SingersFit

Having a strong rear does not only look great, but it is also a sign of good health for many reasons. As a curious piece of data, the Gluteus Maximus is the biggest and heaviest muscle in the body (in the average person, that is). That should mean something, it should have an important purpose, right? Strong gluteal muscles protect our hips, lower back and knees from injuries, arthrosis and other musculo-skeletal issues, and it’s imperative in our posture and alignment, keeping us upright. We are able to walk longer distances and run faster, lift heavier, and get out of danger quicker. My contribution to this mainstream knowledge is that strong glutes also aid to upper body strength (you can press and pull heavier if your glutes are strong, on overhead, bent over and plank positions), more core strength and better breathing support (glutes also support the diaphragm and pelvic floor).

The point of my article is geared more towards the misconception that exists nowadays that presumes that size equals strength, but that’s not often the case.

We all know a few examples of body parts of how size is very misleading to actual functionality, meaning or substance, specially if that size is artificially enhanced. In most cases, strong glutes aren’t huge. One thing is strength, another thing is hypertrophy, another thing is genetics (that determines fat and muscle fibre distribution), and another thing is BBL and surgical procedures.

Some people have big hips and bone structure and that has nothing to do with having big glutes, no matter how much they work to increase the size of their muscles, they won’t grow, at least not considerably, because the muscle fibres may be short and/or scarce, and their distribution may be different. Other people have small hips and big glutes because their muscle fibres happen to be long and abundant and be proportionally distributed, some of these people don’t need to do a single exercise in their life in order to have a big bum, but it doesn’t mean that they are strong or healthy. In an ideal world you’d have both: gifted genetics and a discipline to follow a good training plan.

When it comes to the shape and size of the butt, it’s to do with the LENGTH of the muscle fibres (whether the origin and/or the insertion of the muscle happen higher or lower in the bone), the NUMBER of them, and their PLACEMENT in the structure of the pelvic griddle and femurs, specially of the Gluteus Maximus and Medius which are the ones that provide the visual ‘meat’. The Gluteus Minimum is less visual and it places a crucial role in the overall stabilization of the pelvis.

So say for example, your Gluteus Maximus is a few cm short at the top (origin) but it’s abundant at the bottom (insertion), you’ll have a bum that’s not round from the top, but rather perky at the bottom. So no matter how many exercises you do that focus on the upper part of the gluteus maximus, it will never develop at the top because… well, you don’t have flesh there to start off with. Another very important consideration is that there is also a considerable amount of FAT surrounding the gluteals, specially in women (see here). So quite often you work your ass out (literally) and then it shrinks because you lose all that fat. Yes, your muscle fibres will grow, but only to the capacity of that which you have, and if you don’t have a lot, your bum will actually be smaller than it was with the fat. You’ll be healthier and stronger, though!

We can grow muscle fibres but we cannot increase the number of them, or their placement. We can, however, make the most of what we have, there is always room for improvement, and if we want to live long lives we better invest some effort in getting stronger generally, but specially in the glutes, and more specifically in our centre of gravity (core). So, regardless of your God-given qualities, if you train your glutes properly, you will ALWAYS achieve results with consistency and discipline. This is down to 4 main variables:

1. Specific exercises in the right order at a certain frequency.
2. Progressive overload.
3. Rest.
4. Nutrition.

The following constitutes a path towards glorious glutes, in order of importance:

1. Deadlifts & Squats with their variants for strength (and subsequent muscle fibre growth as a result).
2. Hip Thrusts for hypertrophy.
3. Single Leg Deadlifts, Squats & Hip Thrusts for further muscle fibre isolation and balance (core).
4. Extra: Cable kickbacks & Abuctions.

The exercises above (specially Deadlifts & Squats) should be part of everyone’s routine (3 times a week if you really want to grow that ass) for lifetime. Try it, and then tell me I was right.

As a final aspect – and equally important – to touch upon, consider that everything springs from the hips, I cannot stress this enough. POWER LIES IN THE HIPS. Breathing is born in the pelvic floor. We are born from the womb. Life, and everything in the unseen, springs from this area. We scream from the pelvic floor. We sneeze from the pelvic floor. We vomit from the pelvic floor (the movement starts there). We laugh from the pelvic floor. We cough from the pelvic floor. I learned this at age 13 when I started studying Classical Singing. My teacher had me for 3 months lying on the floor feeling my diaphragm expand and relax and getting used to the natural ebb and flow where the first movement of breathing originates. All powerful expressions of our body originate there. No wonder high magic, meditation and the manipulation of the elements lies in the mastering of this particular point of focus. When we are fully relaxed and free of tensions, and paradoxically “away from our body”, we become more powerful IN the body! How cool is that! We are able to maximise the capacity of everything (lungs, muscle contraction, speed, force, sound projection, etc) when we are the most tranquil.

So, in practical terms, for example, when you perform a shoulder press, you breathe in at the bottom, and as you press overhead, you contract the glutes and abdominal muscles at the same time as you breathe out and push the heels down. You do not contract the shoulders or the chest area. You grab the power from the glutes/hips/lower abdomen. Always. For. Every. Single. Exercise. Remember this.

The physical area of our power resides in the hips and their correspondent muscles and tissues, training those and treating them with the care and dedication they deserve will only produce positive results.