Butt. Derrèire. Booty. Tail. Buttocks. Bootock. Badonk. Glutes. A**. Seat. Hiney. Rear. Behind. Backside. Hind. Caboose. Tailfeather. Arse. Britches. Tush. Fanny. Bum. Trunk. Money-maker. 

There is a grand reason why there is an endless amount of words for your butt. There are entire songs dedicated solely to your behind.

I was contemplating calling this series "I Like Big Butts and I Cannot Lie" or "Ms. New Booty" for this post's title. And then JLo, the most famous female apple bottom of the 90's, along with Iggy Azalea (another butt-blessed lady), came out with this gem this past week- quite aptly named.

As I like to say, there are some parts of a womans physique you cannot change with training (i.e. boobs), but there is zero good reason to have a sub-par butt. Even if your hearts desire isn't to get a butt the size of Iggy's, I don't think there's a single person out there that wants a saggy butt, amirite?

So why am I dedicating this weeks (and next weeks!) training post to the blessed gluteal muscles?

Because:

1. I have never encountered a client saying they want a less nice butt. 
2. Strong glutes are absolutely vital to your general physical fitness and health.
3. I see a painful amount of people sitting on the godforsaken abduction/adduction machine, texting away, while mistakenly thinking this somehow will get them a better butt.

While I'm no Bret Contreras, the glute guy/god of the fitness world (I dream to earn the title of "glute girl" one day), I do consider myself to be very well-versed in all types of glute training, as glute strength is one of the most important things to help support your hip complex- aka the main priority in my limited training abilities these days post-surgery. I also came from the figure-skating world, where there is not a single athlete without a very shapely behind- we frequently referred to it as skaters booty. 

Lord knows there are a million exercises that will help you strengthen and shape your butt, but I wanted to go over some very general basics for those looking to begin getting their tushes to BunsofSTEEL.com. 

1. Glute Bridge

You may have heard that squats are the best thing in the world for your glutes, and they are indeed wonderful must-haves in training programs (and we will get to those next week)- HOWEVER, a solid majority of the general population is not ready to dive straight into squats due to not-so-great mobility in the hips & ankles that they earned from sitting down for 80% of their day. So a better option to begin with is the glute bridge: 

Stephanie here demonstrates the basic glute bridge. Steps to do the glute bridge:

1. Lay on your back with your knees bent and feet placed flat on the floor. You want your feet to be about hips width apart or a bit wider, arms placed out to the sides comfortably.
2. Primarily using/squeezing your glutes, you are going to bridge your hips up to full hip extension, then release and come back down.
3. *Important thing to keep in mind is to not arch your lumbar spine (lower back) to get your hips up in the air- Stephanie does this a bit up here, which is something she is working on (#formerfigureskaterproblems). You want to make sure your core is engaged and not letting that back arch to compensate and lessen glute activation/control. 

I think I've filled your heads with enough butt-knowledge for one week.

Check back next week for PART 2 (squats, lunges, oh my!) of this series for #TrainersTipTuesday!

What are your thoughts on the big booty having it's moment? Would love to hear your favorite exercises or questions you might have!