DO SQUATS MAKE YOUR BUTT BIGGER? Best variations for your booty

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Once you have spent a decent amount of time in the gym working out, you start to develop an appreciation for how much hard work truly goes into building a lean and well-rounded figure. For most of us, a large part of this includes lean sculpted legs, strong muscular abdominals, and of course, a well-developed buttocks.

This last point can be a huge challenge to many of us, which is why we are discussing it in detail today.

I should also note that even though obtaining that bigger butt can indeed be a challenge, it is unquestionably worth it – a well-developed behind is the cornerstone to a great physique, and it helps you stretch a pair of jeans in all the right places while simultaneously making your waist appear smaller!

So it is worth taking the time to develop.

But, as we become more experienced in a gym setting (and start to take an interest in this whole ‘working out’ thing), it doesn’t take long to realise that there are any number of exercises we can use to build a bigger booty, and one that comes up frequently in discussion is the squat.

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What is the squat

The squat is often touted as the king (or in my personal opinion – the queen) of all lower body exercises. Considered a fundamental movement, the squat has been suggested to underpin a heap of athletic movements (such as sprinting, bounding, and jumping), while also replicating various tasks of daily living (such as climbing stairs and standing from a seated position).

As such, training the squat is a great way to improve your capacity to perform on a day to day basis.

But more importantly – the squat is also a great exercise that absolutely torches the muscles of the bum!

Because the squat involves a great degree of hip flexion, it puts the gluteal (AKA buttocks) muscle groups under a huge amount of stretch in the bottom position. This means to return to the top position of the squat, these same muscles need to contract HARD from this stretched position.

Performing the squat to maximise butt development

One key thing we do need to remember is that to truly maximise glute development (and obtain a bigger booty) we need to be able to squat with a high degree of technical proficiency.

This is why I recommend performing it in the following way:

1. Set up with your feet a little bit wider than shoulder width – there should be enough room for you to drop between your feet.
2. Your weight should be distributed evenly between the heels and balls of your feet.
3. Keeping your chest up tall and bracing your abs hard, it is time to start the descent into the bottom of the squat. We do this by dropping our hips straight down between our feet.
4. Control the descent during this portion of the movement, really trying to feel a big stretch in the muscles of the buttocks as you descend.
5. Once you reach the bottom position (which should have the top of your thighs parallel with the ground or even lower), it is time to come back up. This is done by driving your feet as hard as you can into the ground and squeezing your bum as hard as you can at the top.
6. During this ascent, you want to make sure your chest remains up nice and tall and you try and ‘spread the floor’ (pushing to the outside of your feet) with your feet. This minimises the amount of load distributed through the back, while maximising the recruitment of those bum muscles.

By following these tips you can guarantee a safe and effective squat, which I can ensure will lead to a bigger and better-developed butt.

Now I should also note that a common misconception associated with the squat relates to knee position. Many people suggest that we need to sit right back into our heels during the squat to make sure that our knees to do not drift past our toes (as this is ‘supposedly’ going to lead to injury) – which I can assure you is completely untrue.

Our knees need to have the capacity to move over our toes while walking, jumping, running, and sprinting. If we don’t have this ability freely available THEN we become more susceptible to injury.

With this in mind, the squat provides us with an opportunity to build strength in these positions while also maintaining this adequate range of motion. It actually helps us to reduce our risk of injury while simultaneously helping us build a nice and big set of glutes.

As such, it quickly becomes apparent why the squat truly is the queen of all lower body exercises.

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Best squat variations for booty growth

Now that we have an understating of what squat technique will help us best build a bigger butt, it is time to touch on the key squat variations.

By using different variations in our training we can maximise bum development through a variety of different methods – each of which is extremely complementary to the next.

The box squat

The box squat is an exercise that rarely gets the respect it deserves, particularly when discussing its capacity to help you make seriously positive physique based-changes (try and say that three times fast!).

The box squat is very similar to a barbell back squat, but rather than sitting straight down we actually squat onto a box or bench that has been set to a height that allows us to get our thighs parallel to the ground. During this movement we sit back until our bum lightly touches the box, and then we drive back up, squeezing our glutes HARD in the process.

By sitting back to an external reference point we load through the hips to a much greater degree. This leads to increased activation of the gluteal muscle groups, which leads to the development of a much bigger booty.

These are best used with heavy weights and low reps at the start of your workout. Doing this maximises muscle recruitment and promotes mechanical stress to those bum muscles, priming them for the coming workout while also stressing them to grow BIG.

The back squat

Similar to the box squat, a back squat is performed with the barbell on our back, but in this scenario there is no box to use as a reference point. As a result, we have the capacity to sink a little bit lower into our squat, which really increases the stretch placed on the muscles around the hip.

This increased stretch greatly increases the amount of work they receive during the movement, further challenging them, which helps improve muscle growth.

These are best performed in the middle of the workout using moderate loads and moderate rep ranges. By using these sorts of working sets we can help stimulate both the mechanical tension of the muscle tissue while also inducing some metabolic stress – both of which are known to contribute to developing growth. This is obviously essential to building a big and well-rounded behind.

The deep goblet squat

The goblet squat is one of my favourite exercise variations. While it is the same as most squatting movements, it differs in that we hold a dumbbell in front of us (like a goblet… original I know) to load the movement rather than using a barbell on our back.

This greatly increases the range of motion of the squat, which further helps increase the tension placed on the muscles of the bum.

The goblet squat is best performed at the tail end of our workout, using lighter loads and much higher repetitions. With this in mind, by performing them in this manner we challenge the metabolic capacity of the muscles to a HUGE degree, which can lead to both fat loss and muscular development.

As a result, this movement can directly help you obtain an extremely well-developed set of glutes!

Example booty squat workout

So building upon the previous section, it becomes apparent that we can use different squat variations to build a bigger butt. By implementing them correctly, we can see muscle growth, fat loss, and an enhanced physique as a result.

The table below provides an example squat workout, structured in a way to really challenge the muscles of the buttocks!

ExerciseWeightSetsRepsRestBenefit1: Box SquatHeavy4-53-6120sMaximise muscle fibre recruitment and mechanical stress.2: Barbell Back SquatModerate3-48-12120sIncrease mechanical stress of muscle tissue.3: Deep Goblet SquatLight2-325-5060sMaximise metabolic damage on muscle tissue.

Using this workout we can seriously target all aspects of muscular development, challenging the muscles of butt in many different ways. Through this combination of factors, we can promote the optimal development of the buttocks.

I should note that this workout will not be a walk in the park – in fact, it will be quite a challenge. But you can trust that the results will be worth it.

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Conclusion

Having well-developed buttocks is a great way to add to your physique, and it can make your waist appear smaller and your legs slimmer. Taking this into consideration, exercise selection is paramount to maximising this development!

As such, it shouldn’t take long to realise that the squat is indeed a fantastic exercise to build a bigger butt. Its usefulness is further enhanced by employing different variations throughout the duration of a given workout!