10 Important Reasons Why Your Butt Isn't Growing

Not all of us were born with a nice round butt. I know I wasn’t. But that doesn’t mean we can’t enhance what we were naturally given. We all have the ability to grow our glutes if we really want too. We just need the right tools and the right plan.

If you feel like you’ve been doing everything right and you’re still not growing don’t give up just yet. There’s probably a really important piece to the glute growth puzzle that you’re missing.

It took me months of trial and error to figure out what works best for me. And during that time I learned that even though there are staple exercises that are generally most helpful for growing your glutes, not everything works for everyone.

This is why we can’t just follow everything our favorite youtuber or influencer is doing. Even if everything that they’re doing is right, that doesn’t mean that when you do it will be right…for you.

The same goes for the reason why your butt might not be growing. Just because another girl discovered that she needs to do different exercises to grow her butt, that doesn’t mean that’s the same reason why your glutes aren’t growing.

So before you drop everything and give up, let’s go over all the possible reasons why your butt isn’t growing. And why you’re not seeing the results that you want. Who knows? You might find your missing piece to the puzzle here.

10 Important Reasons Why Your Butt Isn’t Growing

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1. You’re not eating enough to grow.

This is the #1 reason why a lot of women struggle to gain weight. I see it all the time. Women come to me saying that they are eating a lot, and to the average person that may actually be true. But they’re still not seeing results. And most often that’s because they have a fast metabolism like most naturally slim girls. And eating a lot isn’t always enough.

You have to be eating a lot and then some. It has to be enough for YOUR BODY to grow. It doesn’t matter what I ate or what your friend that gained 10lbs on Apetamin ate. What matters is what your body needs specifically.

So if you feel like your glutes aren’t growing, this is what you should do first. Track the amount of food you’re eating for a week. Don’t change up your food intake yet. Just take note of your calorie intake each day. You can use a calorie counting app like MyfitnessPal or Berry (my personal favorite) to help you.

At the end of that week, you can use a macro calculator to get an idea of how many calories you should be eating. I like to use Katy Hearn’s macro calculator because it’s easy to follow. But it’s good to keep in mind that the number of calories that it gives you is not set in stone. We’re humans, not robots. It’s simply a good starting point to help you reach your goals.

With that being said if you’re eating less than the calorie intake it tells you that you should be eating to gain weight, then it’s time to start adding larger meals or a few more snacks into your diet.

And if you’re eating on par or more, then I would hold off on adding a few extra snacks and check that you’re eating good amounts of carbs, protein, healthy fats, and that you’re eating fruits and vegetables.

And if all of that is great, then it’s time to move on and make sure you’re not missing anything important in your workouts.

2. You’re not doing glute focused exercises.

The exercises that you are doing when you workout are just as important as how much food you’re eating. It’ll be hard to grow your glutes if you’re mainly doing exercises that grow your legs. If you want a detailed list of exercises that grow your glutes, I highly suggest you take a look at this post I wrote on the best glute exercises. With some video demos included.

The reality is, most leg exercises work all parts of the leg at least a little bit. But in order to see drastic booty growth you have to do the exercises that reeeally work the butt the most.

There are two ways you can accomplish this, and both ways work really well together. You can do exercises that specifically focus on the glutes or you can do exercises that aren’t necessarily focused on the glutes but that you can adjust to make you use your glutes more.

Some exercises that are glute focused includes hip thrusts, frog pumps, glute kickbacks, and hip abductions. These exercises isolate the glutes so that they are the main focus and where you’re going to feel the burn the most.

As for exercises that can be adjusted? Here are a couple of moves you can switch up:

Instead of doing regular squats which tends to be more quad/outer thigh focused, take a wider stance and do sumo squats to work your butt, hamstrings and inner thighs more. And instead of doing forward lunges, do reverse lunges or Bulgarian split squats.

3. You’re not using mind-to-muscle connection.

Everyone that hears mind-to-muscle connection has no clue what it means yet it’s so essential to getting the most out of your workouts. Mind-to muscle connection is a fancy way of saying, focus on the muscle that you’re trying to work and grow while you’re doing an exercise.

Let’s take a squat for example. A basic squat uses more of your quad muscles a.k.a. thighs than your glutes. But if you focus your thoughts on squeezing your glute muscles during the entire squat, you can get those muscles to work harder. And more work leads to more growth.

I do my best to use mind-to-muscle connection during every exercise, but especially with the muscles that I really want to grow in size.

If your goal is to grow your butt, then you need to put your mind on those glute muscles during all of your glute focused exercises. You should be able to feel every bit of those muscles moving. Make it so that it’s impossible for your butt NOT to grow.

4. You’re not using proper form.

I’m going to keep this one super short for you, but proper form is so important. Not only for minimizing the chances of injury, but for reaching optimal growth.

