Adam Schafer (2:19)

That'S it. Enjoy the rest of the show.

Sal Di Stefano (2:21)

We're gonna do a masterclass on butt building, and we're going to talk about the two most important exercises to build your glutes, the hip thrust and the squat. By the way, we did a masterclass, an actual class you can watch. We talk all about it. Right now. We're talking about those two exercises and how to do them right, so you can finally build that butt you want. Let's go.

Adam Schafer (2:42)

Did we really? Do you have a friend in your pocket or what?

Sal Di Stefano (2:44)

What?

Adam Schafer (2:44)

Huh? We.

Justin Andrews (2:45)

We.

Sal Di Stefano (2:45)

We is because you represented.

Adam Schafer (2:48)

I'm just teased.

Justin Andrews (2:48)

That's the collective.

Adam Schafer (2:49)

I'm just teased.

Sal Di Stefano (2:50)

That's. No. So Adam. Adam and Corinne took one of our top trainers, Cor, and they put together this masterclass video and broke down the hip thrust in the squat. So, you know, here's the deal. Building the butt is not hard. It isn't. However, if it is hard for you, we know why. And it's almost always a technique issue. And there's some underlying reasons as to why the technique with those two exercises are a challenge. Because those are the exercises that build the butt. There are no two other exercises as good. There's. Deadlifts are good. There's other exercises that'll build the butt, too.

Adam Schafer (3:27)

Yeah.

Sal Di Stefano (3:28)

But if you just did good squats and good hip thrusts, with good technique, your butt will build.

Adam Schafer (3:33)

Yeah.

Sal Di Stefano (3:34)

And that's the issue. Yeah. The issue is a lot of people have issues with the technique around that.

Adam Schafer (3:39)

With both of those in particular, the squat, though. I mean, even when we created the video, I tried to keep that in mind. Right. Like, this is. If this is somebody who was coming to me, who was that maybe knew about these movements, but complain that my butt's still not growing. Most often than not, it was a technique issue that I had to address first, and then we could build from there. Because if. If there's poor technique doing these movements, many times people don't feel at all in their butts, and that's super common. Yeah.

Justin Andrews (4:15)

And a lot of times, you know, it's. It's because of things taking you out of alignment or, um, you know, certain muscles are. Are carrying most of the load, and the recruitment is, you know, off. And so we're not really targeting the glutes specifically for this movement when it should be more of the main mover.

Sal Di Stefano (4:34)

Yeah. If you. If you look at, like, the squat, for example, the barbell squat involves pretty much the entire lower body all the way down to the calves. Even the calves are involved in stabilizing to an extent. But all the major muscles of the lower body, you also have lots of stability in the back, core stability, and, of course, glutes, hamstrings, quads are the prime movers. And then you have stabilization at the bottom with the calves and the soleus. What determines how much of each of those muscles you use is your technique.

Justin Andrews (5:06)

Yeah.

Sal Di Stefano (5:06)

So if you don't fix your technique first and you just get stronger, because getting stronger is how you build muscle. So especially in the first few years of training, like, if you want to build and sculpt and shape your body, like, just get stronger, that'll. That'll do it faster than anything. But if you just get stronger with the wrong technique, then the muscles that are doing most of the work, to put it plainly, are going to get most of the development. In other words, if I'm doing a squat and I'm super quad dominant, my quads are doing a lot of the lifting, and I add, I don't know, 30 pounds to my squat, most of where you're gonna notice is my quads. So you're gonna look at me and you say, wow, I could tell your quads have changed quite a bit, but I don't see any development in the area you want, which is your glutes. In other words, you can squat in a way that makes you quad dominate or one that makes you kind of glute and hamstring dominant. And if you're listening to this, it's because you want to build your glutes, you want to build your butt. So before you get to. Or try to get stronger, because you've probably heard by now, this is now a popular message. It wasn't so much maybe 15 years ago, but people get it now, even women. Like, I want to build, I want to shape, I want to sculpt, I got to get strong. But if your technique isn't ideal, you'll get stronger, but you're going to build your body in the way that you don't necessarily. You're not necessarily trying.

Justin Andrews (6:25)

You're going to hardwire bad patterns.

Sal Di Stefano (6:27)

That's right. And that's the second part is as you get stronger with the technique that you're using, that becomes your technique. That becomes your default technique. Anytime you load the bar heavy, it's going to go to the way that you always practice it. So before building strength, it's technique, it's connection. Super important. The. The class that you did with corrine you really, really broke down the parts of the squat, especially the depth of the squat, and how important that is for glute development.

