I’ve got a serious problem with my butt-- although I am ~10% bodyfat and narrow waisted, my butt is HUGE! I’ve spent a lot of time working on squats, SLDL, REverse hypers, GHRs, good mornings, etc. in an attempt to bring up my squat and deadlift over the past 2 years.
What resulted was an ass that rivals those of J-Lo and Beyonce, and I am a white guy. I need some help with what exercises I should perform/eliminate from my routine in order to minimize this look. I realize a “bubble butt” is not a bad thing, but mine looks like it was injected with synthol–it is by far my “freakiest” bodypart.
I am trying to bring up my hamstrings so the glutes are not as noticable but it seems that they grow at 1/2 the rate my ass does. What is a guy to do? Should I stick to leg curl variations and leg presses, dropping the PL movements and train like a woman in order to look like a man? Please, any help is appreciated.
I have a fairly large ass myself, but most women like that sorda thing. How is your posture? You might have some sort of pelvic tilt issues. I know that weekly wide stance low box squats and sumo pulling cause my ass to grow like crazy. I would eliminate those lifts unless you continue to PL.
I’ve heard that the glutes may compansate for a lack of hamstring strength, so building them up (or just getting them stronger) is probably a good idea.
I would think that you should still keep the compound movements in there, just use more of the ones that target the hamstrings. SLDLs get my hamstrings more sore than any other exercise (not that sorness should be an indicator of progress, but still).
The thing is that my hams are large and strong–I have a reverse hyper and GHR bench and can do 300lbs for 12 reps on the RH and 12 reps w/45lbs on the GHR. My box squat PR is 575 on a low box, and I am squatting with a semi-narrow stance since I lift raw. I’ve also replaced my ME day with a deadlift day and concentrated on SLDL for sets of 5-6 (did 325x3 sets of 6 on thursday). Also do strict good mornings with 275 for 8 reps. Part of it is genetic, since I was young I’ve had “high” glute insertions so my butt sticks straight out.
I know a lot of girls like well-developed butts on guys, but mine is overdeveloped and probably unattractive to most (although in the past month two african american girls hit on me very aggressively–both gave me their numbers and this was at a sandwich shop and Kohl’s, so it wasn’t like I was looking for action.) women.
Today I changed my routine–it was DE Lower but I decided to do high bar free squats and just stuck w/ 365 for 8 sets of 3 in place of DE box squats. Then power cleans, abs, and calf work. I avoided any glute-dominant movements and only did 2 sets of reverse hypers solely to keep my back healthy.
I recently ordered a SS bar for my shoulder health, maybe using this will build my back and quads enough to get rid of some of my junk in the trunk.
I forgot to add that maybe sprinting or sled dragging (I have a sled but haven’t used it for a long time) would be a good idea in place of one of my two weekly lower body days. What do you think?
Sorry if I am no more than stating the obvious but if you have a genetic
predisposition to put on muscle in the glutes and you don’t want to then you cannot continue squatting/sumo deadlifting etc
You may not get much atrophy of the muscles if you stop but at least you will not be further enlarging the area
if that is what you seek.
Looks like a stark choice between aesthetics and power lifting I am afraid.
I think I am going to switch to working legs once/week and switch my DE Squat/DL sessoin to a sprinting or sled/lat/grip work day. On my ME days I’ll just do ~5 sets of 2 box squats with bands for strength-speed then work up to a heavy single w/ different bars. Then do the usual good mornings, SLDL, Reverse Hypers and GHR’s.
Thanks for the advice. I think eliminating the 2nd day and replacing it with more lat work (to increase lat thickness which will minimize the big ass look) and sprinting (to shed more bodyfat and get the butt smaller) will work the best.
