How to Shrink a Butt?

Off Topic
1

hi ladies, im posting for a friend of mine:

shes 22yr/o, 5’6", ~130’s. in the 3 years ive known her shes had two time periods in her life where shes put on a little weight. when i met her she was ~135lbs, size 6 jeans. over the next few months her life became very stressful, namely, her mother died of cancer.

being stressed/depressed, etc, she went up to 150lbs. over the several months following that, she got back down to about 130-132lbs and she looked great. she was actually into a size 4 jean, and looked very good.

she was that size all through last summer. at some point this year she picked up some weight and ended up about 142lbs.

i gave her an exercise program from this site, which she followed for maybe 2 weeks before she started “tweaking it”…then about a week later it was tweaked completely out of her life.

about a month ago she joined a gym and she has really made it a part of her life. she has lost weight, to around 137-138lbs, but her legs arent really losing the fat, specifically her butt.

she has a round butt, and i think it will always be round (not saying thats a bad thing by any means). the thing is though, is that her butt is preventing her from being a 4 again, which she really wants to be.

for example, last week she took me into a store to show me these new jeans she wanted to buy. she tried on the 4 and the 6. both fit her in the waist, but the 4 was too tight on her butt, so she had to buy the 6.

…so, any advice for me to pass along to her? specific cardio, etc?

2

well this isn’t really a reply but a bump so to speak. i coach wrestling and have my kids lifting for that purpose and also teach phys ed. one of the girls who graduated saw me in the gym and with real anguish asked if i could tell her what to do to lose weight or tone or whatever her thighs and butt.

so i too would like an answer or better yet a routine to give her. i know all about not be able to spot reduce and have checked the search on the site and have come across many different approaches many of which say the opposite things.

some say do alot of cardio (jogging type) some say just high intensity cardio a few times a week. some say light weight and 15-20 reps. other say 3x3 twice a week and using squats and sldl etc. others say only machines.

i have never given women suggestions for this and although she may be “solid” she is very very far from being fat or even heavy but she is now in college and wants to have a program she can do to firm and or lean out from the waist down.

off top of my head i am thinking 2 days of semi jog distnace running and a day of instense fartleks or rope jumping, interval type things. as far as lifting i would think some bodyweight walking lunges and sissy squats and step ups and things of that nature.

i could be totally off base here as the wrestlers do multi jointed compound things but i know and see that squatting and deads etc give them bigger bottoms than what she is looking for. any help or suggestions given to dez with possible routines or tweakng would be greatly appreiciated.

don’t mean to highjack your thread dez but seems we are looking for the same thing. thanks

3

Send her to this girls trainer:

4


It would probably be best if she built some upperbody mass to go with the lower and then cut bodyfat to gain a balanced look… this will of course take time, patience and dedication.

just dropping calories and adding cardio will probably lead to an uneven physique. Supplement wise quality proteins and plenty of fishoils (these really help a lot with body transformation goals) are a must.

She should get a Training program and Diet from a professional.

Or you could just buy her a pair of those jeans that Beyonce wears in that cellphone ad.

You also need to post pics of her.

5

Well, perhaps she could look into a cut of jeans made for people with a fuller butt; I’m thinking Apple Bottom or something. As you said, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

It sounds more psychological than anything else, her wanting to get into the smaller size jeans, but it’s not her waist that’s preventing that (that would be an issue). However, since she’s fit into sz 4 in the past, where did the butt come from?

I know when I had my wife on a workout routine before her butt got a little fuller and she did not like it. She thought it was from doing squats; maybe so. I had no problem with it whatsoever. Her complaint was, in fact, that her jeans no longer fit her in the butt.
Wow. All that to say what? I have no idea :slight_smile:

6

[quote]whosyobobby wrote:
Well, perhaps she could look into a cut of jeans made for people with a fuller butt; I’m thinking Apple Bottom or something. As you said, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

It sounds more psychological than anything else, her wanting to get into the smaller size jeans, but it’s not her waist that’s preventing that (that would be an issue). However, since she’s fit into sz 4 in the past, where did the butt come from?

I know when I had my wife on a workout routine before her butt got a little fuller and she did not like it. She thought it was from doing squats; maybe so. I had no problem with it whatsoever. Her complaint was, in fact, that her jeans no longer fit her in the butt.
Wow. All that to say what? I have no idea :)[/quote]

I could be wrong and just using my opinion to have a biased view of what you said, but I’m thinking its something along the lines of: “As long as a big butt isn’t sloppy fat with cellulite, big butts are great. Women have a psychological thing with sizes, whereas men don’t care what size jeans you wear as long as it looks good together.”

