2940: The Real Reason Your Butt Won't Grow (It Is Not Your Genetics)

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1:20GoodRanchers.com, American meat delivered. If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, There's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump. With your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews.

1:36Adam Schafer:You just found the most downloaded health, fitness, and entertainment podcast in the world. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, the real reason your butt won't grow. We break it down and we give you the fix. We help you build your butt. Now, we have a new program that we've released just now called Maps, Abs, and Butt. So if you want to focus on those areas, your core and your butt, it's a brand new workout program for those areas. Plus it's 40 % off because it's a brand new program. Plus we're going to give you Muscle Mommy 15 or Muscle Mommy for free. So you get another program for free. Plus we're going to send you two free guides.

2:12Adam Schafer:One of them is the butt building diet guide. Go to mapsabsandbutt.com. Use the code LAUNCH for the discount and all the free stuff. This episode is also brought to you by Super Patch. patch. So super patch is wild. It's a wearable technology that focuses on helping people optimize how they feel and perform. So it's a patch you put on your arm. Now check this out. Here's the weird part. It doesn't have medicine in it. It doesn't have supplements or herbs. It's literally just the patch. So you're probably thinking what I thought when I was first introduced, this is hocus pocus. This doesn't really work.

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3:48Adam Schafer:The real reason your butt won't grow has nothing to do with how hard you're working. It's because you're training backwards. You've been going to the gym off and on for years, but your butt looks exactly the same. You've been told to eat less and do specific exercises like squats and hip thrusts, glute bridges, lunges, glute machines. You've done all that, and the size of your butt, it hasn't changed. It's not because your genetics are cursed. There is a solution, but the amount of lies, bad products, and horrible workout programs are distracting you from the truth that took us years as personal trainers to finally understand.

4:22Adam Schafer:In this episode, we're going to show you why you don't have the butt you want yet. And I'll tell you what, this works if you can't work out every day. It works if you're a busy mom. It works if you don't have a gym membership, if you don't have a lot of time, if you've never worked out consistently. Here's the truth I want you to remember. you cannot shrink your weight to a better butt. You have to build one. Don't forget the glutes are a muscle. And here's some of the things you're going to learn in today's episode to transform your butt. We're going to talk about diet. We're going to talk about how to lift.

4:53Adam Schafer:We're talking about how to maintain the round butt that you built. Let's get to it.

4:57Sal Di Stefano:I'd have to say this is probably, you know, first of all, we talk about 60 % of our clients as personal trainers were female clients. A majority of them wanted to lose weight, but even the ones that wanted to lose weight also always had this goal, I want to build a butt. I want to build a butt also, and this was always a main focus. And I'd say of that 60 % clientele, 80 % of that. So a majority of the people I trained, this was the focus. And it was always something that they had been working on for a long time and never felt like they got any traction.

5:32Adam Schafer:Those are conflicting goals, right? I want to shrink, but I also want a bigger butt. Not realizing many times, I think if you ask people to know this, but not realizing that the butt is a muscle. And if you're trying to shrink your body while simultaneously build a muscle, nothing's going to happen. You won't build the butt that you want. You can't shrink into a bigger butt. So that's one of the big things that people need to understand. And it's a muscle. You train it properly. And a lot of people now are familiar with the best exercises, but a lot of people don't know how to program the best exercises.

6:06Adam Schafer:Programming is the order of the exercises, the sets, the reps, it's how you do them. It's the total volume. That's just as important as the exercises themselves. And when you put it together the right way, it works. When you don't put them together the right way, what it feels like, and here's what the problem is, it's like years of work. Nothing's happening. I'm spending all this time in the gym. I'm getting sore. I'm doing all the right exercises. I think this is what I see on Instagram. Nothing's happening. Is it my genetics? Is it just never going to happen for me?

6:37Sal Di Stefano:And that sucks. I think this is why, um, and why people kind of give up on this is because obviously genetics play a role. We've talked about this many times, uh, with, with any muscle group you're trying to build or physique, uh, we can't change our genetics. And there is definitely some people that have better genetics for building a butt than other people, but it doesn't mean that every single person can't significantly improve and develop that muscle. Unlock their true potential. Because it's a muscle. Yep. I mean, I may never be able to build my biceps to look like Phil Heath, but I absolutely can significantly change and build my biceps to look significantly bigger than what they did when I started.