Adam Schafer (6:57)

Yeah.

Sal Di Stefano (6:58)

One of the.

Adam Schafer (6:58)

One of the hardest things about doing a masterclass like that, that we know that, you know, thousands of people are going to see that are all unique and different is trying to cover the things that I think were the. The ones that I covered the most with someone that I was helping with technique.

Justin Andrews (7:13)

Like, what are the biggest offenders?

Adam Schafer (7:15)

Right. Because there's. I mean, I've watched a lot of great squatters and coaches online that have taught technique around the squat. My thought process was trying to remember, okay, all the clients that wanted to build their glutes that I was trying to teach squat, where were the most common breakdown. And I. And I think about how they got underneath the bar was always a huge one. Ankle mobility has to be. 80 to 80% of the people.

Sal Di Stefano (7:41)

Oh, yeah.

Adam Schafer (7:41)

Lack good ankle mobility. So many people collapse at the knees. So many people don't wedge the bar down to where they keep their scapula down and back so they end up too forward, and so they come too forward, which then makes the bar over the quads more. And so that was what I tried to distill it down to, is like, okay. When I think of the most common things that I needed to address technique wise for the client who was trying to build glutes, these are the ones that came to mind that I had to work on the most. And I really, I couldn't think of anything else that was. Unless you guys. I mean, you guys saw it perfect what you guys watched.

Sal Di Stefano (8:19)

No, I think the first. So, like, let's talk about the first.

Justin Andrews (8:21)

Thing, the main ones.

Sal Di Stefano (8:22)

Let's talk about the first thing that you did with Corinne in this masterclass. You talk about bar placement and how to get the bar nice and wedged in the right position. Nice and tight with good stability. Yeah. If you don't. If you're not unable to do this or you don't do this properly, your limiting factor to how much weight you can lift or how much you can drive becomes that. That, that part right there. In other words, if. If I'm rounding, I'm gonna exaggerate. If I round forward at my upper back.

Justin Andrews (8:48)

Yeah.

Sal Di Stefano (8:49)

Or my elbows are back here because it's really hard for me to hold the bar, my shoulder blades rolled forward. That's going to dictate how much weight I can lift. Not my glutes, not my quads, not my hamstrings, but the Fact that I'm holding the bar the way that I.

Justin Andrews (9:02)

Am, it's already pulling you forward.

Sal Di Stefano (9:05)

Right.

Justin Andrews (9:05)

With that positioning and straining your neck. Your neck and your head's reaching into.

Sal Di Stefano (9:09)

That's right.

Justin Andrews (9:10)

So everything gets affected.

Sal Di Stefano (9:12)

Think of a pole that you want to push something with. But in the middle of a pole is a sponge. And you push as hard as you can and the pole bends down. You can only push as hard as a sponge will allow you to before it folds. Well, if your bar placement is wrong and nobody thinks about this with the squat, that's why I'm so glad you. You showed this. And it's funny, when you train clients, this is a big area of focus you have to focus on.

Justin Andrews (9:35)

Well, a lot of times there's a big discomfort there. And shoulder mobility obviously is a big lacking component for some people. Just to be able to place it like right there, especially in that meaty part. Once you get that contraction there in between your shoulder blades, you want it to rest right there. But it's hard sometimes for people to achieve that.

Adam Schafer (9:55)

I also think this. It isn't a neglected cue. It was neglected when taught to me.

Sal Di Stefano (9:59)

I remember the first time you just assumed.

Adam Schafer (10:01)

Yeah, exactly. It was just like, assumed, oh, just put the bar on your traps. That was like what I was told when I first started squatting. And so I really had all this kind of play. Like the bar could roll back and forth and it was. But it was resting on my traps. I wasn't taught to lock it in. Like, that wasn't something I learned until much later from like, really good squatters. And I remember what a world of a difference that made on. On my squatting technique was just putting emphasis on. Don't just get. Don't just put the bar on your traps. Like, get in there and get in that lock position because of the way it retracts, depresses the shoulder, locks you into position. It puts the chest up. Right. Really puts you in this more optimal position to load the bar. So huge difference.

Justin Andrews (10:45)

The more secure you have it, the less variables you have to account for which you know the bar will travel. Like the most minute movement is going to place you in a bad position.

