Building your butt - advice for a glutes focussed workout

A friend of mine recently asked how she could work her glute muscles (the bum!) without placing too much emphasis on her quadriceps muscles (front of the thigh), which she was worried were becoming too large after doing a lot of spinning. I thought I would write a quick blog to share my ideas.

Spinning is an amazing way to stay fit, burn fat, and energise your body, although what some people do find is that it can build bulky muscle in the legs. If you haven't done much cycling in the past and then start to spin a lot you might feel like you are bulking up rather than slimming down. This effect may only last a short time, until the fat burning effect of spinning takes hold and legs become more toned and lean. However, if you are genetically predisposed to build muscle easily and have an endomorph or mesomorph body type, you may feel that you are getting too bulky, rather than achieving a long lean figure that you want. Stretching can help with this, and regular foam rolling can help loosen the muscles and lengthen the way they appear.

To effectively work the glute muscles, they must be switched on before you work them. Activation exercises such as bridge and clam shell can help strengthen the glutes and make sure that they are working effectively before you start the main body of your workout.

Following from bridge and clam shell, band walks are a useful way to start your workout and really feel the effects straight away! Ouch!

*To perform band walks, take an exercise band and loop it around your ankles. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart (the band should be under tension and stretched around your ankles), and move sideways along the length of your gym, or for 15 steps if exercising at home or outside. Make sure to keep the tension in the band, and your feet at shoulder width for the duration of the exercise. Take small steps, and you should feel it working deep into your glutes muscles.

Exercises which isolate the glutes include weighted barbell bridge, forward leaning lunges, deep squats and deadlifts. I would suggest 3 sets of 12 repetitions for each exercise, with a 30 second break in between each set.

It is important to stretch out any muscles after you have trained them, in order to improve flexibility (which is one of the key components of fitness, that is often overlooked), and lengthen and develop the muscle. Stretching also reduces any pending stiffness, and improves efficiency when performing your next work out or daily activities. Stretch after training for a minimum of 30 seconds per body part, taking deep breaths throughout, and focussing on moving deeper into the stretch with each breath. Follow this up with some foam rolling using a cylindrical roller, or a tennis ball for a more localised self massage. Yoga is also great for stretching, strength, and flexibility, and ideal for achieving a long, lean, and de-stressed body.

Hopefully this will all help!

If you have any questions then email me at niyc@optimalyou.co.uk or come and see me at Sound Mind and Body boutique gym for a workout!

Thanks,

Niyc xx

www.optimalyou.co.uk