Today’s article is about the current fad I am calling “Instagram Butt” which is the current desire of many of today’s fitness enthusiasts to have a large bum!!
Unfortunately, with Instagram driving images of perfection in all aspects of life, there is a wave of obsession at my local gym with more and more members spending inordinate amounts of time performing butt exercises in the hope of achieving the often unreachable goal of a butt that defies gravity and extends an unnatural distance behind you!!
Not that I am against building up an important muscle group like the Gluteals, but sadly many of these aspiring fitness buffs are being fooled by the image manipulation of many of the world’s top fitness models when displaying their often ample derrieres.
Firstly, some anatomy to better understand what is going on:
The buttock is made up of 3-main gluteal muscle groups:
1. The Gluteus maximus (the main focus of these clients)
2. Gluteus medius
3. Gluteus minimus
The main joint movements that these muscles create when contracting are:
1. Hip Extension
2. Hip Abduction
3. Hip External Rotation
Hip Extension is the main locomotion hip movement – this is what propels us forward every time we take a step or push down on the pedals of a bike.
The gluteus maximus is the main muscle group that creates this joint movement and so typically we see gym clients doing as many hip extension exercises as they can each session.
These exercises typically include:
Kneeling S/L Hip Extensions – Supine D/L Hip Extensions – S/L Hip Extensions
Squat Pumpers with band
(staying in a squat position and either performing small repeat squats or walking forwards, backwards, sideways.
INSTAGRAM BUTT FAKE NEWS!!!
I have nothing against clients working their butts hard when training but where I do have issues is when the total focus of the training is just the butt and when speaking with many of these clients, they have quite unrealistic expectations of just how big they think they can get their butt to be (and what they need to do to get a larger butt).
Not only are they destined to not achieve the sorts of backsides you see online but often the backside is trained without adequate core training. I tested a client’s core in my local gym and she spends >60min every day doing only butt exercises!! When I tested her core she scored 1/7 for her core strength!!
Many of these beliefs are based on false imagery and associated programming from instagram influencers who are just out to make money.
Some of the ways these models manipulate their posts include;
a. Many of these Instagram images are doctored in that the model is performing a massive anterior pelvic tilt to make their butt look substantially bigger than what it is.
b. Many of these large butt models are also carrying quite a bit of body fat (just hidden by well by a positioned camera angle) of which a fair percentage is being carried on their butts adding to the size.
A classic example of the Anterior pelvic tilt is this image to the right – I have drawn a line showing this model’s lumbar spine angle!!!!
So, hopefully you can see from this image that her butt is no where near as big as she is trying to indicate. She is just manipulating her pelvic position to artificially increase the size.
In previous articles I have written on the importance of minimising excessive anterior pelvic tilt, as this poor pelvic positioning can lead to:
- Poor core development,
- Excessive lumbar spine loading,
- Short hip flexors (which further exacerbate the lower back issues) and
- Overall poor posture.
In summary, I am all for developing a strong butt, but ensure that this is done in a way that is realistic and leads to a balanced muscular development throughout the entire core region.
