Why 100 Squats a Day Won’t Give You a Bigger Butt

Photo via womenshealthmag.com

Are you doing 100 squats a day and vigorous bodyweight exercises in an attempt to grow your booty? Well, good for you for moving your body every day since that is really important. But, in terms of how successful you’ll be with growing muscle, you should rethink your daily exercises.

Growing muscle involves tons of science and there is a bunch of research on how it’s done properly. However, for everyone’s sake, simplifying this science can be more helpful to understand how bigger behinds are really built.

Work on Fatiguing Your Muscles

During a bodyweight workout, you are working on muscle endurance rather than muscle growth. According to an article from 24life.com, you are burning more calories and helping your muscles becoming more durable, like for running and other activities.

Doing bodyweight workouts help burn calories, as well, which can lead to a calorie deficit. According to an article reviewed by a registered dietician on verywellfit.com, when your body is burning more calories than you are taking in through food, it can result in fat loss. When you have less fat on your body, your muscles will allow you to appear more muscular. So, by doing these exercises, you are causing your body to be more “toned” rather than building more muscle.

Personal trainer and performance enhancement specialist, Gerardo Aguirre, graduated form Globe University with a health and fitness degree. Aguirre is the owner of a HIIT and weightlifting gym in Stillwater, MN called G-Force, and he spoke to VALLEY about the aspects of muscle building.

Photo posted by G-Force Fitness on Facebook

“If your goal is hypertrophy, increasing muscle density, you’d want to be doing exercises to the point of muscle fatigue,” Aguirre says. “If you’re doing hip thrusts, you want to do something hard enough where you cannot do more than 20 at a time with no more than 90 seconds in-between each set.”

The reason behind this is that when you wait a short amount of time between sets, you aren’t allowing your muscles to fully recover, meaning you are causing more “stress” on your muscles. This results in tiny muscle fiber tears which are where muscle growth occurs. In long-term recovery, your muscles will rebuild those tears and become slightly larger. So, when you go back to do an exercise again 90 seconds later, you shouldn’t be able to do the full amount that you did before.

“All sets should be challenging.” Aguirre says. “Think of when you do pushups, you wouldn’t be able to do the same amount as you did the first time after waiting 90 seconds. You push yourself to fatigue.”

Long-term Recovery is Key

With bodyweight workouts, recovery isn’t as essential because you’re not causing as much stress on your muscles as weightlifting. However, when it comes to weights and building muscle, recovery is crucial.

According to Aguirre, “Since you should push [muscles] so hard, you need time to recover. They need time to become stronger, denser and bigger.” This time depends on the person and the type of training.

Photo posted by G-Force Fitness on Facebook

Aguirre recommends for the average person to only train one particular muscle or group at maximum, three times a week. For rest time, you should wait 24-48 hours before training that muscle again. This allows for your muscles to repair and properly rebuild a bigger muscle. During this time, you can work out other muscle groups or do active recovery like running or other activities.

100 squats a day is great for moving your body and getting in your daily exercise. As for muscle building, it’s better to pick up the weights and get to work. It won’t be quick or easy, but building a bigger derrière has been known to be extremely possible for all body types.

With the conversation of building muscle, it’s also important to know to embrace all body types. Small booties, big booties and all booties in between are all equally as beautiful.

If you’re looking for exercises and more information about booty gains, check out this VALLEY article for your booty-building needs.

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