Knowledge

3 Supersets To Fire Up Your Booty

Mai-Linh Dovan

Articles, Muscle gain

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3 Supersets To Fire Up Your Booty

3 Supersets To Fire Up Your Booty

The glutes are essentially the powerhouse of the human body.  Strong and efficient glutes allow you to run faster, jump higher, throw further, lift heavier…you name it.  And on the plus side, there’s no denying the appeal of a bubble booty in jeans and heels…

Here are a few points to keep in mind for efficient glute programming:

  1. The glute-hamstring combination is fundamental in driving and propelling the body forward. Plus, in my experience, movements that involve forward propulsion are usually quite effective in both establishing a mind-muscle connection with the glutes and getting a good pump (the two go hand in hand).
  1. Your ability to create torque from the hips and posterior chain is what the infamous Pavel Tsatsouline calls the “rear wheel drive” of the human body. Don’t forget that rotation and anti-rotation-based movements are a challenging and functional way to train the glutes.
  1. Don’t hate on isolation and/or single joint exercises. In recent years, « functional » has been misinterpreted to mean that we don’t do anything that doesn’t « mimic movement ».  Good old isolation/single-joint/open-chain exercises have been around for years because they actually work, especially in establishing a good mind-muscle connection.  As Coach Thibaudeau always says, you need to feel the pump in the target muscle for gains in strength and size.

Keeping these in mind, here are 3 supersets sure to fire up your booty (and help fill out your jeans)…

Superset 1 – Forward Propulsion Combo

A1            Airborne squats

A2            Deficit back lunges with glider

Airborne squats are great for focusing on forward propulsion, plus you get the extra glute-hamstring work by actively flexing the knee and extending the hip on the non-support side.   Start with a higher box (as in the video) and work your way towards a lower box, or even the floor.

Doing back lunges with a glider forces you to drag that back foot forward, focusing on single-leg forward propulsion on the support side.   The added range of motion of having the foot elevated is a plus; you could always start with just the glider.

Try this superset for higher reps if you want to really burn out your glutes, so anywhere from 8 to 12 for each leg.  If you want to work on strength, you can always load the airborne squat as well, in which case I would take a short rest between the two exercises.

Superset 2 Rotation/Anti-Rotation Combo

B1            Half-kneeling chop-lift

B2            Suspension skaters

 

Typically used as a “core” exercise, we can’t deny the work required by the glutes to stabilize the hips for the half-kneeling chop-lift exercise.  People tend to forget that the anti-rotation work to stabilize the pelvis is equally important as the rotation component of the torso.  Besides, your glutes are part of your core…

The suspension skaters also have that all-important anti-rotation component, plus the quasi-isometric position really lights the glutes on fire.

I typically go for 6 to 8 reps for each side on the half-kneeling chop-lift and go higher on the suspension skaters like 12 to 15 reps.  You could also go for time on the suspensions, like the 30s for each leg.

Superset 3 Isolation/single-joint Combo

C1            Band-resisted hip sweep

C2            Wide-stance stiff-leg deadlift with band resistance

The hip sweeps are one of those exercises that promote the mind-muscle connection with the glutes, provided you focus on isolating the movement to the hip.  Fun thing is, the support leg is getting as much work in (static stability) as the sweeping leg.

The wide-leg stance of the stiff-leg deadlift with the added resistance of the band helps you maintain torque through the hips and well, I don’t have to explain the value of the SLDL itself.

If you don’t have a lighter band, let form dictate your reps for the hip sweeps.  In the video, I couldn’t have gone for more than 6 reps or so because the band was so tight.  Otherwise, aim for higher reps anywhere from 8 to 12.  As for the SLDL, I’m not big on high-rep deadlifts, so I would suggest you load it up and go for sets of 5.  But if you can maintain tight form, you could go lighter and hit 8 to 10 reps.

Give these a try and let me know how your booty feels (and looks!).

– MLD