So, after my injury with a greenie personal trainer, i have been working with a very experienced person who has a physical therapy background. She has determined that I am very strong in some areas but often the strong muscles "take over" and certain exercises I am not really doing right even though my form looks okay. Example, my shoulders tend to take over alot of the work that my mid back should do.

Well, i have really strong legs. Probably from a lifetime of packing around alot of extra weight, but also because I ride bikes and horseback ride and maybe a genetic component. She noted that my abductors (both in and out) are crazy strong for a woman, my quads are strong, but my hamstrings are tight and my gluts don't do enough of the work. That imbalance is typical - alot of people rely on the quads too much but apparently I am more out of wack than average.

One of my goals in working with a personal trainer was to build up a bit more of a rounded butt. I have slender hips and I want more of a balanced look. Anyway, she pointed out that I don't have much curve in my lower back so what feels like a neutral position to me is actually a tipped pelvis position. That combined with not really engaging the gluts properly is why my bum doesn't seem as round as it should be.

I am very interested to see if she is right and if through exercise I can change this shape.

In the meantime, I am supposed to practice with my sternum up, shoulders relaxed, and my butt pooched out a little...haha. I hope it doesn't look as weird as it feels.

I'm right there with ya sista..just got a PT myself..he, one the other hand has decided to make me loose the "cardio" body ( which is becoming to long and lean) and give me a body that heavy weights and HIIT(high intense interval training) will give me, I want what he wants so hopefully were a match made in 'HIIT' hell!..good luck, buff bods HERE WE COME!!!!

CGJ, please pass on any wisdom the trainer gives you regarding this tipped pelvis and flat butt thing, you just described my body type to a T!

Usually if your pelvis is tilted it is very hard on your back. You might want to see a chiropractor and see if they can get it put back in the right position. It would be worth it and beneficial for you as well.

I too have an overly straight lower back. I took up running and my right iliac crest/psoas is excruxiatingly painful.

I'm right there with ya sista..just got a PT myself..he, one the other hand has decided to make me loose the "cardio" body ( which is becoming to long and lean) and give me a body that heavy weights and HIIT(high intense interval training) will give me, I want what he wants so hopefully were a match made in 'HIIT' hell!..good luck, buff bods HERE WE COME!!!!

If I could turn my belly to my back and my butt as my stomach I think I would have a perfect body. Oh well that'll never happen. I am starting silver sneakers soon and rowing is one exercise I plan on doing for arms back and chest. My butt will need alot of whatever needs to be done. But I'm more concerned about my upper body. Very slim below my belly I look like a circus clown the way out of proportion I see myself. Hope my body responds the way I want it too. Will have to go slow so I don't hurt something. Good luck.

Girls - I have enough butt for all of you! Lol

have you heard of sumo squats? lol. nuff said!

Take some pix, Jane, so we can see your progress with this. I have little to no butt and pretty much nonexistent glutes. Would be interested to know which exercises you do for glutes.

Can't deny.....love round booties! Cowgirl......depending on the health of your back and knees, deep squats are very beneficial. Squats are mostly all about working the quads going down to parallel with the ground. Go deeper than that, and you'll really engage your glutes and hamstrings....which can help with butt shape. Also doing these with volume or time under tension....basically doing high reps to failure will help with the "rear section". Anyway....good luck and feel free to send progress pictures.

i have been doing squats and lunges for two years and I just get "leaner". Goes back to my original comment that I look like I am doing them right, but other muscles are carrying the workload so my glutes have not built up. Muscular/toned, but don't have the shape they should. My legs are very strong, but i do have knee issues so I never squat below that 90 degree mark to protect the knees.

I have been to chiropractors over the years and they never considered that my spine was too straight. However, when I look at my profile in the mirror, and compare myself to others - the new personal trainer is right, I don't have much of a curve in my low back. She told me that part of the problem is that what feels normal to me is a tipped pelvis so some of it is retraining the brain.

I have a bunch of weird exercises now, btw, much LIGHTER weight because whenever the weight gets to heavy the strong muscles take over. This comment applies to the entire workout - lighter weights focusing on the small and / or forgotten muscles.

i have been doing squats and lunges for two years and I just get "leaner". Goes back to my original comment that I look like I am doing them right, but other muscles are carrying the workload so my glutes have not built up. Muscular/toned, but don't have the shape they should. My legs are very strong, but i do have knee issues so I never squat below that 90 degree mark to protect the knees. I have been to chiropractors over the years and they never considered that my spine was too straight. However, when I look at my profile in the mirror, and compare myself to others - the new personal trainer is right, I don't have much of a curve in my low back. She told me that part of the problem is that what feels normal to me is a tipped pelvis so some of it is retraining the brain. I have a bunch of weird exercises now, btw, much LIGHTER weight because whenever the weight gets to heavy the strong muscles take over. This comment applies to the entire workout - lighter weights focusing on the small and / or forgotten muscles.

