you want to grow your glutes but are you worried all of the lower body heavy lifting will actually
make your thighs more bulky or thicker on the journey to growing bigger glutes are you wondering
how do i grow my glutes but not my thighs i've been getting this question so often lately from so
many clients and just people on my social media so i thought i would make it the topic of this week's
video so don't worry i'm gonna break it down for you in the fastest way i can in the most simplest
way to understand so by the end of this video you will know how to grow your glutes and not
your thighs if that's what you're looking for okay we're gonna dive right in but of course if you're
new here make sure you subscribe to my channel and hit that bell to be notified when i release a new
video every single week my name is michelle roots kinesiologist personal trainer nutrition coach and
fitness and fat loss motivation specialist and the whole goal of this channel is to help answer
all of your questions to make your fitness and fat loss journey the simplest it can be to achieve the
strong body you want and sustainable fat loss results and of course if you find this video
helpful make sure you give it a like and leave any questions in the comments below i'm happy to help
you guys out okay i'm gonna start this video by defining a few different things so first of all
is body type so let's go off of two different body types that might be watching this video you might
have clicked on this video one because maybe your thighs are thin and you like your thighs
but you just want to grow a bigger booty or bigger glutes and you don't want your thighs to grow on
your journey to bigger glutes another person is possibly you're watching this video because maybe
your thighs are genetically thicker maybe you have more muscular thighs genetically and you are
worried that on your road to glowing your glutes that your thighs are going to get bigger and your
glutes are going to get bigger and all of these things so again there are two different again
there might be even more scenarios but i'm going to go off of these two different scenarios and
i'll try my best to explain from both standpoints throughout this video because again most important
thing that i tried to put through in every single one of my videos is that we are all different
we are all genetically different and although yes training and nutrition and all of these things can
change the way our own body looks and the way our own body feels in the end you are only you and you
can only do so much to the genetic body without surgical enhancements you were given so first and
foremost i just want you to remember that you are on your own journey and i want you to take
the information in this video to apply to your own body type and not compare yourself to anybody else
because there's only one you so next i want to touch base on all the muscles of the lower body
so when we are looking at the lower body so we've got the muscles of what you would say the thigh
front of the thigh is your quad muscles the back of your thigh is your hamstring muscles
then you've got your inner thigh which are known as your adductors and then of course you have
your glutes so your glutes are actually made up of three different muscles your gluteus medius your
gluteus maximus the big big part of it and then your gluteus minimus so one thing you want to
remember is when you are training your glutes you want to make sure you're hitting all three muscles
and i will explain that later in the video so now that we've defined the muscles of the thighs so
we've got the quads the hamstrings the adductor i'm gonna be completely honest a lot of the
exercises you might be doing at the gym whether it's um with barbells with machines with dumbbells
that are glute focused exercises they're probably activating your hamstrings or your glutes or your
adductors at the same time the glutes are a hip extensor so anytime you are extending your hips
you are working your glutes but the hamstrings and the adductors are also hip extensors so a lot
of times when you're performing an exercise with hip extension you are activating your glutes but
you're also working your hamstrings and adductors at the same time so you are working your thigh
muscles at the same time so what does that mean for you when you're trying to grow bigger glutes
but not grow your thighs so here's the thing a lot of videos and articles on the internet are
going to tell you to completely avoid any of the exercises that work your quads your hamstrings and
your adductors and only perform glute isolation exercises in order to grow your glutes yes
technically that will work however i don't think this is realistic and i think rather than avoiding
the exercises that work your quads your hamstrings and your adductors i'm gonna say still perform
them but at the same time you are performing these exercises you want to be performing more glute
isolation exercises and why do i say this so again we are going down to our two different body types
so if you are someone who has very very slim not very muscular thighs and you like it that way and
all you want to do is grow bigger glutes then yes you can avoid the squats the sumo deadlifts the
bulgarian split squats all of these muscles that are very very quad dominant
i'll go over those right after this so that you know all the exercises i'm talking about
you could probably get away with continuing to do your glute isolation exercises that only work
the glutes and you would probably get the results you want of course with ample nutrition and other
things that would support growing glute muscles what if you are the other body type so you are
someone who either carries a lot more body fat in your thighs or say your thighs are a bit
jigglier and you would like them to get tighter maybe you have more cellulite on your thighs
the back of your legs or even on your glutes my opinion is that you should still be doing some
exercises that strengthen the quads strengthen the hamstrings strengthen the inner thigh muscles
and the glutes start to build some lean muscle underneath that fat in hopes of decreasing the
body fat in your thighs tightening up some of that cellulite i've got a video all about cellulite
right here if you want to know more about how to reduce your cellulite i'll link that in the
description below and i'll be honest just overall function in life by strengthening your legs and
building a little bit of muscle in your legs by performing exercises like squats and deadlifts
and bulgarian split squats and step ups again i'll list those in a minute but all of these exercises
are going to just help you function better in life for example i am a mom i have two toddlers
often i'm carrying one down the stairs and the other one says pick me up pick me up
and i have to carry the other one down the stairs and i feel strong enough to do that
because i strength train and i do all of these exercises that should be avoided because i want
to grow my glutes whatever blah blah so in the end yes aesthetics are a big deal but also let's talk
about functioning in regular life strengthening your lower body is so very important in overall
function injury prevention feeling good and changing the shape of your body as well so this
is something i found that a lot of these videos or articles on the internet are not talking about
they are more talking more for the person who has the thin thighs already and they just don't want
those thighs to grow they like their thin thighs but they want a bigger bum i am speaking to the
majority of women who struggle with already thick thighs who when they wear short shorts
they get the thigh rub trust me ladies i know all about this i am one of them and i found personally
that they maybe want to lean down their thighs so working the muscles of their thighs their
