A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO BOOTY BUILDING

From Kim Kardashian to Tammy Hembrow, it’s no secret that mastering the art of a perky and big booty has turned into the fitness trend of the decade. But what if we told you that strong glutes aren’t just good for the Instagram aesthetics factor?

Believe it or not, strong glutes will also help to improve your workplace posture from 9-5, enhance your athletic performance in the gym and on the field, and even reduce your risk of injury. If you’re looking for a little guidance to tone, grow and define your booty, keep reading to find out how to get a bigger bum.

If you’re serious about achieving a big booty, then you’ll need to have a clear understanding of what muscles power your booty and what it takes to build a peach shape bum. 

So, do you want to know how to get a bigger butt? In simple terms, a combination of muscles and fat is what gives your booty shape and size, and let’s not forget that it will also depend partly on your body type and genetics. While your genetics may determine the overall shape of your glutes, with hard work, it is possible to build that big booty that you’re squatting hard for. From following the best booty workouts to altering your nutrition, there are countless approaches that you can take to build a big booty. We’ll get into the best glutes workout later. Stick around. 

It’s important to start from the beginning if you want to build a big booty. So, here are the three primary muscles that play an important role in giving your soon-to-be big booty definition and shape:

Gluteus maximus - This is the largest and most superficial of the three muscles and makes up the bulk of your buttocks. Achieving a toned gluteus maximus will give you a big booty by promoting a rounder and more shapely peach shape bum. The gluteus maximus muscle is responsible for hip and thigh movements, such as sitting down, climbing a flight of stairs or standing up straight (Elzanie, A et al. 2023).

Gluteus medius - The gluteus medius is a fan blade-shaped muscle located in the posterior hip. More commonly referred to as your ‘upper glutes’, the gluteus medius is responsible for hip abduction (ie moving your leg away from your body, sideways) and rotation. Training your upper glutes is a common booty workout suggested to help round out the shape of your butt to achieve the desired peach shape bum (Vaskovic, J. 2023).

Gluteus minimus - Just as the name suggests, the gluteus minimus is the smallest of all three gluteal muscles. But, great things come in small packages, too. This particular muscle acts as a hip stabiliser and abductor of the hip and is situated even deeper than the other two, sitting right beneath the gluteus medius. This particular muscle prominently works with the gluteus medius to assist in leg abduction and medial rotation  (Elzanie, A et al. 2023).

Now that you understand the mechanics of what muscles are involved in a glutes workout, let's delve deeper into the benefits of training your glutes. This isn't just about building a big booty, but showing off that peach shape bum in your gym selfies certainly makes it worth it.

If you spend most of your day in a chair in front of your computer, the chances are you probably have pretty bad posture. University girls, we’re calling you out. 

In today’s society, it’s no secret that we do an awful lot of sitting. Whether we’re at home, work, university, driving, or binge-watching Netflix, we spend most of our days with our glutes inactive. The result? Poor posture is likely to result in tight hip flexors, weak extensors, and sleeping glutes that forget how to activate properly. As one of the largest and most important muscle groups in the body, your glutes play a role in providing power and stability in your hips, legs, and core while helping to improve posture and performance while reducing back pain. When it comes to leg day, don’t sleep on the value of a good glutes workout (Surrey Physio. 2023). 

How to fix: Try throwing a few extra butt exercises into your leg day routine or prioritise a specific session as a glutes workout. For instance, add squats, lunges and deadlifts to your gym program, ensuring you do adequate stretching as well.

As we said, strong glutes support your lower back, hips, knees and ankles, meaning that a big booty can actually help you prevent the risk of injury. 

Believe it or not, if you aren’t regularly using your glutes, muscles that weren’t designed for the job will step in and take over. While this might not sound damaging in the short term, in the long run, these ‘helper muscles’ are likely to become overstressed, resulting in pain and potential injury. When your glutes are weak, your quads, hamstrings, lower back and other nearby muscles will step in to carry the burden, which can lead to injury down the line (Jennings, A. 2023). 

The solution? Build a big booty? Well, it takes a bit more than that. 

Having strong glutes isn’t just about achieving the perfect peach shape bum. It’s about supporting your body, too. As glutes are also known to help stabilise your hips, weak gluteal muscles may result in poor alignment of your lower body, which will make you more susceptible to injuries, such as Achilles tendonitis, shin splints, ACL sprains and more (McCamy, K. 2020).

That's right! That big booty does more than make your favourite dress pop. It can also improve your athletic performance.

Strong glutes play an important role in accelerating, decelerating, switching directions and creating more velocity in jumps, meaning they’re important for just about every sport. If you're looking for the best booty workout to build a big booty, sprinting is among the most valuable exercises for activating the glutes. Athletes with strong glutes are usually faster and more explosive than those with weaker glutes (Chiro Sports Med. 2022).

A good glutes workout and a consistent routine can help you optimise your athletic performance.

Seems like a no-brainer, right? The reality is, just because you’re doing squats or lunges as part of your glutes workout doesn’t necessarily mean you’re activating your gluteal muscles...or at least, not as effectively as you could be. For many of us, we spend our days sitting, which turns off our glutes and stops them from activating when we’re actually ready to use them. Because your glutes play a role in the stabilisation of your hip, core, and lower back, it is essential to ensure that you are activating them correctly and not just over-working other muscles (Woodward, C. 2022).

If you’ve ever woken up the next morning after a ‘booty’ workout, only to feel sore in your quads and nowhere else, the chances are you’re probably not activating your glutes and might need to adjust your technique.

The principle of progressive overload involves continually increasing the demand placed on your muscles to continually increase muscle size, strength and endurance. In simple terms, the aim is to continually make your muscles work harder to avoid them from getting complacent so you can continue to see results (Tigges, N. 2021).

Wondering how you can incorporate progressive overload into your program?

When doing strength training, try increasing your weight. Utilising progressive overload with high-rep, high-weight exercises is essential in growing the glutes and helping you build a big booty (Tigges, N. 2021).

Without quality nutrition, your body will be unable to stimulate muscle fibres to form new tissue and, ultimately, build muscle mass. If building up your gluteal muscles is your goal, the aim is generally to keep lean while simultaneously building as much muscle as possible. As such, try to consume a small meal approximately an hour before your workout (not one that will leave you feeling full and bloated).

One of the best ways to achieve this is by aiming for 20 grams of protein per meal while ensuring you eat every 2-3 hours. You're also going to have to accept that carbs are NOT the enemy and that you are going to have to consume carbohydrates in order to build muscle and recover after training  (Dunlop, K).