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!

All the training in the world won't alter your genetics.

And women gain muscle slooooowly.

I have really strong glutes, squat almost my bodyweight, deadlift 35k over my body weight and can push or pull several 100 kilos on the sled. Yet my butt is still pretty flat (but then I couldn't think of anything worse than a sticky-out butt, frankly. It gets in the way in ballet class).

You’re very underweight. I think if you put a stone on, focussed on eating protein to do it and did all those work outs with weights, the bum would appear

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.

This, too. My physiotherapist says this to me - he says that generally people's glutes are not strong enough for the demands we put on them, so you have to be deliberate about making sure you fire them up. Often this isn't by heavy weights, but by, for example, a banded crab walk.

Even my strong glutes have to be trained & maintained carefully to do the work required of them. And as PPs say, the mind-muscle connection (proprioception) is really important.

That is not enough to grow muscles! (I'm on a cut, at 165 cm and 70k I need to) but I'm eating 1400-1500 calories per day.

Just stop the diet and exercise, eat what you want then voila… a big bum will be yours with no effort! 😳

@PITCHpink

Gotta eat big to get big. No other way round it, you don't eat enough to grow.

Yes.

think about it.

your calorie intake is not enough to maintain your weight. Anything you eat will be basic function, breathing, heart, brain, digestion, any exercise you are doing.

you have no fat supplies now to make up the difference between what you’re eating and the calories you’re using. So your body will burn muscle. You’re at a steady state where the more you exercise those muscles, the more energy you use and the more your body will metabolise muscle to make up the calorie deficit.

eat more. Then your body can use the calorie surplus to build muscle. Like a pp said you want to gain a kg of muscle you need to gain a kg. You don’t have the fat to lose to replace with the same weight of muscle so you can’t make up that kg in weight loss from other sources.

bear in mind the more muscle you have the more calories you use, and muscle requires energy constantly, fat doesn’t need any.

you need to eat and fuel the muscle. Alll the macros and protein won’t make an ounce of difference if you want to gain muscle and not lose any more weight.

You definitely need to up your calories lovely. To build muscle you need to gain weight - at 8 stone and your height you’d probably struggle to lose fat and build muscle as you’re very slight for your height. Try adding 500 calories on to whatever you’re eating in a day for a few weeks and carry on with the squats - nice deep (below parallel!) low bar back squats and you’ll have a bum! It can be scary thinking about putting weight on but if you keep your training up and get your protein in you’d just add mostly muscle. You need fat to have muscle also! Check out starting strength online, excellent strength training resources x

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

How heavy are you lifting? Do you do full depth barbell back squats? And full depth with a pause at the bottom? Do you get to failure after 6 reps? What rest breaks do you take between sets? How much are you working on stretching & mobility? How much plyo/explosive work are you doing?

What do you think your body will create muscle out of if not excess calories?

I agree, 8st at 5’6 is very lean, with minimal fat.

Do you squat heavy with a barbell on your shoulders?

I was gonna say 8stone is very thin at your height even without the want to build muscle.

Are you on bulking macros? Your glutes are big muscles so you need to bulk and do those exercises with heavy weights and then do a cut to lose the excess fat.

8st at 5tf6 is thin, its very unlikely anything you do will build a significant bum at that weight.

I say this as someone who has a big arse naturally, but when I dropped to under 7st (I'm 5ft1) my arse got very small.

You can build glutes with muscle for sure, but there has to me something to work with also. So you might need to up your calorie intake to see if that helps.

5'6 and 8 stone is tiny!!

Up the calorie intake whilst doing all those exercises and you'll build muscle.