Why Is My Bum Not Getting Any Bigger?

Beyonce,

Kardashians,

Minaj,

Lopez,

They have some of the most famous and desired booties in the world and they’ve helped to kick start the big bum movement in gyms everywhere.

A big bootie is the latest fashionable body shape, and finally it’s actually a healthy one!

You’ve done the 30 day squat challenge, the 60 day challenge, you’ve even bought your favourite influencers workout guide but even with all your efforts, those glutes just aren’t growing.

You’ve still not got the glutes you want, your butt is as flat as Denmark even though you’ve been doing kickbacks on the Stairmaster and tons of jumping squats, surely that’s enough right?

Well no…..no it’s not.

But now you are here and we will find out exactly why those glutes aren’t growing and how to make them grow.

The BIGGEST Reason Your Glutes Are NOT Growing

Probably the biggest reason that your glutes aren’t growing is due to inactivity.

The sad fact is due to our modern sedentary lifestyle people suffer from underactive glutes and they struggle to develop their glutes because they cannot fire the muscles during training.

This leads to other muscles such as the hamstrings, quads and lower back taking over and doing the work. 

This will cause those muscles not only to develop, but it will also increase wear, risk of injury and deterioration of the muscles, attachments and joints while the glutes get left behind to slowly atrophy.

Stronger glutes mean all the muscles surrounding the hips will be healthier.

We spend too much of our day sitting on our butts and not working on them, given enough time the muscles weaken and atrophy causing a long list of potential pains, imbalances and injuries.

But even getting up to stretch your legs every now and then, using the stairs instead of the lift or parking a little further away from the office just to get those few extra steps in can keep your glutes firing throughout the day.

This is why we activate before every workout to “wake up” your glutes, get them firing and get that mind-muscle connection before training.

The mind-muscle connection tells your muscles to get ready for what’s to come.  

You need to train your brain to focus on your bum when you are training.  

Direct ALL of your attention to feeling the movement in your glutes.

Hell the mind-muscle connection is so damn important I named my business after it.

If you want your glutes to grow the first step is simple.

Move.

You’re Not Potentiating Your Glutes Before Training

As I just mentioned you need to properly warm up your glutes before training.

A solid warm-up is the one thing most people skip in the gym and it is to your detriment! Never start lifting without properly priming your glutes.

When you jump straight into an intensive glute workout without any warm-up or glute activation work, you are more likely to get injured and not gain any strength or glute muscle, From a glute growth perspective, it’s a waste of a workout.

Warm-up and activate your glutes for a good 5-10 minutes prior to a leg and glute session.

Focus mainly on exercises that mimic the main lifts in your workout as well as glute exercises that target the glute medius, glute minimus and glute maximus such as bodyweight squats, lunges, thrusts and bridges (plus some banded ‘activation’ exercises) before moving on to progressively heavier warm-up sets of your first exercise.

Really focus on squeezing your glutes hard so that you can be sure that they are fired up and ready to lift some weights.

Your Glute Workouts and Exercises Suck

If you’re getting all your glute workouts from Instagram influencers 🤮, Brazilian butt lift videos, a crappy Bootcamp, some bad squats and a couple of throw-away hip thrusts with a weight that’s less than your handbag then it’s no wonder your glutes aren’t growing, it’s simply not enough intensity to stimulate muscular hypertrophy.

You need to train your glutes more and with Progressive Overload - You can learn all about progressive overload here and why it’s essential for growth.

I suggest 3-4x per week for maximum growth.

The key lifts to grow your glutes are glute dominant exercises such as the Hip Thrusts (the king of glute exercises), Weighted Glute Bridges, Glute Dominant Back Extensions, Sumo and Romanian deadlifts, quadruped extensions (donkey kicks), kickbacks and hip abduction moves.

When it comes to exercises that target and develop the glutes, glute-dominant movements are the creme de la creme. 

They apply constant tension which maximises muscle contraction and prevents blood flow so we get the burn and the booty pump.

With glute dominant exercises the glutes are working their hardest when they are at their shortest i.e. contracted. 

This is why squeezing hard is so important on exercises like hip thrusts; we want maximum contraction of as much muscle as possible 

They should always be your priority.

Of course, we should still include staple leg exercises such as squats, lunges and step-ups for overall leg development but they are not the glute builders many people think they are.

You’re Not Eating Enough Food To Grow

Do not fear food!

Naturally Skinny ladies, head here to see how you can start to build muscle.

Your glutes are muscles, the glute max is the biggest muscle in the body.

In order for muscle to grow, you need to eat, so if you’re starving yourself or doing tons of cardio for fear of gaining weight then I’m afraid once again you’re wasting your time and workouts.

If you want your glutes to grow you need to give them the calories and protein it needs.

Be sensible and eat well, your diet should consist mainly of nutritious whole foods, but don’t be afraid to have some tasty “bad” foods every now and then.

I have a much more detailed post on glute building nutrition that you should check out here.

If you are a naturally skinny woman then I have an in-depth Guide on how to build muscle, especially for you.

Cardio Is Killing Your Glute Growth

Look around the gym or Instagram and you'll see many women doing glute kickbacks and stepping sideways on the Stairmaster.

Not only does it look stupid, but it‘s also a complete waste of time.

Why? Because to be able to do it you have to go at a lower intensity and secondly, it reinforces terrible biomechanics, meaning that your glutes are getting fuck all benefit.

I recommend keeping cardio and weight training on separate days.

You’re NOT Lifting Like A Badass Woman

I’m talking about “toning”.

Doing tons of light, high-rep “toning” work is a complete waste of your time and is NEVER going to be enough effort to help grow your glutes.

Trust me, you need to up your weights and start to feel challenged.

Get comfortable with an Olympic barbell, then get uncomfortable performing tough, challenging sets with it.

No more pink dumbbells, Les Mills Classes and booty band workouts.

You have to get serious now and start training to failure.u Always Do The Same Reps

The glutes respond brilliantly to a wide range of reps and tempos.

You have to move beyond the 3 sets of 10 reps, that’s about as vanilla as it gets.

Across a week I may have a client do Hip Thrusts 3 times in separate sessions, Typically one will be a lighter, high rep sets of 20, the next day may be a heavy set of 5-8 reps and the last maybe somewhere around 12 reps with a pause/squeeze of 1-3 seconds per rep.

This way we can cover strength, hypertrophy and endurance training in one week, hitting all the muscle fibres we can and really pushing those glutes to grow.

But no matter what rep range you use, the form must always be 100%.

And the last few reps should be tough, this is the point you will want to stop, but this is the point where the muscle will be forced to grow.

If you hit your reps and can still do a few more then squeeze them out, and then next time add a little extra weight before you begin.

But again, the form must always be 100%.

If you start implementing these changes to your training and diet then I guarantee your glutes will grow bigger and better than ever before.

Just look at my clients Georgia and Emily and how they’ve changed their glutes.

If you are looking to make that change, work with a coach who understands and respects individuality and is trained to work with women then you should

apply for ONLINE COACHING HERE

Hi, I’m Aaron Schiavone, owner of Mind Muscle Personal Training. Over the past 5+ years I have helped women increase their self confidence, improve their relationship with food, improve their health, become stronger, fitter and happier.