So I used to have a soft squishy butt that I loved but this summer I started doing leg exercises (squats, lungs) thinking it would make my butt bigger, I was SOOO wrong, my butt is small now. I HATE my butt now and I would do anything to get my old butt back. After I noticed it was getting smaller I stopped doing the leg exercises and started just using the elliptical but it is still just as small. So recently I have resorted to eating alot and not going to the gym at all. Is this what I should be doing to get my butt back? I How do I un tighten the muscles in my butt and get it back to where it used to be? How long will it take? Please help.
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Squats Made my Butt Smaller
- Thread starter buckeye21
- Start date
Increasing the size of muscles is best done in rep ranges of 10 down to 6 on heavy weights. A bit above can work but not as quickly.
Actual mass gain is more due to diet than training for many of us. We need calorie excess to be able to fuel growth and avoid catabolising the muscle you have worked. Genetics can make you more forgiving on this but not much.
Actual mass gain is more due to diet than training for many of us. We need calorie excess to be able to fuel growth and avoid catabolising the muscle you have worked. Genetics can make you more forgiving on this but not much.
Sounds like amongst exercise you got yourself into a calorie deficit (ie consuming fewer calories than you expend each day), or at most maintained weight and recomped (recomposition = lose fat + gain muscle; muscle is denser than fat, so two people with the same skeletal structure and same body weight, but different body compositions, will be at different sizes). If you want your big squishy butt back, I'm not sure that cutting out exercise is the way to do it, but squishiness is the product of body fat, so get some food on your fork.
The single best exercise for butts are squats. Squats exist in multiple forms, but pretty much any kind of squat is going to give the butt muscles a workout.
So I used to have a soft squishy butt
jeez, did someone turn up the heat in here?
The single best exercise for butts are squats. Squats exist in multiple forms, but pretty much any kind of squat is going to give the butt muscles a workout.
Squats are not the single best exercise for your glutes. Granted, if you were only going to do one exercise, squats would be a good choice, but they're definitely not the best glute exercise. Glute bridges and hyperextensions allow much greater glute overload than squats do.
Squats are not the single best exercise for your glutes. Granted, if you were only going to do one exercise, squats would be a good choice, but they're definitely not the best glute exercise. Glute bridges and hyperextensions allow much greater glute overload than squats do.
I second this. I can front squat my bodyweight and back squat even more than that, but I still have marked weakness in my glutes which I am in the middle of needing to work on to continue running injury-free.
I have a bit of a problem with hyperextensions, though, namely the fact that, unless you're glutes are already firing properly (which they don't seem to do in most people) hyperextensions tend to use your hamstrings and back extensors more. (When extending at the hip, glutes are supposed to fire first, followed by hamstrings, and then the back if need be.) This problem also shows in bridge as well, unfortunately, and people will fire the hamstrings like crazy and still be neglecting the glutes, but at least that exercise tends to be easier to consciously control and correct the habit.
I second this. I can front squat my bodyweight and back squat even more than that, but I still have marked weakness in my glutes which I am in the middle of needing to work on to continue running injury-free.
I have a bit of a problem with hyperextensions, though, namely the fact that, unless you're glutes are already firing properly (which they don't seem to do in most people) hyperextensions tend to use your hamstrings and back extensors more. (When extending at the hip, glutes are supposed to fire first, followed by hamstrings, and then the back if need be.) This problem also shows in bridge as well, unfortunately, and people will fire the hamstrings like crazy and still be neglecting the glutes, but at least that exercise tends to be easier to consciously control and correct the habit.
This is true. I've found that the biggest hurdle (for me) was learning to activate my glutes at the top of the bridge, with my hips hyperextended (lower back NOT hyperextended) and my knees driving out. Once I got that, I was able to start controlling my glutes more throughout the ROM, although I do still find that they're half-asleep until the last 10-20 degrees of the ROM (noting that I'm aiming for about 10 degrees of hip hyperextension). It also allowed me to control my glutes when doing hyperextensions, which had previously been all hamstring and erector activation and no noticeable glute activation.
I don't tend to like isolation work, and virtually never have time to do it. I prefer doing compound that use weak areas more to keep my body used to working as a unit.
It is one advantage of not going for aesthetic gains. I don't have to care that I don't match up to the Grecian ideology or any other for that matter.
It is one advantage of not going for aesthetic gains. I don't have to care that I don't match up to the Grecian ideology or any other for that matter.
You can never do enough squats. Try Stepping on a chair then dipping into a squat, add weights for more of a challenge.