Ep 171: Big Butts, Strong Butts, We Love Them All! How to Train Your Glutes with Sue Bush
Are you dreaming of having the perfect glutes? Have you ever wondered how your diet and genes influence the shape of your butt? Ready to find out the most effective workout routines and strategies to sculpt your dream glutes?
In this exciting episode, Philip (@witsandweights) welcomes Sue Bush, the co-owner of Physique Development, a certified personal trainer, fitness nutritionist, and competitive physique athlete. Sue, a co-contributor to the March issue of Body By Science, joins Philip to discuss a topic that’s sure to interest many - how to develop a shapely, firm, and functional butt. She explains why we’re so fascinated with glutes, the benefits of glute development beyond aesthetics, and the most effective strategies for optimal results. Sue also shares insights on the role of nutrition, genetics, and individual response in glute development, providing practical tips for different ages and equipment availability.
Sue’s journey in the fitness industry began in 2017, and she has since earned multiple certifications and competed in physique competitions for four seasons. With her passion for empowering women to prioritize their health and fitness, Sue specializes in helping individuals make sustainable lifestyle changes that align with their goals and schedules. Together with her husband, Alex Bush, and the rest of Team PD at Physique Development, Sue is committed to leading, educating, and inspiring generational change through the power of health and excellence.
*Today, you’ll learn all about:*
3:24 Why we love butts
8:12 Benefits of glute development
13:03 What to prioritize (training, nutrition) and how genetics play a role
19:23 Approach to training (exercises, programming, and individual response)
27:23 Training intensity and execution
36:05 The importance of logging and taking videos
42:53 The impact of exercise selection in glute training
53:30 Training over 40 in the context of back health
55:41 The question Sue wanted Philip to ask and her answer
1:00:55 Where to find Sue
1:01:30 Outro
Episode resources:
Episode summary:
When it comes to sculpting the perfect lower body, understanding the science behind muscle development is crucial. The latest episode features fitness expert Sue Bush, who unravels the complexities of personalized glute training. This isn't your average fitness discussion; it's an in-depth exploration of how your unique genetic makeup and lifestyle can influence the way you approach lower body workouts.
In our pursuit of aesthetic excellence, it's easy to fall into the trap of one-size-fits-all fitness regimens. However, Sue challenges this notion by emphasizing the need for a tailored approach. As we delve into the relationship between muscular functionality and aesthetics, listeners gain not just a blueprint for a stunning physique, but also the knowledge to enhance everyday movement and core strength.
Have you ever considered how your body's mechanics impact your fitness journey? Sue and the host discuss the importance of understanding and optimizing your individual body type for targeted muscle growth. They highlight the power of keeping a detailed log of your workouts, demonstrating how disciplined tracking can lead to significant gains and illuminate the path to peak performance. The underrated tool of video analysis also comes into play, offering an opportunity to perfect form and technique.
As the episode progresses, the conversation turns to the creation of a comprehensive glute program. Sue discusses exercises designed to challenge muscles from various angles, ensuring that listeners are equipped to build stronger glutes and a resilient core. Whether you're navigating muscle and fat gain or seeking post-surgery workout advice, this episode covers all bases. By the end, you'll be inspired to achieve the strong, functional lower body you've always wanted.
Now, let's touch on the role of genetics in training for glute growth. Sue brings to light how genetics heavily influence body composition and muscle development. She advocates for a shift from comparison to personal progress and highlights the necessity of adapting training techniques to suit individual genetic profiles for optimal muscle development. It's about understanding your own body and setting realistic expectations based on your unique characteristics.
Moreover, the significance of video analysis in training cannot be overstated. Sue points out the common oversight among coaches who don't observe their clients' training sessions. Regular video feedback is essential for identifying gaps in a client's regimen and ensuring that training intensity is balanced with recoverability.
Another crucial topic discussed is the importance of keeping a logbook. It's a simple yet effective way to track progress and make informed decisions about your training. From recording workouts to noting external factors like time of day and pre-workout meals, a logbook can be a game-changer for anyone serious about their fitness goals.
Lastly, Sue covers the principles of glute training for growth. Selecting the right exercises and understanding muscle anatomy can drastically improve engagement and execution during workouts. She explains how different movements can target the glutes effectively and stresses the importance of a well-designed program that includes progression and recovery.
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Transcript
Sue Bush 00:00
When people make those very specific suggestions, and they just say, this is the one thing that you need to grow your glutes that drives me crazy because there are so many things that you need to know to be able to do that. It's not just you need to eat these foods to grow your glutes or you need to do this exercise to grow your glutes. I think that when we look at glutes specifically, I have seen firsthand especially with being in the competitor round of people can have very great genetics that they store their body fat on their glutes, where I'm sure some of you guys listening to this could be like, Oh, when I gain weight, it immediately goes to my core first, or immediately goes to my arms. First People distribute weight all different ways.