Sal Di Stefano (10:55)

And it shouldn't hurt. If the bar on your back hurts, you have bad placement. Not. It's not. You don't have enough muscle on your back. Yeah. Corinne is a petite trainer. She doesn't have this big old muscular back. She holds the bar on her back. No problem. I've trained many clients, beginners people without lots of Muscle, lots of padding on their back or whatever. And they place the bar and it feels right once we get it right. So if you put the bar on your back and it hurts, or you have to use a squat pad, here's where, here's how you know you're not positioning the bar right. You have to use a squat pad. Yeah, yeah. If you're using a squat pad, your positioning is bad and the squat pad makes your positioning worse. Yes. The squat pad raises the center of gravity. You've now added a few inches to the bar and essentially giving yourself a different looking squat. And then you start training that pattern.

Adam Schafer (11:41)

That has to be one of the worst tools ever invented.

Sal Di Stefano (11:43)

That's right. Oh, man.

Adam Schafer (11:45)

If I like looking back now again, and I didn't know this well, I'll.

Justin Andrews (11:51)

Bring this one up. There's a pad for the back of a kettlebell for your arm. That's worse than that.

Adam Schafer (11:57)

Yeah, I don't know. I. Well, I mean, even this is, is like it's, it's less that. Because it is so important for you your ability to retract, depress and get in that position that if a client can't do that and they're putting a pad and it's resting on their neck, they're. I'm not loading them.

Sal Di Stefano (12:14)

Like.

Adam Schafer (12:14)

No, I'm, I'm like working on that first before we even get to a barbell back squat. Like so crutching something like that. Not to mention your point that you're making that there. It's, you're, you're. Where you're loading it is not a good place.

Justin Andrews (12:26)

Adding inches of discrepancy.

Sal Di Stefano (12:28)

Yeah. It's also implying a squat pad implies that if a bar hurts your back because it's. Because think about it. If you've never done this before, it kind of makes sense. Right. What's a hard bar? I'm putting on my back. Of course it's gonna hurt. No, it doesn't hurt if you do it right. It doesn't hurt if you do it right. It's actually a good tight position. You shouldn't have to feel like you're holding up with your hands. Here's another key that you know it's wrong. You feel like you have to hold it up with your arms. No, it sits there. Yeah, it sits there. It's tight. It's not going anywhere. And so the bar pad implies. Oh, this hurts because it's a hard bar. Put this on it makes it comfortable. When in reality the bar pad doesn't Teach you to fix your technique. It actually makes it worse. And then God forbid you get strong holding using a bar pad. Now you've got a terrible squat that.

Adam Schafer (13:15)

You gotta back out many times. What that is, is it's resting on someone's spine.

Sal Di Stefano (13:19)

Yep.

Adam Schafer (13:19)

And that's why they feel that it hurts their neck is what they normally will say, oh, it bothers my neck or my upper back. And it's like, oh, it's because it's resting on that bone. You shouldn't raise your muscle. If you retract the shoulder is back, it'll. It'll rest across the back of the shoulders.

Sal Di Stefano (13:33)

And you teach it very well when people go to. It's a free masterclass, by the way. When you go and watch this, you'll see Adam teach the technique. But I remember as a kid, it's maps Booty dot com.

Adam Schafer (13:44)

Doug just reminded me, just, I liked Corinne's tip. I actually never queued that way, so I don't know if you saw that. So after I queued, I asked her, is there anything that, like, you've cued? Because she's obviously, she's been a trainer for a long time too. And so she's like, oh, I love, like, a lap pull down cue. And I kind of looked at her like, what? And then she got on the bar where she hung under the bar, and then she did like a lap pull down. I thought, I don't know why. Which I love that. Especially if someone really understands how to do a good lap pull down that pulls you up into that position really well. Which is another great way to cue it too.

Sal Di Stefano (14:14)

Absolutely. And so again, when you place the bar right on your back, you've set yourself up now for a good squat. If the bar placement is wrong, you don't. You have the wrong activation. The rest of the squat's gonna fall apart. Yeah. Okay. The next thing is cueing core activation or staying tight in the midsection. This is very important because yours. If your spine isn't thoroughly supported, the squat is gonna cause problems for you.

Justin Andrews (14:41)

You can't put much load.

Sal Di Stefano (14:43)

No, no. You'll hurt your back. You're gonna get movement in the pelvis you don't want. Or you'll get the dreaded, you know, the tailbone tuck. Excessive tailbone tuck at the bottom, and you want to brace your core. And there's a couple ways to cue this. The way you cued it in the video I thought was hilarious. The way I used to cue it with my clients is I would tell them, like, Pretend like someone's gonna poke you in the midst.

Adam Schafer (15:05)

That's the other way.

Justin Andrews (15:05)

Yeah.

Sal Di Stefano (15:06)

You brace.

Justin Andrews (15:07)

Punch in the stomach.

