Squats can absolutely build glutes. The problem is that high bar oly squats and low bar sit back squats are way more different than a lot of people realize. If you’re sitting back and leaning forward in your squats, you’re gonna get a lot of glute recruitment. Reglutement, I should say.
My family are all pancake butts - I’m not sure where mine came from but after 6 years of marriage I still can’t walk by my wife without her smacking my butt. Had to tell her to tone it down when my 5 year old ran up to me and smacked it
I’m 6’4 for reference, so it’s genuinely the only part of my body that looks “large”, everything else just looks normal. Also makes buying jeans hell, as whoever makes jeans usually assume a big butt means an enormous waist too.
Now that you mention that, maybe it would do you well to give some focus to your legs? I’m completely obsessed with my lower half, so my focus has now been developing my upper half. Legs and bums are quite energy costly, so perhaps growth might eventually lean towards a more productive way for ya.
For the sake of health I think it’ll do you pretty good giving your legs some love over time as well.
It’s not all muscle, but as of yesterday I’m now sporting 29” quads. Will that help you in the motivation department?
Absolutely agree. I think height and mechanics definitely dictate how a movement will translate to the individual.
As much as the good morning squat gets a decent amount of flack and all, but say I had a really tall person wanting to make squats work for their glutes, I’d honestly have them do some moderate weight good morning squats. Of course I’d add other things and other variations, etc.
I had to chuckle a bit about your kiddo and the butt smack thing. My husband is 6’ 2”, and sadly has like…no butt. Just none. Tree trunk legs…no booty.
All due respect sir, you’ve got magnificent glute genetics. Again, from the side it looks like you could bounce a quarter off that thing. And I see why your wife takes a fancy for it. Applause, Applause.
Don’t even get me started on Jean selection. I’ve given up on jeans. I have two pairs. One that’s specifically for like outdoors stuff, and ones that I had custom fit for fancy dress occasions. Everything else is sweatpants, and stretchy material that looks like jeans so I can get away with wearing them at work.
Before I started some consistent T-ransformation challenges most jeans would fit consistently in the waist, since I had more fat in the waist area, now I have cinch my belt something awful just to get most store bought pants to stay up and hold shape.
I almost never did specific butt stuff, but even with the weight loss it’s there. I’m a long-limbed lifter, only 6’1" but I assume @flappinit that you are as well considering your height. We have the easiest time recruiting the glutes.
Simply being a lineman gave me a nice ass lol.
My favourites exercises are lunges and hyperextensions. Hip thrusts are great as well but they’re annoying to set up.
I squat oly style but with my long legs (59%+ of my height) I have to bend over. Even with front squats. So I usually always feel a bit of glutes. The deadlift straight-up destroys my glutes ahah
The worst DOMS I ever got in my butt were both in Crossfit, one was from heavy ass front lunges, the other from walking lunges + assault bike + burpees squat clean
Such an underrated ham and glute exercise. Stretching, making sure to not arch the back, and not coming up by extending the back, but by pushing the hips through are key. A lot of people make the mistake of doing the arch in exercises for their butt because it pushes the glutes out and looks good, but the glutes flex properly with a neutral spine.
Anna, self critique can seem brutal to the listener. You have WAY more positives than negatives. There is fullness in your hamstrings and quads look very adequate.
My favorite glute-hamstring target exercise is leg press with feet at the top of the plate and going as deep as you can without raising your hips from the seat. You need a wider foot placement so you thighs can pass on the sides your torso. Sets of 10 reps for initial size with as much weight as you can lift. With your feet high it takes the emphasis off of your quads and places it in your hamstrings and glutes. Once you master the movement there is no transition or sticking point. It feels like a continuous movement. The leg press is a compound exercise which IMO means it is one of the better for size. You can complement with hip thrusts you you like, but I don’t believe it is necessary (just my opinion).
I’d say that holds true for typical movements that you see most women do. Especially kickbacks. People equate a big swing backwards to doing the movement right, but I think I saw an article here, as well as from experience that kickbacks don’t really require a huge ROM swing backwards.
And I think doing kickbacks wrong makes people arch their back in an attempt to keep their leg up, almost bending till their torso is parallel to the ground. I’ve always done them standing mostly vertical the ground and try to keep my back as neutral as possible throughout. That way my glutes have no choice but to completely do the work.
Try this: bulgarian split squat, aiming for failure at 10-15 reps, 3 secs eccentric, 3 secs pause at mid concentric. Just one set. Say goodbye to your glutes
