larger muscles
I "prefer" lighter weight more reps! My body responds better !I occasionally lifty heavy (not often only 4 weeks at a time 2x a year and that's it)
I like to do step ups with my bodybar! I use the bar for balance when I'm doing my front knee extensions ,my outer thigh lifts, and my butt lifts. I'll add a dumbell w/bar too for more resistance! To also add to the intensity I vary my tempo mostly on the negative!
Genetically(I'm a mutt Irish,French and Polish)more of a flat butt runs in our family, I have a high butt(from exercising) which I swear by the "step ups" and traditional floor work doing butt lifts and pulses etc! They don't call it the fanny lifter for nothing
Glute raises are a unique exercise for this area which I was happy to see in ME (which complemented that whole workout as well!
As for my recommendations(and honest opinion) on building larger muscles! Pyramiding your weight up or down on each successive set is a "great" technique if you're trying to peak for a maximum lift or break a plateau, but probably isn't the best way to achieve steady improvements! If you pyramid all the time, you tend to see smaller gains, because you spend too much time peaking without building a sufficient base to peak with. I recommend to cycle your training, building a base with routines geared toward straight sets, then focusing on pyramiding near the end of a cycle as you strive for new levels of strength. Remember to continually use heavy enough weights that stress the muscles to failure or near-failure, whether pyramiding or using the straight-set approach, (using a weight that is heavier than you typically use is not considered "heavy" weight if you can still complete 10 to 12 reps with it). (Try for 6 - 8 reps if you are not doing that now with a rest between 45 secs no more than 2 mins)You should also have a full rest day in between and your protein intake should be adequate to your daily needs!
Once your reach your goal,(always set a goal for yourself so that you have a plan that keeps your organized and focused! Don't lock yourself into the same workout ! Try to vary your workouts ! You can stick with basic exercises, but vary the order, sets, rep range - even throw in techniques like forced reps, supersets ,push pull,partial reps or rest-pause for extra stimulus.
I'm not sure of what your goals are specifically but I do hope that I helped a lil bit! Feel free to contact me at
[email protected]
In the meantine, Keep it fresh, Train Smart, Eat Smart
