I have the same problem. I agree with the others, anterior pelvic tilt is a big part of the problem. So stretch the hip flexors daily. Also I reduced leg work. I don’t due heavy back squats anymore, just a few sets of heel elevated front squats or (I can hear the laughs now) leg extensions. I also ran 3-4 miles, 3 or 4 times a week, this also reduce the size of my legs and arse.
Bear in mind the ladies like to have something solid to hold onto.
How are you addressing your anterior pelvic tilt?
My understanding is that to correct this postural problem, you need to focus on strengthening the glutes (as well as hamstrings, abs, and obliques). Thus, to neglect training your glutes may only perpetuate your anterior pelvic tilt, which itself is probably contributing greatly to the appearance of a massive ass.
Until I see a pic, I call BS.
I’m sorry, what’s wrong with big glutes? I had 'em even before I learned to activate them during squats. Now they’re busting out of my boxers and jeans and I’m proud as hell. I agree with rmccart1, the girls have been grabbing my ass since high school.
There is of course nothing as such “wrong” with big glutes. If however you have big glutes and are not happy about how you look then you have a problem.
Scott M, I follow your argument but the idea of “overtraining a muscle to bring it down” just doesn’t correspond with what we see in practice.
I gave you an example about calves but there are countless others. Look at manual workers who suffer no apparent atrophy though engaged in prolonged physical exercise. What about gymnasts who also engage in lengthy work outs or what about a tennis player’s arm? By your reasoning the dominant playing arm should become smaller but the opposite is true.
More pertinently I have not observed that jogging selectively reduces mass in the legs unless accompanied by an overall mass reduction.
If you have a genetic predisposition to grow a particular muscle then anything sufficiently intense will tend to lead to hypertrophy including sets of 30-50 reps imo.
Your post about Ronnie Colman is of course predicated on his losing overall body size and as for retraining after overall body mass loss it is interesting but I do not know if anyone has done it.
I think we are agreed however that he has to avoid any further direct stimulation of the area by squatting etc.
Hey guys,
Like I said, pics up as soon as I get my hands on a camera.
With regards to the anterior tilt:
I’m working on strengthening my hams (was using squats and that machine thats like the opposite of a leg curl, and deads)
I’m strengthening my abs (situps and a couple of other exercies I got of T-Nation) and also am working on stretching my lower back and hip flexors/abductors.
With regards to reduction - it sounds like it’s not gonna happen. The thing is, my glutes have always been big, so its not like they just grew when i started lifting, they were always big, even when I did no exercies.
I was wondering - is it possible that poor posture, be it an anterior pelvic tilt or large curve in the spine or muscle imbalances in the leg, can cause more emphahsis to be placed on the glutes in general, which leads to over development on the glutes?
If this is the case, then maybe correcting my posture may help?
What about my idea of just cutting cals drastically and working out heavy on all muscles except the glutes?
This sounds like it would work to me?
Thanks,
SS
I guess it is possible that postural considerations have resulted in your stimulating the glutes but whether changes in posture will result in atrophy of the muscle I will leave to others here to comment. I suspect however that no significant effect will occur.
I don’t think you can do more than you have set out although I am not sure what the drastic cutting of cals is meant to achieve unless you are referring to losing body fat.
In summary:
- Reduce body fat
- Avoid direct stimulation of the glutes
- Build muscle elsewhere
- Accept what you can’t change
Peter,
The aim of cutting cals was two fold:
-
Like you said, cut body fat.
-
I thought cutting cals and moving to heavy strength training, while avoiding glute activation would lead to atrophy of all my muscle, but much more so on my glutes, due to heavy lifting somewhat preserving my muscle elsewhere.
This seems to make sense to me logically, can anyone comment on this idea?
I think your summary basically lays out what I can do and acheive, altho your last point is a hard pill to swallow…
At the end of the day, it’s not a significant issue in my life, and my overall athletic performance is more important to me than asthetic needs…but if there is ANY way to reduce the problem, even a bit, I wanna do it.
Thanks again for all the help guys, I’ll get pics up, just so people can see what I mean.
Cheers,
SS
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
Until you put up some pics, I’m going to struggle with the mere possibility that you have glutes that are in anyway, freakishly overproportioned.
