How to build a sexy Brazilian butt and tone your thighs?
It is a long time since skinny legs and flat butts are out of fashion and this is an unquestionable fact!
But here comes the question: ‘How to build a Brazilian butt and deal with the problematic thighs? How to shape and strengthen them without making them look too thick and big? How to make them symmetrical to the upper body? Most probably all these questions are asked by many girls who do fitness and want to achieve the perfect shape.
Based on my long term experience, I can tell you that most girls spend hours in the gym trying to build a well-shaped butt and thighs but they use a totally wrong strategy. Unfortunately, watching videos with exercises by famous models does not lead to good results but why? There are several reasons which I will point out in this article and of course I will give you solutions to the problems I have noticed.
1. Wrong selection of exercises
There are great videos, of wonderful fitness models who show a variety of movements, some quite simple to make, others requiring enviable acrobatic skills. But where is the mistake? The mistake is that most girls choose exercises which look extravagant or they find the fitness model performing them most attractive.
The problem – the glutes are a muscle group which is responsible for various functional movements and the different parts are activated with specific movements. Very often girls choose the exercises by sympathy and they end up doing exercises which load only one part of the glute muscles. For example, three types of kickbacks which activate the middle part of the glutes and not a single exercise to target the upper or outer part. And what happens – in the best case, you target only one part, it develops too much and the other stay undertrained and the balance is lost, the shape is not good and the result is not satisfying. In the worst case – one part gets overtrained and instead of growing it gets smashed and looks small, soft and weak.
THE SOLUTION: Choose 3, maximum 4 exercises which target the glutes from all angles.
This refers to the thighs as well – overtraining the quadriceps and the inner thighs with a bunch of exercises from YouTube and undertraining the hamstring, upper part, etc.
2. Overtraining
Trying to achieve great results as quickly as possible, girls tend to train legs in every workout, doing numerous exercises – every exercise they can think of, every exercise they have seen or tend to use every leg machine in the gym. Of course, every exercise is performed in countless sets and what is worst of all in tens and hundreds of repetitions.
This is the best way to overtrain and smash the muscle resulting in soft and loose thighs with no shape. Very often this situation becomes even worse by hours of cardio and of course, the cherry on the cake – a killing low-carb diet.
THE SOLUTION: Adequate selection of exercises for quadriceps and hamstring, calf, inner and outer part of thighs, as well as proper combination of the exercises for glutes. Training of lower part – 2, maximum 3 times per week with rest days between them.
In the programs of my clients, I usually include 2 workouts for glutes and thighs weekly. One of the workouts targets the front muscle group, the other – the hamstring and the glutes from all angles, in an adequate number of sets and repetitions which aim to STIMULATE, not to DESTROY. The number of repetitions is very important – it is different for every muscle group. The same refers to the rest intervals and the proper combination of the exercises in the workout.
3. Unrealistic expectations
When girls start following a nutrition and training plan, most of them do not know what to expect, what results, for what period of time. Or if they do not see any results for a week or two, they think the plan is not working and quit because they will never have the shape they dream of. Others firm a bit and stop because they think this is the maximum of their potential.
The truth is that the good shape of the butt and thighs is not an easy task and there is no way things to happen for a day or two but if you give yourself three months you will manage to achieve the desired results which to improve in future.
For a plan to be effective, it is necessary to be consecutive, progressive with constant increase of weights. When working with my clients I usually divide the process in three stages, each stage consists of 4 weeks. In every stage I include different exercises activating the same muscle groups but with increasing load. It sounds complicated? The truth is it is not, as long as you know how to do it.
THE SOLUTION: Give the plan some time to start working. Have at least three months of focused training.
4. Total lack of strategy and poor exercise execution
I have been a personal trainer for more than 10 years and what I have noticed is that 9 out of 10 girls in the gym execute the glutes exercises wrongly and 8 out of 10 – the leg exercises. Yes, some manage to repeat the movements in the videos of the fitness models but still do not achieve the desired results. Why? Because they miss a very important thing, the connection ‘brain-muscle’!
I often see mechanic movements, inertia, lack of control in the negative phase, very quick positive phase, no hold, no feeling of how the muscle works, no idea which part of the muscle is targeted.
Trust me, even if you do 10 exercises with 5 sets and 30 repetitions each, if these are not the right exercises for the targeted muscle, the result would be only unnecessary fatigue, partial loading of the targeted muscle, overstraining of the tendons, loading of the stronger muscle group and most of all – WASTE OF TIME!
THE SOLUTION: It is better to do 2-3 exercises with perfect execution, concentrated on the movement, with perfect control in the positive and negative phase, no mechanical movements and inertia, no participation of joints and tendons. Adequate selection of exercises, precise execution and nothing else!
To sum up, I would like to tell you that the workout for a toned, firm Brazilian butt and well-shaped thighs, without them looking thick and big, requires good planning of the exercises, adequate number of sets, repetitions and rest intervals, impeccable execution and most of all – time for all this to start working and give results.
If you think that if you do 3 sets of kickbacks, each set with 15 repetitions in every workout you will have good results, you are definitely wrong. If your instructor promises this to you, he is lying. Results come only with proper stimulation of the muscle by adequate exercises, correct technique, constant increase of the weights and the volume of the workout – everything with the necessary control in order to avoid overtraining, fatigue and opposite effect.
You can order your 12 – week plan for perfect thighs and butt here!
