The Secret to a Bootylicious Booty

 

Sexy, strong and curvy. A pretty face is one thing, boobs another…but a carefully sculpted tush is – there is no other word to describe it, sexy. And you know what? It’s ok to be sexy. It’s something to be proud of – this is your body and you should love every inch of it!

And it does not stop at simply aesthetics. Our glutes are the largest muscle in our body and they are exceptionally strong but often underutilized. Why is this important? Shhh…I’m about to let you in on a secret beautiful. Because muscle burns more calories than fat as you sculpt your bootylicious bottom you are burning fat all over your body!

One of the best parts of perfecting your tush is that as you work towards sculpting your hot n’spicy body you are unveiling your own pair of beautiful curves. From the beautiful curvaceous Kim Kardashian to the slim and sexy curves of Adriana Lima’s a lifted, curvy and carefully sculpted tush is an exotic gem that is appreciated far and wide.

Have you ever tried on a new pair of pants and turned to do a “booty check” in the mirror? (Or is that just me ).  Well the truth is that we all have been blessed with our own pair of what I like to call “signature curves” but with all the information out there it can be confusing to know which tools to use to sculpt your unique bootylicious bottom.  Beautiful, this post is my gift to you. Please treat it like a delicate piece of chocolate. Take your time and savor the information, there are so many goodies within this post, in it you will find…

 Famous bootylicious bodies + Tush 101 + 10 Booty Exercises + 13 of the top “booty songs”  = The secret to sculpting YOUR beautiful, hot and spicy bootylicious body!

It’s time to sculpt your sexy, strong and curvy tush – after all these are your exotic signature curves and you deserve the best!

 

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Tush 101: Ok, beautiful are you ready to put yourself into a “CSI” frame of mind and dive into some booylicious glute anatomy? [Yes I realize that CSI stands for Crime Scene Investigation, but hey poorly developed glutes can be a crime  ].

At the bottom of this post is a list of bootylicious exercises coupled with some booty shaking songs.. If you want to skip straight to the exercises and the “booty shaking songs” please feel free to scroll to the bottom. Or you can adopt the theme that just like a bootylicious tush intelligence is also sexy and tackle this entire article. Whichever works for you beautiful! )

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When we talk about our glutes, the movements that they are responsible for is usually discussed in reference to the hip joint and how they make the large bone (the femur) at the top part of our leg move at our hip joint. (See the picture below).

Our butt muscles help to move the femur in 7 different positions around the hip joint and they are show in the videos below.
Flexion
Extension
Abduction
Transverse Abduction
Adduction
Internal (Medial) Rotation
External (Lateral)Rotation
note: There is also Transverse Adduction but I did not include this movement because that does not require our bootylicious booty muscles .

There are 2 layers of butt or gluteal muscles. The first layer is called the superficial layer (superficial means toward the surface) and the second layer is called the deep layer (and deep well means…….DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP). [hehe, sorry, I could not resist. ]

LaLa Anthony’s Cute & Curvy Booty

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4 Superficial Layer of glute muscles + 6 Deep Muscles =   10 total butt muscles.*
(What’s that – you heard that they were only 3?! And THIS beautiful is why we are in CSI mode!)*ahem, well there is a slight catch but I will get to that later .

Tracy Ellis Ross

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4 Superficial Butt Muscles

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1. Tensor Fascia Latae
- Muscle begins (this is called the origin) from the ilium and inserts into the iliotibial band, aka as runners may infamously know it as the “IT Band”.
- Works alongside the popular gluteus maximus to stabilize the hip joint and the knee during extension.

Alenka Bikar’s Strong & Sexy Booty

2. Gluteus Maximus
- Muscle origin the ilium, sacrum and the coccyx and inserts into the back of femur and the back part of the IT band.
- Stabilizes the hip and the knee joint (because of the attachment to IT band).
- Movement: Extension

3. Gluteus Medius
- Origin is at the ilium.
- Attaches(inserts) laterally on the greater trochanter ( a fancy way to say that it attaches to the side of the large bump called a trochanter on the top of the femur).
- Movement: Abduction

4. Gluteus Minimus
-Is the smallest of the 4 superficial layers.
- Origin is at the ilium (just like the glute medius) and it attaches anterolaterally on the greater trochanter (another fancy way for saying front/side of the large bump on the femur).
- Movement: Abduction

Photo Credit - Scarlett Johansson’s Fabulous Booty

Sexy Tidbit: Understanding where these muscles are is extremely important for learning how to perfect a “bootylicious” bottom.  It’s important to do exercises that move in all the directions listed above, Extension, abduction, abduction, etc. so that your tush is perfectly sculpted all the way around ….after all who wants a uneven rather odd shaped booty?

Ok, beautiful, let’s dive into the second layer, the deep layer.

                   There are 6 Deep Layer butt muscles.

From top to bottom (aka superior to inferior) they are the piriformis, gemellus superior, obturator internus, inferior gemellus, quadratus femoris and obturator externus (actually the last one is not is not thought of as a butt muscle by everyone but I will explain in a minute ).

Cynthia Fernández Tight, Sculpted & Perky Booty

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1. Piriformis
- Origin is at the front of the side of the sacrum (see picture below) and it inserts into the greater trochanter (bump) of the femur.
- Movement: Internal rotation, external rotation, transverse abduction.

 

2. Gemellus Superior
- Begins near the ischial spine (see the area where the highlighted yellow  and green areas intersect in the picture below) and inserts on the greater trochanter of the femur.
- Movement: External rotation.

