Dear Friends,
My interview today is with health-and-fitness educator and trainer Evan Ruiz. Her DailyOM course No-Squat Booty Workout is a high-energy 14-day course that is fun, motivating, and hugely beneficial -- for your posture, lower back, hips and knees, and, of course, booty! Here's what she had to say about the course.
- Receive a new lesson every day for 2 weeks (total of 14 lessons).
- Have lifetime access to the course for reference whenever you want.
- Select the amount you can afford, and get the same course as everyone.
- If you are not 100% satisfied, you may request a refund.
Madisyn Taylor: Can we really work out our booty without doing squats?
Evan Ruiz: You can absolutely work out your booty without doing squats! The best way to work any muscle is to understand what its function is, or what joint it moves, and then try to focus on moving only that joint. With the booty, its primary function is straightening the hip joint. Basically, when the hip is in a flexed position, which means you are bent at the hip joint, your glute muscles are stretched. When you stand up, you are straightening (extending) the hip joint with the help of your glutes. While in a squat, your ankles, knees, and hips are all moving at the same time, which means the glutes are not the only muscle in the mix. The quadriceps are the partner in this move. Because of our sedentary lifestyle, however, our glutes tend to "turn off," and our quads end up compensating and doing all the work of squatting for us -- not our glutes. For example, we experience this when we stand up from sitting at a desk for too long. We will compensate by leaning forward or pushing on our knees or desk instead of using the extra energy to engage our glutes and core to get up.
Squatting is last on my list of big moves for booty gains! I challenge anyone who thinks differently to do a set of squats for 15Â20 repetitions, and see where you feel it. After that, do a set of glute bridges and hip thrusts for the same amount of repetitions and see for yourself. After that, wait a couple of minutes and reverse the order. Do 15Â20 glute bridges and hip thrusts, and then do the same number of squats. You will notice that the glutes fire more effectively after the bridges as opposed to squatting beforehand. This is because the booty was shut off for the majority of the day from sitting, and we have to wake it up. Also, glute bridges isolate the glutes' movement. With mind-muscle connection and focus, we can engage and "wake up" the glutes. The bridges are like their alarm clock.
MT: A lot of people think that heavy weights are what gets your booty to look better. Is this true?
ER: Heavy weights are for building on top of efficient, working glutes. If you add heavy weights straight away without waking up the booty or without maintaining the mind-muscle connection, then you will compensate by making other muscles the focus of that heavier resistance -- the glutes will simply be stabilizing the move, not actually moving the resistance.
Prepping the movement by first using your body weight makes the isolation easier. The more you do this, it will become second nature, and the booty will activate right away. That is a good time to load that particular movement with heavier weights. Once the basic move becomes easy for you, it does not mean you should change the entire exercise, it simply means you should make it more challenging, either with more reps, heavier weights, by moving slower, etc. The moves provided for you during the 14 days are movements that can evolve and benefit your everyday life. Be patient and consistent. You should focus on mastering the basics now, concentrating and honing the exercises, then later you can add additional challenges. I love heavy weights, but I love moving well even more.
MT: A lot of our DailyOM trainers speak of the mind-body connection. Why is this important?
ER: Mind-body connection is the awareness of correct movement and muscle recruitment. When you understand what you should be feeling in each movement, you also understand if you are doing that exercise correctly and how to adjust it if it is wrong. Educating as many people as possible on effective movement and body awareness is a very important goal that I believe every trainer should have.
MT: Talk to me about any equipment that is needed for the course and how it is used. Can students take the course without equipment?
ER: The equipment we use in the course are a mini band, bench, set of dumbbells, and yoga mat. The mini band is medium resistance or lighter. If you are used to a heavier band, then by all means please use it. The goal with the mini band is to wake up the booty a little faster than with body weight alone. The dumbbells can vary depending on your experience with each exercise. If you are a beginner, choose no more than 10 pounds, intermediate no more than 15 pounds, and advanced no less than 12 pounds. I consistently encourage "drop sets," which means that if you would like to try a heavier weight, go for it! If you feel like things are getting shaky or you are not feeling the glutes at all, drop to a lighter weight or use your body weight and get that fire back! As for a bench, we are simply using it to elevate our shoulders or feet and not stepping on it, so it can be a soft surface like a sofa if you do not have a step stool or bench -- anything that emulates a bench and gets the job done. The step stool I use is 13-inches high. If you are using anything higher than 16 inches and you are shorter than five-foot-three-inches, the best way to adjust is to not drop the hips all the way to the floor during your hip thrust, and you will be golden.
The yoga mat is not essential if you do not have one, but you may want a towel nearby if you need extra padding for some of the exercises. Whatever you use, make sure that you can maintain balance on it because we do some single-leg moves. If you have a thick yoga mat, that is totally fine, as we can simply step aside onto the bare floor for those bigger exercises. You can do any of the movements using your body weight, and I highly recommend body weight if you have never done a particular exercise before, or if you are losing your balance or not feeling the correct muscles. We must build that strong foundation before we start to add to it, and do not feel peer pressured to add resistance before you are ready!
MT: What are some unexpected benefits of working our booties?
ER: This is my favorite thing about booty training. It results in less (if any) lower back and knee pain, and the strengthening of those joints leads to better, more fluid movement and also better posture. The more mobile the hip joint is, the more activation the glutes get, which helps them become stronger, preventing injuries related to the knees and lower back. Lower back pain is a completely preventable condition in many cases. With the right exercises and by understanding the mind-body connection, you will make a big improvement to your back and overall wellness.
What Evan said about mind-body connection is so true. Yes, learning how to do the exercises is important, but making that mind-body connection is equally important if you want to achieve the best results. Mindful awareness really elevates the exercises in ways that enhance your total wellness -- for your booty and beyond! Until next time.
Be well,
Madisyn Taylor
Cofounder, Editor-in-Chief
DailyOM
