Everyone can appreciate a nice butt from an aesthetic point of view. It’s not hard to do. Yet most women with children tend to have flatter, more pancake-like “mom-butts” than women without children. A nice, perky bubble butt is a generally associated with young, healthy girls, and guys all over the world love it, and for good reason. It’s really attractive. But what if I told you that there is more to a good butt than just looks?
A nice, well-rounded, properly formed butt is extremely good for your overall stability and postpartum health. Along with your pelvic floor and transverse abs, your glutes play a huge role in making sure that you don’t feel pelvic pain after delivery and that your musculoskeletal system can return back to proper alignment. This will save you from so many aches and pains and injuries down the road. Rebuilding the butt should be part of every postpartum fitness plan.
During pregancy, your posture tends to change as you grow larger. Most women develop an anterior pelvic tilt, which largely deactivates the glutes in everyday activities. You may not think this would make a big difference, but it does. Added to this, you pack on the fat on your bottom and thighs during pregnancy due to hormones, and once you start breastfeeding the hormone prolactin suppress lipogenesis in the liver and adipose tissues, which sort of “guides” any new nutrients you consume towards your breasts for milk. Biology is very clever, and designed us to be able to provide enough calories for ourselves and our babies via our fat. Unfortunately, we have become smarter than the environment we were designed for, yet our biology has not caught up, so while we may not necessarily need this fat any more, our bodies don’t really know that and still act as if we do. Anyways, our bodies become increasing sensitive to fat mobilizing hormones (especially in areas around our hips, thighs, and butt) when we breastfeed, and the end result if that we can literally nurse our butts off.
So why would you want to correct this apart from the visual aspect? Because your “core” actually starts with your hips, and your hips are held in place by your glutes. You get a weak core and you get back pain, knee injuries, neck and shoulder pain. Your glutes are the base which holds the rest of your core, and if your back if “planted” improperly, then a whole world of issues with ensue. Losing your butt after pregnancy is common and it is a natural by-product of nursing a baby, but it is NOT beneficial for a woman in the long run. This is about maintaining health and function, and if you enjoy the way your butt looks after rebuilding those muscles, then that is a wonderful benefit to being more healthy.
So how do you specifically rebuild your butt? Squats are awesome IF they are done correctly. Most women tend to not really activate their glutes while doing squats and instaed use their quad and back muscles to do the work. This will get you nice thighs, but this is also how people become injured doing squats once they start adding heavy weight to the movement. Squats are excellent, but make SURE that your form is good. To get a good glute activation in a squat, put your feet a little more than should width apart, and try to bear as much of your weight as possible in your heals. When you lower your hips, make sure they are pushed back and lower until your thighs are parallel with the floor. Then, squeeze your butt to push your hips back up. If you do it right, you will feel the burn primarily in your glutes, and then a lesser burn in your quads and hamstrings.
What other exercises can you do?
- hip extensions
- glutes bridges
- single leg glute bridges
- lunges
- hip flexor stretches (you can’t really get to your glutes unless you open up those hip flexors, which become tighter during pregnancy)
- hip thrust
- bird dog
- fire hydrant
- clam
- leg raises
Most athletes don’t even properly activate their glutes, which is sad, because it is one of the most important muscles for any athletic endeavor. You will only be doing your self a favor by getting your glutes back – your back, your shoulders, and your jeans will thank you.
Radiant Nutrition 