Sure you might see results doing an exercise improperly, but why put in so much effort doing it wrong if you’re not going to get the best results. Make your effort worth while by doing the exercise right and see a 100% return on your investment.

5. You’re not “activating” your glutes before your workouts.

Have you tried doing 2 -3 warm up exercises for your glutes before your actual work out?

If not, you could be missing out on some potential growth. It’s always a good idea to warm up your body before any workout. But warming up your glutes with some light weight or resistance will help them work more once you start your workout.

And there are many different ways you can warm up your glutes. You can do body weight exercises like squats, glute bridges, and donkey kicks. You can also put a short resistance band above your knees to add more tension. Sometimes I like to warm up my glutes by using very light weights ( 10 – 20lbs) before switching to heavier weights.

A couple of my favorite exercises to warm up my glutes are banded glute bridges and clamshells. Doing 2-3 sets of 15-20 reps of each exercise gives me a well rounded warm up before I switch to using weights. Try of a few simple exercises to find what works best for you as a warm up.

The Best Glute Exercises for a Booty You’ll Love

10 Easy Snacks to Help You Gain Healthy Weight

6. You’re doing too much cardio.

When I first started my fitness journey I didn’t understand how anyone could enjoy doing cardio. But after picking up a jump rope during quarantine I realized that cardio is such a good stress reliever as well as an easy way to get your body moving with little to no equipment.

But when it comes to wanting booty growth it’s better to limit cardio sessions to 20 mins or less, 1 – 2x a week. You don’t want to accidentally burn off that extra food you’ve been consuming for muscle growth. Especially since you’re already burning calories when you lift weights.

And I hate to sound so calorie focused when everyone is all about body positivity. But when you’re trying to reach a specific goal, being aware of how much or little you’re eating is important. At least in the beginning. It’s better to have a good structure and understanding of what your body needs to grow early on and then cut back or make adjustments later when you feel comfortable.

For example, when I first started to gain weight I kept track of everything I was eating up until about 6 months into my journey. After that I no longer counted calories because I had a good idea of how much food I needed to be eating to continue to see growth.

Now, I only count them when I’m trying to reach specific goal. So if you want to see more booty growth this year, it’d be a good idea to use a calorie counting app like MyfitnessPal or Berry to make things easier for you.

7. You’re using weights that are too light.

For the record, it is possible to grow your glutes with little to no weights. However, the growth might not be as optimal as if you were to use heavier weights. The thing about muscles is you have to give them a reason to grow. Give them a challenge.

So if you’ve been using light weights for a while and you aren’t seeing growth it’s time to up the weight.

I always get the question, “How much weight should I be using?” And there is no one right answer. Everyone’s strength levels are different. And each exercise is different. The best way to figure out what weight you should use for a certain exercise is trial and error.

The weight should be heavy enough that the last 2 reps of the last 2 sets that you do are difficult.

Let’s take a dumbbell squat for instance. If you are doing 4 sets of 12 reps, and on your third set you’ve already done 12 reps and you feel like you could do 5 more, then you should use a heavier weight.

Likewise if you’re on you’re third set and you feel like you can’t make it to 12 reps without messing up your form (remember form is important!), then you should pick up a slightly lighter weight.

Eventually you’ll be able to figure out what works best for you.

8. You’re not training your glutes consistently.

Consistency is key. You should be training your glutes at least 2 – 3 times a week if you want to see the best growth. And when I say training I don’t mean half assing your workouts. When you train, show up and give it your all, even if that means only being able to give it your all for 30 minutes.

It’s better to have an intense short workout than a basic long workout where you barely break a sweat. You have to be your #1 motivation to get in and get it done. No one’s going to do it for you.

9. You’re not letting your body rest.

On the other end of the spectrum if you’re a lot like me, then you have more than enough energy and motivation to workout. So much so that you barely take a day off. Here’s your sign the rest. Just like you need sleep to function your best, your muscles need time to rest to function their best.

Don’t forget to take a break a couple days a week and just rest. If you feel like you just have to move, then do some light exercise such as walking or yoga.

10. You’re not being patient.

This is one of the most common reasons I see for lack of glute growth. And to be honest it isn’t lack of growth. It’s lack of patience. These things take time. And in a world of instant gratification, the time it takes to make your booty grow may seem like forever but I can assure you it’s not.

And you can’t judge your growth off of someone else’s because not everyone has the same amount of time available to dedicate to their workouts and meals. Not everyone has access to the same equipment. And not everyone is putting in the same amount of work. On your journey you have to have tunnel vision and focus on YOU. Relax and take it one step at a time. You got this.

10 Important Reasons Why Your Butt Isn’t Growing