The number one topic I am asked about is glutes. Ladies want to know the ins and the outs of glute training and I can completely understand that, especially if your glutes seem to be lagging behind in the growth department. Unfortunately, we are often hindering our glute growth potential and we don’t even know that we are doing it. 

Today, I am going to discuss some very important reasons for a lack of glute growth and share with you some easy fixes to these problems!

1. You don’t activate your glutes prior to your session. 

I like to spend 5-10 minutes activating my glutes before I do any sort of leg work. Activating your glutes ensures that they are switched on and ready for the task at hand. By sending blood directly to the glutes and firing up the muscle, you are able to feel your glutes so much more intensely throughout your entire session. This enables us to be able to feel when our feet stance, bar positioning, posture etc, needs readjusting throughout our session to ensure load stays constantly in the booty and not in our other muscles that may try to compensate, like our quads for example.

2. You only train compound movements.

Compound movements like deadlifts and squats are incredible for strength, torching calories and building your entire leg. However, compound movements utilise multiple muscles at once and unfortunately, when it comes to legs, this means our quads load first, hamstrings second and glutes last.

If you want to see some serious gains in the glutes, you need to couple compounds with isolation movements, as these target your glutes directly. Make sure you are incorporating a multitude of thrust, kickback and abductor variations to your sessions.

3. You aren’t lifting heavy enough.

If you want to grow, you have to move some weight. Unfortunately, as women, we can tend to under lift or get complacent with our strength in the gym. This doesn’t do our body composition any favours. If you want to grow you need to challenge yourself every single session.

4. You’re training the muscle too infrequently.

If your primary focus is glute growth, you want to be hitting them at least 2-3 times per week. For the best results, mix your glute sessions up. Have one or two compound and heavier days, with other days of purely sculpting and isolation work.

5. You’re a cardio bunny.

The difference between sprinters and endurance athletes, is that sprinters preserve muscle, and endurance athletes chew through it. Cardio definitely has its place in the fitness world; it is great for fat loss, NEAT levels, mental clarity, cardiovascular health and general wellbeing. Just be mindful that you aren’t over doing it. We want to preserve muscle mass, not burn it all off. Prioritise weight training over cardio if your goal is a bigger booty. The stepper, plyometric leg movements, the sled, bike and incline walks are great cardio option. HIIT training is the most effective way to do cardio whilst preserving muscle so swap long cardio sessions for sprints.

6. Under eating.

You want to be eating at maintenance calories or a slight surplus if your goal is growth. A deficit is not going to get you a big perky peachy. Ensure you are eating enough carbohydrates to fuel your sessions and recover properly, and prioritize protein.
 

7. You don’t rest.
   

More is not necessarily more when it comes to training. Know when to work and know when to rest. You can only train as hard as you can recover. People often assume that we grow in the gym. We don’t. We grow when we sleep and when we rest. It is absolutely essential that you prioritize recovery if you want to see changes to muscle development. Ensure you are getting your 8 hours of sleep every night and take at least one rest day a week. Smashing yourself in the gym 7 days a week for 2 hours a day isn’t helping you as much as you think it is.

Still not sure what’s the best path in the gym, and with your nutrition, to sculpt the body you desire? Join me for my 8 Week Bikini Body Transformation Program, where I can personalise your Meal Plan and Training Plan and design them to the results you desire. CLICK HERE to learn more.