Look Great in Jeans - Six Moves to a Better Butt and Shapelier Legs

Written by Shoshana Pritzker Monday, 17 May 2010 18:21

By Brad Schoenfeld, CSCS

 

Women tend to be keenly aware of their physical imperfections. In the gym, they’ll tie sweatshirts around their waists to cover their butt and thighs. At the beach or pool, they’ll pull on a pair of shorts as soon as they have to stand up. While the average guy thinks he’s five pounds away from being Mr. America, even the most slender woman thinks she’s at least five pounds too heavy.

For many women, clothes can be the great equalizer. Fashion designers are heralded for their ability to develop styles that accentuate the positives and downplay the negatives. By choosing the appropriate cut, color and pattern, a woman can wear clothes that effectively hide her flaws, presenting her body in the best possible light.

But jeans are another story. If you want to look great in a pair of tight fitting denims, your lower body has to be up the task.

 

Anatomy of the Thighs and Glutes

In order to look your hip-hugging best, the two areas you need to focus on are thighs and glutes. Let’s take a look at these muscle groups in greater detail.

The frontal thighs are primarily comprised of the quadriceps, a group of four distinct muscles including the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis and vastus intermedius. All these muscles have an attachment at the quadriceps tendon on the knee. The three vastus muscles originate on the femur (thighbone). The rectus femoris, on the other hand, originates at the hip, making it a two-joint muscle— a fact that enhances its body sculpting capabilities.

The glutes and hamstrings are the major muscle groups associated with the posterior aspect of your body. The gluteal group is made up of three separate muscles: the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. The gluteus maximus is the largest of the gluteal muscles, accounting for the majority of muscular mass in the buttocks. Hence, the overall shape of your butt is largely determined by the development of this muscle. Its primary function is to extend the hip joint, allowing you to straighten your torso and bring your leg backward. The gluteus medius and gluteus minimus reside underneath and to the sides of the gluteus maximus. Their primary function is to bring the legs out and to the sides (a movement called abduction). Collectively, these muscles accentuate gluteal definition as well as firm up the hips.

The hamstring complex comprises three separate muscles: the biceps femoris, semitendinosis and semimembranosus. All three muscles essentially operate in concert with one another, helping to extend the torso and flex the knee. They reside on the posterior aspect of the legs, originating at the hip and extending all the way down to back of the knee.

 

The Target Training Solution

Shaping up your lower body can be readily accomplished— provided you’re willing to put in the effort. By nature, women tend to have good genetics in this regard. In fact, while men are much stronger than women in the upper body, intrinsic lower body strength is fairly equal between the sexes when adjusted for lean tissue mass. This phenomenon is necessary for childbirth.  Women must have sufficient capacity to carry a fetus through to term. Consequently, the lower body usually responds well to exercise. By targeting the muscles with the right compilation of exercises in the right format, results are sure to follow.

Unfortunately, women still tend to have an innate fear that strength training will bulk up the lower body. Consequently, they often train halfheartedly, using extremely “light” weights that don’t sufficiently tax the neuromuscular system. It’s no wonder, then, that most fail to reach their genetic potential.

The truth is that it’s actually extremely difficult for a woman to develop large muscles. The main reason: A lack of testosterone. Testosterone is a hormone that’s secreted by the testes (in males) and, to a lesser extent, the ovaries (in females). It has two main functions: First, testosterone is androgenic (i.e. masculinizing); it promotes male-oriented characteristics such as the growth of facial and body hair, male-pattern baldness and deepening of the voice. Second, testosterone is anabolic (builds muscles); through a complex process, it interacts at the cellular level with muscle tissue to increase protein synthesis— the primary stimulus for initiating muscular growth. Hence, there is a direct relationship between testosterone and muscle mass: The more testosterone you secrete, the greater your propensity to pack on muscle.

On average, women produce only about one-tenth the amount of testosterone as their male counterparts; this is nature’s way of preserving “femininity.” As a result, it’s virtually impossible for women to add a significant amount of muscular bulk to their frames. Without an anabolic stimulus, muscle tissue simply has no impetus to hypertrophy (grow larger) and muscular growth remains modest, even at advanced levels of training.

Still and all, if a woman doesn’t train in a manner consistent with her goals, she can bulk up more than desired. This is why it’s important to choose a rep range that’s consistent with your goals. If you want to maximally increase mass, it’s best to train in a range of six to 10 reps per set; if you want to improve muscle tone and endurance, a range of 15 to 20 reps is more appropriate. Perform your reps in a smooth, controlled fashion, taking special care to resist the negative portion of each rep.

Regardless of the rep range you choose to employ, make sure the weight is heavy enough so that the last few repetitions are a struggle to complete. Muscular overload is one of the fundamental tenets of exercise and to achieve optimal results, you must stress your body beyond its work threshold. By nature, the human body strives to maintain a stable state of equilibrium called homeostasis. If your training intensity doesn’t adequately tax your resources, there won’t be enough of an impetus to force your body from its homeostatic state. Only by stressing your muscles beyond their physical capacity will they be compelled to produce an adaptive response and exact a change in your physique.

