We all desire the perfect butt, the shapely peach confection that fills out a pair of jeans and turns heads as we walk on by. We want a combination of power, aesthetics and utility, we want something smooth and firm and taut and tough. Given that most men rank a woman’s posterior as one of the top three things they look out when they check out a lady, it’s easy to understand why many women fixate on this region and seek to tone and strengthen their muscles there in order to acquire the shapeliest butt possible. But what’s actually going on under the skin? What are the major muscles that compose your butt, and what exercises and stretches are best for them? Are you damaging your butt inadvertently through common daily activities, and how can you prevent that from happening?
Let’s start with the basics. Your butt is composed of a harmonic symphony of three major muscles. These are commonly known as your ‘glutes’, and consist of your gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. The maximums glute is the biggest and outermost one that gives your butt its shape and appearance. It’s also one of the strongest muscles in your body, and is responsible for keeping your trunk in its erect posture, and is the key muscle in helping you straighten up after stooping. The gluteus medius and gluteus minimus are both much smaller and buried deeper in your butt, and help support your body on one leg, or externally rotate your thigh.
The two best exercises for your glutes are the squat and the dead lift. Both of these compound exercises utilize a number of major muscles, and are thus excellent for your whole system. Each is also a complex exercise, and can be used to support a lot of weight, and thus proper research should be done before they are attempted. In brief, however, they are as follows:
Squat: Feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bend, barbell places across the shoulders behind the neck with your hands gripping the bar shoulder width apart. Making sure to keep a straight back (it can help to look up), descend into a crouch until your thighs are parallel with the floor, and then pushing up with your butt rise back to a straightened stance.
Deadlift: Feet shoulder width apart, barbell on the ground at your feet, you squat down before it, butt low, back straight, head up, and grip the barbell at shoulder width. Then, using your hips to lift and not your arms, you straighten, pulling the barbell up vertically almost as if running it up your shins, until you straighten completely and the barbell hangs before your pelvis, arms straight. Simply reverse to lower.
An excellent stretch for your glute is as follows: Lie on your back, and place the ankle of one leg over the knee of the other. Then slowly raise your knee toward your chest, keeping your back straight on the floor, your legs forming a figure ‘4’. As you knee rises and points toward the ceiling, you should get an excellent stretch.
Finally, be wary of sitting all day if you have an office job. Extended pressure on your glutes can cause them to atrophy, so be sure to stand every twenty minutes and give yourself a light stretch!
Author Resource:
Philip Tucker is a Fitness Product Review specialist for Miami based Extreme Fitness Results LLC. He enjoys promoting the http://www.extremefitnessresults.com/brazil-butt-lift.html Brazilian Butt Lift workout, and is currently killing himself with the brutal but awesome http://www.extremefitnessresults.com Insanity Workout.
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