I’ve always had a giant ass so maybe I’m not the best person to give others advice on how to get one but to add to Cal’s recommendations… RDLs (bb or db), good mornings and back extensions are 3 other exercises I really feel in my glutes and hams. I usually go as heavy as I can for 8-12 reps on these.
Also. Activation! Activation! Activation! I really only do a set or two of bird-dogs (and sometimes clams). But when I started doing them consistently, I was eventually able to tell when my glutes were working. They were sore all the time (they never got sore in the past) and definitely grew during that time.
I think Bre has a thread (or series of posts) about butts that everyone loves. Not sure where it is though. Mebbe someone else can link it in here…
This one has been posted before. If you haven’t seen it, I hope you find it inspiring.
For me, if I go too heavy with my RDLs I just feel it in my low back. If you aren’t able to really contract your glutes, try dropping the weight. Also, watch the heavy BB glute bridges. I ended up with the top of one of my thighs numb for a couple of months after doing some BB glute bridges with a 150 lbs, and I had a pad on the bar, too. I like them, but now I’m a little bit cautious. Hypers have been the best for me. I’m doing them with a 45 pound plate right now and I try 15x3, and then I drop down to a 35 pound plate and burn them out 20x2 or so. Also, walking DB lunges will give me DOMS in my glutes faster than anything. I usually do them with 40lb DBs x10x3.
sldl/slrdl are great too if you can hold heavy enough dbs for long enough.
But, I came to ask a question not answer questions like I know ladies better than ladies do.
I am curious to hear what kind of LBM gains yall had when you first started lifting and following a serious diet.
I have some female clients who are experiencing great gains, and while I am confident we are headed in the right direction, haters are now starting to tell them what they have achieved is not possible naturally. I want to let them know that it is not impossible, just rare to have people so dedicated to a singular goal that their results surpass everyone around them.
Silverdan7: I’m sorry to hear that people are putting your clients down. I experienced a lot of this myself when I first started my road to fitness a few years ago. Hell, I still get weird looks from my family because of my dedication and commitment to healthier eating and working out.
When I first started following a serious diet and lifting, my body composition changed drastically over the course of a year. For the first while I would say I was more in the fat loss stage than the muscle building stage, but I saw big improvements in what I could lift. The beginners learning curve was awesome for that. Where I am now (a few years later), if I decide to hardcore diet and train with a goal in mind, I can see some pretty big LBM gains over the course of a couple months, easy.
Especially in my legs. Your clients are NOT freaks, they’re unique and rare in the fact that they’re willing to WORK HARD for their goals. I’d tell them to dump the people in their life who aren’t supporting the awesome changes they’re going through.
There will always be people in this world that try to drag them down. Don’t let them lose the enjoyment and happiness they’ve gotten from being able to get this far.
Silverdan - I think the answer is “It depends”. Some of us are more genetically gifted than others in terms of muscle building and strength, just like the men. Some of that is going to be dependent on T levels, and other factors I’m sure. I started in the Spring of 2010 and was fairly lean, and so I ate to gain my first year, but I tried to be clean about it.
My scale weight went up from 106-108 to 116 in the first year, and I think most of it was lean gains. I made tremendous strength gains, and got some hypertrophy but mostly I got more dense. All my clothes still fit, and some of my measurements are actually a bit smaller. I definitely have more shape to my butt and legs, and visibly more muscle through my upper body especially.
BUT, I’m only just now starting to see my shoulders come in, and I still don’t have much lat development. Also, my gains have probably been slower since I didn’t want to go on an all out bulk and then have to cut a lot.
Weight lifting will never catch on with the average woman because most women do not want to see their scale weight go up at all. Even if you try to eat very clean, weight training is probably going to make you weigh more. And, all the training does make people hungry so you find women who unintentionally get bulkier than they wanted to be.
For me, I look at my body and clothes before lifting and after lifting, at the same body weight. I fit into the “skinny” clothes I wore pre-lifting at my post-lifting body weight. I have baby abs at my “heavy” body weight due to lifting, which I never had pre-lifting, even at a lower body weight. I couldn’t quantify a # in terms of LBM gains, but they have to be significant for the weight to not change and the look/fit to change so significantly.
No idea if that makes sense. I’m ready for vacation.
Also, there’s going to be some variation for women who were very athletic before weight lifting, in terms of just ability to activate their muscles, but also I think those muscles have a memory. There’s going to be variation too in women who start lifting with the intent of loosing weight.
Lifting your first year while on a cut would only work if you already have a pretty good foundation of muscle to uncover. I think that’s nearly always the case with the dramatic 12-week pictures in all the body transformation competitions. In my case, I actually started cutting and very quickly realized I was leaning down to nothing.
In terms of women being enhanced, I’m not sure I’ll ever achieve really capped delts naturally. That’s probably just my genetics, but I’ve wondered about how many women who have them are enhanced.
This one has been posted before. If you haven’t seen it, I hope you find it inspiring.
