The Healthy Temple

The ideal body is a strange thing. All girls and women longed for a tiny little bottom. Now, not being able to fill a pair of jeans with a couple of perky pronounced peaches is a worry for many women. However, this isn’t an excuse to pile on the pounds. A good bottom is a body-sculpted one. Your aim, perhaps, should be to crack a walnut with it.
Your gluteus maximus, or glutes, is the body’s largest muscle and it is responsible for giving you a peachy behind, man or woman. Working your bottom requires targeted exercises but it can also be helped by cardio workouts and certain sports.Having a shapely bottom will help clothing fit better for both men and women. By targeting the bottom area, you will find that you achieve a greater definition of your waist and hips.
The great thing about the bottom is that any exercise or activity that works the muscle groups adjoining them helps build the glutes. As a general rule, if an exercise works the thighs it works the glutes.To build all-round fitness, you should always combine targeted exercises with cardiovascular work. Concentrate on those that work the bottom, including the cross-trainer, stepper, bike and rowing machine. Twenty minutes of cardio can then be followed by targeted exercises that directly train or flex the gluteal muscles themselves.Sports that keep you on your feet or toes and those that work the legs will help tone your bottom. Most competitive sports that require the use of your legs cause muscles to tense frequently, including the gluteals. Tennis and squash are excellent, as the sudden changes of direction cause muscles to work extra hard. Football, swimming, running or cycling are also good for your bottom.

Targeted exercises

The dead lift is performed by bending at the knees and grasping a barbell in front of you. Lift with the legs as you stand and straighten the back once standing. Perform high reps with less weight to really work the bottom. Wear a weight belt for this exercise.

The squat should be performed with a squat rack and a spotter. Resting the bar on your neck with your spotter behind you, grasp the bar evenly overhead. Stand up the rest of the way and step back carefully. Squat down until your thighs are parallel with the floor and stand up fully again. Do high reps and low weight for the glutes. You should wear a weight belt and there should be padding or a towel around the barbell where it will rest on your neck.

The leg press is done on a leg press machine. Press the leg press out and let it come back again. Do high reps, low weight, and always to exhaustion.

Daily gluteal flexing is a great habit to get into. Simply learn how to tighten and release the muscles of your bottom. You can happily do hundreds of these a day, when you’re at home, in the car or at work. Do them fast or slow to work them two ways.