Sal Di Stefano (15:08)

Yeah. It's important to brace. Now. Some people will wear a weight belt. Look, if you're gonna compete in powerlifting or if you've always trained with a weight belt, that's fine. But if you've never used a weight belt, there's no need to use one. In fact, it changes your muscle recruitment patterns, because rather than kind of drawing and embracing, your core pushes out against the belt, which creates that stability. And if that becomes your default pattern, well, then squatting without a belt becomes.

Justin Andrews (15:34)

I think I've worn one since the 90s.

Adam Schafer (15:37)

I mean, I haven't worn one in a while. I would want to teach to be able to do it without it. Even if you do decide to do it, the skill to be able to draw in your core and activate like that to support your spine and is so beneficial in so many other things than just what we're talking about. And so no matter what, I want my client to have that skill set to go, regardless if we end up using a belt down the road to load even more or use the advantage of that tool. But to teach it, to get that technique down, to be able to. And to your point, and this reminds me, again, my own journey. Another thing that wasn't really cued to me or told to me, like, how important it was that I was so rigid and stiff in my upper body. Like. Like, because if you. If there's. If the bar is wob, if your core is not activated and tight and there's movement in that everywhere, you're not going to be able to load it. You're probably going to. Your low back is probably going to bother you and hurt you, and at the very least, you're going to feel it in areas that you're not supposed to feel.

Sal Di Stefano (16:34)

You've taken an exercise that is so amazing for developing the lower body, especially the glutes, and you've completely turned it into something else because of your inability or your lack of knowledge on how to. How to place the bar, how to brace your core. That's why it's so important you start there. A lot of people don't even look at that. They just look at the squat and focus. Everything else. Another thing you did on the video, Adam, which I thought was great, was you talked about using a heel lift.

Adam Schafer (16:59)

Which seems a little controversial because typically when I use a heel raise today, I use it to do become more quad dominant.

Sal Di Stefano (17:08)

Right.

Adam Schafer (17:08)

Okay. So So I, so I, I'm. Because what you, you raise the heels, you are going to shift a little weight towards the, the quads. Typically. But again, what I was thinking in my, in my mind when I was teaching this is when I think of the client who comes to me who wants to build the butt that, that lacks this, I would say a good 80% of them. And I address this in the video after I go through this tip. If you're not this person right then, then you don't need this. But I'd say most people that I trained, in particular my female clients that wanted to build a butt lacked ankle mobility.

Sal Di Stefano (17:41)

Yeah.

Adam Schafer (17:42)

A lot. And could barely break 90 degrees.

Sal Di Stefano (17:45)

And what this looks like is you can't squat all the way down. Or if you do your heels come up or your feet twist out or you have torsion in the knees, or you get weird stuff happening in your low and your lower back. Yeah.

Justin Andrews (17:55)

Lots of compensation as a result.

Sal Di Stefano (17:57)

Lots of compensation. So as you're squatting, you might not think of ankle mobility, but when you're looking at the squat, the ankles have to have a good amount of mobility, otherwise you're not going all the way down.

Justin Andrews (18:05)

Well, you're always looking for stability and that's, I mean your body's naturally doing that. Like you said, you're feet are going to turn out, your knees are going.

Sal Di Stefano (18:12)

To bend weight forward with your wall.

Justin Andrews (18:14)

There's all kinds of downstream effects to that. If you don't have stability in the.

Sal Di Stefano (18:17)

Ankle right now, why is this so important to address? Because most of the gains that come to your glutes from a squat comes from a deep squat. So if you look at stretch position. That's right. So in fact, if you look at the studies that compare hip thrusts to barbell squats for glute development, the reason why they're head to head competitive, because if you look at the hip thrust, biomechanically speaking, you would think like that's straight glutes, like that's gotta be the one that builds the most. And yet squats compares head to head and in some studies might even build a little bit more. Why is that? Because it loads the stretch position.

Adam Schafer (18:52)

That's right.

Sal Di Stefano (18:52)

The hip thrust loads is really good in the squeeze. The squat barbell squat deep is you get in that stretch position and the data shows that a loaded stretch in a rep range builds two to three times more muscle. Okay. There's two to three times a hypertrophy from there. So if you're not doing a full squat, you're still working the glutes. I don't want to freak everybody out and be like, it's a waste of time to do them then. But if you want to build your butt and you can't do that full squat, and it's probably due to ankle mobility, that's almost everybody listening right now. If you can't squat all the way down, it's probably because your ankles don't let you. You do a little heel lift.

Adam Schafer (19:28)

You.

