We’re all happier when we’re filling out a tight t-shirt in all the right ways, but there’s one muscle that the gays really cannot afford to miss out. That is, of course, THE BUTT!
Maybe the straight guys don’t want to worry too much about theirs, but for us, having a bubble butt is like having a golden ticket to some well-deserved attention.
And man do we love attention. Don’t deny it, you know it’s true. No judgments here, we all do.
Big butt muscles for better health
The glutes are the largest and strongest muscles in the body, and stronger, more well-developed glutes can help to improve posture, movement quality, and athletic performance. Plus you’ll look awesome when poured into a pair of tight trousers or skinny jeans.
A badass pair of glutes (pardon the pun, there will be many) will help to prevent injury in the knees, lower back, hamstrings, groin, and hips. In fact, a significant amount of lower back pain can be attributed to weak glutes and/or hamstrings.
So not only is a bubble butt great for your social life, it’s better for your entire body and your overall health and performance.
The main butt exercises
The main exercises that will help to strengthen and “enhance” your glutes are some of the best overall exercises that you could be doing in the gym. Developing a head-turning ass is actually something that will happen naturally if you’re training a lot of compound movements.
1. Squats
Groundbreaking right? Do squats to get a nice butt. Revolutionary. But it just adds weight to the fact that you should be working squats into your weekly workout for yet another reason. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better exercise for building a bubble butt than squatting.
The reason squats are so good is that they allow you to hit the glutes, hamstrings, quads AND those often-neglected hip abductor and adductor muscles all at once. The amount of activity in your glutes and quads increases with depth; the deeper the better (am i right? :)). Don’t be that guy and load up the bar and just do half squats; that will just build up your hamstrings and lower back muscles. Don’t be a gym bro. Drop the weight, squat deeper, and thank us later.
For a little variation, consider adding in some Goblet Squats, paused back squats (hang out at the bottom of the rep for a few gruelling seconds if you dare) , and the ever-painful-but-effective Bulgarian Split Squat
2. Deadlifts
Another compound movement that works a load of different muscles all in one go, not the least of which are those in your butt. And because you’re using multiple muscles, you can afford to lift heavier loads and really destroy those muscle fibres in your butt.
Whether you go for a conventional barbell deadlift, or one of the many variations – such as a Sumo Deadlift or a Single-Leg Deadlift – it’s still a great way to pack some meat onto your butt… which sounds far ruder than I had intended.
Check your form before you start chucking big weights around though, film yourself to make sure your back looks more like an exclamation than a question mark. If you have back issues switch to a Snatch-grip Deadlift (it’s much more difficult to lift the bar with a rounded back if your arms are wider).
3. Hip Thrusts
Now I challenge you to perform a hip thrust in a crowded gym while maintaining eye contact with any of the muscle marys in the weights section. You’ll either get your ass kicked, or you’ll get it noticed 😉
Despite the porn-vibe of this exercise, it’s brilliant for butt-building, and should not be left out no matter how awkward it gets. It is one of the best ways to really isolate those glutes, why else do you think all those insta sluts are doing it?
If this is an exercise you’ve avoided in the past, be sure to get your form just right before loading up the bar. If you are feeling really cheeky (pun intended) then hit up a single leg thrust.
4. Lunges
Lunges are predominantly used to work the quads, however the glutes are heavily fired up moving you back to the standing position and lunging backwards rather than forwards (with lunging backwards off a step being targeting the glutes even more).
Whether you’re doing your lunges with dumbbells or with a barbell, as long as you are lunging backwards and then coming back to standing,.you are definitely going to shock those glutes into action (and into the spotlight).
Share the butt love…
Poor choice of words. What we mean is, we’d love it if you shared this article on Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, etc. And if you’ve got a butt that you’re especially proud of, be sure to tag us on Instagram @gayfitnessuk.