hamstrings helping prove the shape of their legs and also grow their glutes i could talk about
this forever but let's say your main goal is a body recomposition so you're looking to decrease
your body fat increase your muscular strength in order to achieve sustainable fat loss and then
your goal is also to grow your glutes my best advice is to continue to perform exercises that
strengthen your entire lower body but also have days of the week where you are focusing on just
your glutes so you might have a lower body focus strength day on a monday so you are performing
all of the exercise to strengthen all the muscles of your lower body and then on thursday instead of
doing a second lower body workout you are going to a glute focused workout so one to two times a week
you are focusing specifically on growing your glutes and again once a week you are focusing
on building the strength in your entire lower body okay what lower body exercise are we talking about
when we're looking at the ones that strengthen your quads your hamstrings and your adductors
as well as your glutes so we're looking at squats so that's a barbell back squat goblet squats
box squats a lot of single leg exercises so bulgarian split squats step ups lunges crystal
squats all of these exercises are very very quad dominant so they are working the front of your
thighs and your glutes a lot of the times you can change a little bit of the movement with your foot
positioning or your hinge to make it more glute focused but you are still going to be working
your quads at the same time as your glutes again not a bad thing depending on your goals which i
talked about before these are the exercises you either want to completely avoid if you do not want
to work those muscles at all or you want to put in your lower body strength day not in your glute
focused workout day so then we are looking at our hamstring dominant exercises so a lot of deadlift
variations sumo deadlifts trap bar deadlifts good mornings romanian deadlifts seated and lying leg
curl machines what about hip thrusts hip thrusts are an iffy one if thrusts do work your quads at
the same time they're working your glutes so a great alternative to hip thrust if you really
want to get the barbell on your hips is laying on the floor and doing a barbell glute bridge as
this is gonna really get into those glutes a lot better than a hip thrust will okay so there you go
those are the exercises i listed and there's so many more on the list that will be working
your quads your hamstrings and your adductors at the same time they're working your glutes so you
decide with the information i provided whether you want to do these exercises or you want to hold off
and focus on the glute isolation exercises that i'm going to talk about right now so what are the
best glute isolation exercises of course we talked about it already glute bridges so that could come
in the form of a body weight a double leg glute bridge body weight single leg glute bridge it
could be a barbell glute bridge it could be a glute bridge with a mini band around your knees to
activate and get the gluteus medius going as well it can be a heel elevated glute bridge so remember
at the beginning of the video i told you there are three different glute muscles the gluteus maximus
the gluteus medius and the gluteus minimus so again each of those three muscles functions a
little bit differently and we need to make sure we're hitting and strengthening all three of
those muscles through our exercises so we need to make sure we're working the glutes in all planes
of motion external rotation abduction so moving your leg away from your body and extension so
some great glute isolation exercises are side lying abductions seated abductions
mini band walking side to side another great exercise are dead lifts but these can be known
as american deadlifts um similar to a romanian deadlift but you are only going down with the bar
just past your knees until you get that tension in your glutes and you're coming back up so you're
not coming all the way down if you're coming lower to the floor you actually that's when you get
a little bit more hamstring activation so if you want to stay with just your glutes you're lowering
down just till about knees just below your knees till you get that tension in the glutes and you're
coming back up cable pull throughs are great but also bird dog position glute kickbacks or rainbows
where you're kicking your leg back and forth again those are all going to get right into the glutes
so those are some of the best glute isolation exercises if you have any questions leave them
in the comments below if you're wondering whether an exercise is more glute focused
or quad or hamstring focus now that you learned all the anatomy of the lower body and you have
a little bit of a better understanding which i hope you did that was kind of my goal of the video
i'm just going to add in one more thing i'm not going to touch base on a lot of nutrition stuff in
this video but if your goal is to grow your glutes and you are currently eating 1200 calories or less
and dieting or starving yourself and not properly fueling your body with the right proteins and
carbs and good fats it will be very hard almost impossible to grow bigger glutes so i'm just going
to throw that out there something also you should consider training is a huge part of it but as well
as sleep nutrition all of these things also come into play because you are looking at building a
muscle if you want to know more about eating to build muscle and how much protein you should be
eating why you should also be eating carbs go check out all the other videos on my channel
i've got one talking all about carbs and why they are good and why you should be eating them and
not cutting them out how much protein you should be eating i'm telling you how to calculate your
calorie deficit for fat loss but also still build muscle how to get lean go check out all the videos
on my channel they are all there as reference for you guys to help you out i'll link some of them in
the description below that i think might help you out i just hope i've given you enough information
to decide what exercise you should be doing and to feel comfortable and confident in what
you are doing in the gym is helping you reach your goals so remember everything is not just
aesthetic if you are looking at these certain celebrities who have a certain figure just
remember they have a lot of money and they do get surgeries and they just don't tell people about it
which i drives me crazy because just be honest just tell the world what you've been doing so
that people don't have false hope for getting the same look off of a magic pill that they might be
selling to you on social media sorry rant over in the end you make decision as to whether you
want to completely avoid the lower body strength exercises and only do glute isolation exercises or
incorporate both and see what happens i personally found that after both of my pregnancies i lost my
glutes i had a flat butt for the first time in my life which i've never had i'm a soccer player i've
never had that problem i personally found that doing a combination of lower body strengthening
exercises and glute isolation exercises allowed me to get my thighs toned again and hard not too
muscular but most muscular enough that i i like them i like where they're at i have definition in
my hamstrings into my glutes i've grown my glutes back but that is personally what worked for me
again we are all different i just tried my best to provide you with all the information so you can
make the best decision for yourself so again if this video is helpful make sure you give it a like
make sure you subscribe to my channel if you're not yet subscribed and i'll see you guys next week
you