7:18Sal Di Stefano:And so it's no different for the client who is like, I just want to build my butt, but I do the hip thrust. I do all these exercises, but I can't possibly do it. But I don't understand, is it my genetics? And so I'll never have a butt. But what's interesting about that is certain muscle groups, like you're mentioning, like a bicep. Most people would assume, I'm going to need to eat more to be able to build size. And so it's interesting to me to see that is a common thing. It's like, I don't want to eat more because I don't want to get fluffy. I don't want to gain size everywhere. I just want to gain it in my butt.

7:52Sal Di Stefano:But in order to grow muscle, you have to be able to feed it. You do. I blame a lot of the marketing. When I think back to some of the, arguably the most popular, the most famous beach body program was a butt and abs program. And if you watch like.

8:10Adam Schafer:It was the Brazilian butt lift.

8:11Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. If you watch the marketing on it, it is saying things like not to get big and bulky and shrink your waist. And they're telling you shrink your waist and build your butt, which we know is bullshit. Yeah. Like you're not going to do the two of those things simultaneously. You're going to focus on building the butt just like you would focus on building the muscle. But when you look at the way, but they did, they use these, these words like toning, like, oh, bulky. And that stuff scared, scared people away from what they really needed to do.

8:39Adam Schafer:First off, we've talked about this on previous episodes, but toning, at least in the way it's used in fitness marketing, is not a real word. So muscles build or they shrink. That's it. There is no such thing as toning. So a muscle that begins to build feels firmer. And that's what they're trying to convey by using the word tone. But what they're also trying to do is move away from a word that tends to scare people, which is build. But here's the deal. Don't be afraid of building. If you want a round butt, you want the bubble butt, you have to build it. That's what makes that happen. The other thing too, Adam, is oftentimes workout programs emphasize the wrong things or the wrong rep ranges, and the emphasis is on the burn.

9:21Adam Schafer:Yeah. The emphasis is on - Just the feel. Yeah, the feel. It's on short rest periods. It's on these little movements. I mean, you mentioned that Beachbody program. If you watch that original - They're not even lifting weights. They're doing like salsa dancing. It is, you're going to get some stamina and it might be fun, but you're not going to build anything by doing that. In fact, the only person, here's where genetics play a role. The only person that will build a bigger butt following a crappy workout program is someone that has insane muscle building genetics. You take somebody with bodybuilder genetics, which is like less than 1 % of the population and they can do the - They can do almost anything.

9:58Adam Schafer:They can do the step ups and the kickbacks and the dog pees and the little exercises and the burn and the, you know, no rest and not really focus on traditional strength training. And they'll build some butt muscle, but the average person is getting no, not no results. They'll get no results from that.

10:12Sal Di Stefano:You know, you just said something else that reminds me of one of the challenges I think that a lot of clients had too was we, uh, or they attach the feeling and the burning sensation in their butt to like good programming or good exercises or that it's working, therefore it should be building. And sometimes the exercises that you feel it in the butt the most are the most inferior movements you could possibly be doing for the butt. And that seems kind of counterintuitive, right? Someone would be like, that's weird. I don't understand. Like, how could the exercise that I feel it the most in my butt not be the best?

10:46Sal Di Stefano:Well, because some of these are these little isolation exercises. You mentioned things like kickbacks and dog peas and these movements that are really small isolation movements that you don't really do a lot of weight, but you'll feel the burn. Yeah. You'll feel the big signal. It's a small signal. Yeah. And so it's a very small signal and it is not going to build the glutes the way somebody wants to. But yet, because you've been told those are great movements and because you feel it in your butt, you tend to lean into that thinking this is the right way to train.

11:13Adam Schafer:Look, just to give an example of this, and this is not by any stretch of the imagination perfect workout programming, but just to illustrate what we're talking about, if you took two groups of women who wanted to build their butt, all things being equal, One group did five sets of barbell squats for five reps. They did heavy barbell squats for five reps. The other group, which by the way, would take you about, I don't know, 30, 40 minutes maybe. The other group, 90 minutes or 120 minutes of the craziest nonstop butt building class, like the Brazilian butt lift type of workout. Just a crazy nonstop burn, whatever.

