The Quest For Beautiful Glutes Part I
Let's Talk Glutes.
I'm gonna tell you from personal experience: NOTHING is more frustrating than leaning out and not having your glutes change shape.
OMGosh.
And as a pear-shaped woman whose hips and A$$ are always the LAST body part to "come in," every time I leaned out-on my own or during contest prep-I always hoped for an exciting reveal, but was ALWAYS DISAPPOINTED. In my mind, I envisioned the round, tight and shapely glutes of the Figure Pro girls. But straight up, my glutes looked like a flat square.
I knew it. My Coach knew it. And the judges confirmed it. My glutes were the ONLY thing keeping me from earning a Pro Card.
To make a very long story short, I set out on a quest for beautiful glutes.
I didn't know HOW it was going to happen, but I knew that I had to do something different, because even though I may carry fat on my backside-I actually had a Pancake A$$ (aka Glute Malady #1).
This realization came after a friend of mine (bless his heart for his honesty) said to me one day, "Your A$$ never changes."
Those 4 words really hit home-and called out to the bodybuilder in me. Maybe the reason why my A$$ never changes wasn't just about fat, but about muscle?
Eureka! That HAD to be it!!
It made total sense because the last show I did I was so lean that my A$$ cheeks didn't even touch one another! It was like a valley between the two cheeks. That may be TMI, (and you should know that degree of leanness is certainly not how I walk around every day) and as weird as it sounds, and trust me-it definitely felt weird too- but it was true!
It was at that very moment I finally realized the reason why my A$$ never changed was because the muscles weren't being trained like the rest of the muscles in my body were.
Looking back, all the while I was training, I never trained glutes. In fact, my glutes NEVER seemed to participate in any lower body exercise. My quads dominated everything: squats, leg press and lunges. My quads grew to monstrous sizes, yet my backside lagged (and sagged!).
So here's what happened: After taking about a year off of contest prep, I decided to re-up my training and go full throttle towards targeted glute training and ultimately achieving my Pro Card.
However, an ankle injury COMPLETELY derailed my plans, and I spent the next several years dealing with a plethora of unexpected muscular development problems which resulted from that injury.
When you injure yourself, the body has ways to heal itself. It's cool from a scientific standpoint, but really $#!++Y when it happens to you.
The body "shuts off" nerve pathways leading to the injury so that you don't use that body part. It's like Nature's Own way of "forcing rest." It also lays down scar tissue like mad.
Put those both together, and what do you get? A ridiculous amount of frustrating issues that lengthen your recovery time.
Here were the main ones that I experienced:
Left quad atrophy (muscle shrinking) and the inability to squeeze it or feel it contracting.
IDK if it's an official "thing," but my L psoas was dormant, making me incredibly unstable while performing single leg presses and lunges.
Bilateral hip tightness that restricted my mobility in every way.
Not only did my glutes STILL did not participate fully in any motion, but they, like other parts of my body had developed scar tissue all over them following the injury, and required intensive Graston work just so that I could sit and squat.
Limited left ankle mobility with intermittent and unpredictable instability, weakness and pain.
The inside of my left calf was weak, which combined with the ankle problems, rendered me unable to do a toe raise with the left side.
I developed what are called "improper movement patterns" from compensating for the ankle pain while walking (did I mention that 2014 was named "Winter in Chiberia" and too icy to safely use my crutches?) where only the outside aspect of my left foot touched the ground, and my right leg rotated outwards.
Each of these had to be corrected to first initiate and then maximize glute recruitment. Some needed to be corrected in order to be able to get the glutes working FIRST, others were able to be addressed WHILE glute training was in progress.
It took much longer than I had ever expected. To say it was frustrating would be the understatement of the century.
I was always in pain, and there were many times when I felt like I made great progress, but then some other new problem would show up and I would get so mad! I knew that (someday) it'd all be better and I'd be back at 100%, but it's a total mind-F when you're trekking along and then something you thought was fixed starts to regress.
It's like finally coming up to the shore only to have the undertow carry you back out to sea. And as much as I love learning about the body, how it works and how to fix it, ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS TO GET BACK TO NORMAL AND TRAIN MY DAMN GLUTES.
But I couldn't expedite the process. I had to fix it-and was committed to fixing it the right way. It took awhile, probably longer than it needed to (admittedly, my personal Glute Awakening was not my primary focus the past couple of years.).
Guess what? Here's the Pearl: I learned a whole bunch of stuff that helps A LOT OF PEOPLE even if they've never suffered an injury.
Things like:
* How to get your glutes to really fire when you squat.
* How to overcome Quad Dominance.
* How to strengthen the mind-muscle connection of your glutes.
* How to pinpoint weak deep core muscles and train them to be strong and stable.
* How to increase mobility and flexibility with diet, strength, balance and stability training.
* How to transform the shape of one's glutes.
Most people don't realize how important glutes are to your everyday function, and how closely they are intertwined with the surrounding muscles and fascia.
Whether it's because of a sedentary lifestyle where we've got a case of A$$ vs Sofa Cushion (or Desk Chair!), or a situation where the Quads take over when you go to squat-the glutes are affected negatively. And when the glutes aren't getting trained or aren't working efficiently, it causes serious problems for people down the road. Things like posture abnormalities, back pain, knee problems, spinal problems, hip problems...and of course there's the aesthetics.
On June 4th, we start our ***30 Day Squat Challenge***.
But it's not just any old Squat Challenge. We made it special and included some awesome BONUSES to shorten the time it takes for you to get results.
In addition to the Squat Challenge Program, we've added:
* Morning Mo'DeVation and Music-to get you and your glutes fired up and movin!
* Targeted Glute Training Tips and
* FREE access to my On-Demand Glute Awakening Program to increase the mind-muscle connection of your glutes
I'd love for you to join us on our Quest For Beautiful Glutes!
***CLICK HERE FOR THE 30 DAY SQUAT CHALLENGE!***
