Baby Got Back
How to Build the Ultimate Posterior
by Jen Heath [url=javascript:pager.gotoPage(1);]Next Page[/url] | Pages 1 [url=javascript:pager.gotoPage(1);]2[/url]


If you were to go into any gym and casually ask 10 women which
body-part they're most interested in developing, chances are at least 9
of them will say:
"I want a better butt!" There's
certainly no shortage of desire when it comes to optimal backside
development. I was browsing around a newsstand the other day and there
was an entire magazine devoted to glute training! It contained
roughly 120 pages worth of products and training methods designed to
build a better butt. It ranged from plyometrics, medicine balls,
agility drills, stretching, Olympic lifting, stair climbing,
elliptical, pink dumbbells, rubber bands, special shoes, creams...(and
the list goes on and on). I thought to myself, "No wonder so many women seem confused!" I
believe the main reason many women don't get the "backside"
improvements they'd like is because the topic has been presented as
much more confusing than it really is. There are a lot of good
techniques and a lot of gimmicks. The desire and dedication are there ... just not a lot of good butts. Let me start off by debunking a few common myths: Most
women I talk to tell me they want to "tone" their backside. They want
to increase the muscle and they want to decrease the fat. However,
these 2 things occur independently of one another. They can occur
simultaneously, but through different processes. A muscle can
get bigger or smaller, and the fat covering a muscle can get bigger or
smaller. The BEST way to build the muscle is through progressive
resistance training using fairly heavy loads. The best way to shed the
fat is through creating a caloric deficit. Your muscles are
made up of both fast twitch and slow twitch fibers. The fast twitch
fibers are primarily the ones that respond to weight training. In order
to target them you need to perform exercises that require a sufficient
amount of tension. As a general rule of thumb, if you can do more than
20 reps on a given exercise (or perform an exercise continuously for
more than 1 minute), you're using too light of a load to target the
fast twitch fibers. Many people think that because they're
getting a "burn" on a certain exercise using super high reps that
they're stimulating muscle mass and burning off fat simultaneously. The
reality is they're most likely just wasting time, as those light loads
with super high reps won't do much to stimulate muscle mass and there
are better ways to burn calories and create a caloric deficit then
doing sets of 50 plie squats holding a pink dumbbell between your legs
while carrying on a conversation with your best friend or trainer. Many
people also have the mistaken belief that they can build a better booty
and simultaneously burn off body-fat by doing super high reps on
exercises like dumbbell sumo squats, elliptical machines, or
stair-climbing machines. Unfortunately, spot reduction is a
myth. Just because you feel your glutes working or feel a burn when
you're doing cardio doesn't mean you're "reducing fat" or building a
muscular hiney. Most likely you're just recruiting slow twitch fibers,
which don't really respond much anyway. Think about it.
Marathon runners and other endurance athletes who don't get enough
resistance training get enormous amounts of glute activation, but still
don't tend to have good butts. The intensity of their exercise is
simply too low. Another myth is that the glutes need a huge
library of exercises. I saw a training article the other day that
recommended about 6 exercises of 4 sets each for glutes. If the glutes
require so many exercises, why is it that powerlifters do maybe 1 or 2
exercises at most and never have any problems developing a muscular
backside? How many powerlifters have you seen with skinny, flat butts? In
my opinion you CAN build a great backside with as little as one hour of
dedicated exercise per week, providing you optimize your time.
Hopefully, after reading this article, you'll see how this is possible.
There are really ONLY a couple of factors you need to pay attention to
when it comes to building a great backside:

