Thursday, August 29, 2019
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Can You Lose Weight Just from Your Butt?
No, you’re not imagining it. With almost half-a-million posts on Instagram, #bootygoals is definitely a thing. If you’re already familiar with the peachy pics taking over your social feeds, you’re probably wondering (as we did!) how these stars shaped their glorious glutes.
As always when we have questions, we turned to the experts: certified personal trainers Morgan Olson, founder of Babe Go Lift and Roxie Jones of Tone House. Here’s what they had to say about transforming the tush.
RELATED: 11 Celeb-Approved Workouts for a Toned, Sculpted Butt
Can you lose weight from just your butt?
The idea behind losing weight from one particular body part is called spot reduction. The thinking goes that you can target specific areas of the body and selectively decide where the fat will disappear. But science has shown time and time again that spot reduction is as much of a myth as unicorns. That’s because fat cells are distributed all over your body, Olson says. To see them disappear, you’d need to reduce your overall body fat. “Working a certain muscle group doesn’t mean that you’re going to lose the fat that covers and surrounds that muscle,” she says.
However, you can still train a specific muscle group. People often use the terms “spot reduction” and “spot training” interchangeably, but they’re actually different. “One is BS, and one can help build a booty,” Olson says. “Spot training is the idea that you can develop a certain muscle or muscle group by training those muscles.”
RELATED: Can You Lose Weight Just from Your Stomach?
How to spot-train your butt
Exercises that force you to activate and engage the muscles that make up the booty—the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus—will help you increase the size of those muscles, Jones says. “Any glute-specific exercises technically allow you to spot-train your booty.”
If you’ve never trained your peach before, experts suggest starting with resistance band exercises (like kickbacks or lateral or monster walks) or bodyweight exercises (like air squats, unweighted lunges, and step-ups). “Adding in these beginner-level exercises will teach you how to activate your glute muscles. Once you know how, you add in more complex, weighted lifts,” Jones says.
Learning how to activate your glutes is crucial. “You can do squats until you’re blue in the face, but if you’re not actually activating the muscles, you won’t see any results,” Jones adds. To test your ability to activate your glutes, stand in front of a mirror so you can see your booty. Try to squeeze one butt cheek as hard as you can. If nothing happens, you’re not engaging your glutes. If you can see one of your cheeks contracted, the glute is activated.
Once you’re ready for weighted lifts, Olson has a few favorites that “will make your butt burn real good,” she says, including sumo squats, deadlifts, barbell glute bridges, reverse lunges, weighted step-ups, and curtsy lunges. These work the glute muscles from all angles, too. “They’ll give you a firmer lower back, fuller side butt, perkier upper butt, and rounder lower booty,” she adds.
After your pump-up session, remember to give yourself time to recovery properly. “Help your booty recover and grow back stronger and perkier with proper sleep and nutrition and foam rolling or stretching,” Jones says.
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Bonus: Training your butt could help reduce body fat
Whether or not losing weight is the goal, working your glutes with these exercises can help reduce overall body fat and rev up your metabolism. “Squats may be working your glutes, but they also work your core, quads, hamstrings, and lats. And the more muscles groups you use, the more work is required from your body and the more calories you are going to burn,” Jones explains. Having more muscle also means you’re burning more calories even when you’re not exercising, increasing your overall fat burn, she adds.
The bottom line: Whether you’re trying to lose weight or build a peach, training your booty-muscles can help get you to your goal.
Astonishing X-Ray Shows Grape Lodged in Child’s Throat
The mom who posted the photo is warning other parents that they always need to cut grapes in half for young children to reduce the risk of choking.
Many parents of babies and toddlers, and even older children, know how dangerous it is for them to eat whole grapes. That’s because little ones’ airways are about the size of an uncut grape, and this slippery fruit can easily become lodged in there. A recent report highlighted the potential for this horrible accident to occur, after three kids under age 5 choked on whole grapes. Sadly, two of them passed away.
Now, a new X-ray image of a grape lodged in a child’s airway is further driving home the message that parents and caregivers should always slice grapes longways, or even into quarters, before serving the popular fruit to little kids.
The frightening image was shared by Australian blogger Angela Henderson on her Facebook page Finlee and Me.
An accompanying caption reads in part:
“Attention Parents! Do you know what this X-ray is of? A grape! A grape that was lodged in the top of a 5 year olds airway today. This sweet soul had to be operated on, under general anaesthetic to remove the grape. He is VERY lucky that part of his airway was open or else this could have ended badly. So please be mindful that not all kids chew their food, are in a rush at schoolto get in the playground etc. Please be careful. And when in doubt just cut the damn grapes, baby tomatoes etc.”
We are so glad this little one is okay! And that now his experience can serve as an important reminder about the dire importance of following the AAP’s tips for choking prevention in young children at mealtimes:
- Cut foods into pieces no larger than 1/2-inch.
- Always supervise your child when he/she is eating.
- Make sure kids are seated while eating.
- Encourage kids to chew their food completely before swallowing.
Melissa Willets is a writer/blogger and soon-to-be mom of 4. Find her on Facebook where she chronicles her life momming under the influence. Of yoga.
This article originally appeared on Parents.com.