The Ultimate Guide to Achieving the Perfect Butt
Introduction
What do Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez, and Mallaika Arora have in common? They are all great celebrities with a “perfect butt.” So today, let us pay a little more attention to the rear end and make an effort to attain a great shape there.
Far from a purely aesthetic consideration, maintaining strong and functional glutes can solve a host of orthopedic issues in your hips, knees, legs, and back too!
Understanding the Glutes
When you think of the “butt,” do you see it as one big round muscle? Well, the glutes are a set of three different muscles:
➤ The Gluteus Maximus
The largest of the three and the most superficial, it is responsible for hip extension, rotation, and adduction.
➤ The Gluteus Medius
Located beneath the maximus, this one controls hip abduction and stabilization.
➤ The Gluteus Minimus
The smallest of the three, it is located beneath the medius and helps in hip abduction and stabilization.
Importance of Strong Glutes
Strong glutes are important for overall lower body strength, stability, and power. They help us with our daily activities of walking, running, jumping, and climbing stairs. Strong glutes maintain good posture thereby reducing the risk of injury.
Unfortunately, the glutes are one of the primary victims of our modern sedentary lifestyles. We sit so much that the gluteal muscles have gotten lazy and flat!
Factors for Loss of Gluteal Mass
There are some common factors for the loss of gluteal mass:
➤ Age
With advancing age and decreasing activity, there is an involuntary loss of muscle mass, strength, and function – termed sarcopenia. The rate of loss increases after the late thirties.
➤ Improper Usage
Poor posture, wherein the gluteal muscles don’t engage properly.
➤ Inadequate Activation
Typically, our sedentary lifestyle – long hours of sitting causes muscles to atrophy with the anterior hips becoming accustomed to the shortened position. This itself can cause improper posture and further improper engaging of the glutes.
➤ Imbalanced Training
If you focus only on certain muscle groups, neglecting the glutes
Example : not training the back in gyms can weaken the gluteal muscles.
➤ Genetics
Structure affecting the shape of glutes naturally includes the length of the femur head and the shape and orientation of the pelvis. Also, females generally have more rounded and voluptuous buttocks caused by estrogen that encourages the body to store fat in the buttock and thigh region.
What Makes a “Perfect Butt”?
It is a combination of:
- Strong muscle
- Good tone
- Right amount of fat
- Proper diet and hydration
- Corrective treatments
Day-to-Day Changes for Stronger Glutes
On a day-to-day basis, these are some changes that can be deployed immediately:
➤ Standing Instead of Sitting: Your metabolism and fat-burning enzymes are more active while standing – so burn off some calories and give strength to the glutes simply by standing more!
➤ Take the Stairs Instead of Elevator/Escalator: This is an easily doable activity and it helps to fire up and firm the glutes.
➤ Ride a Bicycle Instead of Driving a Car: At least try to park your car a little further away – which might force you to walk and help strengthen the glutes!
➤ Slow Dance to Your Favorite Music While Doing Household Work: It will burn way more calories than you may think!!
➤ If You Have a Desk Job, Get Up and Walk Every 30 Minutes: This will prevent the glutes from becoming inactive and weak over time.
Basic Bodyweight Exercises for Glutes
Further strengthening and toning of the gluteal muscles can be attained by some basic bodyweight exercises:
➤ Butt Squeezes: A good, simple exercise to start – simply stand up and clench your butts like you are trying to crack a walnut between the butt cheeks.
➤ Glute Bridges: Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat, and lift up your hip and squeeze your butts.
➤ Squats: Do this with a Hip Dominant style and proper posture.
➤ Deadlifts: Knees bent, body bent at a 45-degree angle, back straight – lift weights off the floor as per your capacity.
➤ Lunges: Can be done forward, side, or reverse lunge.
Important Tips While Training the Muscles
➤ Start slow…Initially use only your body weight. Gradually play with your speed.
➤ Then increase the number of repetitions and the number of sets.
➤ Now start adding weights to the above regime…Advised to take professional help at this stage….
➤ Allow muscle resting time in between…
Combining Exercise with a Healthy Diet
Any form of exercise should always be combined with a healthy diet and hydration. There is no specific diet meant to train the glutes, however, a healthy one with enough protein is essential for building and maintaining muscle mass. Adding lean protein sources like chicken, fish, beans, and lentils is useful. Plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are equally essential. Keep yourself well-hydrated to flush out toxins and keep the skin soft and supple. Overall, a good diet helps weight loss while minimizing the appearance of cellulite.
Body Sculpting Treatments for the Buttocks
To add an additional oomph to the shaping of the butt, a few body sculpting treatments are also available:
➤ Cryolipolysis to Destroy Localized Fat Deposits: It is a non-invasive body contouring technique that permanently destroys fat cells by sucking the bulge and freezing the fat. Kaya’s CoolSculpting is a dermatologist-monitored service for a sculpted look on the body.
➤ Radiofrequency to Tighten the Skin of the Buttocks: The energy waves are targeted to the dermis which stimulates collagen in the skin to tighten, reshape and form new collagen fibers. Kaya’s Body Thermage or HIFU is a non-invasive technique performed by dermatologists for toning of the skin and reducing the sag.
➤ Emsculpt: Uses high-powered electromagnetic waves and triggers supramaximal muscle contraction. It is like doing 20,000 squats in one session!
➤ Butt Injections: This is a cosmetic procedure to enhance the contour of your bottom using dermal fillers that are injected into the skin of the buttock.
➤ Surgical Intervention with Butt Enhancement/Augmentation: This can be achieved through fat grafting or silicone implants.
Conclusion
While all these methods can help improve the appearance of the glutes – remember – exercise is still the most effective way to build muscle tone, improve strength and shape, and reduce fat! The gluteus muscles help perform and support very important functions like rotation of the hip joint, walking, running, and walking up-and-down staircases. They are connected to and work in tandem with several other muscles. For that reason, tight glutes can cause tightness in the legs, back, and hip, leading to back pain, hip pain, knee pain, and pelvic instability.
So before we get labeled as “LAZY BUTT,” it is time to WAKE UP AND SHAPE UP!!
Dr. Swati Apte
Consultant Dermatologist at Kaya Skin Clinic Pune
Dr. Swati Apte is a Dermatologist in Aundh, Pune, and has 22 years of experience in this field. Dr. Swati Apte practices at Kaya Skin Clinic in Aundh, Pune, and Kaya Skin Clinic in Erandwane, Pune. She completed her MBBS from Dr. V. M. Government Medical College Solapur in 1992 and DDV from Dr. V. M. Government Medical College Solapur in 1995. She is a member of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Pune Doctor Association.