Muscular Recruitment In
order to stimulate a muscle you have to choose exercises that recruit
that muscle. When we refer to the glutes, we're mainly referring to the
gluteus maximus. To a lesser extent the glutes also involve the hip
stabilizing muscles on the upper outer portion of your butt called the
gluteus medius and minimus. When
we refer to "glute training" we also want to hit our glute-ham tie in
area, which also involves the hamstrings. A well-developed
hamstring/glute junction is smooth. The hamstring will flow
uninterrupted into the glute. The
glutes are best recruited with squatting, bending, and lunging type
movements as your hips extend as you raise the weight. The degree of
glute involvement is mainly determined by the following 3 factors: A: Angle of torso:
When squatting, bending, or lunging, glute involvement tends to
increase with a more forward lean as this increases hip flexion and
increases the stretch and recruitment of the glutes. Thus, a completely
upright smith machine squat or plie squat is actually an inferior glute
exercise compared to a regular barbell squat. A properly performed
deadlift is a good exercise due to the angle of the torso along with
the hip extension that occurs. B: Knee position:
When you perform any variation of squats or lunges, you can shift more
focus to the quadriceps or you can shift more focus to the glutes. All
you have to do is look where your knees are relative to your toes. The
further back they are, the more your glutes will tend to be recruited.
When your knees go forward over your toes, the more your quadriceps
will tend to be recruited. C: Degree of knee bend:
The lower you go in a squat or lunge the more glutes you recruit.
Although the glutes will be recruited to a certain extent during ANY
type of squat or lunging movement, they will be HEAVILY involved once
you descend past 90 degrees. Thus, a deep front squat can be a very
effective glute exercise, even though the knees are in a position that
would tend to favor quadriceps activation over gluteal activation. I'll
talk about specific exercises in a minute, but before I do let's spend
a little more time talking about the 2nd key factor.

Get To The Fat! Chances
are you don't want a great big booty covered in a veneer of lard. You
want a tight little booty. In order to do that you have to "get to the
fat"! This involves doing the following things: Lower
body-fat tends to be more stubborn than body-fat from other areas.
Basically, it doesn't release quite as easily. One way to help get this
fat to release is to flood the body with norepinephrine, or as it used
to be called, adrenaline. This can involve doing A. B, or C below: A: High intensity cardio:
A productive high intensity cardio session might involve 10 minutes of
— intervals consisting of 45 seconds fast/1:15 slow, followed by 10-20
minutes of regular moderate intensity cardio. Some people say this is
most effective in a fasted state however, I don't think it really
matters when you do it... just THAT you do it, period. B: Intense whole body weight training:
Bottom line: If you work hard in the gym, not only are you going to
burn a lot of calories, but you're also going to stimulate a lot of
norepinephrine. C: Low carb diet:
When you lower carbs in the diet, not only do you tend to increase your
caloric deficit and increase the utilization of fat for fuel, but you
also increase norepinephrine. Generally, the nutrition guidelines I
recommend for people don't consist of higher amounts of carbohydrates.
I might start someone on 1 gram of carbs per pound of bodyweight and
adjust from there. Often, I'll have people taking in near 50% of their
carbs immediately before and after training. D: Goal specific supplementation:
I don't want to discount the benefits of diet and fat-burning
supplements like HOT-ROX Extreme, Fahrenheit, or Se7en by not
mentioning how effective they can be. That's probably an entire other
article all by itself, so I'll leave it at this: These supplements
help, so you ought to utilize them in your "tight-ass" goals... If you incorporate any or all of those things, getting a bit of fat off your hind side should be much easier!

The ULTIMATE POSTERIOR Exercise List: 1. Single Leg Bent Leg Deadlift (King deadlift):
This exercise is a perfect cross between a squat, a lunge, and a
deadlift and is a total glute killer. There are 3 progressions I use: A:
Back foot elevated up on a bench (sort of like a close stance Bulgarian
split squat). You elevate the back leg and reach down and touch the
ground in front of you. B: Back foot off the ground. C: Knee to the floor. If
you can get to the point where you can do a knee to the floor single
leg deadlift, the muscles of your glutes will be plenty well developed,
guaranteed. 2. Bulgarian Split Squat:
This exercise hits the glutes so well because it increases the range of
motion of the squat, activates the hip stabilizers, and allows you to
increase glute activation by spreading your stance.

3. Regular Squat: Nothing needs to be said about the squat. It's a bonafide glute developer.
4. Deadlift:
Again, an exercise that pretty much explains itself. Any style of
properly performed deadlift will also torch the glutes.
5. Lunges:
Lunges are versatile glute killers. You can use dumbbells, barbells, or
cables. You can do them standing in place and stepping backwards,
stepping forward, or however you want. Generally speaking, the wider
your stance, the greater the degree of glute activation.


http://www.musclewithattitude.com/readTopicMwa.do?id=1593017