 

The Routine

The following is a targeted routine for the lower body that is guaranteed to have you looking great in (or out of) a pair of jeans! Each of the exercises is designed to work synergistically with the others, maximizing muscular stimulation without significant overlap. For best results, perform the quadriceps exercises and the glutes/hams exercises as separate supersets, moving from one movement to the next in succession. After finishing each superset, rest for 30 to 60 seconds and then repeat the sequence two more times.

Given the intense, high-volume approach of the routine, you’ll only need to perform it once per week. This will allow adequate time for your muscles to recuperate. Remember, training breaks down muscle tissue— it’s during rest that your body synthesizes protein for repair, thereby fostering muscular development. Shortchange this process and you’ll only shortchange the results.

If additional fat loss is desired, you should add in some cardiovascular exercise. A good starting point is to perform five, 60-minute sessions a week at an intensity that allows you to carry on a conversation without gasping for breath. See how your body responds and if additional fat loss is desired, you can increase the frequency, duration and/or intensity accordingly. Just make sure you don’t overdo it. I generally recommend that you allow your body at least two full days a week of complete rest from exercise. This will help to enhance recovery and ensure adequate regeneration of your energy supplies. When in doubt, err on the side of caution. Remember, with respect to exercise, less can be more.

As a rule, it’s best to cross-train between different modalities. For example, you can do the rowing machine one day, jump rope the next and ride the stationary bike the next. This strategy has several benefits. First, cross- training helps to maximally expand your network of capillaries— the tiny blood vessels that allow nutrients such as protein and carbohydrates to be absorbed into body tissues. The more capillaries you have, the more efficient your body becomes in utilizing these nutrients for muscular repair. Capillaries also help to clear waste products, particularly carbon dioxide, from the food burning process, further enhancing the efficiency of your nutrient delivery system. This accelerates the rate at which your muscles are able to get the resources needed for recuperation, helping to improve workouts and speed recovery.

Moreover, cross training helps reduce the likelihood of a training-related injury. Because of its endurance-oriented nature, cardio is a repetitive motion task that subjects your bones, muscles and joints to continual impact. By varying your activities from one workout to the next, there is less wear and tear on your body, saving your musculoskeletal system from injuries of overuse.

Finally, cross-training helps prevent exercise-induced boredom. Let’s face it, performing the same activity over and over again can become pretty tedious. After a while, this can lead to reduced exercise adherence. By simply changing the modalities around, you interject life into your workout. It’s a win-win situation without a downside.

 

THIGH EXERCISES

·         Front Squat: Begin by resting a straight bar across your upper chest, holding it in place with both hands. Assume a shoulder-width stance and slowly lower your body until your thighs reach a position that is parallel with the ground. Your lower back should be slightly arched and your heels should stay in contact with the floor at all times. When you reach a “seated” position, reverse direction by straightening your legs and return to the start position.

 

·         Walking Lunges: Begin by standing upright in an open area with your feet shoulder-width apart. Take a long stride forward with your right leg, allowing your left knee to descend to just above floor level. Make sure to keep your shoulders back and your head up throughout the move. Then, reverse the process, stepping forward with your left leg and bringing your right knee down toward the ground. Continue stepping forward, alternating between both legs until the desired number of repetitions has been reached.

 

·         Sissy Squat: Begin by taking a shoulder-width stance. Grasp a stationary object (such as a piece of exercise equipment) with one hand and rise up onto your toes. In one motion, slowly slant your torso back, bend your knees and lower your body downward. Thrust your knees forward as you descend and lean back until your torso is almost parallel with the floor. Then, reverse direction and rise upward until you reach the starting position.

 

GLUTE/HAM EXERCISES

·         Stiff-Legged Deadlift: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Grasp two dumbbells and let them hang in front of your body. Keeping your knees straight, slowly bend forward at the hips and lower the dumbbells down until you feel an intense stretch in your hamstrings. Then, reverse direction, contracting your glutes as you rise upward to the starting position.

 

·         Seated Leg Curl: Begin by sitting in a seated leg curl machine and place your heels over the roller pads. Lower the leg restraint over your thighs so that they are secure. Slowly press your feet downward on the pad as far as comfortably possible, contracting your hamstrings when your knees are fully bent. Then, reverse direction and return back to the start position.

 

·         Machine Abduction: Begin by sitting in an abductor machine and with your legs together, place your outer thighs on the restraint pads. Slowly force your legs apart as far as comfortably possible. Contract your glutes and then reverse direction, returning back to the start position.

 

QUADRICEPS ROUTINE SUMMARY

 

GLUTE/HAMSTRINGS ROUTINE SUMMARY

 

Brad Schoenfeld, CSCS, is author of the best-selling books, Sculpting Her Body Perfect and Look Great Naked. Check out his website at www.lookgreatnaked.com.