For Those Of You Who Lost Your BUTT!

Not to stir the debate about whether woman can build up butt muscle or not. My opinion is that you can. After all it is muscle just like other muscles in your body, if they can develop so can your butt. Want it to grow, tear the fibers so they can rebuild and you get more. It just takes a long time and you have to be diligent. Anyway here is an article with the best exercises if you want to give it a shot. 

Oh and guess what, the #1 exercise...You guessed it SQUATS!!!!!

http://blog.primalmuscle.com/build-a-better-booty-five-exerc ises-to-build-your-butt/

I didn't read the article, Keith, but, offhand, is there any other exercise other than squats for this??  Squats bother my knees...they grind and sound like sandpaper with that kind of motion/movement.

The article talks about 5, take a look, its not a big article. But short answer is yes. But I would also say that if squats are hurting your knees you might not be doing them right, you should feel the majority of the strain in your posterior chain, which is your butt, back of your legs, calves and your thighs. Lunges will definitely hurt your knees, so stay away from them. There are also a ton of ways to do squats that you should be able to find some version of it that works for you. Try bump squats, get a kitchen chair and put another one right in front of it. Hold on to the one in front of you just for balance do not use your arms. Sit down on the chair behind you and as soon as your butt hits the sits stand up. Do not sit down all the way, its just to know where to stop the movement. When you stand back up make it a quick motion. Slow down quick up. When you so stand with your feet about shoulder width apart and when you start your down motion, make sure your knees do not go past your feet forward, but that your butt is sticking out back. Its an awkward feeling exercise but if done correctly you should not feel it so much in your knees. Now it sounds like you have some degenerative knee issues so you may still hear the grinding and popping but it should not be such that it hurts. The idea is to build your muscles such that it will ultimately take some of that strain off of your knees.

Now if you belong to a gym, you gym should have a glute and leg machines, those help too. If you are unsure on how to use them, get with a trainer for a 30 minute session to learn how to use the machines properly.

Keith, I have also seen you recommend doing squats while holding onto the bar on the smith machine at the gym. A trainer had me do exactly that a couple years ago and it was like a light bulb going off in my brain. "THAT is how you do squats without hurting your knees." You can even do them like this holding onto the edge of the sink in the kitchen at home. And THAT reminds me that I have no excuse not to start doing squats now...

Thanks for sharing!!

I think it's possible to build some, but very difficult to build much.  However, I am still doing the squats and other exercises just in case I am wrong, and I hope I am wrong and even investing time and energy at the gym with the hope that I am wrong.  :)

You do not need a bigger butt. Seriously! Tone, define all you want, but take it from me, even if, as you say, I'm not the target audience, you do not need a bigger butt. Yours looks mighty fine just the way it is. Trust me on this!

Thank you Devon.  Alan also is not too concerned.  It seems proportional to the rest of me, but a little bigger would be nice I think.  I could be wrong.  In any case, at least there is definition and everything is toned now.

I think that a lot of it has to do with your body's genetics.  In my case, I did not receive the "butt" gene at birth.  I am small hipped and flat butted!  But I CAN say that exercise has helped me remedy the situation somewhat.  I spin about 4-6 days a week and My thighs and butt have benefited from it.  Although I will never be confused with Beyonce, I don't have that much sag going on anymore, especially after having lost all the weight.  Maybe it was just that my skin needed time to snap back a bit, but I can tell you that the spinning has helped!  Now, if I could only enjoy squats, then all would be good!

DH tells me I've been taking "Noassitol" pills...I think he may be referring to my vitamins...butt, in any case, I should really do something about this.  Thanks Keith!

Deb