It would seem that Sir Mix-a-Lot was ahead of the curve(s) when he confessed, "when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face, I get sprung."
Follow fitness in the media, especially on social media like Instagram and it’s hard to miss the ubiquitous trend of exaggeratedly curvy female glutes. Think J.LO or Kim K. to the one rep max.
They have big butts and I cannot lie: the images make me do a double take. These swollen backsides have me wondering how this is achieved? How does a major muscle group so interconnected with adjoining body parts get such isolated growth? What are women doing to attain these protruding heinies while maintaining, "itty bitty waists?" My somewhat rhetorical question is answered by the abundance of the following hashtags: #growabutt, #shesquats, #humpday #waistoassratio #buttpump.
Bodybuilders have become #bootybuilder (s) and fitness "athletes" are more like #assletes. They are wearing high cut booty shorts and sometimes less for locker room selfies that show off their assets. Forget about the front view: a side view or a back-to-the-camera-look-over-the–shoulder-pose emphasizes that humpty hump.
From a functional perspective, I have to wonder if intentionally overdeveloped glutes for aesthetic reasons affects performance. From an athletic standpoint powerful glutes mean powerful hips, which as long as flexibility is maintained improves performance, but I wonder if, when the natural proportions are tipped out of balance to the extreme, "junk in the trunk" could be a negative or risky aesthetic to squat for?
Not according to Milwaukee’s own BJ Gaddour, named one of Men’s Health Magazine’s 100 Fittest Men of All Time. Gaddour told me, "The glutes are a muscle group that can never get enough work, especially because of all the sitting we do all day which shuts your glutes down. All athletic movement is driven through the hips and they are also highly metabolic as our largest muscle group. Hit them 2-3 times per week with bodyweight or barbell hip-thrusts. Make them even more effective by wrapping a band around your knees to kick in your lateral hip muscles."
What BJ commands, I always do. But, still I visualize tipping over backwards from a protruding rear-end imbalance. I asked if, in his expert opinion, a butt could be too big?
"Never. The stuff you're seeing on social media … 99 percent of it is surgically enhanced. Period. If the thighs don't match the glutes, it's suspect."
Good point BJ. Social media strikes again, perpetuating an unattainable, unrealistic aesthetic. While working on this piece, leading Los Angeles training facility Clutch Bodyshop published a blog entry, "Is your favorite fitness butt a fake?" Clearly, I’m not the only one with bootylicious questions. For some reason, in an industry where breast implants are as commonplace as protein shakes, surgically enhanced butts really strike a nerve. Perhaps it is because it takes so much hard work to truly change, build and strengthen them. Maybe hindquarters are where the bottom line is drawn.
Milwaukee-area fitness professional Angelina D’Amico, owner of B-fit MKE and multi-certified in personal training, group exercise, Zumba, TurboKick, R.I.P.P.E.D and more, is taking full figured advantage of the bodacious booty trend. She is guiding members of her co-ed Meetup group, "Ballistic Back Side" toward an improved rear view through working out. The group has 264 members in pursuit of the group’s tagline "Bubble Butts and Strong Lean Legs!"
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Angelina D'Amico: a poster child for the results she offers.
D’Amico explains, "Many people have desk jobs, they are sitting on their tush and not really working it. This can be a disaster paired with poor eating and lack of exercise. The gluteus maximus is a muscle. If you work it out, that muscle will grow into a nice round little peach and anyone can achieve a bubbled out booty with the right exercises!"
Co-ed, I asked? She replied, "Gentlemen want that rounded butt too!"
D’Amico, who is currently studying Nutritional Science at UWM, sees the trend as healthy for female body image. "I think it is great for women because embracing our femininity makes us more confident and feel sexy," she says.
Ready to #GrowAButt? Ballistic Backsiders can expect to do lots of squats, lunges and hip exercises paired with cardiovascular training in the HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) format. Expect to be sore and to get results, D’Amico assures, "Like anything else, it takes time to achieve the booty you want, but anyone can do it!"
Lindsay Garric is a Milwaukee native who calls her favorite city home base for as long as her lifestyle will allow her. A hybrid of a makeup artist, esthetician, personal trainer and entrepreneur all rolled into a tattooed, dolled-up package, she has fantasies of being a big, bad rock star who lives in a house with a porch and a white picket fence, complete with small farm animals in a version of Milwaukee that has a tropical climate.
A mishmash of contradictions, colliding polar opposites and a dash of camp, her passion is for all pretty things and the products that go with it. From makeup to workouts, food to fashion, Lindsay has a polished finger on the pulse of beauty, fashion, fitness and nutrition trends and is super duper excited to share that and other randomness from her crazy, sexy, gypsy life with the readers of OnMilwaukee.com.
