Grow Your Glutes without Growing Your Legs

47 Pages·2019·44.425 MB·English

by  Bret Contreras

GGRROOWW
YOUR
GGLLUUTTEESS
WITHOUT
GGRROOWWIINNGG
LLEEGGSS
YOUR
1122--WWEEEEKK PPRROOGGRRAAMM
BRET CONTRERAS, PhD
with GLEN CORDOZA
© 2019 Bret Contreras and Glen Cordoza
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written
permission from Bret Contreras.
This book is for educational purposes. The authors of this book and program are not responsible
in any manner whatsoever for any adverse effects arising directly or indirectly as a result of the
information provided in this book. If not practiced safely and with caution, working out can be
dangerous to you and others. It is important to consult with a professional fitness instructor before
beginning training. It is also important to consult with a physician prior to training due to the
intense and strenuous nature of the techniques outlined in this book.
Table of Contents *Click or press the title of the chapters
to jump directly to the page number
INTRODUCTION 3
HOW TO GROW YOUR GLUTES WITHOUT GROWING YOUR LEGS 6
PROGRAM FAQ 8
12-WEEK PROGRAM 15
WEEK 1-4 16
DAY 1 16
DAY 2 17
DAY 3 18
WEEK 5-8 19
DAY 1 19
DAY 2 20
DAY 3 21
WEEK 9-12 22
DAY 1 22
DAY 2 23
DAY 3 24
EXERCISE APPENDIX 25
2
Introduction
When it comes to training for aesthetics, most people have certain areas of their body that they
would like to improve. Some just want a flat stomach or have specific weight loss goals, while
others only care about putting on muscle, either all over their body or in a specific area. In most
cases, it’s a combination of goals that pertain to body composition and sculpting a certain look,
which is the essence of bodybuilding. You’re trying to change your appearance by lifting weights.
Since I’m the “Glute Guy” it should come as no surprise that people who seek my advice and
want customized programs are looking to improve the aesthetics of their backsides. That is, they
want to use resistance training to sculpt shapelier, higher-performing glutes. For the majority, I
generally recommend following a well-rounded full body program with a glute training emphasis,
such as the ones I included in my book Glute Lab: The Art and Science of Physique Training. These
programs emphasize glute dominant movements such as hip thrusts, glute bridges, kickbacks, and
abduction exercises, but also include quad and ham dominant exercises such as squat and deadlift
variations.
Although these programs are great for people who want a well-rounded plan with an emphasis
on glute training, they’re not for everyone and doesn’t cater to specific goals. For instance, I work
with a lot of people who just want bigger glutes. More specifically, I work with a lot of women and
get a lot of messages from people who want to grow their glutes without growing their legs.
These people typically fall into one of two categories. The first is people who are lean or happy
with their body composition, but just want a little bit more gluteal prominence, meaning they
want their glutes to protrude from their legs and they don’t want to put on any additional mass on
their legs that might affect their glute to leg muscle ratio. This makes sense because the bigger your
quads and hamstrings are in relation to your glutes, the smaller your glutes might look, even if you
have big, strong glutes. It’s important to point out that this viewpoint is subjective to individual
preferences, and anatomy and genetics have a lot to do with it. However, people that fall into this
category might benefit from following a glutes-only plan, such as the 12-week Grow Your Glutes
without Growing Your Legs program provided in the following pages.
The second is people who believe they have overdeveloped quads, adductors, and hamstrings
in relation to their glutes. This could stem from always squatting and deadlifting and not
programming enough glute dominant exercises (CrossFitters typically fall into this category) or
years of playing quad dominant field sports such as basketball and soccer. It could also be due to
genetics. You can have great genetics for one muscle and poor genetics for another. For example,
some people have great quad building genetics, but have a hard time building muscle in their
glutes. For these people, the Grow Your Glutes without Growing Your Legs program is a great
training plan because it introduces a variety of glute-specific exercises while omitting the exercises
that typically put mass on the legs.
Now, if you fall into one of these two categories, you might be thinking that this program
is perfect for you. While the program might suit your goals, it’s important to discuss body
composition (proportion of fat to muscle) because a lot of women I work with wrongly assume
they have overdeveloped legs when in reality they simply store more fat in their lower body. And
they fail to realize that changing body composition requires more than just lifting weights. To
reach an aesthetic goal—whether you want to lose fat and grow muscle or maintain your current
weight and grow a certain muscle—you have to factor in nutrition as well as weight training.
