Built Not Bought: 12 Weeks of Glute Training, Setbacks & Self-Discovery
From Ego Lifts to Real Gains: My Raw Glute Building Story.
Intro
Why and How I Started This Journey…
It’s been a few years since I made the decision to lean into living a fit and flexible lifestyle. Initially my only goal was to drop some excessive weight I’d put on due to an injury. (A car crushed some bones all the way up my foot back in 2018) I ended up hitting my heaviest weight at the time due to not being very mobile throughout the recovery process. 160lbs doesn’t sound too bad but considering I am only 5’4, I was absolutely falling in the overweight category. I felt very uncomfortable within my own body. After enough months of being disappointed with the image reflected back at me each time I passed a mirror, I decided to take action! At the very beginning of this fitness journey I opted to follow along with HIIT video’s I found on YouTube for free.
At first all of the moves weren’t something I was able to do comfortably due to my healing foot, yet I pushed through and was able to drop 10lbs within a few weeks and keep the weight off. Eventually my consistency with that waned because it wasn’t something I found to be easy but instead, very draining and challenging. My life had also become extremely stressful for me at the time as I had just acquired my own apartment and was unable to work for about 7 months, the emotional and financial strain put me on pause.
Let’s fast-forward a few years to 2020 when Co-Vid had us socially distancing & staying at home. My weight gradually made it’s way back up the scale & I had what some people refer to as Happy/Relationship weight. I was eating good and laying up quite often. My partner at the time wanted us to start dieting and working out. We did good for maybe 2 weeks max. Then I lashed out at him and gave up on myself because I was jealous that he was starting to have visible results but I didn’t. I regressed but he had already made quite a few investments into at home fitness equipment (which he left behind and I now use often).
That relationship came to an end January of 2022. My weight immediately began to plummet due to dealing with adjusting to the break up. While trying to love myself into feeling normal again, I put on a two-piece fitness outfit and did a photoshoot of myself in my living room. This picture (attached below) of me sitting with my legs crossed whispered to me. “It looks like I do yoga!” The lightbulb had clicked ON! Maybe I should try it.
By April 2022 I began a 30 day yoga challenge, following along with yet another free YouTube tutorial channel (Please leave a comment if you’d like the name of the channels I used). After completing the full 30 days, I never stopped.
At What Point Did This Journey Turn Into Glute Building? One Might Ask…
After sliding down the scale all the way to high 90’s, low 100’s and spending those few years learning and loving my body however it appeared at the time, I finally began to critique myself in the mirror again. Seeing that my shape wasn’t ideal to me despite my daily workouts. I figured my body was ready for the next phase - Weight Training.
It’s been a very gradual journey I might add. Initially it was very hard for me to incorporate weights into my daily workouts. I started out with a 15lb kettlebell, 20lb dumbbell and 45lb barbell at home. Only doing awkward and uncomfortable squats, not even knowing what muscles I was actually targeting or what moves I was supposed to be doing for my desired results. Let’s not go into how terrible my form was starting out which was why lifting weights felt painful and undesirable.
I was struggling with consistency, and knew deep down it had nothing to do with lack of discipline, this had to be something else… This weight lifting goal haunted me for months at a time, I often complained about how dissatisfied I was with my pancake butt. Knowing that I had to invest some time into researching what it would take to visibly grow my glutes and how long would it realistically take. The minimum was 6 weeks! That seemed like a long time to commit but surely if I was to join a gym and begin to progressively overload, surely I’d obtain BBL allegations by week 12, right?! WRONG!
The 12 Weeks Of Progressive Overload
If you follow me on any of my social media pages, you’ll see that I made a decision to document & post the behind the scenes of this journey. Starting out my goal was 3-4 days a week. I had only intended to go 3 days the first week but my favorite cousin requested to hit the gym with me for the 4th day. I expected to be exhausted and drained to the point that I’d have to take it easy, but was surprised to notice that I was actually energized and feeling strong. It became my staple to hit the gym 4x every week until I hit week 8 where I seen that my results were nowhere near where I’d expected them to be at the time. Feeling a bit discouraged but still hungry to make it through the 12 weeks, I started hitting the gym only 3x a week.
My routine had changed once I went from being fully employed to unemployed. I now had more time for leisure and rest that I had been badly neglected while on a strict schedule of swinging a hammer 40 hours a week, walking 160,000 steps weekly, and living off only 3-4 hours of sleep. From week 8-12 I stumbled across a few obstacles in my journey. I began to ego lift & my form went right out the window. I had a goal to hit and strength to prove. lol who was I fooling? My weight fluctuated between 115-126lbs. Always jumping for joy, super excited when I seen the numbers towards the higher end but feeling devastated and discouraged when the opposite showed.
Allow me to mention the supplements that I decided to pick up and how my diet changed at this time.