I suspect that when you do put up pics, 95% of the people here, on a bodybuilding forum will see nothing overproportioned about your glutes at all, except that other areas may (and I’m not really attacking you here) be noticeably underproportioned, creating an optical illusion.
[/quote]
I agree. A big ass isn’t going to look out of place on a big guy.
Everybody is complaining that they have the same problem. Unless you can see the striations of your ass muscles, I doubt your asses are overproportioned. Lose some fat and fix your posture…you will notice a difference.
OP just ignores me…
This guy is 187 lbs at 6 ft. There’s no way his glutes are too big. MAKE YOUR HAMSTRINGS grow!
-Build your hamstrings and the glutes will look great!
-Fix your anterior pelvic tilt
-Stop trying to magically atrophy your glutes, they probably aren’t even that big anyway. I bet you just have disproportionate surrounding muscles.
Read:
- Hips Dont Lie by Mike Robertson
- Neanderthal No More
- : Any article about hamstring training and muscle balance.
Exercises to do:
-Good Mornings
-Pull Throughs
-Lunges (yes, glutes will grow, but so will hams)
-High Step Ups (unilateral work will help with adductor/abductor balance)
[quote]Scorched Soul wrote:
Hey guys,
I have to say, I’m surprised by the lack of ribbing, I really appreciate all the helpful responses.
First of all, radxf, I have heard that comment too many times! When people actually comment on it, you know it ain’t in your head!
Rmccart - no doubt, some of it is fat. I store a lot of fat around the belly, lower back and glutes area, and cutting my body fat would definitely help a bit, but it is really the muscle itself which is sticking out.
Itwasnt me - I would say the problem is fundementally due to the muscles just being big, but of course my anterior pelvic tilt would contribute the effect. I’m working on that as we speak.
Scott M - Thanks for the training advice, it sounds like what I was expecting. I have to say, I don’t like the sound of cutting out squats!! I only started squatting recently, and I dont wanna stop now, it’s really helped my performance in basketball, and I’m quite reluctant to quit.
How does this sound?
Squat on my toes, so as to put more focus on the quads, and perhaps focus on lower weights and higher reps. I will definitely seperate out upper and lower body days, so I can cut my cals on lower body workout days (and subsequent days)
I’ll also do those deadlifts suggested by drivethru hero, on the same day. Calves, I’ll keep hitting whenever I can, on all workout days!
In terms of cardio, u reckon the stepper machine on low resistance for a long time? Are we talking about 30 mins, and hour? As long as I can? What about jogging on the treadmill, at zero incline?
Any other suggestions for exercies which dont hit the glutes would be much appreciated, as well as any other comments or advice.
Thanks again guys,
SS
[/quote]
Anytime you do a compound posterior chain exercise like deadlifts you will be hitting your butt. Your butt is the strongest muscle in the chain. So doing any a compound posterior chain exercise your butt will do the majority of work. The only way around this is to do isolation movements like leg curls for your hams.
I would also recommend leg press with feet directly under your butt and/or front squats instead of back squats.
Still waiting on those pics so we can tell you that you’re just fat, OP.
[quote]Scorched Soul wrote:
Thanks for that insightful reply.
I was actually asking for help on how to do something about it.
Just to clarify, it ain’t fat, it’s muscle. I’ve stepped up my weight training in recent months, and I’ve noticed it getting worse, probably because all my squats and hamstring work is building up that area.
Can someone comment on how to avoid working the glute area, and also on my idea on how to actually reduce the size?
Thanks,
SS[/quote]
Perhaps you should do front squats instead of back squats?
I bet that you have something called ANTERIOR PELVIC TILT!
Plus you are above 15% bodyfat, and have notorious fat receptors located at gluteal region of your body.
These are the causes of your “big ass”!
Muscles sculpt and form the body, so there are little chances that you have too big gluteal muscles!
Hint - fixing anterior pelvic tilt, search T-Nation.
For those - you can’t lose muscle selectively…
blah blah…
Just want to point out: women are instinctually inclined to go for guys with bigger glutes. It means we have more pushing power for when it counts.