“I like big butts but hips keep lying”
Out of all the muscles in the human body, none have been as lauded as the gluteus maximus. Its prevalence in modern day song has been noticed by all, with most familiar with hits such as Baby Got Back and BBL Drizzy. This fascination with curvature has always been prevalent in history, but since 2010, the demand for dump truck has remerged in pop culture. The pursuit of the perfect form has led to drastic measures (such as the notorious BBL, silicone implants, and other procedures) that aforementioned Drizzy, as well as notable figures Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian and who knows how many more, have undergone. But it is not actually necessary to undergo surgery to get the butt of one’s dreams. One experiment proves this –Jubilee’s 6 Natural Butts vs 1 Secret BBL (linked below) - and there’s a substantial amount of evidence that can be found in the athletic form of sprinters and cyclists. But, you may be asking, why go to all that effort to grow a big butt when you could buy one?
The butt is home to the gluteal muscles; gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus12. Those with weak butt muscles may suffer from lower back, hip, and knee pain1,3,4,11. Society has developed in such a way that people are sitting, all the time- but humans were not designed to sit. This constant sitting lets the body slip into familiar movement patterns that change the strength, length, and stiffness of muscles2. If you have a job that requires sitting for hours on end- you likely suffer from neck and upper back pain too, but now is not the time to discuss ‘nerd pose syndrome’13.
Back to the butt.
You may be thinking, ‘but I go to the gym’. Well, those who exercise regularly can still have weak glutes- if the body is conditioned to use improper movement patterns, the muscles that are prone to weakness, like the butt muscles, can do way less work than they were supposed to. Even if the exercise was supposed to be led by the glutes, if the muscles have a complicated relationship, the butt is happy to take a back seat. Yeah, and this doesn’t just affect your ability to grow your butt, but it also causes the pain I mentioned earlier, and increases your risk of injury3,4.
Okay, so, how you fix it?
Activation exercises. A study found that glute recruitment could increase by 57% in a week using isometric band activation exercises14. Because I am so considerate, I’ll link some below:
- Banded squat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyDCxcMlBGI
- Banded clamshells: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_ZPapmqeNM
- Standing glute hold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYqFfdanScQ
- Glute and hamstring hold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyAgSr2tj_0
So, now you know to awaken your butt muscles for training- step one, done- but what about the actual training part? On average, people select weights that are too light for them to grow muscle5. One study found that people self-select weights around 53% of their 1 rep max- the absolute most weight they could lift for one rep before failing- for rep ranges of 12-15 reps. Only complete beginners and those working in rep ranges above 25 reps might notice hypertrophy at that weight, but everyone else is likely not stimulating their glutes enough for growth5.
Maybe you’ve heard of hypertrophy, maybe you haven’t, maybe you are so familiar with the term and you’re reading this article because you liked the title and wanted to make sure this wasn’t complete garbage- whatever your reasons for being here, let me break it down for you.
Hypertrophy is the increase in volume of muscle15. This is how your butt grows. It’s all about chemical responses in the body which are triggered after appropriate stimulus6. As your muscles resist forces of gravity and inertia, they are put under mechanical tension, stimulating muscle growth. More tension means more muscular hypertrophy (generally). Whether you do 4-8 reps of a higher weight, or 12-15 reps of a lower weight, the magnitude of the stimulus can be the same- if you can choose the right weight for you7,8. (Spoilers: you probably can’t)
It is possible to fix this. Find your 1 rep max, choose your rep range for your goals, and calculate how much weight you need. Pros: free. Cons: periodic testing for 1 rep max, or even predictive tests of lower rep maxes, of every movement, can be time consuming, intimidating, and require assistance or spotting for safety16. That’s hoping you find the right exercise for you, and use perfect form, and activation if needed, and progress appropriately, and never skip leg day.
