Meet Deanna. Shes a 29-year-old law clerk who wanted to have a curvier physique, plus more energy. She wasnt able to wear the clothes that she wanted, and she was tired that she didnt do the things that she wanted to do, like going out with friends, and more. She also wanted to get stronger to feel more confident and independent.
Fast forward a few months, and shes achieved all that. How did she do it? Thats what well talk about in this article.
Were going to cover:
- What Deanna has tried in the past to help her reach her goals
- Why she decided to hire a personal trainer
- The exercise and nutrition strategies that her trainer used with her
- The bottom-line results she achieved
- How her life is different today that shes curvier, stronger and more energetic.
If youd like to hear all this straight from Deanna, you can check out her case study in the video below.
And if you also want a curvier body, we have a special program called Build a Booty Program. If you want to see whether you qualify for that program, just fill out the application form on our home page.
The Background
Deanna was no slouch. For years, she had been trying to get the curvy body that she saw on Instagram, but no luck. The 2 major things shes tried are:
- Group fitness classes
- Exercise on her own
While the group fitness classes were both difficult and engaging, that difficulty didnt translate to effectiveness. She sweated a lot, and breathed hard, but her measurements didnt change. She didnt get any curvier.
With exercise on her own, she had problems with:
- Consistency she wouldnt go to the gym consistently.
- Effectiveness when she was at the gym, she wasnt totally sure whether what she was doing was correct and safe.
After spinning her wheels for a few years, she decided to take a more direct route hire a personal trainer. I did a presentation at her moms workplace, so her mom had been a client of ours, so it was logical for Deanna to work with us as well.
To her, personal training solved the biggest problems with group fitness classes and working out on her own:
- Group fitness classes were difficult, but not effective. Listen if shes going to spend a considerable amount of time and energy exercising, she should get something out of it. Group fitness classes dont tailor the class to each persons individual goals. Personal training does. With personal training, the focus is on effectiveness not difficulty. Difficulty may happen as a side effect of effectiveness, but were not chasing it directly.
- Accountability: thats inherent with personal training, whereas when youre exercising on your own or in group classes, no one is expecting you, so you can let yourself off the hook.
- Safety: Deanna wanted something thats effective AND safe. Not something thats effective, but her joints would pay the price later. She wanted to make sure she was doing everything properly, and her technique was good.
For those reasons, it made sense to her to hire one of my team members.
But that decision was not without hesitations. A lot of people have hesitations before they start personal training.
Deanna was hesitant about:
- The price.
- Whether shed get along with her trainer, and whether that trainer was competent to help her with her goals.
On the price side of things, personal training aint cheap (especially with us). But Deanna (wisely) thought about price as being not just about money. Something can cost you time and health. She figured if she paid money, shed save time on doing ineffective things on her own. You can make another dollar. You cant make another minute. What she was going to spend in money, she would save in time (and frustration). In a lot of respects, time is more valuable than money.
As for whether the trainer was competent to help her with her goals, let me just say this Igor dont hire no fools .
So after I did the initial assessment with Deanna, I set her up with her trainer. Her trainers name is also Deanna. Confusing, I know. So from this point forward, Ill refer to the client as Deanna, and the trainer as Dee.
Deannas Exercise Strategies
Once Deanna was ready, Dee designed her exercise program, with the goal of making Deanna curvier.
But lets translate something what does it mean to be curvier? Its the butt. All about the butt. It just means increasing the size of the gluteal muscles.
Here are some of the highlights from Deannas program:
Main Movements
The 2 main movements used were the hip thrust and banded abductions.
One common mistake that people make when trying to work their glutes for the purpose of size is not using all the functions of the glutes. The gluteus maximus has 3 functions:
- Hip extension
- External rotation of the thigh bone (femur)
- Abduction (moving the legs out)
For folks who dont know their anatomy, they may only use 1 movement but theyre missing out on 2 other functions of the glutes, and therefore, on some muscle fibres that could stand to grow.
But Dee knows her anatomy, so she didnt make this mistake.
Intensity Variations
If you just read the above exercises, and thought thats it! Thats the secret to a bigger booty hip thrusts and banded abductions, then youd be only partially right. Thats only part of the secret.
