How on earth to build glutes?!

[Whatwouldyoudoif]

Hi All, i've been strength/weight training since september last year and am thrilled with my progress thus far with my arms and abs, however....

My butt is still flatter than a pancake. its so flat you can sit a ruler against it!

I squat, lunge, do step ups, RDL's, bulgarian split squats and i lift as heavy as i can... what am i doing wrong?

Im 5'6, weigh 8st and eat 110g protein a day so im unsure what im doling wrong?

I've had a PT to check my form which seems correct, so please someone help!

Following OP, I'm wanting to work on my glutes, too!

Some people just have flat arses sadly. I am one of them too, despite all the squats and lifting I do. Annoyingly, my husband has a beautiful peachy arse without even trying.

My guess is you need to gain some weight.

at 8st and 5’6 you’re probably at the physical
limit of fat:muscle ratio and you can’t put on more muscle without increasing weight.

calorie surplus is needed to fuel muscle growth.

Is this really true? I can't gain muscle without gaining weight? Despite hard training and getting my protein in?

Ha! SAME here..... sickening! ;-)

Most people you see online with the kind of glutes I imagine you’re thinking of have been working out for many years.

keep working out, keep up the progressive overload and protein intake.

It takes years

Agree with the above poster that you’re likely too slim for gains like you describe. What calories are you on? To build muscle (glutes) you need to eat for them

Check out Georgina Cox on Instagram too x

Yes you need a calorie surplus to grow muscle

As someone that has been doing the same since May last year I can guarantee you are not eating enough calories to grow your glutes. You need to be in a calorie surplus (at least 200-300 per day) to grow glutes. Calorie maintenance or deficit will not work. I would suggest you do a bulk to grow then a cut to get rid of any fat that you put on.

Best thing to do if you can afford it is have a session or 2 with a PT and discuss. Ideally one that can help with nutrition too.

As others have said, you will struggle to build muscle if you’re at maintenance calories or below. Couple of ways to improve that, have a ‘bulk’ period where you consume 3/400 more calories than needed for a period of time. If you’re not happy with how you look and want to lose some fat you can then have a period under maintenance calories. You’d then cycle the two, maybe with a period of not tracking calories in between each cycle.

Make sure you’re not over working them, you need rest for them to rebuild. That includes plenty of sleep.

I’d also say make sure the ‘mind + muscle’ connection is there and you can feel them on fire. It might take reducing the weight and slowing reps down whilst thinking about actively using the muscles.
Glutes in general are weak compared to the other major muscle groups in your leg and it doesn’t take much for them to compensate and remove your glutes from the exercise.

between 1400-1600 cals?

Yeah this is a cutting amount of cals. I know it’s a bit scary if you’ve worked hard to get to a target weight but you could look at what cals you could be on to gain to build muscle. Or buy the pants with the bum pads in if you want to stay your size but have some curve

That's exactly it- its taken me 16 months to drop from 11st 5 to where i am now and im worried about taking on more and then being unable find the willpower to reduce again. Gah. what everyone has said makes sense, catch 22 i guess!

At 8st and 5’6 you are very slim, actually underweight on BMI. If you only eat at maintenance level your body is going to put those calories towards survival rather than building muscle. You can afford to eat a bit more.

Go and see a physio. There is a high chance that your glutes aren't firing up and that you're using other muscles around them to compensate. This can give you massive issues later on. Try it - you'll probably find out loads about your biomechanics which will really help you.

You are just about into the underweight category going on your BMI though. So if you were to gain some weight why would it matter?

You need to gain weight OP

It takes a long time and you HAVE to be in a calorie surplus to grow muscle.

Have a listen to this podcast interview with Lawrence van Lingen, he’s an expert in biomechanics.

It’s long but worth it: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/feel-better-live-more-with-dr-rangan-chatterjee/id1333552422?i=1000710102686

If you can’t listen to the whole thing, focus on 1:19:00 till about 1:27:00. He explicitly references people who say they can’t build their glutes and how it’s actually often down to their breathing - yes really!

Too complicated for me to explain, but do listen. It’s really interesting!

You weigh 50kg?!
That's why you don't have an ass!

Sorry, no offence...you are VERY light though.

What is your training goal? Do you have an idea of what sort of body you'd like? Because that is kind of long-distance runner weight and height...
And you won't be able to gain muscle without gaining weight, because, at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, if you put on 1kg of muscle you will be 1kg heavier.

If you've been really focussed on the number on the scales for a long time, I can see how it is scary to let go of that, but do you think you can now alter your goal without losing focus, so you can progress and build muscle?

I’m 5’2 and 9 stone , I train 3 times a week and bulk for a week a month, it’s taken me 9 months to build glutes with the trials and errors , it’s not a quick thing to do, you have to build up your weights for them to grow.
You definitely need more calories as how else can you build muscles.

Hip thrust, Bulgarians 2 main that worked for my Apple shape ! progressive overload and high rep (10) high weight 70/80 kg for me now ! Also paused at the top hip thrust. I do 4 sets super set 10 hip thrust and paused 5 sec hip thrust. And with Bulgarians 4 sets 2 superset weighted and 1 unweighted. Also it takes years. I use evolve you app

If only it were possible to transfer bums over to others. I’d gladly volunteer 3/4 of mine 😂😂

But as others said you probably need to increase your calorie intake as it seems you’re at maintenance right now.

OP can do all the hip thrusts and Bulgarians in the world, unless she is in calorie surplus she isn’t going to get a 🍑

OP get a tdee calculator, workout your true tdee 1400-1600 will not be your tdee if your lifting weights and getting steps etc in that is a cut and you’ll likely be losing and not gaining muscle. Find your maintenance calories and increase your current ones by 100 a week until your are just above maintenance, I’d use a protein source for the calorie increase. Then lift heavy, progressive overload, the same exercises, don’t switch it up. Focus on compound moves at the start of your workout where you can put all your energy into going heavy, don’t bash out 12 or more reps, you should be starting to fail at around 8 reps and pushing for another 2, when you can easily get to 10/12 reps (around two weeks or more) it’s time to up them weights. Finish with isolation exercises. It will take months to build anything unfortunately.