For me, if I go too heavy with my RDLs I just feel it in my low back. If you aren’t able to really contract your glutes, try dropping the weight. Also, watch the heavy BB glute bridges. I ended up with the top of one of my thighs numb for a couple of months after doing some BB glute bridges with a 150 lbs, and I had a pad on the bar, too. I like them, but now I’m a little bit cautious. Hypers have been the best for me. I’m doing them with a 45 pound plate right now and I try 15x3, and then I drop down to a 35 pound plate and burn them out 20x2 or so. Also, walking DB lunges will give me DOMS in my glutes faster than anything. I usually do them with 40lb DBs x10x3.
[/quote]
Wowzers. Now that is an amazing ass and set of legs. I WANT!
I’m leery of lunges right now with my knees, especially when it requires moving with weights in my hands. I’m not comfortable with my balance right now and the shearing motion on my knees while I try to retain my balance is not good. I’ll keep it in mind, though.
This one has been posted before. If you haven’t seen it, I hope you find it inspiring.
For me, if I go too heavy with my RDLs I just feel it in my low back. If you aren’t able to really contract your glutes, try dropping the weight. Also, watch the heavy BB glute bridges. I ended up with the top of one of my thighs numb for a couple of months after doing some BB glute bridges with a 150 lbs, and I had a pad on the bar, too. I like them, but now I’m a little bit cautious. Hypers have been the best for me. I’m doing them with a 45 pound plate right now and I try 15x3, and then I drop down to a 35 pound plate and burn them out 20x2 or so. Also, walking DB lunges will give me DOMS in my glutes faster than anything. I usually do them with 40lb DBs x10x3.
[/quote]
Wowzers. Now that is an amazing ass and set of legs. I WANT!
I’m leery of lunges right now with my knees, especially when it requires moving with weights in my hands. I’m not comfortable with my balance right now and the shearing motion on my knees while I try to retain my balance is not good. I’ll keep it in mind, though.[/quote]
I steer away from lunges and split squats because for some reason, although they don’t bother my knees, my quads, right at the top get very painful in an injured kind of way.
I’ve gained something like a 15lbs in lean mass over the years. Training and diet have varied greatly weight has gone from 140 to 110 and back up (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not). I’m pretty average when it comes to gaining weight but I’m sure that an average person could make similar gains in a shorter period of time if they trained consistently with that goal in mind.
Like PMPM mentioned, my biggest indicator is the fit of clothes. I can still fit into the clothes that I wore when I was 125-130 at 140. When my “skinny clothes” don’t fit its because my back, arms, or quads are too big. Not because I’m too fat.
[quote]CBear84 wrote:
people who say shit isn’t possible naturally either don’t know what they’re doing, or don’t have the mental fortitude to see something through.
those are the only two options, especially when referring to females who still look like females.
my favorite response is, “Oh, don’t worry. I’m not natural. I’m unnaturally dedicated.” [/quote]
Damn ladies, you all are amazing with how many great answers I got in a day, I guess I need to just start sending my girls your way instead.
So the woman in question here is actually a show organizer. She also tried to sell my client on training and posing classes as soon as she finished criticizing her.
I like the activation and heavy compound idea, this is the basis of my programming for pretty much everyone, and I have some pretty good results with flat bootied females (and guys, how sad right) putting on mass. A good tri set sldl (bw focusing on glute act.) then a heavy glute bridge followed by a band clamshell
[quote]buckeye girl wrote:
Like PMPM mentioned, my biggest indicator is the fit of clothes. I can still fit into the clothes that I wore when I was 125-130 at 140. When my “skinny clothes” don’t fit its because my back, arms, or quads are too big. Not because I’m too fat.[/quote]
Yeah, that’s a good point. I’ve had “skinny” jackets that feel like “fat guy in a little coat” on my back and arms, but close fine on my waist.
Almost everything is tight on the arms or just under the arms these days. I am carrying some winter fat but it’s not just that. Even the tracksuit top I wear for work is tight on the arms. C’mon, shouldn’t sporty clothes be built for sporty people? Meh…
Also, there’s going to be some variation for women who were very athletic before weight lifting, in terms of just ability to activate their muscles, but also I think those muscles have a memory. There’s going to be variation too in women who start lifting with the intent of loosing weight.
Lifting your first year while on a cut would only work if you already have a pretty good foundation of muscle to uncover. I think that’s nearly always the case with the dramatic 12-week pictures in all the body transformation competitions. In my case, I actually started cutting and very quickly realized I was leaning down to nothing.
In terms of women being enhanced, I’m not sure I’ll ever achieve really capped delts naturally. That’s probably just my genetics, but I’ve wondered about how many women who have them are enhanced. [/quote]
Terribly sorry but I must disagree with this. Coming only from the perspective of having ALOT of weight to lose. I don’t know if this is the same for someone who has oh ten or fifteen pounds to lose. I dropped from let us say 200LBS to 135LBS in nine months. I made strength/muscle increases that whole time. Including at the end… though gosh I guess the drop from 145LBS to 135LBS I was on pretty strict calorie deficit and DID stop progressing on my lift numbers.
