Do you want to build a strong booty?
Most women I talk to these days mention that this a current goal. The best part of this goal is that while you're trying to fill out your jeans, you'll also be helping to prevent knee pain, improving your insulin sensitivity and blood sugar regulation, and boosting your metabolism up, even at rest.
So let's go for these goals!!! Here's how:
1) Train your glutes 1-2 times per week. Your glutes ("booty muscles") are made up of 3 muscles: gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus, and gluteus medius. They all come together to give you a rounded, 3D shape. It's important to train them frequently enough that they stay under construction (in a good way). BUTT (pun intended), overtraining them is a terrible idea as they only actually repair, strengthen, and grow during rest. So stick with 1-2 challenging lower body sessions per week.
2) The right plan. Ideally, you are incorporating all the most important glute exercises into these lower body sessions and repeating them each time. The key is to dial up the intensity so that even if the workout is the same, you're increasing resistance, reps, or sets each time.
Important to include:
Hip hinges (like deadlifts)
Hip thrusts / glute bridges
Squats
Lunges (particularly reverse lunges)
Single leg step ups
Abductions (like banded fire hydrants)
Glute kickbacks (with a band or cable machine)
Check out my Lower Body 1 and Lower Body 2 highlights on instagram for complete and effective -- and FREE ;-) -- workout routines.
3) Eat to grow. The best and fastest booty building results will happen if you are eating in a calorie surplus. This means you'd be bringing in more calories than you are using up for a period of time (usually at least a few months) as you focus on growth. This approach will increase overall body size and usually increase body fat percentage a bit as well. So if that doesn't align with your goals, just plan on it taking longer to notice results. But it CAN be done in a calorie maintenance or slight calorie deficit. In other words, you CAN lose body fat all over and grow your glutes at the same time. It will just take a lot longer.
4) Protein. Regardless of whether you're in a calorie deficit, maintenance, surplus, or you have no idea which and don't care, you will need to be eating enough protein to give your body the building blocks it needs to create new muscle. Can't build a big, strong brick house without enough bricks, right?? Same idea. Shoot for .75g - 1g of protein per lb of body weight you feel most comfortable at per day.
5) Sleep. When you sleep long enough, well enough, and without a belly full of food, you will release a nice amount of growth hormone overnight. This growth hormone will help you heal, repair, and do some important immune surveillance. AND ALSO, it will help you rebuild your muscles stronger than before (but only if you're doing all of the above too).
So whaddya say? Are you growing a strong booty (and whole body, I hope!)???
Hope you find this helpful. Tag me in your workout and food pics on social so I can cheer you on.
XO,
Tara
P.S. If you need some help with eating to promote both fat loss AND muscle gain (the right balance, portions, etc.), THIS MEAL PLAN will take the guesswork out for you and give you a bunch of recipes to work through as you crush your goals. It's 2 meal plans, really, as I give you both the omnivore version and the plant-based version when you purchase. Hope you love it!