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Well, it’s that time of year when the cheeks end up coming out. And not those cute baby cheeks, but our mom-butt cheeks. I’m not sure about you, but even after losing the baby weight, my butt is still squishy and flat. Like not the sexy bouncy, but the flabby jiggly.
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I was a Pilates instructor years ago. Before my life was taken over by little ones, and since the birth of my now 8-month old baby, I’m working on firming that booty back up. I wrote a post on some moves to help you get your booty back, and in this post, I want to talk more about what you need to do before you do any workout. These are called glute activation exercises, which are ESSENTIAL to getting rid of your mom-butt, and ensuring you can safely and effectively do your workouts.
I personally use these bands for activation. The extra bit of resistance is helpful for me to feel where I need to activate. The reason you want to activate your glutes before you work out is because with all the sitting we do, our glutes become deactivated. Our brain literally turns the muscles off because we aren’t using them. We turn our coffee machine on before it actually brews coffee, so we need to do the same with our glutes. If we don’t our hamstrings and other muscles will take over to compensate.
Now that that’s understood, let’s get into the moves to activate the glutes!
The first one involves tying a band around your knees. Squat with knees about shoulder width apart. Squeeze your glutes and force your knees out by widening, while keeping your feet in place. Think of doors swinging open.
Don’t mind my face here. I am attempting to workout and referee the kids. These are hard, and depending on the size of your bands, you’ll have to find your own rep count. See how many you can do until it burns, then do that three times.
The next move is where you put the band down around your ankles. You might need to play with how tight you want the band. It doesn’t matter how tight you have them in reality.
Put your hands on a wall, so you don’t fall down. Lift one heel straight back and up. Like you are lifting something with your heel, and you want to visualize lifting your heel even with your glutes. You don’t need to go that high at all, but just in your mind. Once you find a food amount of tension (doesn’t matter if you lifted your heel 3 inches or 3 ft) pulse at that tension spot. Don’t lose tension. Really concentrate on squeezing that glute over and over. Do not let your leg come down and relax. We want to get this muscle working again! See how many pulses you can do before it hurts or burns too much, then do that three times.
Next, lay on your back with the band around your knees again. You are going to bridge up and hold your bridge. Then, pulse your knees out and sqeeze your glutes. Do this until it hurts. Count how many that was and do it three times.
For the last one, you want to lay on your stomach. Move the band back around your ankles. This is called the Superman. You want to stretch your arms out in front of you and lift, while lifting your heels off the ground. Try not to lift your head up too much and strain your neck. Just enough to get your face off of the floor or mat. One thing with this, PULL YOUR BELLY BUTTON IN! Don’t let this move allow you to let the belly relax. While you are in the Superman pose, pulse your heels out against the tension of the band. Again, find your stopping point, and do that three times.
Other steps to helping get your booty back, which works for me is to get a clean protein! I love this protein while nursing. I talk all about how clean and pure it is, and I also am obsessed with this protein when I want something that tastes like dessert.
If you ware still having trouble with your workouts, and not getting to the goals you have, I wrote a post just for you, on why your workout isn’t working.