're contracted. This is why comparing squats and hip thrusts for glutes is like comparing apples and oranges. They are both fruit but they are different - you simply can't compare them. When it comes to glutes, I train them mostly in a lengthened position and then use the shortened position exercises to really up the weight and load them up.
For example, you might do Romanian Deadlifts 3 x 8 (lengthened), Hip Thrusts 3 x 8 (shortened), Cable Step Ups 3 x 6 - 8 (lengthened - but unilateral so more fatiguing).
Conclusion
These tips might come as shock to you if you've just been doing squats and swinging your legs around on the stairmaster. If you can eat an adequate amount of protein, train your glutes twice per week, train them with intensity and train them in their lengthened and shortened position, YOU'RE SET. This may seem overwhelming to try and fit it all in, but if you're already spending time in the gym, the hardest part is over. Training more efficiently is probably going to be easier for you, because you'll likely see; a decrease in volume, a decrease in time spent at the gym, & faster results.
I'll make a sample program in the next few days for anyone who wants to change up their glute training.
Your coach & friend,
Maddy
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