To correct this, Rodriquez recommends sitting back into your heels and pointing your knees out toward your pinky toes. "It's like tucking your tailbone under you instead of pushing it back as you descend into the squat," Blades says. A common mistake many people make is pulling the hips forward and tilting the pelvis back. This ensures you're leading with your hips and not your knees. Here are some other form tips to keep in mind as you're doing squats: Your hipsĪ strong squat starts with a solid hip hinge. Maintaining a straight back and keeping your gaze forward can help with this," Kemp says. "Keeping your core engaged helps easily prevent avoidable injuries, like lower-back strain. The number one rule in achieving a proper squat with perfect form is actually engaging your core. This gets you into the hypertrophic range to encourage muscle growth," Rodriguez says.
"You want to focus on volume instead of adding load. If you're wondering how many reps of squats you should aim for in a workout, Rodriguez says 10 to 15 reps for three to four rounds is ideal.
"Doing frogger stretches, banded abductions, and lunges can help target the hip flexors and make them stronger," Rodriguez says. These opposing muscles are important for hip opening and preventing muscle imbalances. In addition to working your glutes, you want to focus on building stronger hip flexors, too. "When you work out you create micro tears in your muscle tissue, and they need time to rebuild after a workout." "I generally recommend doing squats two to three times a week with 36 to 48 hours of rest for that muscle group," she says. In fact, Rodriguez says that recovery days are just as important as working your glutes when it comes to building a bigger booty. Zoe Rodriguez, a certified personal trainer and instructor for Plankk Studio, a fitness app for on-demand workout classes, says, "I do a lot of resistance band work to engage the smaller glute muscles.Įxercises like hip thrusts, glute bridges, and clam, can round out the top of your butt for that fuller look." Rodriguez says that these exercises can also be used as a warm-up to wake up the muscles before you start doing squats, which brings us to our next question: How often should I do squats every week? A weakness in these minor glute muscles often leads to knee and low-back pain. The gluteus medius and minimus are responsible for abduction (moving your legs away from the midline), hip rotation, and hip stability. But that doesn't mean you should ignore your other glute muscles. Your gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in your glutes and often gets the most action because it's the primary mover for several butt exercises, like squats, deadlifts, and even running. Your glutes are comprised of three muscles: gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, and gluteus maximus. If you're wondering how many reps of squats you should aim for in a workout, 10 to 15 reps for three to four rounds is ideal. Here's what you need to know about your glutes and what can do to improve your squat so you can get the best booty boost from your workouts. And it's important to train the other muscles if you ultimately want a rounder, bigger booty. That said, scoring a rounder backside means doing a variety of exercises that target different muscles in your glutes (yes, there's more than one muscle!).