11:46Adam Schafer:The group that did the crazy burn workout would be sweaty. They'd feel the burn in the butt. They'd be exhausted. The group that did five sets of five for heavy barbell squats would feel like they didn't even work out in comparison. Whose butt would grow? The group that did the five sets. For sure. By far. Not even close. Not even close. It wouldn't even be in the same universe. And so this is the thing that people need to understand is if you want to build a muscle, you got to get it to be really strong. Now here's, and we talked about this earlier in the episode, you can't shrink at the same time you're trying to build.

12:19Adam Schafer:If you're trying to build a muscle, the goal is to go on it. And I'm going to use a word that scares people, a bulk. You have to eat in what's known as a calorie surplus and eat enough protein. In fact, today, more women than ever know the right exercises and even know that they need to get stronger. Although we'll get to that. Okay. We'll talk more about that. But there's still far more than when we were trainers back in the day. Like 20 years ago, when we were running in gyms, getting strong with heavy weights, like no women wanted to even touch that.

12:49Sal Di Stefano:Oh, well, I mean, first of all, the hip thrust machine didn't exist. It didn't exist. The squat rack had dust all over it. Nobody did barbell squats. And any squat racks. I mean, you just checked off number one and number two movements you could possibly do to build your butt. So they were non-existent.

13:02Adam Schafer:And building muscle, God forbid. Don't even talk to me about building muscle. I'm going to just want to burn, right? And so today, more women than ever understand getting stronger, although it's still not a majority. It's way more than it used to be. They get it. More women than ever understand barbell squats and hip thrusts. But oftentimes, the one thing that makes a difference, The big thing that makes a difference besides workout programming, which we'll get to, is diet and protein. I can't tell you how many times for people listening, we'll get callers or emails or listeners where they're struggling with this.

13:35Adam Schafer:And all we tell them to do, they're following our programs. They're doing lots of good things. All we tell them to do is increase their calories by 700, oftentimes 700 calories, bump your protein intake, come back in 60 days and see what happens. And they come back and go, I gained an inch and a half around my butt. My butt built. It's actually bigger and rounder. And so oftentimes that makes the big difference. It's the diet and the protein. Don't be afraid of gaining weight. First off, if you gained five pounds of muscle on your butt, you would have a much bigger, rounder, fuller butt. But guess what?

14:10Adam Schafer:The scale would say five more pounds. That has to happen if you want to build muscle. It has to happened.

14:15Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. I think one of the greatest challenges here is one, it's always been challenging for most of my clients to hit protein intake consistently. And then in addition to that, when you're eating protein, it's very satiating. So you have somebody who is trying to eat more protein, whole foods, and do that consistently. And then simultaneously, you're also telling them You put them in some of a calorie surplus. Being consistent with that is tough. And that becomes the next greatest challenge. But it is the great, if you're doing all the right movements and you know you are, if you're listening to this and you're like, yep, hip thrust, check.

14:57Sal Di Stefano:Yep, I squat. Yeah, lunge. I do all these great movements. Watch all the videos. Brett Concheris is one of my favorite people on Instagram. You check all the boxes, but then you still can't do it. I would say almost always, it's the diet consistency.

15:11Adam Schafer:You know what it is, is that a lot of people don't know what high protein means. Like we're saying eat high protein. We're also saying eat in a calorie surplus. And I think some people are afraid of actually eating in a calorie surplus. So calorie surplus is a good 500 to more calories than what you're probably currently eating. So that's a decent additional meal. But let's talk about high protein. If you're a petite woman and you're listening to this and you weigh 130 pounds, here's how many grams of protein you need to eat per day to hit that kind of upper limit of where you'll maximize the effects of protein.

