glutes

[holiday]

how do i train my glutes & legs, with out shaving the curve and bubble off my glutes. with weight lifting? i have a squat rack, dead lift, stiff leg, & leg curls & ext. but i don't know how to lift to heavy, light , high rep ,low rep? help please

[Telly]

I guess it all depends on what you are trying to achieve.

You will not the shape of your butt by training, you will actually enhance it.

Squatting is a great all-round leg and glute exercise. Squat to parallel, using a shoulder width stance. Perform between 12-15 reps of 4 sets.

Lunges are also a great leg and glute exercise. Lunges will work your outer quads, hams and glutes. You can perform them using dumbells or a barbell, although dumbells are easier to balance with. Again perform 12 reps in alternate fashion.

Stiff legs are a great exercise for females because it works the hams all the way to the lower back, which is often a place that girls store fat.

Stick to these core exercises and you'll have buns of steel.

In terms of weight, reps etc, you need to build muscle to have tone. The only way to do that is to progressively increase muscle resistance, ie use more weight. The worst thing you can do is go into the gym and lift the same weight every time you go.

[holiday]

i just don't wanna shave any off, nor be built up like a guy.

[Sweetness]

Yes, Telly is right, Muscles give the curves the fat just sags and looks like a miss shapen blob(youve seen the more extreme cases). All of these excercises are excellent. I would pick 1 compound excersise per session(example:lunges) and do both the leg curls and the extensions last. Some basic rules to follow:

keep your knees over your feet(in line/dont let them "butterfly" inward or out)

keep back very straight

The heavier the weight, the lower the reps, is more for building

The lighter the weight, the higher the reps, is more for defining

You should always be able to do a min of 6 reps

You should always lift until you cant anymore

To tone you first need something to define. -what I mean is unless you have awsome genetics and thick legs already
you prob. need to build muscle first. The isolation excercises (curls/extens.) will help define, so if you do them together with squats or ? in one workout, you should slowly achieve both goals, simotaniously. You still might have to wait a few months to see any serious results though.

[Telly]

Holliday, you've got me confused. Are you just trying to build your legs up or improve your legs and butt.

It's very difficult to totally isolate your legs only unless you perform just leg extensions, and they won't do a hell of a lot to tone your legs up alone.

If you are already happy with your glutes, what are you wanting to achieve. Some girls have great glutes without training, but that only lasts till they hit their 30's. Gravity then really takes over and that bubble look they had starts to sag, and when it starts to go, it's very difficult to bring it back.

You will not 'shave' anything off by training. You will, however, have a much tighter, firmer butt. You can control the size of muscle, but you can't control fat.

Don't worry about getting big and bulky like a guy. Without steroids and year after year of busting your ass in the gym with very heavy weights, you have no chance of bulking like a guy, period. It's much, much harder than you think to put on significant size.