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Just as people have an easier time building
muscle in certain areas, some people store fat
in certain areas due to their genetics (think
of that stubborn belly fat or inner/outer leg
fat). So, if you’re someone who is going for
a slender look, then you need to take your
body composition into consideration. In
other words, you may not need a glutes-
only program or need to avoid exercises that
work your legs. Sure, you might benefit from
following the program, but you might also get
the desired look you’re going for by following
a well-rounded program that includes squats
and deadlifts.
Let’s use the physique competitors I work
with as an example. These women all squat,
and yet their legs aren’t too big. Granted, they
are not obsessed with hitting squat PR’s every
week and they prioritize glute-dominant
exercises. The point is they’re not afraid of
squats and they don’t avoid exercises that build their leg muscles. What’s more, they are lean,
meaning they are not carrying excessive fat in their legs.
The women who seek a glutes-only program will typically say things like, “I’m quad dominant
and my legs are too big, so I don’t want to perform any leg exercises.” To be clear, I believe
everyone should develop a healthy mindset around their body and I never tell anyone how they
should look. But if someone comes to me wanting to look a certain way, I listen to what they want
and try to help them get there.
So, when someone tells me they are quad dominant and their legs are too big, I have to take a
step back and assess the situation because in some cases the glutes-only program is not the best
plan. For example, if a client has excess bodyfat in their legs, then squats and other lower body
exercises are not to blame. In fact, if they just lost a few pounds of bodyfat, they might actually
like the way their legs look with all the muscle still there. In this scenario, they don’t need to avoid
lower body exercises, they need to reduce their calories and keep training their entire body.
To put this in less delicate terms, don’t assume you are quad dominant or that you have
overdeveloped legs if you have excess bodyfat. Realize that fat not only surrounds your muscles,
but also is stored inside your muscles. If your goal is to get leaner legs and a larger butt, then you
need to perform exercises that will sculpt your body the way you want it to look, and equally
important adhere to healthy nutrition and lifestyle strategies: consume around 1 gram of protein
per pound of lean body mass per day, eat at a caloric deficit, eat primarily whole, minimally
processed foods, lose weight gradually, prioritize sleep, manage stress, and increase daily activity
and step count (To learn more about these strategies, I recommend reading Chapter 11 in Glute
Lab).
It’s also important to remember that muscle gives your body shape. If you’re carrying fat
around your thighs, then you still might want to maintain that muscular shape by performing
quad and ham dominant exercises. You can still prioritize your glutes, but you also don’t want to
avoid exercises that work your legs, especially hip thrusts and squats.
Now that’s not to say the Grow Your Glutes without Growing Your Legs plan is not for you. There
are indeed plenty of people who are lean and have overly muscular legs in relation to their glutes
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according to their taste and some people just want bigger glutes, for which the program I offer is
great.
I also want to point out that the Grow Your Glutes without Growing Your Legs program is not
just for people interested in aesthetics. Though the vast majority of people who will follow this
program fall into that category, there are some people who will benefit from taking a break from
quad and hamstring dominant exercises.
For instance, if you are constantly plagued with exercise related pain—your knees hurt every
time you lunge, your hips ache every time you squat, or your back is stiff for several days following
every deadlift session—then the glute-only plan is a great option. Now, before you blame these
problems on improper form, which is certainly a factor, realize that nagging pain could also stem
from years and years of training without giving your joints a proper break. As anyone who has
experienced exercise related pain can attest, it takes your training down a couple notches. You
have to warm up for 30 minutes just to work out. Even worse, you decrease your level of activity
throughout the day because you’re in pain, which makes it harder to reach your body composition
goals. In short, you can’t work out as hard, you’re not as motivated to train, and you end up
gaining weight because you are not as active.
How most people deal with this issue goes against all logic and intelligent programming.
Instead of taking a break from the exercises that exacerbate the problem, they push through it and
the pain cycle continues. Even though the solution is obvious—remove the problematic exercises
from the program—nobody wants to do that. As a lifter, I hate taking breaks because I feel lazy,
and I worry that I will lose strength. So, I know exactly where people are coming from and why
this happens. The solution is to not train through the pain or avoid training altogether, but to train
around the pain by performing exercises that are well-tolerated. And this is exactly what the Grow
Your Glutes without Growing Your Legs program includes.
