One of the most common requests that many women and some men have as they go about their workout program is how to build a bigger booty, or ‘butt’ as it’s often called.
A BIGGER BOOTY IS POSSIBLE THROUGH HARD WORK
Whether you’ve been genetically cursed with a flat butt or you are someone who has a little more booty than you are happy with and simply want to increase the tone and muscle definition of this area, the great news is that the right exercise can certainly help.
Building a bigger butt is all about knowing which exercises to implement to target this area, how to structure your nutrition protocol to meet your butt-building needs, and how to be patient as the process unfolds.
Remember, building a bigger butt isn’t just about aesthetics either. While sure, a tight round butt may look great in your favorite pair of jeans, don’t forget that building a bigger butt also adds functional strength as well.
Your glute muscles (which make up your butt) are going to give you strength each time you walk up a flight of stairs, squat down and pick up something heavy, or simply as you are walking throughout your day to day life.
The stronger your glutes are, the more stabilized you’ll be as it can also improve balance and agility as well. Finally, to top it all, studies suggest that strong glutes may also keep your spinal column in proper position, reducing the chances that you suffer from lower back injuries.
All of this proves to be great reasons to build a bigger butt.
So all of this said, let’s go over the fundamentals that you need to know about building a bigger butt.
GET YOUR BEST BOOTY WITH THE RIGHT WORKOUT CHOICES
When it comes to building your booty, there are two types of exercises you can consider performing: cardio training and strength training.
Now, most people naturally gravitate towards cardio training if they are carrying a little too much in the booty area as they think weight loss is the goal. But remember, strength training can also produce exceptional weight loss results.
To see optimal results, you’ll want to include both types of exercises in your workout protocol.
Let’s first go over the cardio component.
CRANK UP THE HEAT WITH THESE BOOTY – BUILDING CARDIO OPTIONS
When it comes to cardio training to build a bigger booty, you’ll want to focus on cardio variations that provide resistance for the glute muscles.
This resistance is what will help increase muscle strength (and potentially size) giving you that firm, shapely look you’re after.
When doing your cardio training activity, you have the choice between doing interval type of training, where you alternate between periods of very intense exercise (a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) of 7-9 on a scale of 1-10) and active rest (RPE 2-3) or just going at a moderate pace for 30-45 minutes.
Beginners should stick with the moderate paced cardio training while advanced exercisers can move to the higher intensity interval training.
Regardless of whichever type of training you perform, you should really focus on squeezing the glutes throughout the entire session.
As you focus on this, it’ll ensure that you are using these muscles to help power you through the movement pattern.
If you are really focusing on fat loss as your goal, note that studies suggest that interval training is the superior form of cardio activity to accelerate fat burning by increasing the metabolic rate.
Terrific cardio options that call the glute muscles into play include:
With plyometric training, you can focus on doing a circuit with exercises such as jump lunges, jump squats, burpees, or box jumps.
Each of these is going to heavily recruit the glute muscles to hoist you into the air, thus giving you the glute-building benefits.
Now let’s move forward and talk about the strength training moves to know about.
PUMP IRON TO BUILD YOUR BUTT – THE TOP RANKED MOVES TO DO IN THE GYM
When it comes to strength training for your glute building workout, you’ll want to focus on exercises that, for the most part, recruit the largest muscle fibers possible.
The more muscle fibers you are working, the more weight you can lift and therefore, the more total stress you are placing on the muscle tissues. This is what helps them grow stronger – and larger if a calorie surplus is provided.
Here are the top moves that will quickly help you build your booty.
Squats
Squats are essentially the ‘king’ of lower body movements as they work every single muscle in the lower body and as well as part of the upper body as well.
If you really want to build your butt, the best butt building exercise is lower bar squats.
This is done by shifting the bar slightly lower across the back, which then places more stress on the glute muscles themselves.
Deadlifts
Next up on the list is deadlifts. Stiff leg or traditional deadlifts are both great for building your butt.
The primary difference between them is traditional deadlifts will also work your quads, while stiff leg deadlifts work only your hamstrings and glutes.
Lunges
Lunges are another excellent booty building movement. These can be walking lunges, stationary lunges, or reverse lunges.
