Everyone wants a better butt. Whether you are a man or a woman a sexy backside is always a talking point. In this article I will look at some of the best exercises for getting a nice sexy backside.

How to get a sexy butt

If you want to get a sexy bottom there are a few things you need to know.

Firstly, if your butt is too big and you want to make it smaller you need to lose some weight. However, there is no way to lose fat off of just your butt so you need to start exercising and eating so that you burn fat off of your whole body.

Secondly, you need to start shaping that thing with some resistance exercises. This means weights, bodyweight exercises and anything that uses your backside!

What are the best glutes exercises?

This article is mainly concerned with the best exercises for developing a better set of glutes. This means that the cardio and diet elements, although very important, will not be as thoroughly covered.

1. The hill sprint
Often when I tell people that running up hills will develop a sexy backside they look at me like I am crazy. However, sprinting up a hill will burn your legs and glutes like no other exercise, period. The angle and the energy required to climb that angle make for a killer exercise that will blast your ass into an all new level.

Make sure you have a good warm up and then simply find a hill to sprint up. It should be steep, long and only just allow you to stand up without using your hands for balance. Go up as fast as you can and then make your way back down. Then repeat. Do ths a few times per week and you won’t even need any other exercises!

2. The lunge
The lunge is a classic weight lifting exercise for hitting the glutes. It targets the muscles very well and the exercise is very simple to do.

To do the lunge simply take two heavy dumbbells and hold them with your feet together and back straight. Step forward with your left foot (a medium step slightly bigger than a normal step) and then lunge forward so that your right knee comes down to the ground. Push up using your glutes and then step back to the starting position. Repeat.

Make sure you are tensing the right muscles and not putting too much stress on your knees. Do not do this exercise if you have knee injuries.

3. The step up
The step up works a lot like the lunge but I find it has some added benefits. It seems to help you tense the right muscles and allows you to handle a bigger weight.

To do the lunge simply find a stable bench and stand infront of it. With weights in your hands simply step up and then repeat. Make sure you don’t lose your balance.

Conclusion on the sexy butt

If you really want to make these three exercises work for you then you need to make sure your diet and cardio are also up to scratch. Weight training alone will not get you the backside you so desire.

The full series is Part I, Part II and Part III.

This is Part 2 of our series on brutal backyard shed training. In this post we will be looking at the best bodyweight exercises that you can do at home to build some real size and strength.

Why Bodyweight Exercises?

Many “bodybuilders” dismiss bodyweight exercises as being unprofessional and not hard enough.

They are kidding themselves.

If took the 100 strongest and biggest men in the world I bet you close to 90% of them would spend a lot of time doing bodyweight exercises. Here in Australia we have the Australian Football League which is the toughest sport in the world. The players are big and fast and very strong. If you take a look at their training routine they spend a lot of time doing explosive bodyweight exercises. And it works. Many US NFL players have watched Australian Rules Football and remarked that they are crazy people for playing such a rough game!

So next time someone tells you bodyweight exercises are for beginners you tell them about the AFL players down in Australia.

The reason I have dedicated a whole post to these exercises is that they are easy to do and you don’t need any equipment. You can do them at home by yourself and still get amazing results.

Don’t cheat on your technique

When you are training at home there is the temptation to cheat on your technique a little bit because no one is watching. This is a big mistake that you need to avoid.

If you want to make big gains and not injure yourself you need to make sure your technique is solid. Read as much about every exercise that you do and start off slow. Never try and overdo it because your joints will not forgive you in the long run.

Furthermore, if your technique is poor your muscle gain will also be poor. Each exercise is done in a certain way. It is done that way firstly because it is the safest way and, secondly, because it is the best way to work the muscle. So, if you cheat on your technique you are only cheating yourself.

The best bodyweight exercises for backyard shed training

Now we can get into the real stuff. I am going to present the best few bodyweight exercises that you can do at home in your backyard shed. The are simple but elegant. If you do them correctly and with the right intensity you will see some amazing progress.

1. Clap pushups

Everyone knows how to do these but almost no one does them. The AFL teams make their players do a lot of clap pushups because they are so good for building explosive real world power. They really shock your muscles into growth.

The great thing about the clap pushup is that it forces your muscle to contract and then expand very quickly. Many studies have shown this is the best way to make fast strength gains without damaging or slowing down your muscles. Normal weight lifting, on the other hand, has been shown to slow down your movement. For a martial artist or sportperson this will not do.

How to do a clap pushup -
To do a clap pushup simply get in the normal pushup position and lower yourself down to the bottom. Instead of pushing yourself up as normal you should powerfully push down and cause yourself to jump with your hands. While your hands are off the ground you should clap your hands together under your chest before hitting the ground and repeating. Keep doing this over and over until failure.

2. Dips

Dips are like a bench press but more full on. Many of you are not going to like that statement but it is true. There is literally nothing harder than strapping some heavy weight discs to your weight belt and pumping out a set of dips.