15:47Adam Schafer:130 grams a day. Yeah. You guys, 130 grams. That's 45 grams of protein for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I mean, how many ounces of meat is that? 16 ounces. Every meal. Every meal. You got to plan that out. Every meal. This is not a turkey sandwich. This is not three scrambled eggs for breakfast. Three scrambled eggs for breakfast is going to give you a grand total. What is it? 18 grams of protein? Yeah. You would have to eat six eggs or seven eggs, right? To hit that, right? You have to have six ounces to eight ounces of chicken or fish or meat each meal. When you look at the average woman whose strength training, the average woman who works out often, when you look at the actual amount of total protein that they eat per day.

16:32Adam Schafer:What it typically looks like is anywhere between eight to 10 ounces total for the whole day, for the entire day. It's like three ounces per meal. No, no, no, you guys, it's a lot more than you think. And then to what Adam's point, this isn't easy, you guys. This is not easy. Protein produces a ton of satiety. So you can eat a big bowl of rice. You can eat lots of other foods that don't seem to produce the same amount of satiety. And by the way, the studies and data on this is very clear. They don't. But when you you eat eight ounces of meat for breakfast and your lunchtime comes around and you you're not used to doing this it's a little bit of a chore it's gonna feel like yeah you're stuffing yourself it's gonna feel like you're force-fitting yourself because it produces so much satiety meaning you know that much eight ounces of meat is going to hammer your appetite which is good in many in many cases but also makes it difficult when you're trying to do this on a consistent basis and by the way you might do this one day so i've had clients do this just gonna say

17:31Sal Di Stefano:consistency is so key to it too because they do every day you do a couple days and you're like no i do that and it's like no every day every day do that can you do that because what ends up happening is somebody does that a few days within a few days they fall behind on the calories they fall behind on the protein and it's like and that's enough to not see the progress and the results. And so it's a consistency thing around the calorie surplus plus the protein. And it doesn't have to be this massive calorie surplus and you don't have to eat six to eight ounces every single meal. There's plenty of other strategies with shakes and with Greek yogurts.

18:05Sal Di Stefano:And so, but what I do appreciate what you're saying, because I would communicate the same way is that I would highlight that by, because when you say it like that, people go, oh my God, I know I don't eat that much. And so what it really does is highlight how much protein you need to be hitting. It doesn't mean you have to do it through six, eight ounces of meat in just three meals. You can have eight smaller meals. You can have a shake in there. You can have some high protein Greek yogurt. There's lots of great strategies to get to that, but it's the effort towards that many grams of protein consistently every day to do that is huge.

18:38Adam Schafer:It's got to be a priority and consider this, right? The body doesn't want to build muscle unless it thinks it has to. Okay. Unless it thinks that, why, why is that? Well, muscle is expensive tissue. So meaning when you have more muscle on your body, it requires, it means that your body requires more energy intake to maintain. And your body is the result of, you know, many, many years of evolution, meaning it would rather be efficient. Our human bodies are designed to be efficient. how do we know this if i put my leg in a cast for one week i would lose significant muscle in my leg why because my body's like we don't need the muscle get rid of it this happens to the brain this happens to the rest of the body as well like if i stop remembering a certain thing for example i'll give you guys an example this is an easy one i think we can relate to because we grew up during a time where uh we didn't have cell phones i used to know everybody's phone number i knew everybody's phone i know no i don't know your guys's phone i talk to you guys every day I cannot tell you what your phone number is because my brain prunes that off.

19:41Adam Schafer:I don't need to remember it. Same thing happens with muscle. So you have to give your body a reason to build muscle. And then you have to feed the ability to build that muscle. And by the way, the reason is your training. And what kind of training tells your body we need bigger muscles? Heavy strength training. Not cardio, not endurance training, not stamina training, not running or swimming or circuit training or orange theory classes or Barry's boot camp classes or anything like that or body pump classes or Pilates. None of that tells your body we need bigger muscles. Bigger muscles come from, hey, I'm lifting heavy stuff.

20:23Adam Schafer:I need bigger muscles to lift this heavy stuff. So get strong. That's the key right there. So you produce that constant signal, which is telling your body, this is the environment that we're living in. And then as we recover, this is where it's important to, to go through that same training mindset with your food. So to, you know, use that example, you've, you brought up before with the type of protein and the amount that you need to try to consume, this is not going to be something that's, it's going to feel natural initially. Like it's something that you have to work and introduce to your body, just like you're consistently introducing the training stimulus and that signal,