2017 booty resolution
Thanks to celebrities like Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian, one particular asset became everyone’s favorite—the booty. Theresa Depasquale, fitness instructor and author of “Boss to Bikini,” shared some of her insider tips and tricks to help get your butt back into shape this year
Over the last few years, pop culture has veered away from the super-skinny physique, and replaced it with the strong, fit and curvy body. Thanks to celebrities like Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian, one particular asset became everyone’s favorite—the booty. Theresa Depasquale, fitness instructor and author of “Boss to Bikini,” shared some of her insider tips and tricks to help get your butt back into shape this year.
Depasquale started her fitness career about 11 years ago when she opened several gyms in Tampa, Florida, and began training women for fitness competitions.
“The big thing that I would stress is that we wanted to have the nicest booties on the stage so it just kind of evolved from there and I became known as the ‘booty queen,’” Depasquale told FoxNews.com.
A lot of people do squats to exercise their glutes, but Depasquale said only focusing on that one move won’t get results.
“When you want to talk about shaping your booty you have to work your stabilizer muscles, which is going to give it that round, shapely look,” she said. “We do this by performing exercises which work abduction and allow you to hold your hips open, so [moves] like pop-it squats, squat jacks, squat abductions kicks and cable walks.”
The gluteal region is made up of the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. The latter two stabilize the area to prevent injury.
To strengthen your stabilizer muscles, Depasquale suggested variations of the traditional squat:
Pop-it Squat
Using a dumbbell that’s at a slightly heavier weight than you typically use, go down into a squat position. Keep your back completely flat and drive your knees outward so you’re using your glutes to hold your legs open. Staying low, do small pulses. Don’t let your knees cave in.
Alien Kicks
From a squat position, kick both feet out and keep your knees driving outward.
Squat Jacks
For this variation, instead of doing a normal jumping jack, you’ll jump into a squat position. This move uses your glutes to hold your legs open as you jump up and down.
These three movements utilize all your glute muscles to stabilize and hold yourself up, which makes your muscles work harder.
“You can add body weight and lightweight booty stuff to the end of every workout. Pick three different exercises and do somewhere between 20 and 30 reps each,” Depasquale said.
“Focus on consistency, not perfection. I think that a lot of people tend to fall off on their [New Year’s] resolutions because they go into it with the mindset ‘Oh my gosh I have to be perfect,’ but you really don’t,” she said. “If you’re working out and eating for health 80 percent of the time you can go out on the weekend and enjoy.”
For more visit BikiniBossFitness.com.
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