Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result
– Albert Einstein
For so many women a perky peach seems to be just out of reach no matter how much exercise you do! When it comes to developing and maintaining the booty of your dreams, the struggle can be real!
Particularly for females, the hips and upper legs tend to store fat and often makes it difficult to see any muscle that is developing. In addition to this – the glutes can tend to be a complicated muscle system to activate!
BUT, there’s no need to lose hope!
Here are VIVA’s top 4 tips for giving your results the encouraging kick in the rear that they need…
1. Make your bestie, your backside – get to know how they work!
There is a huge lack of understanding that surrounds the gluteal muscle structure, how they work and how they’re activated! Make it your mission to get to know everything there is to know…
The 3 Muscles that make up the “Glutes” are your gluteus maximums, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. The functions of these muscles include extension, abduction, internal and external rotation.
The Gluteus Maximus is the largest muscle (basically the MVP in the glute world)! It’s the muscle that creates the shape of the butt and works anytime your thigh to the side, rotate your leg or thrust your hip forward.
The medius and minimus combine to help the gluteus maximus perform its various functions. They really are a perfect pair, working together to facilitate movement through the lower body. Given that the gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the body, it’s super important to get it firing!
2. You’re missing the mind-butt connection
ACTIVATION! ACTIVATION! ACTIVATION!
If you’ve never focused on working your glutes before, chances are, you’re not properly activating them and there’s absolutely no way that you’ll see results! We sit all day and because of this are glutes become inactive, they get lazy and you need to learn how properly recruit them again so they can support you in your day-to-day movement!
In deepen your mind-butt connection (and get the booty of your dreams) you’ve got to start consciously thinking about working your glute.
Some sure-fire ways to deepens this connection are:
Tactile feedback: When working your glutes touch a finger to the glute max and give yourself the tactile feedback you need – this will draw your attention to the glute and give you a much deeper burn
Spend a little time thoroughly warming up your glutes before a workout – simple exercises like glute bridges, bottom squeezes and clams can increase your mind-butt connection and encourage use of your glutes in compound exercises or cardio workouts.
Change it up – keep your glutes guessing by changing your movement patterns each time you activate the glutes! Our muscles are good at getting used to what they know! Variety is the spice of life so get creative about the way you move
3. Oh! My! Quad!
If your glutes decide to take a rain check every time you work your lower body – you might find that your quads are the dominant muscle! Quad dominance is super common and it’s a huge factor that can put a dampener on the results from killer strength workouts!
When it comes to lower body workouts – the muscles in your lower body (glutes, hamstrings, quads) should be sharing the load and overworking your quads without working your glutes is a sure-fire way to set up for pain and even serious injury!
While there’s no quick fix for quad dominance, it can be fixed over time! It takes lots of re-training your brain in order to sequence your movement patterns differently and work more effectively for glute recruitment. Make sure you loosen your hips, warm up effectively and spend a bit of time re-assessing your lower body movements to get them exactly right!
4. If you’re tired, learn to rest, not to quit…
Knowing your limits and when to stop is incredibly important! As is the act of self-care and taking the time to rest, recover, eat, sleep and stretch correctly. As with a lot of things in life, we often think more is better and this is not always the case.
Rest and recovery play a huge role in effective training! A lack of sleep will greatly impact your muscle recovery and will set you back when it comes to your strength gains! Not only does a lack of sleep affect strength gains it can also interfere with your hunger hormones and increase your appetite during the day! Triggering, stretching and self-massage are imperative to good recovery!
Diet is also a big factor when it comes to developing and maintaining strength. You can be doing all the exercise in the world and if you’re not fuelling your body well your desired results will never become a reality! It’s incredibly important to be mindful that you’re getting enough fuel in and the types of foods do matter! The JERF (just eat real foods) philosophy is a good one to apply and you’ll have the best results from limiting process foods and eating lean proteins and supplementing this with goods fats and unrefined carbohydrates.
If you’d like to learn how to put all these tips into practice book into our Perky Peach Masterclass this March!
Manly: 18th of March 5.30pm & 6.30pm Sessions
Clayfield: 19th of March 5.30pm & 6.30pm Sessions
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