Philip Pape 00:43
Welcome to the wit's end weights podcast. I'm your host, Philip pape, and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self mastery by getting stronger. Optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition will uncover science backed strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle and mindset with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry so you can look and feel your absolute best. Let's dive right in Whitson weights community Welcome to another episode of The Whitson weights Podcast. Today, I'm excited to welcome Sue Busch, co owner of physique development, certified personal trainer, fitness, nutritionist and competitive physique athlete. Now she and I were the two contributors to the March issue of body by science, Dr. Bill Campbell's Research Review and we decided to collaborate on each of our podcasts as well. So I'm super excited and invited Sue on the show to talk about a fun topic, especially for the ladies out there. And that is how to develop a shapely butt or more precisely how to build strong, functional and aesthetically pleasing glutes. Why do we love this area the body so much? What are the benefits of glute development beyond just looking good? And what are the most effective training strategies, exercise selection and programming considerations for optimal results with the glutes. You'll also learn the role of nutrition genetics and individual response in glute development. And Sue will give us some practical tips as always for different ages, equipment, and individual response. Sue's journey in the fitness industry began in 2017 while finishing her degree in broadcast journalism. Since then, she's accumulated multiple certifications, including becoming a certified personal trainer and fitness nutritionist through ace and earning her Perry natal certification. Su also has competed in physique competitions for four seasons, most recently in 2022. With years of experience coaching lifestyle clients, and a passion for empowering women to prioritize their health and fitness. Sue specializes in helping individuals make sustainable lifestyle changes that align with their goals and schedules. Together with her husband, Alex Bush and the rest of the team PD at physique development. Sue is committed to leading educating and inspiring generational change through the power of health and excellence. So I'm really excited we could do this. So thank you so much for coming on.
Sue Bush 02:58
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. And for the wonderful intro makes me sound really cool.
Philip Pape 03:02
Well deserved. I'm glad we could connect, you know, since being on that, that issue of bills together. And I think I reached out to you and said we need to collaborate here with our podcast, and share with our audiences. What's going on. And one of the things you've been talking about lately, on your IG and elsewhere is glute training. I know you've had some long Q and A's on your podcast, and I encourage people to go check those out as well. But my first question to you is, why do we love butts so much? What is the what is the attraction to this area of the body? Is it social, cultural? Is it you know, a functional thing? Where does this all come from? Well, we
Sue Bush 03:37
could refer back to songs back in the 70s, from KC and the Sunshine Band like Shake, shake, shake, or queen of fat bottom girls, or even go to the 90s where we have Sir Mix A Lot, singing about how much he likes big butts, and even to present day songs like Anaconda going very viral, but at the core of it, it's actually primal. So Dr. David Lewis, who said that our male ancestors developed an attraction to women with big butts because it increased their chances of having offspring that would live long enough to pass on their DNA. So it's really an indicator of fertility. If you think back to the caveman days, they're looking and they're wanting to see someone that does have that fertility can carry on the DNA. And there was also a 2014 study done that found that women with a larger waist to hip ratios had higher levels of the hormone needed to get pregnant, and therefore possessed and crease changes are increased chances of fertility. There's also the aspect of you need strong legs and the ability to balance with your center of gravity changing with pregnancy. So it showed that women with larger butts could finish the pregnancy and having that body fat because normally to have bigger glutes you have to have a little bit higher body fat was a sign of being able to support the pregnancy as well. So again, if we go back to the caveman days, if someone was very, very thin, they might not be Well to carry a pregnancy or get pregnant. Whereas if you had a little junk in the trunk, then that was a good signaling of like, Hey, you can carry on the DNA you can sustain a pregnancy and be able to have a healthy child. And another role in this is going to be pop culture. So think of what is popular and what we consume constantly think about things like the Kardashians, which are extremely popular, namely Kim and we think back to like that champagne photoshoot she did. butts were all the rage and even thinking about female rappers like I mentioned the song Anaconda, as well as a lot of female rappers not only rapping about butts, but also being having that larger behind. So like Nicki Minaj, Magda, stallion, Cardi B, dosha, cat, and more and even the popularity of bbls across the land. So there's multiple things I do believe that at the core of it, it is primal, but past that it has really transformed into like that societal and pop culture. Because again, we we consume so much that that then pushes us into what we like, what we dislike, what we find attractive, all of those different things. So
Philip Pape 06:10
then why do you care about it? Personally,
Sue Bush 06:12
