April 1, 2007

Great Glutes, the Girls of SAF Way!

Many women who go to the gym want to build a better body overall. However, if there’s one body part that most would like to improve it’s the glutes. Yes, most women who hit the gym want to get a better butt.

So, instead of just telling you the way I train women to get a better backside, I decided to ask our Girls of SAF about what they do. After all, our Girls of SAF are among the fittest in the fitness industry, and they all have superior derrières.

Kelly Taphouse is featured on our cover this month and in the inset picture up on the right; the photographs of her speak well for the results she gets from her training. To keep her glutes in shape, Kelly relies primarily on squats – deep squats (i.e., she goes low). Kelly says that she does one warm-up set followed by four working sets. But that’s not all. Kelly also likes using the leg press with her feet positioned high on the platform. When she pushes, she keeps most of the weight on her heels, which, in turn, stresses the glutes more. After that, she does stiff-legged deadlifts on a platform so that she stretches when she does the movement to get a complete range of motion. Finally, Kelly does lunges, which she prefers doing on the Smith machine. According to Kelly, "Oh, my god, the pain the next day is great – not to mention the pump my glutes get looks amazing!"

Deanne Ortman told me that she likes to employ a variety of exercises to shape her glutes. One exercise is weighted Plié squats – a variation of the typical barbell squat that’s done with a wide foot stance and toes pointed quite far to the sides. This positioning puts more stress on hips and glutes and, in turn, helps build them. Deanne also likes to do walking lunges, which she does with either a barbell on her shoulders or dumbbells held to her sides. She also uses the Butt Blaster machine, which is a special device that, obviously, has been designed to target the glutes. Deanne says that she likes to superset these exercises with other leg exercises so the intensity stays high. For example, she might do leg extensions supersetted with Plié squats. She also likes to switch things around by training heavy with low reps for a few weeks, and then change to lighter weights and higher reps for the next few weeks.

Stacey-Lynn Mlinarevic is legendary for her great glutes, and to help achieve that great shape she has stuck to the basics. For Stacey-Lynn, lunges ("A lot," she says), body squats, and deadlifts have all helped to shape her backside. And, as well, she likes to use the stair-climbing machine. This machine, which can be found in various shapes and sizes since numerous versions are produced by many companies, emulates typical stair climbing. Using the stair-climbing machine also allows Stacey-Lynn to kill two birds with one stone – she works to improve her glutes and, at the same time, gets her cardio training in.

Christy Wolfe made such fantastic improvement to her glutes over the years that we dedicated an entire article in July 2004 to how she did it. There she describes how she uses Smith-machine squats, leg presses, cable kickbacks, and deadlifts to improve her glutes. However, what I found most interesting was something she mentioned near the end of the article where she describes how she, like Stacey-Lynn, uses cardio-type machines to shape her backside. Christy said, "If I'm on the treadmill, at the end of the workout I'll reduce the speed to a very slow walking pace and do walking lunges. The lunge is a great exercise for every leg muscle. I concentrate on pushing up with my heels and keeping the knee over the foot. Or I'll use the 'gauntlet machine' and alternate walking up every step with every second step in one-minute intervals. I do this very slowly and keep it controlled."

Natalie Waples does deep squats, walking lunges, and stiff-legged deadlifts to keep her glutes in check. As well, from time to time, Natalie also likes to use various cardio machines to target the glutes. However, when the weather is good, Natalie also goes outdoors where she can be found doing real stair climbing in the stands at stadiums (or in her 25-floor apartment building if the weather isn’t good). Natalie also does hill running, which not only works the glutes, but the thighs and calves also. Her well-rounded workouts result in a strikingly well-shaped lower body.

Based on my own experience, the number-one exercise for building and shaping the glutes is the barbell squat, particularly if you take a wide stance as Deanne does when performing the Plié squat and you descend deeply. I wrote an article about this in December 2005. Other exercises I find valuable are walking lunges, stiff-legged deadlifts, and, finally, hyperextensions, providing you purposely squeeze your glutes at the top. I find that working the area twice per week with a few days between workouts gets great results.

Hopefully, this article will give you some insight into the types of exercises our Girls of SAF use to shape their glutes. However, what’s most important is not whether you choose this exercise or that one, since there are many that will do the trick. Rather, it's key that you perform the exercises properly and safely, ensuring that you’re targeting the area that you want to work the most – you should feel the area working if you’re doing the exercise properly. You must also give yourself ample time to see results – don’t look for miracles overnight. However, if you train consistently, you can look for some improvement in just a few weeks, and you can expect major improvement within a couple a months.

...Doug Schneider
das@seriousaboutfitness.com

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