All will hit this muscle perfectly. To really target your booty, you’ll want to place the weight across the back (rather than holding them down by your sides).
Split Squats
Split squats are another terrific lower body, booty building move to include in your workout program.
Place a dumbbell across your back for this one and think of pushing up through the heel. You’ll be feeling it in no time.
Glute Raises
Glute raises aren’t quite as compound as the previous moves are, so they will isolate the glutes better (while also still slightly working the hamstrings).
These can be done with or without weight across your lap depending on your own individual strength level.
Clamshells
Clamshells are the last exercise to include in your program. This move won’t include weight however if you focus on the mind-muscle connection, you can really feel it in the target muscles.
It’ll help to give strength to the glutes and prevent knee pain as well (which can be attributed to weak glute muscles).
Now that you know all the main exercises to perform to build a bigger butt, let’s talk about how to structure the workout program.
PERFECTING YOUR WORKOUT FOR THE PERFECT BACK VIEW
In order to successfully build your booty, you’ll want to structure your workout program in a specific manner that will best help you build up your booty.
Since the optimal muscle building results come from a rep range of 8-12 reps, this should be your target for the heavy, compound exercises. This will also help kick-start your metabolic rate, allowing fat burning to take place.
Remember that building a good looking butt requires you both build muscle as well as burn off some excess fat (if you have it).
For the isolation moves such as glute raises and clamsells, feel free to take this rep range up a bit, into the 15-20 rep range for a real challenge.
Rest should be kept on the lower side. Aim for 30-60 seconds between sets if possible. This will keep your heart rate up and ensure that you are developing the level of muscle fatigue necessary to challenge the body and promote optimal progress.
Just remember that you should never sacrifice form. If you find that you need to rest for a few more seconds so that you can use good form in the next set you do, so be it.
Just don’t let those rest periods drag on to two minutes or longer. Short and snappy is the name of your game here.
Finally, in terms of workout frequency, twice per week should be your goal. If you can hit the glute muscles hard every 3-4 days, you’ll be on track to results.
Some people believe that the more frequently they work the muscles, the better, but remember, your body needs time to rest and recover.
It’s during the recovery phase that you are growing stronger and gaining that shape to the muscle you want.
A final note should be mentioned about the importance of the mind-muscle connection. When doing your glute building exercises, really focus on squeezing the glute musclesthemselves. The harder you squeeze, the more results you’ll get.
If you don’t focus on this, the quads and hamstrings may overpower the exercise, resulting in fewer results.
Let’s give you a few booty building butt workout protocols.
YOUR GET-A-BUTT GAME PLAN
Workout A
Workout B
Workout C
BEST EATS FOR A BETTER BOOTY
Finally, no guide on how to build a bigger butt would be complete without some information on the best butt building foods. How should you eat to see best results?
First, determine your goal. Do you most need to build muscle (size) in your butt or do you mostly need to lose fat because you have too much in that area?
If fat loss is your goal, you need to eat at a calorie deficit, meaning you consume fewer calories than you burn off over the course of the day.
If you need to add more size to your butt, you need to eat in a calorie surplus, which will provide the additional energy your body will then use to build up your booty.
As a general guideline, if you need to lose weight, aim to consume about 12-14 calories per pound of body weight. If you need to build your booty, aim to consume around 16-18 calories per pound of body weight.
Once you have your target calorie intake figured out, focus on getting this nutrition from whole food sources. Even if your goal is to gain weight, this doesn’t mean you should be eating unhealthy foods.
If you put high quality foods into your body, you’ll get high quality results, meaning you’ll gain muscle, not body fat.
Use a diet that’s well balanced in lean proteins like chicken, fish, lean beef, egg whites, and whey protein powder along with complex carbohydrates like oats, sweet potatoes, brown rice, beans, fruits, and vegetables.
Healthy fats should be used in moderation and should include olive oil, nuts and seeds, nut butter, avocado, and fatty varieties of fish.
If you track your calories and strive for good balance between the two nutrients, you can rest assured you are providing what your body needs, nutritionally speaking, to build a bigger butt.