I care about it, because I always didn't have a button. And it's kind of like you always want what you don't have. And when I got into lifting, I just felt extremely empowered by being able to truly shape my body and be able to change the way that I looked. And it was something where I could see muscles that I had never seen before. It was something where I always struggled with glute growth, I got made fun of it. And Middle School in high school being told that my back went straight down to my legs, I was even having a conversation with my sister about it. And she was just like, people don't get it like, we are not genetically blessed to have glutes within our family that if you see the the other people in my family, it's not like, oh, that's kind of where they store fat, or that's where the genetics are. And so I always wanted to acquire it. Now part of it also was because of competing in bikini competitions, which I don't do anymore. But that was something that was needed for the look is to have bigger glutes, but I just love, I just love how it makes me feel to be able to, again, have that shape and really go after and say, hey, I want this muscle bigger, and then being able to go and do that. So even though I'm sure there is some influence from pop culture, it's also the aspect of it was something that I always wanted for my own self competence. And then the more I learned about glutes, the more I saw the benefit of having glutes overall, you hit
Philip Pape 07:38
on so many great points that highlight the positive aspects of physique development. And I think there are many. And that is, like you said, being able to have this this power over your body, whatever that is, it could be, you know, an asymmetry, or it could simply be just overall size and strength and function. And you were talking recently on one of your episodes about, I'll say, the vanity or the visual aspects of physique development. And there's no wrong reason for doing any of this stuff. Right? If it's positive and contributes toward our well being I, in my opinion, there's no wrong reason to do it. So I was curious, you know, of that for you. And I want to, I want to segue into the benefits of developing a glute, we can definitely talk about the aesthetics, which probably doesn't take long, long discussion, we kind of just covered it, but the strength and functional benefits. And one thing you did mention was the little bit of higher body fat may be needed as well. And at least tied into the history of, of the glutes, I do want to bring that in as well, as we talk about training and developing don't forget that point of it. In case there's a little hack there that people need to know about. So what are the benefits we and then we can get into some specifics? Yeah,
Sue Bush 08:41
well, the big benefit is that allows you to function as a human being by having glute tissue. I really like to tell this story because I, when I first got started personal training, I was training in person. And of course, one of my first few clients where my parents, as good parents do just to support their kids. And I remember, I was having my dad do hip thrusts. And he was like, I'm not trying to, like grow big glutes, like, do I need to be doing this? And I was like, yes, because as you age, and you are already aging, this is something that you are going to need to be able to age gracefully, and to age while you can still function. Because, of course, there's the aesthetic side. And I think that a lot of times people try to push like, this is good for your health. And it's like if it we just knew it was good for our health, don't you think there'd be a lot of other things that we would already be doing. But we have to think about us as human beings and there is that vanity side of okay, I want to look a certain way, which I think is so good to be able to focus on because like you said, if it contributes to you positively, why not. But when we're looking at the glutes, they're going to play a key role in hip stability and pelvis stability, which is going to be so important for things like walking, which we all do jumping, sprinting, strength training, and it's also something where if we look at the different parts of the glutes, they are going to help with hip extension and being able to externally and internally rotate and abduct. So moving the thigh away from the body. And it's also going to allow to keep our bodies upright and making sure that our bodies are pushed forward to a certain degree. So it's going to allow you to function in those everyday tasks, which is what I always like to boil it down to is, okay, yes, here's the aesthetic side. And yes, you can want to grow your glutes. But let's also talk about why it's important. And how it helps you to just be a functioning human being not even talking about, I want to build glutes so big that everyone thinks I got to bbl. But more so of I want to be able to walk as I age I hear so often. And I know we're gonna touch on that a little bit later about as you age, and what that looks like, for different generations. But a lot of times you hear people want to say they want to play with their grandkids, or they want to play with their kids. And it's like a part of playing is being able to walk or stand upright, and your glutes are going to be a major mover in that. And not to mention how the pelvis then also like goes hand in hand with your core. And being able to have that in a good spot, which also goes hand in hand with your glutes. Because when you see people that often have like an anterior pelvic tilt, it's normally that they have really weak core muscles that they can't pull their core in. And it's having that tilted over movement. And that can be from also having weak glutes. And so being able to see how this goes into just how your body literally stands, allows you to be like, okay, yes, I can want huge glutes, but I can also want it because it allows me to function as a human being. Yeah. So
Philip Pape 11:43
what you're saying is it's part of the core, right? Because sometimes people think of the core is just the the rest is truly part of that whole. Yeah, right. And the thing about pushing forward, explain that just a little bit for listeners when you said, because you talked about the abduction, you also talked about posture and being upgraded. What do you mean by the pushing forward,
Sue Bush 12:00
