Before and After (Squats)

Okay! So I’m guilty- I used to be a regular visitor to the ‘She Squats,’ as well as other similar pages on Facebook, looking to the photos for inspiration and hoping to gain mass on my posterior by employing the same means as the girls featured in the photos. No doubt you’ve run across a page like that- you know, the ones overflowing with pictures of curvy rear ends that are supposedly the result of back squats? The whole ‘squat for ass’ message was extremely easy to buy into. Pictures of ‘results’ were being posted left and right, and I’d assumed that they hadn’t been Photoshopped, nor had the girls in the photos stuffed their pants to give the illusion of a larger backside. As a result of seeing those photos, I took to back squatting. I became a regular inhabitant of the gym’s squat rack for close to 8 months, and in that time I researched many aspects of the lift ranging from bar position, stance width, foot flare, back posture, squat depth, bar grip, and all different kinds of set/rep ranges. I hoped I would eventually run into an article that held the secret to a bigger ass via back squatting- I just assumed that this ‘secret’ would be hidden in some little dark nook of the article; a ‘tip’ under a photo, or perhaps in a comment left by some generous intelligent female who had already gained inches on her backside due to some secret I didn’t know.
 

 

This is the cover photo of the ‘Yeah, She Squats’ page

Months went by and I saw minimal results from excessive repetitive back squatting. I experienced soreness, to the point where it hurt to sit down, but I didn’t see the gains like I thought I would have. As a matter of fact, I probably didn’t gain more than ½ inch on my backside when I was solely squatting, even though I was employing 6-8 sets of 8 reps with 185 lbs while utilizing a wider sumo-like stance to target more glute. I even worked my way up and maxed out at 235, but the gains just weren’t there, even though I was eating more than a sufficient amount. Going to the gym became a decision I had made due to wanting to improve my physique, not primarily due to strength goals. So finally, I decided to set aside the ‘king of leg exercises’ and look elsewhere. There had to be a more effective lift out there to target the glutes. So little ol’ disappointed me picked up where I left off and continued to do what I do best- research.

Now, my idea of the ideal female figure has changed a bit over the years.  I used to be somewhat obsessed with keeping my waist tiny, and the rest of my body naturally followed right along and remained miniature. I really paid no mind to anything other than my waist up until a few years ago, until pictures of women with plump derrieres and full figures seemed to bombard me from every direction. Even though I had never had a problem with my weight, I could never seem to attain that full figured body. The lean look had shackled me down, and in order to escape it I needed to find the key. Eventually, I ended up pegging squats as that key, since they seemed to be working like magic for every other female on the ‘She Squats,’ Facebook page. I was tired of being ‘toned,’ I wanted to be curvy.

Before I had taken to joining a gym, a friend of mine had loaned me a 45 lb plate off of his weight set. I’d decided that I should at least be able to squat the weight of a bar and would be able to work up to it at home. After a while, I got crafty with the 45 lb plate, attempting different exercises while trying to decide which elicited the most intense glute burn. One particular movement proved to be incredibly successful; I would lay on the floor, place the plate on my lap, and proceed to thrust it up with my glutes (I had no idea what to call it at the time, but through research found that it’s called a glute bridge). Eventually my body grew accustomed to squatting and bridging the 45 pounds, so I knew it was time to progress to a gym where I could employ heavier weights in my routine. When I initially joined a gym, squatting became my main priority and I had forgotten all about those glute-burning bridges. I was a squat devotee- and within 3 months I was wide stance squatting 185 lbs to parallel, but experiencing minimal to no gains. Thinking back to those lonely nights in my bedroom with that 45 lb plate, I’d began to realize that I’d been squatting as a result of the ‘results’ of others, not employing the exercise that had seemed to be the most effective for me. It didn’t take long to understand that I’d needed to start incorporating the bridges into my routine again- heavier glute bridges. However, I just wasn’t ready to kick squats to the curb. I was still looking for that ‘secret’ that I desperately hoped I would somehow stumble upon.

Now, the thought of performing those thrusting motions in the center of a large gym chock full of testosterone-laden guys made me just a bit uneasy. If it wasn’t for a closed off section in the far side of my gym, I’m not sure if I’d have been able to grow large enough you know whats to enable me to perform a fairly sexual appearing lift.  At that time, humping a weighted barbell on the middle of the gym floor in plain view of everyone seemed thoroughly embarrassing. So I hauled the bar and two little bitty ten pound plates around to the isolated part of the gym and proceeded to complete sets of 8-10 reps. Within about 3 months, I had built up to bridging about 225 lbs for sets of 8, and had seen about an inch gain on my backside since implementing the bridges. I was still squatting, but I seemed to be stuck in a hole with them, since I hadn’t progressed whatsoever with the lift and hadn’t been able to progress past 185 lbs for quite some time.
At this point, squats began aggravating me a great deal. I began to force myself to add more weight to the bar, thinking that I was just being a p*ssy and not pushing myself to the extent that I thought I could, and that I would definitely start seeing significant gains if I would only start doing more reps with more weight. I increased the weight to 195, 205, and then finally 235 lbs, as a max. Deep down, I knew I had to give up squatting. They were providing no results. But in the back of my mind, the silhouettes of the ‘squat’ girls still haunted me. I still believed that there was something I wasn’t aware of, or something that I wasn’t doing right. I needed the secret, I needed the key to whatever it was that would help me reach my goal; yet no matter what I tried, nothing grew except for my impatience. For the next month, I remained adamant about squatting, hoping that my ass would start ballooning somehow like the pictures I had seen online. All I had to do was keep squatting, right?

