Of all the body parts considered the hallmark of women’s physical beauty, at least in Kenya, the derriere is perhaps the most obsessed with.
The widespread usage of social media, Instagram, to be specific, has fuelled this fixation. Aesthetics is now in vogue. Or is it not?
The heightened craze to have this body part pop up and out has now seen most women willing to risk it all, taking shortcuts to enhance this soft muscle.
But a few ladies like Ruth Mumbi Gatonye have stuck to the rigorous workout course and gained what others have paid at least Sh850,000 for a “Brazilian butt lift” (BBL).
“I used to be very tiny when I started my fitness journey, I wasn’t like this (point to her lower body part). Lifting weights got me here and this to me is proof that any woman can achieve their desired body goals,” Ms Gatonye opens up when we catch up for a gym session at Flash Fitness, Lumumba Drive, Nairobi.
The 26-year-old used to weigh 56 kilogrammes but now she weighs 72 kilogrammes. I teased her that her lower body must be carrying the sheer weight and she burst into a cheeky laughter.
Glutes workouts may once have been the go-to for a Kim Kardashian-style instant butt lift, but now they are the preferred exercise for women who want to train smarter, not harder.
A well-developed pair of glutes not only looks great in one’s favourite pair of pants, but it also has several benefits, which include better athletic performance and reduced back pain. Did you know that?
No other muscle group has been immortalised in rap songs and music videos as the glutes.
With the right workouts, you will easily achieve the gains but for Ms Gatonye, who has also studied fitness, most women get it all wrong on the choice of exercises as far as this muscle is concerned.
“Squats have been heavily recommended as one of the most effective exercises to build the glutes but it’s not. The hip thrust is,” she says.
The hip thrust is where the shoulders rest on the back on an elevated surface while in the concentric part, the pelvis moves upwards usually under added weight until the thighs reach a right angle with the calves.
The hip thrust motion mainly targets both the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius as well as the hamstrings. Your quads, core and hip adductors will be working too.
Desired glutes
But even before you get there, Ms Gatonye has something to say.
“You will need to be eating at a calorie surplus. What most women want at the same time is to have a big butt and small waist and sometimes you have to sacrifice one for the other. For instance, right now I am bulking. That means I have to sacrifice my abs (core) a little for my nyash (butt) to look a certain way. Women need to understand that with glutes you cannot spot-train. You can’t eat your food and decide where the gains to your body should go,” she explains.
Besides workouts, Ms Gatonye says genetics play a huge role in determining how well one can achieve their desired glutes.
“Genetics play a big role as well. Some people store fat in the arms like in my case, others in the back, some in the stomach. So women need to understand they can get the big nyash, but they will first have to bulk up by consuming more calories, then go on a calorie deficit to achieve the small waist but now there is no killing two birds with one stone in this scenario.
“You will have to do all these things to achieve that unless you want to do BBL there is no shortcut in fitness,” she says.
According to several workout and exercise journals, the glutes are the largest, strongest muscles in the body, having been strategically placed at the crossroads of the upper and lower body.
Gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus are the three main muscles that make up the glutes.
“The gluteus maximus is the biggest muscle in the butt area responsible for making your nyash ‘pop’,” goes Ms Gatonye again.
The gluteus medius is smaller and situated higher up towards the side of the bum and is attached to the ligament in the hip joint.
While the gluteus minimus, situated underneath the gluteus maximus works alongside the gluteus medius to help stabilise the hip.
Besides physical aesthetics, I sought to know from the Arena Fitness trainer why it’s important for one to have well-worked glutes, especially for ladies.
“Of course, as a lady you want to look good and having a well-worked nyash will give you that (laughs) But other than aesthetics training glutes improves hip mobility. This helps knee stability and ankle mobility.
“Glutes workout also helps with lowering back pains, improve balance and agility,” explains the personal trainer.
For years ago, Ms Gatonye did not know anything about this, until she found herself inside a gym one afternoon.
“I used to run a mitumba store and during the afternoons rarely had customers. Then I thought to myself rather than sit and do nothing. What can I do? It happened that a friend of mine invited me to a gym session and that was the genesis,”
She would make it a habit of hitting the gym during afternoons and it wasn’t long before her tiny body weighing 56 kilogrammes started taking shape.
“Then one day, a lady at the gym approached me and requested I train her and I told her I wasn’t a certified trainer, but she insisted. So we got on, she used to pay me Sh3,000 a month.
Right now, I can’t take that, haha. She is the one who motivated me to pursue fitness courses,” says Ms Gatonye.
Before enrolling on the courses, she met a certified fitness trainer who edified her understanding of fitness.
Ms Gatonye now charges Sh2,500 per session.
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