I know one of my exs was 5’2" 128lbs, and small all over but with an amazingly big butt. She hated it cuz she wore a bigger jean size than all her friends (even though her waist was smaller above the hips, we measured one day), but I know all the guys loved it.

Atleast thats my view on the situation, and I think where you were heading (or I could just be assuming…)

7

[quote]whosyobobby wrote:
I know when I had my wife on a workout routine before her butt got a little fuller and she did not like it. She thought it was from doing squats; maybe so. I had no problem with it whatsoever. Her complaint was, in fact, that her jeans no longer fit her in the butt.
Wow. All that to say what? I have no idea :)[/quote]

And don’t even try; I’ve given up wanting to understand my wife, or any other woman for that matter.

To the OP: Berardi had an article on fat-loss where he said some types of cardio helped lose more fat in the legs/butt than others. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what the type of cardio was, or the title of the article. I’m afraid you’ll have to go through T-Nation’s Berardi article archive to find it. Sorry!

8

Chad Waterbury wrote a couple of articles on training that would suit her perhaps. I have the same problem in general with having a bigger butt and legs than I would like and although I do love lifting heavy, when the pants get tighter it’s time to do something else…

I’ve found for myself that running about 25 - 30 miles per week shrinks my legs and backside…I’m still working on finding some kind of balance but it’s all trial and error for me as I’m too cheap to hire someone who knows what they’re doing! Also personally I’d avoid sprints and HIIT as those also add bulk if done too much – for me anyway. Plyometrics, light weights - high reps and ss cardio do help though.

9

[quote]Esmee wrote:
Chad Waterbury wrote a couple of articles on training that would suit her perhaps. I have the same problem in general with having a bigger butt and legs than I would like and although I do love lifting heavy, when the pants get tighter it’s time to do something else…

I’ve found for myself that running about 25 - 30 miles per week shrinks my legs and backside…I’m still working on finding some kind of balance but it’s all trial and error for me as I’m too cheap to hire someone who knows what they’re doing! Also personally I’d avoid sprints and HIIT as those also add bulk if done too much – for me anyway. Plyometrics, light weights - high reps and ss cardio do help though.[/quote]

25-30 miles? Damn!

10

Reality is that hips/thighs/butt are typically the last area to lean out for a woman. Reality also is that women who weight train usually build some nice curves and small waists that do not fit in to a lot of mainstream clothes.

Look at the typical female bodies at the mall - legs with no muscle and muffin tops. That’s what the clothes are made to fit. (I went clothes shopping this weekend and I’m bitter grumble grumble)

Unless a woman is going to compete and need to focus on specific lagging bodyparts, you can’t go wrong with a training program that incorporates a solid lifting program using all the big compound lifts, moderate cardio and a good diet.

There really shouldn’t be any major differences in training men vs. training women. It’s hard for women to gain muscle, so there shouldn’t be any fear of getting “too big”, especially when eating reduced calories.

11

[quote]Esmee wrote:
Plyometrics, light weights - high reps and ss cardio do help though.[/quote]

I would disagree and say that lifting low reps, heavy weight while dialing in the diet is what will keep the muscle and lose the fat.

I hear women complain that their legs/butts are too big, but have yet to see a woman who has LEAN legs that are too big. Know what I mean? It really is a matter of losing more fat, and the woman who can do that while keeping her muscle creates a beautifully shaped body.

Personally, I would take lean, muscular curves over skinnier legs any day, but I’m starting to feel like a minority…

12

[quote]Jillybop wrote:
Personally, I would take lean, muscular curves over skinnier legs any day, but I’m starting to feel like a minority…
[/quote]

Please keep advocating that. It might be more believable if it comes from a woman.
Whenever I’m saying the same thing to a woman, I get the deer in the spotlight stare, at best.

Damn.

13

[quote]Jillybop wrote:

Personally, I would take lean, muscular curves over skinnier legs any day, but I’m starting to feel like a minority…
[/quote]

I got to work in with this hot girl who had full booty and muscular legs last week, me doing overhead presses and she deadlifting… she was really busting her ass and it showed, it was the most beautiful sight in the world sigh.

14

[quote]Jillybop wrote:
Esmee wrote:
Plyometrics, light weights - high reps and ss cardio do help though.

