Introduction
The Problem With Glute Training
#1 Thigh Muscles Get Most Of The Benefit:
Compound Exercises such as Lunges and Squats work the glutes better than Isolation exercises (ex Rear Leg Raises, Donkey Kicks etc.) but many times the thigh (quadricep) muscles get most of the benefit, the quadriceps basically 'take-over' the exercise. Your thighs may get bigger but your butt stays the same. My program uses a principle called Pre-Exhaustion to reverse this and cause the glutes to get the most benefit from compound exercises.
Compound Exercises such as Lunges and Squats work the glutes better than Isolation exercises (ex Rear Leg Raises, Donkey Kicks etc.) but many times the thigh (quadricep) muscles get most of the benefit, the quadriceps basically 'take-over' the exercise. Your thighs may get bigger but your butt stays the same. My program uses a principle called Pre-Exhaustion to reverse this and cause the glutes to get the most benefit from compound exercises.
- Muscle 'Burning': Isolation exercises have a tendency to burn BUT this does not mean that they build muscle. Your glutes may burn after doing 30 Rear Leg Raises or Donkey Kicks but these exercises won't build muscle because the resistance is so low.
#2 Bad Information:
Much of what you see on social media and workout programs as far as glute training is not very good. You see exercises touted as being great for glute development but in actuality they do very little to develop the glutes. One such exercise is the deadlift. Not only are deadlifts supposed to be great for the glutes but they are also supposed to be great for the hamstrings, shoulders, biceps you name it deadlifts are supposed to great for building it. The fact is that they don't help any of these muscles very much when it comes to development. Nowadays most women get their exercise advice from social media. Social media is the WORST place to get exercise information regardless of how good the model looks or how sharp the production or camera quality is. Of course there is good information out there, it's just very hard to sort through the non-sense.
Much of what you see on social media and workout programs as far as glute training is not very good. You see exercises touted as being great for glute development but in actuality they do very little to develop the glutes. One such exercise is the deadlift. Not only are deadlifts supposed to be great for the glutes but they are also supposed to be great for the hamstrings, shoulders, biceps you name it deadlifts are supposed to great for building it. The fact is that they don't help any of these muscles very much when it comes to development. Nowadays most women get their exercise advice from social media. Social media is the WORST place to get exercise information regardless of how good the model looks or how sharp the production or camera quality is. Of course there is good information out there, it's just very hard to sort through the non-sense.
- On social media you will see girls with big butts doing lots of exercises that LOOK like they work the glutes, but when you analyze the exercise you realize that they are not very effective at all, they just look good on Instagram. 99% of the time the girl was born with nice glutes.
#3 Glute Position On The Body:
The glutes are so hard to train correctly because of how they are positioned on the body. In contrast, when we look at a muscle such as the biceps, we can see how easy it is to work this muscle. All you need to do is contract the bicep muscle against resistance (bicep curl) to properly stimulate it. The Db curl is the perfect exercise for building the bicep muscles.
On the other hand, the glutes are in a position on the body that makes it difficult to stimulate them directly. The thighs (quadriceps) often get as much or more of the stress when you do certain 'glute' exercises such as Lunges. So in many instances your thighs will get bigger, but not your glutes!
Therefore we must figure out the best way to isolate/emphasize the glutes more than the thighs. We can do that by the Pre-Exhaustion principle.
The glutes are so hard to train correctly because of how they are positioned on the body. In contrast, when we look at a muscle such as the biceps, we can see how easy it is to work this muscle. All you need to do is contract the bicep muscle against resistance (bicep curl) to properly stimulate it. The Db curl is the perfect exercise for building the bicep muscles.
On the other hand, the glutes are in a position on the body that makes it difficult to stimulate them directly. The thighs (quadriceps) often get as much or more of the stress when you do certain 'glute' exercises such as Lunges. So in many instances your thighs will get bigger, but not your glutes!
Therefore we must figure out the best way to isolate/emphasize the glutes more than the thighs. We can do that by the Pre-Exhaustion principle.
Pre-Exhaustion: the KEY to glute training:
An example of Pre-Exhaustion:
- Isolation exercise: an exercise where there is only one muscle working (ex. Tricep pressdowns, Db curls, Hamstring curls) as opposed to a Compound exercise where multiple muscle groups are working together (Pushups {chest, triceps, shoulders}), Squats {thighs, glutes, lower back}, Db Press {shoulders, triceps})
- If you do a pushup (compound exercise) you are working your (1) Shoulders, (2) Chest and (3) Triceps. Let's just say all 3 are working equally during a regular pushup.
- If you were to do an isolation Tricep exercise (ex. Tricep Pressdowns) immediately before the push-ups you would notice that your triceps will get exhausted much quicker than usual once you started the pushups and you won’t be able to do as many reps as you normally could.
- This is because you pre-exhausted your triceps before you started the pushups. This causes the Triceps to work much harder during the pushups than they normally would. Your Chest and Shoulders are still fresh but your triceps are being pushed to the max. After the set you will really feel it in your triceps but not in your Chest or Shoulders as much. This means that the Triceps got much more benefit from the exercise than the Chest or the Shoulders. This is called the Pre-Exhaustion technique.
- Pre-Exhaustion technique: If you weaken a muscle (ex Triceps) involved in a compound motion (ex. Pushups), that muscle (Triceps) will receive the most benefit from that compound exercise. Because the muscle has been worked/exhausted before the compound exercise and is temporarily weaker than the other muscles involved in the movement (Shoulders and Chest), which means that muscle (Triceps) will have to work much harder once you start performing the compound exercise (Pushups)and therefore receive most of the benefit from the exercise.
Hopefully that made sense, if not, once you try it you will understand what Pre-Exhaustion is all about!
Glute Training and Pre-Exhaustion
When it comes to training the glutes we are going to do an isolation exercise before we do the compound exercise so that the glutes get most of the benefit of the exercise.
- The compound exercises has to be done IMMEDIATELY after the isolation exercise, while the glute is still tired/exhausted from the isolation exercise.
- The goal is to start the compound exercise within a few seconds after completing the isolation exercise. You will immediately feel how effective this is once you try it.