3.Obturator Internus ( the part that you are seeing is most likely a tendon, the muscle itself lies closer to the inside of the glutes…in the most nonanatomical of words towards the butt crack, sorry no way to make that part sexy ).
Movement: External rotation.

(Beware, the following is a brief bootylicious break from muscles, bones, origins, insertions, and movements…)

 

 

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Ahem, ok so after recovering from that distraction….only 3 muscles to cover, are you still with me beautiful? Cue the CSI “Eye of the Tiger” mindset!

4. Gemellus Inferior
-Origin is on the lower part of the ischium (see below) and inserts into the trochanter of the femur (on the medial side, so the side closer to the middle of the body).
-Movement: External rotation.

 

5. Obturator Externus ( this muscle is often thought of as part of the medial part of the thigh instead of a butt muscle. But because it helps to laterally rotate the femur I have included it in the butt muscles).
-Origin is on the obturator foramen (see double arrows below) and it’s insertion is on a part of the trochanter of the femur. (I know this can get a little bit dicey, hang in here, we are almost done I promise!)
-Movement: Transverse abduction, external rotation.

6. Quadratus femoris
-Origin is on the obturator foramen (see above) and inserts on a part of the femur.
-Movement: External rotation.

From Nicki Manaj to Pippa Middelton, a bootylicious tush always  compliments a gorgeous asset (no pun intended ).

Booty Sculpt Secret # 8: Side Lying Hip Abduction

(Sidenote: Please don’t mind me and the little “preview” blooper, I really should do a reel of my bloopers sometime !!)

Remember the sexy tidbit earlier about the need to be aware of all the motions to be able to sculpt a bootylicious bottom? The chart below summarizes the different movements and muscle groups for a reference point:

 

*Please note: Only the muscles we discussed are mentioned in the movements, other muscles are also involved.

Sweet Coco’s Famous Sculpted Tush

Spicy Booty Summary….(hehe it’s almost time to shake our booty to these songs!)

4 Superficial Butt (or Gluteal region) Muscles: Tensor Fascia Late, Gluteus Maximus, Gluteus Medius and Gluteus Minimus,

6 Deep Muscles: Piriformis, Superior Gemellus, Obturator Internus, Inferior Gemellus and Obturator Externus (and again, the obturator externus can also be thought of as a thigh muscle but it does some “booty work”).

 

Beyonce’s Bootylicious Tush

Today I shared a little of the icing of the cake but if you want to really get down and dirty I recommend watching the two following videos by the TheAnatomyZone, they are rather long but that is because they are very comprehensive. I’m not endorsed by theanatomyzone in any way but I love to share my passion for the human body and the anatomy zone does a great job at providing really in depth information. Also exrx.net is THE place for any information regarding the body. Here are the two videos from the anatomy zone, just in case you want to dive in deep…

Guess what? It’s booty sculpting exercise time!

                       Jamie Koeppe’s Signature Curves

Tasty Tweetable: bootylicious exercise +  delicious superfoods = MY hot, spicy and sexy summer body!
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Alright now that we have covered some background are you ready to put it all together? Below is the full collection of 10 Booty Sculpting Moves to “perfect the tush” along with some booty shaking songs . The first 4 booty sculpting moves represent 4 different levels and can be progressed at your own pace at a level in which you feel comfortable. The remaining 6 moves can be done at any point in time, i.e. you can perform both Booty Sculpting Move # 1 and Booty Sculpting Move # 10 in the same workout.

If you are new to glute training then it is not a good idea to skip moves 1-3 and jump into #4 because although powerful our glutes are often underutilized. And moves 1-4 helps to “wake up”/activate the glutes – if you jump straight into move # 4 you may suffer from lower back problems because your spine can absorb the load. Ok, are you on board?  First four moves should be done in the order presented and the remaining 6 moves can be performed absolutely whenever you desire . …wait, one last twist. Remember earlier when I promised some booty shaking songs? Well below is a epic booty blasting playlist. Below each exercise video is a music video that you can play while performing each exercise. And as a bonus (and because I couldn’t bring myself to eliminate the songs) there are 3  extra booty shaking songs for a little more “spice” into your beautiful life.

Victoria’s Secret Angel Glutes

Are you ready to sculpt your bootylicious booty?

Booty Sculpt Secret # 1: The Glute Bridge aka “Pelvic Thrusts”

Booty Sculpt Secret # 2: Pelvic Thrusters- Full Throttle

Booty Sculpt Secret # 3: Pelvic Thrust – Marching

 Booty Sculpt Secret # 4: Single Leg Hip Thrust

Booty Sculpt Secret # 5: Reverse Hip Drop

Booty Sculpt Secret # 6: Bulgarian Split Squat

Booty Sculpt Secret # 7: Single Leg Deadlift

Booty Sculpt Secret # 8: Side Lying Hip Abduction

Booty Sculpt Secret #9: Sliding Reverse Lunge

Booty Sculpt Secret #10: Sumo Squat

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Bonus Booty Songs! (After all, why limit ourselves to only 10?)

 

Jessica Biel’s Curvalicious Booty

What is YOUR favorite song booty shakin’ (ahem: I mean, “exercising” song?)

Vida Guerra’s Classic Bootylicious Booty

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Thanks for reading beautiful and please share this article with one of your girlfriends, together we will perfect the tush throughout the world!!

Wishing you love, laughter, & blessings,