…And we’ve reached our portion of shameless advertising! A personal trainer can do all of that for you: give you activation exercises, find the right weight, pick an exercise that will work at whatever level you are, watch your form, spot you when needed, and they also hold you accountable for consistency and diet (I haven’t even broached the topic of calories and protein for hypertrophy yet). So, you get to focus on the doing (which is hard enough itself) without the weight of the thinking. It’s we- we are personal trainers, and we want to help you grow your butt!
So, to recap, a big butt looks good and it’s good for you. You definitely do not need a BBL for the body of your dreams, and it’s cheaper to get a personal trainer anyways, so you’re saving money (girl math?)17. I mean, do you want your hips to lie? Would that sit well with you? (I’ll see myself out now)
REFERENCES
1. Tyson, A. D. (1998). The hip and its relationship to patellofemoral pain. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 20, 67-68.
2. Campagnola, K., et al. (2015). An electromyographic comparison of the functional performance of the gluteus maximus muscle in prolonged sitting versus standing populations (Unpublished capstone project). City University of New York, Department of Physical Therapy.
3. Sahrmann, S. (2002). Diagnosis and treatment of movement impairment syndromes. Mosby.
4. Powers, C. M. (2010). The influence of abnormal hip mechanics on knee injury: A biomechanical perspective. The Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy, 40(2), 42-51. https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2010.3337
5. Steele, J., Malleron, T., Har-Nir, I., et al. (2022). Are trainees lifting heavy enough? Self-selected loads in resistance exercise: A scoping review and exploratory meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 52, 2909–2923. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-022-01717-9
6. Wackerhage, H., et al. (2019). Stimuli and sensors that initiate skeletal muscle hypertrophy following resistance exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology. https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00685.2018
7. Schoenfeld, B. J., et al. (2016). Muscular adaptations in low- versus high-load resistance training: A meta-analysis. European Journal of Sport Science. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25530577
8. Morton, R. W., et al. (2019). Muscle fibre activation is unaffected by load and repetition duration when resistance exercise is performed to task failure. The Physiological Society. https://doi.org/10.1113/JP278056
9. Schoenfeld, B. J., et al. (2016). Differential effects of heavy versus moderate loads on measures of strength and hypertrophy in resistance-trained men. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, 15(4), 715-722. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27928218
10. Lasevicius, T., et al. (2018). Effects of different intensities of resistance training with equated volume load on muscle strength and hypertrophy. European Journal of Sport Science. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29564973
11. Cooper, N. A., Scavo, K. M., Strickland, K. J., Tipayamongkol, N., Nicholson, J. D., Bewyer, D. C., & Sluka, K. A. (2016). Prevalence of gluteus medius weakness in people with chronic low back pain compared to healthy controls. European Spine Journal, 25(4), 1258-1265. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-015-4027-6
12. Elzanie, A., & Borger, J. (2023). Anatomy, bony pelvis and lower limb, gluteus maximus muscle. In StatPearls (Updated April 2023). Treasure Island, FL: StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538193/
13. Kim, D., et al. (2015). Effect of an exercise program for posture correction on musculoskeletal pain. Journal of Physical Therapy Science, 27(6), 1791-1794.
14. Cannon, J., Weithman, B. A., & Powers, C. M. (2022). Activation training facilitates gluteus maximus recruitment during weight-bearing strengthening exercises. Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 63, 102643. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelekin.2022.102643
15. Hernandez, R. J., & Kravitz, L. (n.d.). The mystery of skeletal muscle hypertrophy. Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy. https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/hypertrophy.html. Accessed 5 Sept. 2024.
16. Niewiadomski, W., Laskowska, D., Gąsiorowska, A., Cybulski, G., Strasz, A., & Langfort, J. (2008). Determination and prediction of one repetition maximum (1RM): Safety considerations. Journal of Human Kinetics, 19, 109-120.
17. Urban Dictionary. (n.d.). Girl math. Retrieved October 5, 2024, from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=girl%20math