I would disagree and say that lifting low reps, heavy weight while dialing in the diet is what will keep the muscle and lose the fat.

I hear women complain that their legs/butts are too big, but have yet to see a woman who has LEAN legs that are too big. Know what I mean? It really is a matter of losing more fat, and the woman who can do that while keeping her muscle creates a beautifully shaped body.

Personally, I would take lean, muscular curves over skinnier legs any day, but I’m starting to feel like a minority…
[/quote]

That’s why everyone’s different. Most girls want to fit into clothes and if you’re lifting heavy on leg day it’s going to be hard to do that. Personally though I’m not too interested in trying to get to and maintain a super low body fat just so I can wear a normal sized pair of pants. I just say that from personal experience…there are women who can do a lot of lower body work and still be not big.

15

I think that a woman CAN develop legs and butt that are bigger than they would aesthetically like. But this does not mean they should scale back training of them until they’ve lost all the fat they want. I’ve trained girls that have wanted to and have scaled down their legs and butt.

But I still have them doing squats and deadlifts hard until they’ve lost all the fat they want to. Then they reduce the intensity and/or frequency of their lower body training and get the look they’re going for.

Intense lower body-work is too important a tool in fat loss to scale it back when there is still fat to lose.

16

[quote]dez6485 wrote:
hi ladies, im posting for a friend of mine:

shes 22yr/o, 5’6", ~130’s. in the 3 years ive known her shes had two time periods in her life where shes put on a little weight. when i met her she was ~135lbs, size 6 jeans. over the next few months her life became very stressful, namely, her mother died of cancer.

being stressed/depressed, etc, she went up to 150lbs. over the several months following that, she got back down to about 130-132lbs and she looked great. she was actually into a size 4 jean, and looked very good.

she was that size all through last summer. at some point this year she picked up some weight and ended up about 142lbs.

i gave her an exercise program from this site, which she followed for maybe 2 weeks before she started “tweaking it”…then about a week later it was tweaked completely out of her life.

about a month ago she joined a gym and she has really made it a part of her life. she has lost weight, to around 137-138lbs, but her legs arent really losing the fat, specifically her butt.

she has a round butt, and i think it will always be round (not saying thats a bad thing by any means). the thing is though, is that her butt is preventing her from being a 4 again, which she really wants to be.

for example, last week she took me into a store to show me these new jeans she wanted to buy. she tried on the 4 and the 6. both fit her in the waist, but the 4 was too tight on her butt, so she had to buy the 6.

…so, any advice for me to pass along to her? specific cardio, etc?[/quote]

Lose more weight?

You said she was 130-132 when she was a size four and is currently 137-138. For me, 8-10 pounds gained or lost generally = one size.

17

[quote]Sabrina wrote:

Lose more weight?

You said she was 130-132 when she was a size four and is currently 137-138. For me, 8-10 pounds gained or lost generally = one size.
[/quote]

Her body composition probably has changed though. I cannot fit into my year old 32" waist then loose jeans even though my waist today is 30" and I have not had a significant weight change since then.

18

[quote]R@NE wrote:
Sabrina wrote:

Lose more weight?

You said she was 130-132 when she was a size four and is currently 137-138. For me, 8-10 pounds gained or lost generally = one size.

Her body composition probably has changed though. I cannot fit into my year old 32" waist then loose jeans even though my waist today is 30" and I have not had a significant weight change since then. [/quote]

But have you been training consistently? My impression was that she has not been consistent with the exception of the last few weeks, so I would question how significant her composition change might be, even if her diet and training are %100 dialed in.

19

[quote]Sabrina wrote:
R@NE wrote:
Sabrina wrote:

Lose more weight?

You said she was 130-132 when she was a size four and is currently 137-138. For me, 8-10 pounds gained or lost generally = one size.

Her body composition probably has changed though. I cannot fit into my year old 32" waist then loose jeans even though my waist today is 30" and I have not had a significant weight change since then.

But have you been training consistently? My impression was that she has not been consistent with the exception of the last few weeks, so I would question how significant her composition change might be, even if her diet and training are %100 dialed in. [/quote]

Good point, I have trained consistently with two short breaks to allow minor sprains to heal.

Though if those no. 4 jeans where already skin tight before… hmmh I still say we need at least some before and after pics before we can say for sure. hehe

20

thanks for the replies everyone. running out the door right now, but after a quick skim i see that theres some thoughts to come back and read carefully later. thanks again