As I talk about in my article on the most important factor in an exercise program, the exercises themselves are only the 4th most important variable. Its not just the exercises its how you do them.
So Dee had Deanna varying the number of repetitions (and therefore, also the weight) she was doing each workout. But not haphazardly in a what do I feel like doing today kind of way. Rather, it was in a systematic, thought-out plan.
One third of Deannas workouts used high reps (3 sets of over 20). One third of Deannas workouts used moderate reps (4 sets of 12-20 reps), and the last third of the workouts used lower reps (6-12 reps).
Why did Dee do it this way? For 2 reasons:
- Different rep ranges and weights stimulate different muscle fibres. Lower reps stimulate fast-twitch muscle fibres. High reps stimulate the slow-twitch muscle fibres. Medium reps stimulate the in-between muscle fibres. If you want to maximize the growth of a muscle, you need to work all the muscle fibres. Different repetitions ranges have different benefits.
- Different rep ranges induce different types of fatigue (yes, there are different types of fatigue, but thats a story for another article). So while the fast twitch muscle fibres are recovering, the slow twitch fibres might be ready to go.
If I was to sum up the reason behind intensity variations, it would be fatigue management, and maximal muscle fibre stimulation.
Soreness Monitoring
How does Dee know when to increase or decrease the number of sets and reps? Again, this isnt random.
Its based on soreness monitoring. Dee would ask Deanna about her levels of soreness. If at the beginning of the workout, the level of soreness was less than 3/10, she would add 1 set. If the level of soreness was between 3-8/10, she would add a few reps. If the level of soreness was more than 8/10 (which was rare), she would reduce the exercise by 1 set.
This is balancing safety with effectiveness, and avoiding burnout.
Other Movements
While yes, the hip thrusts and banded abductions were the centrepiece of her program, there were other leg/thigh exercises, and upper body exercises.
Dee also added in single leg deadlifts, Bulgarian split squatsandgood mornings for the lower body, and a few other exercises for the upper body.
But only the hip thrusts and banded abductions were varied by their intensity/rep range, and employed soreness monitoring.
Deannas Nutrition Strategies
At the end of the day, to build muscle is very simple you need adequate protein. How much is adequate? For Deannas age and activity levels, thats a minimum of 1.6 grams/kg/day.
Some of our clients are numbers people (engineers, accountants, etc.) they love counting, so we give them something to count. In this case, it would be grams of protein.
Other clients are not numbers people, so we use other strategies to increase their protein.
Deanna is not a numbers person, so instead of having her count her protein grams, Dee just had her focus on generally more protein than she was eating before.
As for when she would eat after testing a few different meal compositions, and timings, they found that having a snack or a light meal about 2 hours before a workout gets Deanna to work a bit harder.
Deannas Results
So what were the bottom line results for Deannas bottom (sorry, I couldnt resist)? The results were fantastic!
- Her hip thrusts went from 53 lbs., up to 263 lbs.
- Her single leg deadlifts improved from 10 to 35 lbs.
- Her good mornings improved from 33 to 53 lbs.
- Her Bulgarian split squats improved from no weight to 30 lbs.
But while improvements in strength are nice, theyre only proxy markers for what really mattered to Deanna: the booty. How did her circumferences change there?
- Her hip circumference went from 92 to 97 cm.
- Her thigh circumference went from 54 to 57 cm.
- Her weight went from 120 to 123 lbs.
Not bad at all!
How Deannas Life is Different Now That Shes Curvier, Stronger and More Energetic
Now that Deanna is officially curvy, she can wear different clothes than before clothes that make her proud of her body.
Because shes able to wear different clothes, she feels better about herself, and more confident.
And hey, as a result of getting generally stronger, a bunch of other benefits came along with it:
- Her energy levels are higher, so she can get more done in her day, without feeling tired
- Its easier to carry groceries
- She has a better understanding of how to build muscle, since there are lots of misconceptions on social media.
Dee has even commented that Deanna is an ideal client:
- Coachable
- Open minded
- Compliant
- Inquisitive asking great questions about exercise and nutrition, and really listens.
Overall, were very proud of the progress that Deanna has made in the 5 months that shes been working with us so far. If you want similar results, we have a special program called Build a Booty Program. If you want to see whether you qualify for that program, just fill out the application form on our home page.
