GLUTE TRAINING FOR WOMEN

 

The glutes. It’s usually the most sought after part of the body female clients want to improve when they come to me. The pancake ass isn’t a great look and curves have definitely come back into fashion. Good glutes usually equates to an overall great looking lower body.

 

Here are a few reasons why you might be struggling to build your glutes and fill out those jeans.

 

ALWAYS IN A CALORIE DEFICIT

This goes for anyone struggling to build up a certain body part, but it’s been my experience that women are always in a chronic state of “dieting” to get leaner or smaller and don’t understand that by doing this they’ll hamper muscle growth and development. This doesn’t automatically mean you need to be consuming 3000+ calories a day to see any growth, but you do need to be in a calorie surplus or at the very least around your maintenance calorie level. Even if you were eating more calories, there would still be set macros, with a large portion being made up from protein. 

 

Ideally you would want to see your scale weight gradually moving upwards for a few months or at least holding steady. If your weight is consistently dropping, you’re not eating enough and there will be minimal muscle growth and improvement. If you naturally have a small appetite look at it this way; you will find the dieting phase at the end pretty easy and it shouldn't take long to drop the weight you put on during the calorie surplus phase. Let go of the preconceived notion that you will just balloon in size. 

 

POOR MOVEMENT SELECTION

Don’t fall for all the lame exercises on social media performed by influencers whose only aim is engagement and views. The majority have zero training expertise and are just copying stuff they’ve seen from other influencers. Things like frog pumps, booty band workouts, barre based leg exercises, leg presses on the leg press machine sitting sideways etc. They can all get fucked. They do nothing I promise. Just because an exercise “burns” doesn’t mean it’s good or effective.  

 

What are good exercises then?

 

• Romanian deadlifts

• Leg presses

• Thrusts

• Glute bridges

• Split squats

• Unilateral work 

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You could literally just focus on these exercises for a few months without adding anything else in and build your glutes. 

 

NOT FOCUSING ON PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD

Progressive overload can mean either being able to lift more weight over time or performing more reps. Either way both would mean you are getting stronger. In order to get stronger you need to build muscle. Those dream glutes you want at the end of all this aren’t soft and flabby, that’s muscle underneath. Every 2 weeks or so you should be looking to either increase the weight or reps performed. Don’t be afraid to take that next step up in weight. 

 

ALWAYS CHANGING YOUR WORKOUT ROUTINE

Doing new and novel movements is fun, but growth happens from progressive overload and that ultimately means repeating exercises. Not just for a week or two but months on end. I’d pretty much keep RDL’s and glute bridges in your training program for the full 3-4 months. You can change the rep scheme and pair it with other exercises but don’t just do them for a week or two and then switch to something else. If you can’t use a routine for more than a few weeks before you start to change things up, that right there is most likely your problem. 

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Following these tips will help maximize your workouts and more importantly grow your glutes. Don’t become obsessed with the number on the scale, in the grand scheme of things it doesn't mean much. Focus more on how you're visually changing for the better.