So, I completely stopped trying to cut / avoid working lower body. It backfired spectacularly and somehow made my ass look bigger
Now I’m trying to build up back and legs so that my booty becomes unimpressive — just one of many well-developed muscle groups in that area. Was trying to gage my progress on that, that’s all
I’m somewhere in between wasn’t my intention for it to be a hard number and misleading
We haven’t seen your back before or current, so that’s not something to gauge. As for the legs, they’re… there. Not much to say.
In terms of specifics, one leg day per week should be plenty. You might be the rare exception that can legitimately get by on even less frequency than that. Pre-exhaust quads and hams, and avoid/drastically minimize any hip extension (which means deadlift variations and pretty much all hip hinges).
What has your weekly training looked like overall, and leg work in particular?
Is this a thing that actually happens? I know you’re mostly being sarcastic, but I found the growth of my ass incredibly odd. Never had a small ass, but seemingly out-of-the-blue it started to grow really rapidly, way more than any other muscle. It would always be by far my sorest muscle post-workout. Had no idea why it was happening, and I wasn’t in a position to stop it from getting bigger. Got the stretch marks to prove it
I’ve been doing a shit ton of cycling, and about two times a week I’m in the gym. I alternate between deadlifts and squats (not too deep obviously and with a narrow stance), and round things out with variations like jumping split squats
You really think one day a week + pre-exhausting legs is enough? I figured if I’m gonna balance out my physique I’d need to work out more intensely than that
Hip hinge motion is bad? Huh, I was always under the impression that deadlifts worked back and hamstrings more than glutes
And for upper body I’ve been mostly doing body weight stuff - lot of pull ups - but things like shoulder press and overhead rows as well.
Thought about that… just say fuck it and try and grow my glutes as much as possible. As it is, my ass is big enough to hang towels off of (stg), so I wonder what a full-on shelf would look like haha.
But I bust pants way too frequently with the backside I currently have, so I’ll pass, at least for now
Don’t you think you might be overlooking your upper body? The first thing I thought when I saw your pictures was: a huge upper back would do wonders in making your butt appear proportionally smaller.
I don’t think you should focus on your legs too much. You should train them, sure, but really work on your upper body. Even if you made it to a point where your legs “catch up” to your ass, then you’d just be a dude with a huge ass and legs. Not very far away from your starting point.
Be a huge guy period. That sounds a lot better doesn’t it?
Does it seem like muscle or does it seem like fat? Maybe you’re a blessed male that doesn’t hold fat on his love handles but rather his buttocks.
Haha, what?
Your glutes are already dominant. When you do stuff that doesn’t ordinarily contribute heavily to glute growth in other people your body will still recruit the glutes and since it seems to be easy for you to hypertrophy that means you recruit it probably moreso than other people. And that feeds back into itself.
Maybe it’s easier to understand when speaking of the upper body. Postulate you have a dominant chest, and weak triceps, and you bench press. Well, the chest will contribute the most to that movement then and leave your triceps somewhat understimulated. You may very well be limited by your triceps, but to balance out you’d have to do more triceps work that does not involve the pectorals. I can feel my pecs contributing on a bloody rope triceps pushdown if I go ego-lifting and try and move as much weight as possible. Lower the weight, and really focus on the triceps (and maybe opt for a exercise that targets it even better without recruiting the pecs) is the way to balance out the disrepancy.
That does make sense, I just figured thighs were the more important of the two to develop, given their proximity to the butt and the fact that they could “stick out behind me” (for lack of a better term) and join my glutes more than a big back would. I’ll definitely up my game there though
That’s a fair point (although there are differences between belly fat and leg fat, that I do know). I will say that it’s objectively a firm butt, and that cutting had little appreciable impact on its size and protrusion. Not saying there isn’t fat at all, but it’s not a significant factor here.
And if I lean forward some, yeah I totally can. Usually I’m too self conscious to do it but it can be a neat little parlour trick sometimes
Literally the one plus I can think of of having an ass this big
The one plus you can think of is the nice parlour trick of balancing a champagne glass? Dude, you have @theBeth swooning. While we haven’t heard from @queen_cobra yet I imagine she might make N=2.
An ex-coworker of mine, men’s classic physique, also had a decent set of glutes and whenever he walked through the office you’d see the few female heads that were there turn.
There’s a positive light you could bring to bear on it. Not everyone has a physical trait that let’s them screen whether or not their friends are assholes and should best be replaced by other friends.
That’s a nice way of putting it. I don’t wanna overstate it, they’re not bad people, they’re just merciless when it comes to teasing me about my oversized backside hahaha
Each of those exercises will still be incorporating/activating the glutes. Plyos especially. The body needs to use the glutes to produce explosive force [fart joke goes here], so I’d remove them.
I think if you have a body part you want to de-emphasize, training it multiple times per week is a bad idea. Unless you had one day that was, like, just extensions, curls, and calf raises and another day that was those exercises to pre-exhaust followed by other specifically chosen movements.
The posterior chain works as a unit - hams, glutes, low back - hip hinges. Different exercises will work each in varying degrees, but that movement pattern will always use some glutes. You want to get glute recruitment as close to zero as possible.
That sounds more like a token “stay in shape” approach to upper body work, not an “I need my upper body as huge as my overdeveloped glutes” approach.
Not for nothing, but ball-busting is pretty normal among good friends unless you’ve made it crystal clear that it’s a legit issue causing you genuine stress.