CGJ- You nailed it with that last comment. Thank you, thank you, thank you! It is so true and something I fought in my cross fit training for a long, long, long time. My big muscles were always bullying the small muscles, creating an imbalance which led to injury. I didn't know this until I stopped doing heavy lifts (300# deadlifts, 280# back squats, etc) a couple weeks ago. Cross fit was my first exposure to weight training, ever, so my mind got used to training this way and it led to a lot of injuries and tightness in the shoulders and upper back. My lats got way overworked and were tight at rest leading to constant back pain. It was not until I moved to lighter weights, focusing on more traditional isolation strength training, that my mind finally is getting the message to relax those big muscles a bit. So glad I did this. Feel 1000x better and am making progress now instead of regression in the strength area. And I no longer feel achy and tight all the time. Let that be a lesson to others to not neglect the small muscles when training no matter how sexy heavy compound lifts are, especially if you are new to lifting. I will be returning back to to heavy Olympic lifts in the future, but for now, it is about balancing out my strength for overall body composition and general well being.

Edited March 5, 201412 yr by Fiddleman

i have been doing squats and lunges for two years and I just get "leaner". Goes back to my original comment that I look like I am doing them right, but other muscles are carrying the workload so my glutes have not built up. Muscular/toned, but don't have the shape they should. My legs are very strong, but i do have knee issues so I never squat below that 90 degree mark to protect the knees.

So one reason is probably because you can't go below 90 degrees. I can only go so low myself due to the scar tissue in my knee from ACL reconstruction back in college. I can go lower than 90, but if I try a$$ to heels, my good leg can do that, but without my full range of motion in my bad one, it will not bend as much or go as deep, and I'd just fall over to the side. Have you tried similar movements to a deep squat that maybe is a little easier on your knees such as a Hack Squat, Leg Press or Smith Machine Squat? I don't really do lunges, but I heard they help as well. Anyway, I'm wishing you the best!

I'm right there with ya sista..just got a PT myself..he, one the other hand has decided to make me loose the "cardio" body ( which is becoming to long and lean) and give me a body that heavy weights and HIIT(high intense interval training) will give me, I want what he wants so hopefully were a match made in 'HIIT' hell!..good luck, buff bods HERE WE COME!!!!

If I could turn my belly to my back and my butt as my stomach I think I would have a perfect body. Oh well that'll never happen. I am starting silver sneakers soon and rowing is one exercise I plan on doing for arms back and chest. My butt will need alot of whatever needs to be done. But I'm more concerned about my upper body. Very slim below my belly I look like a circus clown the way out of proportion I see myself. Hope my body responds the way I want it too. Will have to go slow so I don't hurt something. Good luck.

:lol: :lol:

So CGJ what could I be doing instead of "heavy" lifting, to combat my similar-to-your issues? I'm experiencing excruciating pain in my right iliac crest, the iliac psoas, which came upon me suddenly during a treadmill run the other day, every movement of my leg brings pain, it feels like my crest is made of steel blade and is cutting through my flesh.

So I guess that means I can only do either arm exercises or calf lifts, nothing that involves the hip joint. Ideas?

Well, they had me use ice and some rest to get the injuried muscle to "quiet down" but then I keep working it even though it still causes some pain.

The focus is on stretching and stregthening. The moves are hard to describe because they are very focused on small muscles. So, for example, lots of ab related work, but not crunches. We keep changing up the glute ones to find effective ones where the glutes do the work and not the quads taking over without hurting my knees. I wish i could give you a list of exercises and stretches but it isn't like that. Every workout is different and even the homework I get is evolving.

Fiddle - even though I only dabbled at cross fit, I did alot of Julian Michal's dvds with the focus on compound moves... you get more out of your workout. I suspect it contributed to this for the same reasons you are describing. For me the lesson learned is that compound moves are great and efficient, but your weekly routine needs to also include isolation of those small and underused muscles. Example, I still do not engage the muscles on the side of my ribs to support pushups. My arms and shoulders do all the work and it is no wonder they are so hard for me. It takes time to isolate muscles - I am sure I couldn't do it without her coaching me as the way an exercise is done needs to be pretty precise.