Did you know many of your favorite booty building exercises actually build your thighs and the sides of your waist, which could make you look more boxy?
Find out the best glute exercises for thick girls to Build Your BUTT not your THIGHS! 🍑
Please check out the video for the full accounting of these exercises and the why behind each one.
Additionally, I’ll post a short list as discussed in the video.
As a naturally thick girl, I understand that some of you may be happy with your already thick thighs but may not want them to grow anymore, (or you’d like to slim them out a bit), and additionally, you do want to build some size on your posterior aka your booty!
So, how do you know which exercises will make your thighs rub vs which ones will make your booty pop!
Many exercises will do both of these, but, there are a few exercises out there that can build your glutes and maybe hamstrings (also a very pretty bump on the back of your leg) without building the size of your thighs.
Spin Bike Vs Treadmill
When choosing cardio Spin bike may build your thighs and make them bigger while also giving you a nicer butt.
If you love spinning but are afraid of getting those thighs that rub, try reducing the spinning and add some cross training to your life.
You can also decrease your level of intensity, but instead increase your speed to reduce size added to your legs.
Treadmill sprints on the other hand will likely lean out your legs, but adding some incline can also add to toning your butt.
Keep in mind, sprints are very different than a treadmill jog or run.
Please see these two videos on proper treadmill sprints to see two of my favortie sprint routines.
Squats Vs Smith Machine Lunges
While squats are touted as the top booty building exercise, I don’t actually feel this is the best exercise for building your glutes.
When they’re done weighted with excellent form, they can build the glutes, but they will also build the circumference of your thighs.
For some of you, lifting heavy enough for glute development could also cause you to build your thighs enough for the to rub.An exercise that I like better for building curves would be a heavy lunge.
A heavy lunge done properly can build the glutes and hamstrings without adding size to the circumference of your thighs.
So, for the thick girl, this will mean you could get a nice pop of hamstring and glute vs rubbing thighs.
Traditional Olympic Bar Deadlift vs Bulgarian Deadlift
While personally I love both of these exercises, (I’ve never met a deadlift that I didn’t like, lol).
There is a difference between the muscles used in the two different deadlifts.
The Romanian Deadlift and the traditional olympic bar deadlift.
When performing a Romanian deadlift, the main muscles are the posterior chain focusing on the hamstrings, and glutes. With the traditional Olympic bar deadlift, there is more use of the adductors and a bit of the whole thigh.
While I don’t think the Olympic bar deadlift will make your thighs as big as a squat would, it will more than a Romanian Deadlift.
I’d still do both, but, it’s good to keep this in mind so you can incorporate different deadlifts and also have more knowledge on where each deadlift works.
Leg Press vs Hip Thrust
The leg press is one of my favortie machines for adding really nice size for my slim clients that want to add all over size to their butt and thighs. In the reverse, if you’re not trying to put size on your legs, you can still get a lot out of the leg press, but, going heavy with both legs on the machine may add more size that you’re looking for if done consistently.
For thick girls, but best way to use the leg press is as follows
1) Do single leg, leg press. Switching to single leg can change the focus a bit to increase glute hamstring engagement and reduce adductor and quadriceps engagement to give a strong leaner looking leg.
The thick girl can also do two-legged leg press with lighter weights and higher reps. Taking a pause at the bottom of the rep can also assist in moving focus from the quadriceps to the glutes and hamstrings.
Another options would be to switch out the leg press and instead do a hip thrust.
A hip thrust will be more specific to hitting the glutes/ hamstrings.
You can also go very heavy (into the hundreds of lbs) without worrying about building thick thighs as there is not a ton of adductor or quadriceps engagement in this exercise.
This is a good one for adding size to your glutes.
Leg Extension vs Pilates Bicycle
The leg extension is a great way to isolate the quadriceps (the front of the upper leg).
Personally I’m a fan of this machine, but, as a thick girl, I like to keep the weights light and the reps high.
Doing the exercise like this is a great way to allow strengthening of the quadriceps without adding bulk.
Another exercise that I truly love is the Pilates Bicycle.
With traditional Pilates, you need to engage all the muscle involved in the exercise.
In this exercise, you are engaging the calves, quadriceps and core while focusing on lengthening your legs.
This is an excellent exercise to focus on lengthening and strengthening the muscles of your legs.
Pilates is based from ballet, so any Pilates exercises will be great for thick girls.
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