During this time, I had run into a guy named Bret Contreras after entering into the google search bar ‘pushing up barbell with pelvis,’ as I had no idea what this lift was called or if it even existed. Soon after reading a few of Bret’s articles, I thought back to the lift I performed in my bedroom with that 45 lb plate and the glute burn that had ensued as a result of it, as well as the inch gain I had seen since employing weighted bridges. I realized that I needed to start completely focusing on what I had felt worked best for me, and not continue to repetitively back squat because that’s what everyone else was saying to do, or because it was posted on a picture of a girl with a nice ass. I realized that studies and articles should most definitely hold more credibility than the booty pictures posted on ‘Yeah, She Squats,’ and I knew I had to try to look at this from a different perspective.

 

This is a barbell glute bridge. It has the same apt to ppt motion as a barbell hip thrust, but it has a smaller range of motion. Also, you are hinging from the floor instead of a bench/risers. Now hopefully you can see how it got hard to keep 325 lbs from rolling back on me (as you’ll read later)

Consequently, I now had a large amount of time on my hands since I had just done quite a number to my lumbar- time that was utilized inspecting numerous articles of Bret’s. Within the span of a month, my back healed and my knowledge of the glutes increased with every article that I read. Using my better judgment, I completely gave up back squatting and focused on barbell glute bridging. Also, I began to implement hip thrusts, as I had discovered that they have a greater range of motion and are more effective at growing the glutes than glute bridging. Yet bridging was the easier of the two (no setting up aerobic steppers) so I figured I would work my way up with weight on the bridges, and hip thrust every so often just to get the feel of it. Eventually, I could glute bridge 325 for reps, (I’m 123-127 lbs, mind you [it varies]) and my derriere gained yet another inch with them alone, even after I had completely abandoned back squatting. But, due to the slanted nature my body undergoes while glute bridging, problems arose as the weight got heavier. As I’d lift up and lock my glutes out, I had to do all I could to keep the 325 lb barbell from rolling back on me. My arms would also lock out to hold the bar up in place on my pelvis, but I began experiencing pain under my right shoulder blade from the pressure of the bar, so I decided to stick exclusively to hip thrusting, since the body rises up into a horizontal line while completing the lift, and I didn’t need any more back issues after my former squatting ordeal.
Hip thrusting is now what I advocate to anyone trying to gain mass on their backside. I employ it as my main lift to this day, and my glutes have gone from 35 to 38 inches due to bridging/thrusting movements alone. I haven’t back squatted for a good 7-8 months, and my glute gains still remain in place, and are increasing still. To be perfectly honest, I don’t miss back squatting one bit.

What exactly is the hip thrust and how do I perform it?

 

While you hip thrust, flex/squeeze the glutes and use them to push the load up. It’s also essential to lock out at the top of the lift. Now, don’t look at the apt/ppt chart below and assume that I’m in anterior pelvic tilt. I’m really in posterior pelvic tilt here, but my glute size might make it appear as if I’m in apt. It’s very important to keep that apt to ppt motion throughout the lift to maximally target the glutes

 

 While hip thrusting, you will go from an initial sitting position (see above photo) in which your lumbar (lower back) is in a slight arch and your pelvis in very slight anterior pelvic tilt, to the top of the lift where you lock your glutes out toward a posterior pelvic tilt motion, which means you’re using the glues to push the pelvis forward (or toward the sky if you’re laying down). The glutes work to keep your pelvis from drifting into anterior pelvic tilt (apt), and also as what’s pushing the load up (and possibly posterior pelvic tilting). Now, while you squat, your lower back keeps an arch (apt), and the glutes can’t fire as hard while you are in an anterior pelvic tilt. Don’t believe me? Arch your back and squeeze your glutes. Now get into a neutral spine position and squeeze the glutes. Huge difference, huh? (Thanks Bret Contreras!)

See how her lower back is arched? This is the squat version of anterior pelvic tilt. The glutes can’t fire maximally when the pelvis is in apt

3 sets of 8 reps- 285 lbs

3 sets of 6 reps- 285 lbs

1 set of 8 reps- 225 lbs

1 set of 10-15 reps- 135 lbs

1 set of 15-20 reps with just the bar (45 lbs)