You can make your own dip station at home by setting up two narrow bars parallel from each other. In high school I used to use sturdy old chairs but now I own my own dip and chin station.

How to do a dip -
To correctly do a dip you simply grab on to the two bars and lower yourself down as low as you can. Don’t try to keep your body upright. You should allow yourself to naturally lean forward as this will work both your chest and your triceps. Once you have lowered yourself down fully explode upwards for a fast incline. This will blast your muscles into some serious growth!

It is very important to take care of your shoulders during the dip. I know of many people who have ended up with pretty serious shoulder joint injuries. Never do dips on a dip station where the bars are too wide apart. If you can make your own that is the best idea because you can set it to your own width. The narrower the better.

3. The chin up

When you want to develop full body power and strength as well as adding some serious size you need to work with the chin up. All of best boxers in history had huge backs. Just take a look at Muhummad Ali’s back. It was enormous! The chin up is a poweful way to train your back and biceps and is one of the best ways to add some size in a hurry.

How to do a chin up -
Grab a thick bar with and underhand grip and allow your body to hang free. The thicker the bar the better because this will work your forearms. Once you are comfortable you should pull yourself up as quickly as possible. Imagine that you are pulling with your elbows as this will help you focus on your back muscles. Once you reach the top slowly lower yourself back down to a count of five or six seconds. This is when a lot of the strength is built. The slowe the better. Continue Reading

The calf muscles are the forgotten muscles in the bodybuilding world. People at the gym often neglect to train them and that is why there are so many huge dudes walking around with little pencil twigs for legs. For those who don’t want to be that guy and want to blast their calves into some new growth check out how I added an inch to mine in two weeks.

Why you should train your calves more

Before I get into how I added some serious size I want to give a few reasons for why calf training is important for anyone who goes to the gym.

Firstly, if you have a big set of shoulders, biceps, triceps, etc. and some small little legs it looks stupid. Other bodybuilders won’t take you seriously and it doesn’t look normal. I remember reading an article in a magazine a few years ago that said that the guys with small legs and big arms are the egos in the gym; only there to make themselves feel big. Don’t be that guy.

Secondly, if you play a sport or a martial art the calf muscles and very important. How fast you can run depends a lot on how developed your lower legs are and the calf muscles determine how quickly you can spring off after changing a direction. Also, when a boxer springs forward to attack his opponent it is his calf muscles that propel him.

Thirdly, it is simply dangerous to have some parts of your body more developed than the others. If you put too much emphasis on your biceps you will get a pinched shoulder. The same goes for your calf muscles. If they are too underdeveloped you will run into problems.

How I added an inch to my calf muscles in two weeks

What I am about to talk about is a little unconventional. As you all know the way I train is not always picture perfect. I am only interested in what works, not what is popular. Always be safe when you train methods like this one.

The background
My calf muscles were lagging behind the others and I thought were looking a bit skinny. This was odd for me because I have massive quadriceps after years of playing soccer and weight lifting. My calf workout prior to this period had been pretty ordinary. I did the usual weighted calf raises and that’s about it.

I knew I needed to change something so I decided to stick with my usual ideas about intensity. If I wanted to get my calfs to change I needed to hit them with power, force and a lot of intensity.

To really work the calfs you have to do exercises that force your toes to dig in. It is like the forearms, the more you can do with your fingers the better your forearms will be. So, I decided to head to my local hill and do some running. However, I needed to add some resistance to the workout so I brought along a backpack filled with weight discs wrapped in towels. Deadly.

I also packed my 30 kilogram dumbbells into the car.

The brutal calf workout
I did a warm up at the base of the steep hill and did a lot of stretching. Nothing cripples a hill workout like a leg cramp so I made sure everything was nice and ready.

I then threw on the backpack full of weight and proceeded to sprint up the hill making sure I was using my toes as much as possible. Anyone who has done sprinting or running as a sport will tell you that you go faster if you use your toes instead of the heel/toe combination. I stuck to this method.

Once I reached the top (takes about 5 minutes where I am) I turned around and started to walk back down without stopping for a rest. As soon as I hit the bottom I picked up the dumbbells and pumped out a set of calf raises to failure using the first step that takes you to the hill as my platform.

I then took about two minutes rest while I did some stretching and then threw on the backpack and started again. I repeated this who brutal workout for about 20 minutes after which I had to stop because I thought I was going to pass out. Running hills ain’t easy.

The results

After doing that workout six times, each time with a day or two rest inbetween and lots of protein I measured about an inch of growth. I thought this was just swelling or water retention but after a month the calfs are looking bigger than ever. I don’t think my legs have ever been as sore as after that first workout, and I run hills on a regular basis.

If your legs or calf muscles are lagging behind try something different. Shock them into a bit of growth and don’t be afraid to try new and unconventional methods.