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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Queen's U chapter.

Let’s talk fitness for a second! Thanks to ever-changing societal standards, we are currently in the age of idolization for the big booty. Thankfully, having a strong booty is not only aesthetically pleasing, but it can also reduce your chance of injury and help you better your posture. Because I did cheer when I was younger, my legs were in pretty good shape for the majority of high school. However, quitting cheer in grade 12 to find a job and feeling too uneducated to use my university’s gym proved to quickly disintegrate much of the definition I had in my legs. In the end of first year, I began to watch Youtube videos and hit the gym with my friend (who is a certified PT) and slowly became more comfortable with going to the gym alone. Throughout my fitness journey, I’ve learned a tip or two about actually making those booty gains. I’m going to share with you the most important booty-growing tips I know!  

Eat … a lot!

To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. The opposite is true for gaining muscle! You must be in a caloric surplus (consuming more than you burn) but the exact amount of calories you should eat is dependent on your weight. I try to stay around the 2000 mark, but do some research to better understand how many calories you should be getting dependent on your weight!

Activate your glutes before every leg day.

Activating the glutes and legs before going into heavy lifts and compound exercises fires up the glute muscles and strengthens them. Going into heavy/compound lifts with warm muscles (this is applicable for any other area you’re going to work out!) reduces the possibility of injury. Some of my favourite glute activation exercises include: glute bridges with abduction at the top, donkey kicks, clams, and glute kick-backs. Make sure to do 20-30 reps of each exercise before you start your workout!

Lift heavy while keeping proper form.

To gain muscle, aside from caloric surplus, you must also lift heavy. Doing air squats in your basement can only get you so far! When you lift heavy, it “shocks” the muscles and engages the muscle fibers to generate muscle force. However, it’s important that you lift what you can. Don’t risk proper form by adding too much weight — using proper form in exercises ensures that you engage the muscles you want to focus on. Improper form can result in injury. 

Discover your favourite booty-growing exercises.

Regarding the mental aspect of working out, it’s important to find exercises that you enjoy and that you feel work best for you. All bodies are different and therefore exercises that work for me may not work for you, and that’s okay– trial and error! My current favourite exercises include: hip thrusts, hip abduction machine, cable pull-throughs, cable kick-backs, and a box squat superset of full box squats and 3/4 box squats. 

Get good rest after a leg day.

To build muscle, you must be constantly “shocking” your muscles. It’s the tearing of the muscles and the reparation of the torn muscle fibers that actually strengthen them. You must be getting sufficient rest as your muscles repair themselves during sleep. Another rule of thumb is to wait a day or two to work out the same muscle group. If you wake up two days after your leg workout and your legs still hurt, do not do a leg workout that day. It just means it needs more time to rest and heal before you put it under stress again. 

Switch up your workouts to avoid a plateau.

Progressive overload is an important part of building muscle. This basically just means gradually increasing the stress you put on your muscles as you go through strength training. Once your muscles have adapted to the certain exercise regime you have been following, stress will be reduced and you must find new ways to shock these muscles once again. Ways to do this include: switching up workouts performed on leg days every other week, gradually increasing the weight of your exercises, increasing sets, or changing up the tempo of your exercises (maybe you hold for 5 second at the top of your hip thrust or take 5 seconds to sink down into your squat). 

I also want to say that I know there is a stigma about gaining muscle that can be intimidating for women who are worried about looking too muscular/ manly. This is not true! Weight training has many health benefits, and with proper nutrition and hydration, you will not become “bulky”. 

Victoria Cooke

Queen's U '21

Victoria is a fourth year Drama student at Queen's University. She loves fitness, fashion, the arts, and all things creative. She hopes to inspire and teach others through writing.