Everyone wants a tighter, perkier butt, unfortunately your buttocks, or gluteus maximus, tends to be a very stubborn muscle when it comes to growth and development. It’s a large, strong muscle that’s used in a wide variety of daily activities including walking, stairs climbing or even household chores like mopping and vacuuming. That means you’ll need to challenge it just that little bit extra to stimulate growth and get that fit, toned butt you’ve been dreaming of, and Crossfit is the perfect way to do that!
Big Compound Lifts
Your glutes, and your legs in general, respond best to heavy weight. They’re used to low-impact, low-intensity, high-volume activity such as walking or jogging, so if you do 100 repetitions of lunges with tiny 1kg dumbbells, they’re not going to be challenged enough for significant results. You need to lift heavy, and that means you can’t run away from the big compound lifts – the squat and the deadlift.
The advantage with using compound lifts is that you can move way more weight than with isolation exercises and that’s going to send a testosterone boost through your entire body and shock waves through your glutes. The squat and deadlift also engage your other leg muscles, which is important for proportion – you don’t want to have a muscular butt and wimpy quads!
Aim to complete at least 3 sets of 15 repetitions for your squat and deadlift. It’s okay to start out light so you can master the form, because if performed incorrectly the squat and deadlift can rip up your lower back. However, never get lazy and always push for progression. Try to add a little more weight every week, even if it’s only a 1.25 or 2.5kg plate – it’ll pay off in the long run.
High-Intensity Cardio
If you look at Olympic sprinters, you’ll notice they have very big, powerful and developed lower body muscles – glutes included. The explosive power of the glutes is essential for sprinting. Marathon runners, on the other hand, generally have very little muscle to speak of because they’re burning way too many calories and eating up both fat and muscle in the process. Thus, if you want perkier and more developed glutes, sprinting is the way to go.
Your glute training represents the perfect way to try out some HIIT, or High-Intensity-Interval-Training. This refers to short bursts of extremely vigorous physical activity with short rests in between. This type of cardiovascular training is known to incinerate fat and spare muscle as well as stimulate explosive power and muscle growth. A typical HIIT regime might consist of a 45 second sprint on a treadmill, bike or rowing machine followed by a 30-second rest, with this cycle repeated 8 to 12 times. Of course, since you’re looking to target your glutes, you’ll want to focus on running and cycling.
The glutes are a difficult body part to develop, but once you start seeing results with the glute training methods outlined above, your entire physique can be transformed for the better. Keep your diet high in protein, put the pedal to the metal in the gym and you’ll have your dream butt in no time.
Article by Joel Niven