When you follow the glutes-only program, you remove the most common exercises that cause
issues, which allows you to fully heal and recover. You also build your glutes and end up using
them more with certain movements, which helps safeguard your body from future issues. You
may even improve your form because you rely more on your glutes and hips, instead of your back
and knees. What’s more, when you reintroduce squats, deadlifts, and other previously problematic
exercises, you may realize that your body can tolerate them better. This improves confidence and
reignites the motivation to work hard in the gym.
It’s true that pain and damage aren’t well-correlated in the literature, but I’ve had numerous
lifters try this plan and they all end up swearing by it. They’d never given glutes their full attention
in training and it paid dividends in the subsequent months as they no longer experienced pain
or injured themselves as often. Or maybe their nervous systems were so overly sensitive to pain
signals that they just needed to do something different, which highlights another benefit of the
glutes-only plan—novelty.
Most people never perform all of the exercise variations contained in the Grow Your Glutes
without Growing Your Legs program. With each workout, you get exposed to unique variations
that you’ve probably never done before that you may actually love. This always happens when I
am injured and forced to train around my pain. I’m compelled to perform variations that I might
otherwise never do and end up realizing that I not only enjoy them, but also need to do them
more often. Remember, the essence of lifelong lifting is learning which exercises are the most
productive for your body and goals. And to find that out, you have to experiment with different
exercises and programs.
5
How to Grow Your Glutes
without Growing Your Legs
Growing your glutes without growing your legs requires a special strategy. The fact is, most great
glute exercises also highly activate the leg muscles. Put simply, it’s hard to work your glutes without
working your legs. The hip thrust, for example, works the quads, hams, and adductors a ton, which
is why it’s not a central feature of the program.
As I explain in Glute Lab and outlined in an old blogpost titled “Growing Glutes without
Growing the Legs,” muscle grows from low reps (1 to 5), medium reps (6 to 12), high reps (13 to
20), and even really high reps (21-50). As long as the sets are carried out close to muscle failure
and the effort for the session is sufficiently high, you can essentially choose your ideal rep scheme
and still build muscle. So, avoiding a particular rep range or avoiding heavy weights is not the
solution.
This requires two different strategies:
1. Avoid exercises that highly activate and stress your quads, hamstrings, and adductors
2. Perform exercises that highly activate and stress your glutes
If you want your leg muscles to stop growing or to shrink, you need to reduce or eliminate
movements that highly activate your quads and hamstrings. This means no squat variations, no
single-leg squat variations like lunges, Bulgarian split squats, step-ups, skater squats, and pistols,
and no quad-dominant movements like leg presses, hack squats, and leg extensions, because these
lead to high levels of quad stretch and/or activation. It also means no vertically loaded hip hinging
variations like deadlifts, stiff-leg deadlifts, and good mornings and no knee flexion movements like
leg curls, Nordic ham curls, and glute ham raises because these lead to high levels of hamstring
stretch and/or activation. You also want to avoid barbell hip thrusts. Though they won’t build
your legs as much as squats and lunges, I still want you avoiding them, simply because you can
perform barbell glute bridges, which involve the same movement pattern with less quadricep
activity. Finally, no single joint adductor exercises like the seated hip adduction machine (not to be
confused with the seated abduction machine) should be performed.
Although this takes a lot of exercises off the table, there is still a lot you can do:
Low-Load Glute Activation Work: There are lots of drills that you can and should do to shuttle
the focus toward your glutes and away from your quads and hamstrings. A sample glute activation
sequence might look like this: knee-banded standing hip hinge abduction, knee-banded
quadruped hip extension, and knee-banded glute bridge (3 sets of 10 reps for each movement).
These are done before the workout begins just to prime the glutes for the upcoming work to be
done.
Hip External Rotation Movements: Cuff/dip belt hip rotations are the best, but you need to learn
how to use your glutes during these movements by rotating your hips with your rear glute while
keeping your torso rigid instead of rotating your torso with your obliques (see page tk for a more
detailed description).
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Hip Abduction Movements: Focus on extra-range side-lying abduction, banded standing hip
abduction, banded seated hip abduction, banded walk variations, and cable and seated hip
abductor machine variations.
Glute Bridges and Feet-Elevated Glute Bridges: Glute bridge variations reduce much of the quad
activity that the barbell hip thrust produces. You can do just bodyweight, use a dumbbell or light
pre-loaded barbell as resistance, go wider or narrower, put double duty on the glutes by wearing
a resistance band around the knees, elevate your feet, or perform the movement with one or two
legs at a time. The barbell glute bridge will be your money exercise—the exercise you want to keep
getting stronger at over time. Strength creates curves, and without it, your glutes won’t grow. The
goal is to get very strong at this exercise over time in all rep ranges.
