Why glute training is important even if you already have a BGB

About a year and a half ago then gal pal and now Performance Fitness minion (oh heck, she’s still my gal pal), Elise Miller, started talking to me about her butt.

Actually it was her lack of butt about which she was, shall we say a bit obsessed. She’d done some research, purchased a book by some guy known as “The Glute Guy” (mental eye roll on my part), named Bret Contreras, read the ENTIRE xx page book in one weekend, and started on her glute building quest.

Frankly, her glute obsession, elicited a second mental eye-roll from me. Glute building? Create a bigger a**? Frankly, it all sounded like “white girl problems”.

I’m generalizing here, but black girls are usually not lacking in the booty department. Granted there are those of us who have small booties or flat ones, but I’m not one of those women. I’m “blessed” with a BGB (Black Girl Butt). Making my butt bigger, fuller, rounder, higher, etc. was the furthest thing from my mind. In fact during my school years my BGB seemed more of a curse than an ASSet (Ha! see what I did there?).

I did 10 years in Catholic school, and I can tell you that those jumpers and kilts are NOT made for girls with BGBs. In fact they look best on girls from the Noassatall Tribe. Those girls look adorable in their kilts. Like models from the Flynn and O’Hara catalog, or perhaps extras from music video fantasy land. On girls with BGBs, kilts ride up in the back creating this awkward acute angle that just – ain’t cute, and if you were 20-30 pounds overweight like I was for all of my childhood and teen years (aw heck, and college AND most of my 20s) the look was all kinds of messed up.

So yeah, glute training? No thanks.

Buuut, since I’m ever curious and always wantin’ to learn, I checked out Bret Contreras, found out that he was the real deal, and I even bought his book, Strong Curves.

During my research I also found out that I too could benefit from glute training. Maybe I wasn’t trying to create a certain ASSaethetic (sorry, couldn’t resist), but further strengthening my glutes (already made strong through years of kettlebell swings) meant that I could do more during my training, in other words swing heavier bells and deadlift even heavier sh*t, and burn more calories while doing it. Sweet!

Now, if you want a comprehensive guide on the whys and hows of glute training check out Bret Contreras’ website. For now I’ll give you my quick and dirty on why you should train your glutes.

Michelle’s Top 5 Reasons to Train Your Glutes:

1. Your glutes are the biggest muscle in your body. Training and building that big muscle will put significant demands on your body, resulting in burning more calories and fat during your workout.
2. Your glutes provide you with power for jumping. That means better squat jumps, tuck jumps, and jumping lunges!
3. Your glutes help propel you forward. That means better sprints.
4. Your glutes are used in movements where you extend your hips (Stand up. Congrats, you just extended your hips). We desk jockeys spend a ton of time in hip flexion (seated), which can result in lower back, knee, and hip pain. Developing the glutes by doing hip extension exercises can help counteract the effects of so much sitting.
5. And my number one reason for having our clients train their glutes – Lower Back Health! Your glutes help stabilize the pelvis in neutral position. A stabilized pelvis helps to keep your spine in neutral as well. A stable spine is a strong spine, and a strong, stable spine can mitigate or help eliminate lower back pain and help you avoid injury.

Need a few tips on HOW to train those glutes? Check out this post.

Bring on the Kettlebooty.