Creatine Monohydrate, highly recommended by my late husband and many doctors and dieticians, helps us gain water weight, the downside to it is having to drink 3-4 liters of water a day. Running to the bathroom all day is so discomforting, I even had an accident at work once because my shirt was too long and I couldn’t untuck it in time to make it. That was embarrassing because it happened early in the shift. I ended up taking a half of a day and reconsidering overloading my bladder the way I had been.
The next supplement that I had been using was weight gainer protein, the GNC version. First the normal one then the 1340. My results were becoming very visible after a month of taking both of these. But the downside is there’s a lot of chemicals our body can’t actually process in these mixes and our body is not actually getting the numbers shown in bold, but instead the daily value percentage. I can say due to getting laid off and already having prior financial strain that I have not been able to keep up with purchasing these supplements and a 10lb loss has happened since completing week 12.
Also, I was a vegetarian for about 2 1/2 years after trying out veganism for a year and deciding it was just too restrictive. Actively trying to bulk caused me to lean back into seafood. I also have fish oil pills, and ultimately fully embraced the pescatarian diet, while being cautious and mindful to take note if it would make me sick. So far so good.
Top 3 highly recommended glute exercises in my opinion has to be…
RDL’s (Romanian Deadlifts) and its variations such as single leg or b-stance.
Squats and its various forms such as Goblet, Sumo.
Lastly Hip Thrust - Glute Bridges & hold’s at the top of the movement.
Other honorable mentions of my 3 least favorite but still recommended glute exercises would have to be…
Unilateral’s such as Step-Up’s, Cable Kickbacks, Bulgarian Split Squats and Squat Lunges.
Glute hyper-extensions such as glute extensions on the machine and good mornings.
Lastly the Stairmaster, it has a great reputation but I realize it was excessive cardio I may have not needed.
Although I have favorites and least favorites, I’ve committed to doing as many glute focused exercises as possible. Making sure to hit at least 6-8 of these movements each time I hit the gym for 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps.
The last set should always be until failure, where you are shaky and losing form. Discipline has definitely been what has pulled me through this journey.
Where Am I Now - How Am I Continuing To Navigate This Journey?
I’ve reflected on my growth and my progress which has been pretty easy for me to do thanks to being sure to document everything with pictures and videos, and ultimately I’ve decided to dial it back.
Keeping my wrist comfortable has been a challenge once I passed 55lb dumbbells in each hand. So that’s where I’ve decided to set my limit for now until I notice my grip and wrist strength is actually strong enough to go up some more. Full range of motion is another factor I’d stopped considering once I started ego lifting, now it’s more of my focus as well as controlled and concise movements. Mind to muscle connection is real as well, you can focus on what you’re feeling to know if your doing the exercises properly and targeting the correct muscle group. I’ve dropped down to only hitting the gym 1-2x a week, while doing maintenance lifting at home with my weights I mentioned earlier.
Changes I’ve noticed, my glutes have definitely lifted and are more sculpted than they ever have been, but still no shelf or bubble butt here. It turns out I had very unrealistic goals up until week 8 where reality set in for me. I now realize the results expected in 12 weeks would more than likely actually take me 12 months if not more. Progress is inevitable if you keep showing up and putting in the work. I been took myself away from desiring “microwave results” as they’re either temporary or impractical. Those of us who think we can obtain maximum results with minimal work are delusional. I know shortcuts are a sure way of contributing to us quitting journeys altogether.
Now my focus is back on my health - mental, physical and emotional, no longer chasing the aesthetic and making myself uncomfortable stressing about image. I’m not even vain but it seems this world can be, quite often at that. Moving forward I’ll personally be doing away with the supplements and focusing on a whole food diet, no more of just looking for max protein but instead, all of the nutrition we require to stay healthy.
This picture is to show the contrast of where I started my fitness journey vs where I was after practicing yoga daily before my weight lifting journey began.
I had to do it myself, before feeling comfortable enough to offer guidance to others about their fitness goals and options. Now I’m sure that I can help those who are hungry enough to help themselves.
In Conclusion
These past few months haven’t just been about building muscle and increasing strength or even about the external appearance but about challenging myself, showing up and building trust with myself.
Although my weight/gains has fluctuated throughout this most recent journey, my commitment to honoring my body and the process remains untouchable. I’ve created something special to support those who are also serious about fitness as well as lifting, shaping and loving their glutes. If your looking for structure, simplicity and results. I got you!
Look out for my next post which will be unlockable for those of you who are interested and serious, I’ll be posting 4 week glute building plan including meal prep, detailed exercises, recovery and mobility practices, structure, intensity and how to achieve visible results.
COMING SOON.
Thank you very much if you’ve made it to the end of this post! I appreciate you taking out the time. With Love - Roc <3