American Deadlifts: These are a better option than RDLs due to the increased glute activation. To
avoid an increased hamstring stretch, you should decrease the range of motion (that is, don’t go
too low).
Pull-Throughs, Back Extensions, Reverse Hypers, and Kettlebell Swings: The key is to make sure
you’re feeling your glutes do the work and not just the hammies and erectors.
Frog Pumps: Two-thirds of people tend to like frog pumps. If you’re part of that majority, flare
your knees out, place your heels together, and pump away. If you’re among the one-third who don’t
like frog pumps, skip them.
As you will see, the 12-week program contains most of these exercises. Once you complete the
program, you can experiment and create your own program using the above exercise options as a
general guide.
7
Program FAQ
Anytime I write a program for a client, I typically get the same questions. In the following pages, I
provide the answers to these frequently asked questions, which also serve as guidelines for getting
the most out of the program. It’s important to note that most of the questions and answers are
covered in Glute Lab and Booty by Bret. However, the answers are specific to the Grow Your Glutes
without Growing Your Legs program. So, even if you are a Booty by Bret member or you’ve read the
book, I still recommend you browse through the questions and answers.
SHOULD I FOLLOW THE PROGRAM EXACTLY AS WRITTEN?
Yes. The programs are broken into three four-week cycles and should be followed in a
sequential manner. To get the most from the program, increase the load or reps on some of the
main exercises for each workout as you progress through each four-week cycle. These exercises
tend to be the bigger movements that work more of your glutes. For example, you can perform
more reps with the same load or use heavier loads for the same number of reps. However, don’t
try to set PRs on every exercise, every week. Toward the ends of the workouts, focus more on the
mind-muscle connection and strive for quality over quantity.
I JUST WANT TO TAKE A SHORT BREAK. IS IT OKAY TO ONLY
PERFORM ONE 4-WEEK CYCLE?
No. Building muscle is hard, whereas maintaining muscle is easy. If you’re advanced and have
built up your legs substantially and you want them to shrink in terms of muscle mass, it’s going to
take a few months in order to see results. I should clarify. Let’s say you stopped lifting altogether
for 3 months. Your legs would atrophy markedly, but so would your glutes. This program will keep
your glutes full and possibly even build them up while your legs shrink. But the legs won’t shrink
as much as they would from not training altogether since most glute exercises do in fact involve
some level of leg muscle activation. This is why I recommend doing the whole 12-week cycle.
HOW DO I DETERMINE HOW MUCH TO LIFT (LOAD)?
Use a load that allows you to hit the prescribed rep scheme, but also pushes you close or to
muscle failure. For example, if the program calls for 15 reps of barbell glute bridges, then use a
load that you can do for 15 reps. You should struggle to get to rep 15 or come just shy of hitting 15.
Of course, this will take some experimentation. So, determine a baseline with your first set, and
then increase the load based on how many reps you have in reserve.
DO I NEED TO FOLLOW THE SET AND REP SCHEMES EXACTLY AS
WRITTEN?
The short answer is no. You won’t always nail the prescribed rep schemes exactly as written. So
think of them as recommendations to calculate your working weight and then try to get close.
For example, let’s say a workout calls for 3 sets of 8 reps. There are four protocols you can
implement to carry out your sets.
The first protocol is to do the same loading on each set (I refer to this as straight sets), which
gives you two options. Option one is to start out with a working weight that you can do for only 8
8
reps. In this situation, you go to muscle failure on all of your sets. So you will hit 8 reps to muscle
failure on your first set, and then you may get only 5 reps, and then 4 reps on your second and
third sets. With this option, you will never have a nice, neat set and rep scheme because the load is
the same, and you can’t get as many reps with the second and third set due to fatigue. Option two
is to pick a working weight that you can do for 10 to 12 reps. In this situation, your first two sets
are easier, and only your last set is to muscle failure. In this case you may indeed end up getting 3
sets of 8 reps.
The second protocol is to adjust your working weight so that every set is to failure. These are
known as descending sets because you have to reduce the load with every set. For instance, say the
program calls for 3 sets of 8 reps of back squats, and you want to push every set to muscle failure.
If your max 8 rep back squat is 155 pounds, then that is your load for your first set. In order to
get 8 reps with your second and third set, however, you have to lower the load. So your second set
might be 145 pounds and your third set might be 135 pounds.
