With all those ‘TikTok leggings’ videos circulating the web, it’s no wonder, so many of us girls are looking at our behinds in shame.
If you’re someone who is cursed with a flat backside, or maybe you just want that Kim K body, you may be wondering: does running make your butt bigger?
Running can be an effective way to increase your glute muscles. However, whether your butt size will increase while running depends on your technique. Sprints and uphill running can potentially increase the size of your glutes, whereas distance running can make them smaller.
The last thing any woman looking to increase her size would want is accidentally decreasing it instead!
And while it is true that distance running could make your butt smaller, as long as you’re regularly switching up your routine, incorporating sprints, uphill running, and strength training, you should see a peachy figure in no time.
Will Running Increase Your Booty Size?
Anyone that has run a 5K knows that running uses your glute muscles. It’s hard to ignore the searing pain when standing up the next day as your stiff glute muscles groan at you. So, it may surprise some people that running can decrease your booty size!
However, let’s not panic just yet – there is still a big chance your butt muscles could increase in size. It all depends on the running that you are doing.
Running is an excellent form of cardio exercise. It has comprehensive benefits of increasing your overall health, helping you to lose weight and toning up most of your muscle groups. However, you won’t end up with the butt of your dreams by just running.
Sprinting versus distance running could significantly affect your end goal of a bigger behind. You can read the section below to find out why:
How Distance Running Affects Your Butt Muscles
Distance running focuses on the Type I Muscle Fiber Group, which uses slow-twitch fibers. These create the butts you’ll see on dedicated endurance runners – toned, firm, but unfortunately, a little small.
While distance running is perfect for toning those glutes, it won’t help with the end goal of increasing those butt muscles into the peachy roundness you’re looking for – this is because distance running only activates the Type 1 muscle fibers in your glutes.
These muscle fibers are tiny and use a slower, more level amount of energy, making them perfect for endurance training. However, because of their design, you won’t be seeing an increase in your glute size when using these muscles alone – as they don’t increase your muscle mass.
This type of endurance exercise is called aerobic – as blood vessels need to keep feeding the Type I muscle fibers oxygen while you are training for long periods. So, while they’re great for toning up and building strength, unfortunately, they won’t be getting any larger.
How Sprinting Affects Your Butt Muscles
Luckily, there is a way to make your butt bigger by running – sprinting!
Sprinting uses Type II muscle fibers, which are fast-twitch, which means they use a lot of energy in a small amount of time. The Type II fibers are much larger than the Type I muscle fibers, and they can only activate with a sudden increase, or burst, in movement.
This just means that sprinting classifies as anaerobic exercise, which means there’s no oxygen needed for the muscles – similar to strength training.
Type II muscle fibers are also larger, and their size can increase. So, if you’re looking to run for a more prominent booty, sprinting is your best chance. It also has the upside benefit of being a great way to tone your stomach muscles through running.
Types Of Running For A Bigger Butt
As you now know, running alone will not make your booty pop. It would be best to incorporate specific types of running, such as sprinting, into your routine to allow your Type II muscle fibers in your glutes to grow.
You could have the butt of your dreams through some techniques in no time. Below you can find some running styles that will help increase your butt size (and overall health)!
Sprinting For A Bigger Butt
If you’re searching for that perfect bubble butt, sprinting should become your new best friend. Wherever you run, whether it is on the treadmill at the gym, on a track, or on the streets around your house, you will need to incorporate some sprints into your running routine.
While sprinting, with short bursts of energy, your glute and leg muscles will alternate between relaxing and flexing at short intervals – this promotes muscle development and will help increase your glute size.
It would be best to start your run with a 5-minute warm-up of stretches to ensure you do not pull a muscle or ligament when you begin to sprint. Start with slow, endurance running, and once your body feels warmed up and ready – sprint at 80 – 100% of your capacity for 30 seconds.