Sal Di Stefano (19:29)

You can either get a ramp like the one that you showed in the video, or you could put plates under your heels and squat down and suddenly you can go all the way down.

Adam Schafer (19:35)

Yes.

Sal Di Stefano (19:36)

Now you're activating the glutes. Now you're getting maximum.

Adam Schafer (19:38)

And Justin said something I think is so important, too, is another reason why I like to start someone there. I addressed this in the. In the video where I go, listen, if you can. And I demonstrate, because I can get all the way down in regular flat shoes comfortably with good technique. I wasn't like that before, but I'm like, if you can do that, then, Jen, disregard this. This point right here. But in my experience, almost everybody in a really deep squat that I was trying to help do this had breakdown. Either one, they couldn't do it at all, or the heels lift, or their feet squirm around like crazy, or their knees collapse in. Like, you see all this breakdown, and if you have all this breakdown in the squat like that, you're not. The glutes are not going to be driving out. You're going to be compensating all. All over the place. Which many times is the reason why this person is struggling with that. You said something else that highlights why these two exercises. Because there's a bunch of great butt exercises, and this wasn't designed to be like, let's give you all the best butt exercises. It was, hey, if I could just pick two exercises that I. I'm going to teach a client who wants to build their butt. These are the two to go get really good at.

Sal Di Stefano (20:41)

Doing the same workout.

Adam Schafer (20:42)

Yes. And you. You bring up the point of the glutes do such a good job of loading the. The glutes in a stretch position. And the hip thrust does such a good job of loading it in the contracted position.

Sal Di Stefano (20:55)

These are both phenomenal, but that you can do in the same workout. And to be honest with you, it doesn't matter which one you do first. Typically, I would tell someone to squat first. Honestly, it's not gonna make that big of a difference. You could lift thrust first and squat second. You do these two exercises in a workout. This is a great loading.

Justin Andrews (21:12)

You could do low reps, you could do high reps. That's right. Most these other exercises you're just bound.

Sal Di Stefano (21:16)

To doing high reps. That's right. And then it brings us to the hip thrust. And I love the way. Corrine, there's a couple things that I didn't really consider with the hip thrust. Mainly because hip thrust wasn't popular when I was a personal trainer except for correctional exercise purposes. And so I didn't run into this issue that much. Now I hip thrust myself, but I don't run into this issue either because I'm a six foot tall guy. But here we have Corrine, petite female trainer. She talked about how to pick the right size bench. Makes a lot of sense. You get a bench that's too high, you're not going to be able to.

Adam Schafer (21:49)

Do a proper, if not optimal at this.

Sal Di Stefano (21:51)

So she talks about how to pick the right size bench and then if the bench is too tall for you, how you can put a plate underneath you so that you can go down and be in a nice full range of motion but not overdo it. I thought that was great.

Adam Schafer (22:03)

Well, it's such an example of the point you just made.

Justin Andrews (22:06)

We don't think of those.

Adam Schafer (22:07)

We, I mean, honest, complete transparency. We were trainers, we used to do hip bridges. Yes, that was popular for priming, but the hip thrust was not popular. No, when we were all trainers. And so that's why I had her teach the queuing on that. Obviously I've taught a lot of people how to squat and so that's, I would consider that an area that I'm pretty good at. But I was really genuinely curious to hear her because she's been a trainer for the last eight years and she's probably taught a lot more hip thrust to a lot more women than I ever have. And so hearing her cue that, I was like, oh, that's such a great point that I haven't considered. And so, yeah, the combo of her and I ping ponging off each other in the video worked really, really well. She's so good on camera too.

Sal Di Stefano (22:48)

She is such a good. And then the other cues that I really liked were to tuck your pelvis and then go up. So if you have an excessive arch in the back and then you try to come up, you get this kind of overextension. And you'll hear people complain sometimes that the hip thrust bothers the low back, which is interesting because it doesn't have direct load on the low back necessarily. But what's happening is they've got this, what's called an anterior pelvic tilt or this overarch. Then they come up hard and they're like, why does my back hurt when I do this? Also, by the way, deactivates the glutes to an extent. So she teaches how to tuck the pelvis and then go straight first and then. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Listen, you guys all have to watch this. It's mapsbooty.com it's a 20 minute video. Adam and Corinne, break down the two best exercises for your glutes.

Adam Schafer (23:33)

It's free.

Sal Di Stefano (23:33)

It's free. Doesn't cost anything. Then you can go do it yourself. Watch what happens. You'll add inches to your butt.

Mind Pump Intro Announcer (23:39)

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