The third protocol is to increase the load with each set, which is the opposite of descending sets
and hence is referred to ascending sets. Keeping with the same example, if the program calls for 3
sets of 8 back squats and your max 8 rep back squat is 155 pounds, then you might perform 135
pounds on your first set, 145 pounds on your second set, and 155 pounds on your third set. In this
situation, only your third set is to failure.
When it comes to choosing the protocol, this depends on the exercise, how you are feeling that
day, and where you are at in your training cycle. If you want to push yourself in your workout,
choose the same weight and go to failure on every set. If you’re feeling beat up or you’re purposely
taking it easy, then perhaps you only push your third set to failure. The point is this: if the program
calls for 3 sets of 8, that doesn’t mean you have to do exactly that. As long as you’re going to failure
on at least one of your sets then you are following the program recommendations and getting
enough stimulus to improve strength and grow muscle.
SET AND REP LOADING OPTIONS AND EXAMPLES
Straight sets (all sets to failure) 155x8, 155x5, 155x4
Straight sets (last set to failure) 140x8, 140x8, 140x8
Descending sets (all sets to failure) 155x8, 145x8, 135x8
Ascending sets (last set to failure) 135x8, 145x8, 155x8
IF I CAN PERFORM 15 REPS WHEN THE SET CALLS FOR 12, DO I
PUSH THE SET TO FAILURE AND KEEP THE WEIGHT THE SAME,
OR STOP AT THE PRESCRIBED REP AND INCREASE THE LOAD?
Let’s say you’re doing barbell glute bridges during Day 1 of the first 4-week cycle, which calls
for 4 sets of 12 reps. Say you pick 165 pounds and you get to 12 reps and you realize you could do
a few more reps. In this case, you may want to stick with 165-pounds for all the sets because the
sets will get harder as you accumulate some fatigue. But say you get to 12 reps and you know you
could have gotten another 5 to 8 reps. In this case, up the load to 175 pounds. If that’s too easy,
up the load to 185 pounds for the next set. Eventually you’ll hit your settling point and arrive at
the proper load that allows you to hit the right number of reps. Week 1 of every 4-week cycle is
dedicated to mastering proper form and figuring out the right loads to use the following week.
Regardless, you can always stray a little bit and get a few more reps when possible. The main thing
is to go up over time and utlize progressive overload.
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SHOULD I PUSH EVERY SET OF EVERY EXERCISE TO MUSCLE
FAILURE?

Absolutely not. I recommend following the Rule of Thirds: about a third of your sets should be
taken to failure, about a third of your sets should be 1 to 2 reps shy of failure, and the remaining
third should be nowhere close to failure. It’s important to mention that going to failure is a skill.
Most people don’t even come close to reaching true muscular failure, which is why these same
people fail to see good results.
HOW MUCH SHOULD I PROGRESS EACH WEEK?
When it comes to increasing load or reps, try to bump things up gradually over time—5 more
pounds here, another rep there. If you’re doing 3 sets of an exercise, consider your 3-set total or
your 3-set volume load. Here’s an example for barbell glute bridges for the month for someone
who is relatively new to the exercise (say the program calls for 4 sets of 12 reps) – here’s how they
might progress throughout the month using ascending loads:
WEEK SET 1 SET 2 SET 3 SET 4
1 135lbs x 12 155lbs x 12 165lbs x 12 175lbs x 9

2 145lbs x 12 165lbs x 12 175lbs x 10 185lbs x 7

3 145lbs x 12 165lbs x 12 175lbs x 12 185lbs x 10

4 155lbs x 12 165lbs x 12 175lbs x 12 185lbs x 12

WHAT IF I CAN DO MORE REPS ON MY LAST SET? SHOULD I
STICK TO THE PROGRAM OR REP OUT TO FAILURE?
Use your best judgment here. What matters most is consistent progress. If you push yourself
too hard and you’re wiped out throughout the rest of the week, then you’ll have taken one step
forward and two steps back. But if you can recover fine and keep progressing then it’s all good.
THE WORKOUTS ARE TOO EASY. AM I TOO ADVANCED FOR
THEM?
If you think the workouts are too easy, chances are you are not pushing any of your sets to true
failure. In other words, you’re not using sufficient effort, which is the level of exertion you apply
to each set. If 10 reps of a particular exercise is too easy, you need to increase the load or increase
the reps. However, you do not need to increase the sets, add additional exercises, or combine
workouts. When you’re conditioned to performing five or more sets of an exercise, anything less
feels like a step in the wrong direction. I get it; I’ve been there before. But when you push your sets
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