Lunges for a Strong Booty

Actually, squats are King. Definitely start with squats. They are extremely essential to life.
Case in point, my elderly mother is getting to the point where she can barely stand from seated anymore. That not only makes getting off a chair or bed difficult, but getting off the toilet is even more precarious. And don't get me started with getting off the ground. When that happens, my Dad has to call the fire department since he can't lift her off the ground. They have had to call 4 times. She has one of those clickers that she is supposed to wear if she falls to alert that she needs help. But yeah, sitting and standing are essential aspects of life.
Aesthetically, a strong booty is a sign of a healthy life. The gluteus group of muscles are the strongest and largest muscles of our bodies. And muscle mass is what we lose the most as we age. Decreased testosterone in males and the little bit that females have is gone too. So building muscle is difficult. But we can maintain and even grow muscle if we try.
Squats are prime since that is the movement that makes life possible. In CrossFit, we will do up to 300 in a single workout. Doing a lot of reps is not a bad way to go. But another way to go is to use resistance. A barbell, jugs of water, a grandson, or whatever you can find to add weight is good. Then you don't have to do hundreds of reps.
Once your squats are strong, I would definitely go to lunges. Or, if you are already healthy with a strong squat, do lunges. Lunges target the buns even more than squats. The reason is many-fold.
1. Longer range of motion. When you step one foot forward with one foot back, the range of motion is increased. Sure, you can do a deep ass-to-grass squat as well, but most of us aren't doing that.
2. More weight on one leg. So instead of pushing your bodyweight with a squat, now you are pushing most of your bodyweight with one leg. So you get more resistance with the lunge.
3. Balance. The proprioception and kinesthetic awareness required to balance on one leg is huge, especially as we get older. This also engages a lot of other muscles that help us stay upright and trains how our brains perceive balance. Super important!
4. Eccentric loading. Concentric is shortening muscle fibers as you contract a muscle and press against gravity. So essentially moving from sitting to standing is concentric. Eccentric is lengthening muscle givers as you release a muscle down with gravity. So standing to sitting. Eccentric loading is where you get sore and the most damage happens to muscle. For muscle building and strength, muscle damage is good. This is where the magic happens with growing muscle. If you never damage muscle, then you never grow. This is where lunges trump squats in many ways. If I even miss one week with my lunges, I will be sore for days from lunges. It is super effective. There is a guy who claims to never do squats but instead lunges for quarter to half mile at a time. I can't even imagine.
SUMMARY: If you want to build a shapely, photogenic booty that people drool over, do lunges. But do your squats first. This makes the look from behind that much more appetizing. And you won't need a belt or suspenders to keep your pants up!

This topic was edited