You can aim for at least eight sprints within your run, resting for a minimum of 60 seconds between each sprint. From here, you can increase your sprints as you see fit. You will need to remember to do a cool-down stretch after your run and try to enjoy a hot bath to relax your muscles that night.
Running Uphill For A Bigger Butt
One of the more highly effective ways to increase your booty size – besides sprinting – is to incorporate lots of uphills in your workout.
When running uphill, your thigh muscles are working higher and at a wider angle than on a horizontal surface – this allows your glute muscles to be used more often than usual.
This allows the glute muscles to become firmer and larger and increase their size. To enable your butt the maximum benefit of running uphill, you should incorporate interval sprints into your hills.
You can start by sprinting for 10 seconds twice uphill, walking back down between each sprint to cool off and prevent any strain on your knees.
Each week you can add another set of sprints until you feel comfortable making eight sprints in a set of interval training. If you stay in a relatively flat area, you can also use a treadmill at the gym set to an incline or sprint up some stairs, which will produce similar results.
Running With Increased Weight For A Bigger Butt
Much like weightlifting, the heavier the weight and resistance on your body, the bigger your muscles will grow.
If you add on some ankle or arm weights while running, a weighted jacket, or even just holding 5lb dumbbells, you could significantly improve the result on your glute muscles. Extra weight during training helps you burn more calories and helps your muscles grow faster.
This is because the extra weights will increase the amount of effort and resistance on your body, leading to bigger, firmer muscles. However, start with the lightest weights you can, and work your way up. It is no fun to be on bed rest for a month because of an injury from training too hard.
Running On Sand For A Bigger Butt
This method also works for hardcore trail runners, as running on an unstable surface will increase the resistance on your body, essentially doubling the workload on your muscles.
Running on sand is a fantastic option for an excellent butt lifting workout while ensuring the rest of your body receives a fantastic toning session.
How Running Tones Your Booty
The gluteus maximus (your butt) is the largest and strongest muscle in your entire body! Running ensures that the whole muscle gets a good workout. Your complete glute consists of three different muscles:
- The Gluteus Maximus
- The Gluteus Medius
- The Gluteus Minimus
After a hectic run, you will notice that your glute muscles are aching. You may also experience discomfort in your hamstrings, quads, and calf muscles. All of these muscles will work together to form the perfect appearance of your butt.
We have all seen those ‘plastic surgery fails’ where some poor women got a few sizes too big on her butt implant and didn’t have the hamstrings or calves to support it.
To prevent your bottom from looking like a cake pop, your hamstrings, quads, and calves all need to join in when you are training to ensure you have the appearance of a firm and toned backside.
Of course, another welcome side effect of running regularly is that it can do wonders for trimming the belly fat!
Exercises You Can Incorporate With Running For A Bigger Butt
Running alone may not be enough to grow your glutes to the perfect size. In that case, you will need to incorporate exercises that specifically target the glutes into your exercising routine to maximize the results for your increased booty.
Some great exercises for your glutes are squats. You can ramp up your routine by including variations such as
- Air Squats
- Weighted Squats
- Banded Squats
- Pulsing Squats
Another excellent butt exercise for your glutes would be lunges or glute bridges. You can also incorporate some butt lifting exercises to tone and firm the glute muscles, like fire hydrants and donkey kicks.
Adding any weight, like resistance bands for runners or kettlebells to any of these exercises will maximize the muscle-building properties of your workout. By adding more resistance, the weights will increase the amount of effort placed on your muscles, making them stronger and more prominent.
So Does Running Make Your Butt Bigger?!
Running can be an exceptionally effective way to increase the size of your glute muscles—however, the technique you use while running could decrease the size of your butt.
So, if your goal is to grow a more considerable booty, you will need to incorporate sprints, uphill running, and running with weights to develop your glute muscles.
All of this comes with the caveat that extra (or lost) weight can affect your running speed.
You can mix up your running routine with workouts that include squats, lunges, fire hydrants, and donkey kicks to get the butt of your dreams.
