Why you Can’t Build a Brazilian Butt

So you have tried everything but your butt just doesn’t look like the girl from the Brazilian Butt video, or picture or Instagram pictures. Your butt just doesn’t seem to grow! Guess What?? You are not alone.

Plenty of people think that just doing squats and deadlifts and your butt will grow!!

And for some it does. 

And of course they gone on Instagram and YouTube and tell you how they did it and you can do it too!!

But that isn’t always the case. 

Why your Butt isn’t big

In simple terms…GENETICS.

Obviously, that isn’t the only reason and won’t keep someone with “bad” genetics from growing a butt. But I was listening to a podcast today featuring the “Glute Guy” Bret Contreras who has a PhD in Sports Science with a focus on the Glute muscles. 

He mentioned that about 60% of the ability to grow a butt (or muscles in general) is due to the genetic makeup of that particular person. 

 I was blown away but that number. As a scientist my self I knew that genetics did play a role in muscle growth and the types of muscle fibers a person had, but I didn’t realize it was that big of effect.

So I went on the hunt for some more information. And Bret Contreras website has plenty of scientific articles you can study plus I searched through PubMed.

In one of his articles: The Truth about BodyBuilding Genetics, Contreras mentions two studies where the participants all followed the same workout plan. And both studies had varying degrees of muscle growth in all their participants, some even LOSING muscle mass. 

One of which showed that in 16 weeks 26% of the participants showed no measurable muscle growth. That is 1 in 4 people.

Now don’t get me wrong its not all genetics. 

Some other things that contribute to muscle growth are nutrition, fat distribution, hormone levels, and the QUALITY and duration of your workout program. 

How Does Genetics Play a role?

Well scientifically there are several ways that genetics plays a role on muscle growth. But there are a couple that are easily explained. 

Muscles are made up of fast-twitch and slow-twitch fibers. These fibers are responsible to how your body responds to stimuli. For example, endurance athletes like marathon runners have a large number of slow-twitch muscle fibers were sprinters have a large number of fast-twitch muscle fibers.

No person has all of one type and none of the other, but our genetics due play a role in the how many fast-twitch muscle fibers you have versus slow-twitch. Fast-twitch muscles fibers are known to increase the size of the muscle. 

Another way is your overall body type, including body shape. Some people are just naturally thinner and it is harder for them to gain weight, whereas others have a greater fat distribution and would just need to lose some fat to be able to see increases in muscle growth. 

How Can you get a Brazilian Butt?

If you are one of the lucky few whose genetics just aren’t helping you grow a bigger butt (or any muscle) there are some things you can do. BUT it won’t be easy. 

Since I am studying nutrition, I am firstly going to mention that what you eat can play a major role in the growth of muscles. 

• For building muscle mass and for maintaining muscle mass through a positive muscle protein balance, an overall daily protein intake in the range of 1.4–2.0 g protein/kg body weight/day (g/kg/d) is sufficient for most exercising individuals, a value that falls in line within the Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range published by the Institute of Medicine for protein.

Next would be to focus on the type of training you are doing. As well as the time period. Some might not start to see growth until some significant time period has passed. So be PATIENT and CONSISTENT.

But mainly find what works for you!! EVERYONE is different and what works for some will not work for you. Test out different training types. Experiment with number of sets and how heavy of weight you use. 

Contreras, the “Glute Guy” himself even suggestions that you should be training your glutes anywhere from 2-6 times a week depending on your genetics and the type of training you are doing.

If you are doing a lot of band work, like with the hip circle below, then you can do more work. If you start doing heavy lifting you will want to keep that to 1-2 times a week depending on your body’s recovery time. 

Final Thoughts

Overall, everyone is different and you will not be able to get the same Butt as someone else. But with good nutrition and hard work you can build a stronger one. 

Genetics do play a major role in how muscles grow, but strength training and nutrition are good for your body as a whole. Try not to focus on looking like everyone else and focus on what you can do.  

You can always check out some of our Workout of the Week posts to help find some great workouts to help build that muscle!