Tamara Grand - Ultimate Booty Workouts: Exercises to Build, Lift and Sculpt an Amazing Butt

Text Copyright 2013 Tamara Grand. Design and Concept 2013 Ulysses Press and its licensors. Photographs copyright 2013 Rapt Productions except as noted below. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (including but not limited to photocopying, electronic devices, digital versions and the Internet) without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Published in the United States by

Ulysses Press

P.O. Box 3440

Berkeley, CA 94703

www.ulyssespress.com

ISBN: 978-1-61243-320-2

Library of Congress Control Number 2013947593

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acquisitions: Kelly Reed

Managing editor: Claire Chun

Editors: Lauren Harrison, Lily Chou

Proofreader: Elyce Berrigan-Dunlop

Indexer: Sayre Van Young

Front cover design: what!design @ whatweb.com

Front cover images: wave graphic Dietmar Hoepfl/shutterstock.com; woman Syda Productions/shutterstock.com

Interior photographs: Rapt Productions except page 7 women doing squats Alexander Tihonov/shutterstock.com; page 14 muscle anatomy Digital Storm/shutterstock.com; page 25 goblet squat Warren Goldswain/shutterstock.com; page 82 hip extension Dima Fadeev/shutterstock.com

Models: Nadia Brunner-Velasquez, Tamara Grand

Please Note

This book has been written and published strictly for informational purposes, and in no way should be used as a substitute for actual instruction with qualified professionals. The author and publisher are providing you with information in this work so that you can have the knowledge and can choose, at your own risk, to act on that knowledge. The author and publisher also urge all readers to be aware of their health status and to consult health care professionals before beginning any health program.

Contents

Next to abs, butts are womens favorite thing to complain about. Too big, too flabby, too flat, too little definition, too dimpled, not enough lift. Everybody wants Beyoncs booty, but few know what to do to get it.

The good news? Glute training is not rocket science. Combine targeted strength-training exercises with fat-melting cardio techniques and proper nutrition and youll be on your way to the booty of your dreams in a mere 10 to 12 weeks.

A well-trained rear end isnt just nice to look at. Strong glutes and hamstrings can help improve your posture, reduce lower back, hip, and knee pain, and even reduce that stubborn abdominal pooch. Whats more, because muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does, increasing lean muscle mass via strength training can accelerate fat loss and help keep it off.

Ultimate Booty Workouts features an easy-to-follow, 12-week progressive resistance-training program designed to build and sculpt a firmer, rounder, and more muscular butt in only 30 to 40 minutes a day, 2 to 3 days a week. The workouts in this book can be done at home or at the gym with as little equipment as a few pairs of dumbbells and a stability ball. Alternative exercise options are provided for those with access to barbells, a squat rack, a cable and pulley machine, or a TRX suspension trainer.

How Glutes Training Eliminated My Lower Back Pain

In my job as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor, I spend much of my day engaged in activities that emphasize the muscles on the front of my body. After years of non-incline walking and running and teaching step aerobics and indoor cycling, Id become quad dominant; the muscles on the back side of my legs were noticeably weaker than those on the front.

One day, I was teaching a small group training class how to squat on the BOSU Balance Trainer. We were using body weight only and limiting the depth to which we were squatting, an easy and familiar move for me. After completing a dozen or so repetitions, I attempted to return to standing and experienced an excruciating pain in my lower back. I couldnt straighten my upper body and carefully stepped off the BOSU. I managed to teach the remainder of the class (using verbal cues only!), but I couldnt bend over to pick weights up off the floor and had to call my husband to come and drive me home.

A trip to the physiotherapist revealed that what Id experienced was a severe muscle spasm most likely caused by the weakness of my glutes and hamstrings as compared to my quads. A front-back muscular imbalance was causing undue strain on the muscles of my lower back, and I was given a series of glute and hamstringstrengthening exercises to perform.

Within 6 weeks of starting my rehab program I was not only pain-free, I was in need of a new pair of jeans. The unexpected benefit of my physiotherapists glute-training program was a larger, higher, and firmer butt.

Today, I regularly incorporate glutes and hamstring training in my own workouts, as well as those of my group fitness classes and personal training clients. My favorite client complaint? My butt was sore for 2 days after our last session.

About the Book

Ultimate Booty Workouts is a 12-week, progressive resistance-training program that targets the muscles of the legs, butt, and lower back. It can be used as a stand-alone program or in conjunction with your current upper-body and core-strengthening routines, depending on your fitness goals and the amount of time you have available for exercise.

The program can be completed by beginners and seasoned weight lifters alike; both basic exercises and more advanced modifications are provided for each of the three phases of the program.

The book is divided into five major sections.

discusses the benefits of glutes training, shares tips for starting and sticking with a new exercise program, and describes the movements youll be performing during the 12-week training program as well as the muscles behind those movements. It also provides answers to many common questions women have about strength training and offers nutritional suggestions to complement the hard work youll be doing in the gym.

details the 12-week program and outlines its three 4-week phases: Setting the Foundation, Building Muscle, and Leaning and Cutting. Newcomers to strength training will find definitions of common weight lifting terminology here, as well as a discussion of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and tips for measuring progress on and off the scales. Suggestions for combining this program with your existing exercise schedule are given here.

describes and illustrates the exercises in detail. Advanced alternatives and suggestions for incorporating additional fitness tools into the workouts are also provided.

Warming up and stretching are integral parts of a successful strength training program. In , I discuss the elements of a good warm-up, suggest movements to warm up the muscles of the butt and legs, and provide examples of effective lower body stretches to be performed at the end of each workout. An introduction to foam rolling is also provided.