Tag: Power Lifting

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Best Exercises for Growing your Glutes

Thanks to insta we are all after that fuller booty. There are some instagrammers out there who are uber fit and will vouch that the best way to naturally build your glutes is to lift. HEAVY. However, there are still some accounts telling us that to grow glutes we should be using resistance bands, strange leg kick things on the stepper and body weight squats.

If you enjoy these kind of exercises and they get you moving, then that’s a start! But don’t be dissapointed if months down the line your glutes haven’t changed much.

To put it simply – our muscles grow by us overloading them. By lifting more substantial loads, our muscles have to repair themselves. In this repairing and recovery process (so long as suitable nutrition is in place) they will grow. This is called hypertrophy, the enlargement of the cells in our muscles.

Therefore, if we want our glutes to grow, we’ve got to put some load on those muscles!

Here’s my favourite exercises to help grow those glutes!

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Sumo Deadlifts

By encorporating a wider footstance on the deadlift, our glutes take on more of the load. As the deadlift is a compound movement (uses a large number of muscle groups), we can lift heavier than we would be able to do on isolation movements (targetting one muscle or muscle group).

Hip Thrusts

Largely regarded as the King (or Queen) of glute exercises. Make sure your feet are placed to allow a right angle in the legs whilst at the top of the movement, as this ensures the hamstrings don’t take over too much. Make sure you squeeze and the top of the movement and make sure your plevis tilts up to full extension. This is a movement which is easy to lift super heavy in due to the small range of motion and momentum used. However, I tend to find it a lot more effective to chose a load to which I can perform a 12-15 rep range. I feel the mind-muscle connection a lot more this way and get a much better burn. Furthermore, use a resistance band above the knees. That extra abduction creates better contact with the glutes.

Squats

Squats are obvsiously widely percieved as a good glute exercise. For me, in order to target my glutes more in the squat and stop my quads from completely taking over, I need to establish a good mind-muscle connection. I do this by squeezing my glutes hard at the top of the movement as this engages them in the squat. Furthermore, much like the sumo deadlift, taking a wider stance (sumo squat) will put more of the load on the glutes.

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Lunges and Walking Lunges

Load up with either a bar on the back or two dumbells held either side. Make sure you reach the full range of motion. I ensure I lightly tap my knee on the ground with each step. Don’t be afraid to go heavy here!

Bulgarian Split Squat

This is one of my favourite accessory movements I have been using since I started training. Again, to make sure I get the full range of motion, I will push my back knee (leg propped on the bench) back and until I feel the stretch down that quad. Again, go heavy on this one and if you want to increase the intensity even further, add a pause at the bottom of the movement!

Other accessory exercises I use on glute days are more as ‘finishers’ to ‘burn-out’ or fatigue the glutes after the compound and heavier movements. I go for hyper extensions, cable kickbacks, kettlebell swings, crab walks and one-leg raised glute bridges. These accessories would all be performed with lower weights but much higher reps.

So if building a bigger butt is what you’re going for, slam in some of these glute-focused exercises on your next leg day! For any questions on form, load, or rep ranges feel free to drop me a message!

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120g of Protein on a Vegetarian Diet

The importance of protein

When I first started tracking my food, I was shocked at how little protein I was actually getting in my day-to-day diet. By this point I was a few months into a weight training programme and realised I really needed to pay more attention to my nutrition to compliment my training. I was unsatisfied with the slim, but not toned look I had achieved by doing a year of cardio training. It’s impossible to avoid someone in the fitness industry banging on about the importance of protein. They have reason for it, though. Protein is essential to muscle growth and recovery due to the breakdown into amino acids by our digestive system.

You may have read that if we are training, it is advised we should have around 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight. Therefore, I tend to weigh around 57kg (125lbs) so would therefore try to aim for 125g of protein per day.

To someone consuming meat, this is a very achievable target, without having to get your protein from sources like whey (shakes, bars etc). However, I found that on a vegetarian diet, it was a lot harder to consume that much so I had to make a very concious effort to make sure I did get sufficient levels of protein in my day.

I would love to be able to get all my protein from plant based/natural sources without any extras. But at this point, I need a little extra help to hit that 100g+.

My top sources in my day-to-day diet are:

  • Whey Protein Powder (20g per scoop) (I use the MyProtein Whey Impact in the Chocolate Smooth or the Sticky Toffee Pudding flavour)
  • Eggs (13g for a medium egg)
  • Greek Yoghurt (10g per 100g of Fage Total 0%)
  • Quorn Pieces (13g per 100g)
  • Quorn Mince (14g per 100g)
  • Tofu (10g per 100g)
  • Baked beans (9g per 200g)
  • Chick peas (7g per 100g)
  • Kidney beans (8g per 100g)
  • Protein bar (most are around 20g. Grenade Carb Killa are my faves!)

I became a vegetarian for ethical reasons rather than for taste, so I eat A LOT of quorn because I just enjoy the taste. Quorn isn’t the best for macros and calories, however it is reasonable inexpensive and very versatile. I really enjoy cooking with tofu but sometimes it is less time effective and a wee bit more expensive.

So for all you plant based people out there- get those beans and pulses in! Not only do they have decent amounts of protein, they are obviously packed with fantastic micronutrients too.

My typical day of eating would be:

Breakfast – Protein Oats (25g whey, 50g oats and perhaps a banana/tangerine/grapes)

Lunch – either eggs on toast, beans on toast, or protein pancakes (25g whey, 25g flour, 1 egg, almond milk served with fruit)

Dinner – A base carb (rice, pasta, potato or noodles), a protein (tofu or quorn), and a PILE of veg including beans or pulses (chickpeas/kidney beans/black beans/mixed beans, pepper, onion, aubergine, courgete, cherry tomatoes). I cook these all together in a different sauce each day to mix it up. Sometimes I’ll make it more like a curry, or more oriental with soy or hoison, or with BBQ, or a tomato based sauce. A dollop of hummus on the side gives a little extra protein too!

Snacks – Greek yogurt and fruit, cereal (right now I’m enjoying the chocolate wheetabix protein crunch), hummus and veg or tortilla chips, protein shake. My new find for a nice sweet snack whilst I’m cutting is an ice lolly! Most fruit ice lollies you find in supermarkets are around 40 cals! Amazing 🙂

I hope this post was helpful, as it took me a while to get into a routine of what worked in my diet and what was feesable time and cost wise for me.

So if you are getting into weight training and are looking to change your body a bit more, get that protein in!