so the aspect of your glutes like I talked about within your pelvis, that's going to be something that if your pelvis isn't sturdy, then it can put you in a place. And it can also be depending on what it looks like for how you use your glutes that if your glutes are weak, it can force your body that when it's not balanced, that it compensates with other things. And so then it puts you in a place where it's really difficult because like you talked about with that core box as a whole, that where you have like, not just the back of your hips and where your glutes are across your like hip Ridge as a whole. But you're also thinking of like your extensors, and being able to keep you upright and like push you forward to the degree of not like, Okay, I'm going to like lean forward all the way but more so of the degree of we have forward lean in our bodies and how our rib cages like stand as a whole, that we're not just completely straight up and down. There is some movement there within our body. Yeah,
Philip Pape 13:00
love that almost like an athletic position, if you will, you know, you mentioned getting made fun of for not having much of a but I got made fun of for having too much of a but for a guy. And I wonder about the genetic differences. They're like, how much of that is where we store fat versus muscle? And how consequential are those genetics? Like you've already mentioned, you can make a change to that. But what what is the impact of those genetics? When we think of our baseline before we get into Okay, now, what do we do for training and nutrition? Yeah,
Sue Bush 13:29
I think one part of that, especially with you talking about like male versus female, it can be on your limb lengths as a whole and how you're able to move through different movements. So for example, my husband does have big glutes, and I've always been jealous of them. But his body is basically primed to be able to buy us glutes. And so the way that he has for his femur length, and how his core length so I personally have a longer torso and I have long femurs. So if you know anything about just what that means for your overall body levers, that means it's going to be very difficult to be able to target your glutes and so no movement Am I set up in to automatically bias glutes, whereas my husband, again, his levers are all set up that anytime he does any type of squat, he's biasing his glutes. Anytime he does like any kind of like stepping even like a step up. He is majorly biasing his glutes where for me, I had to kind of play around with how I get set up in the movement. So I think part of it is not only going to be I mean genetics are going to play into your limb length to a certain degree, but it's also just going to be how your body is laid out or the levers that you are able to do different exercises. So if you even think about things I always like to use the example of people say like, Oh, I'll never look like that person. And it's like, you may never look like that person because your body is built completely different not in regards of where your fat is, or or how lean you are, I'm talking in regards to, like, if someone has really short glute insertions, they might be able to show and have like a really bubbly glutes just because they don't have as much muscle to fill in and it's able to protrude more and give a different look. Whereas I personally have really long blue insertions, which is great in the term of being able to build like these long diamond glutes, but it's also a lot of glute to fill out, like think about in the fact of if you have someone who is six foot versus by five, and you even think about that, in terms of bodybuilding, the reason they do by height, and then also by weight is because there's such a differential in that of each inch, you can add 10 to 20 pounds to your body, and it still look the same as someone else that might be an inch or two shorter than you. And so being able to keep that in mind of what it looks like to actually add muscle to that tissue, instead of using it in a discouraging way of oh, I'm never going to look like that person. How I've really turned it around for myself is okay, what are the things like? How can I learn about myself to then reset my expectations, and then be able to have new goals for myself, if I can still look at someone and say, like, oh, they have a great physique, or I would love to look like them. But instead of then tearing myself apart, because I don't look like them, I kind of backtrack and I don't pick them apart. But I'll just say like, oh, they have a shorter femur and they have a shorter torso. So that's going to make it that they have a much better way of being able to bias their glutes or they have those shorter insertions. So that I can just be kinder to myself and be able to realize what that looks like. But genetics do play a huge, huge role. When it comes to your, your glutes, and just how your body looks, it's going to be something where it's not the only factor like we've already mentioned. But it's something that when we have genetics, that's also going to determine where your body fat is stored. And I think that when we look at glutes specifically, I have seen firsthand, especially with Bing, in the competitor round of people can have very great genetics that they store their body fat on their glutes, where I'm sure some of you guys listening to this could be like, Oh, when I gain weight, it immediately goes to my core first, or it immediately goes to my arms. First People distribute weight all different ways. And sometimes people are very lucky. And it goes to their glutes first. And you see that why I mentioned competing, because you see it firsthand when you're trying to lose weight, because you're doing extreme weight loss of oh, that actually wasn't tissue that was really well distributed fat, which is very lucky for people, I'm not hating on it. I'm jealous of it that that is the case. But again, genetics play a huge role in not only your limb lengths, your levers, but then just how you're going to distribute fat and how easy it is for you to gain muscle overall. Because I'm also sure we know some people who barely work out and have muscles where you might feel like I've been trying really hard for years, and I don't have that same muscle tissue. And that like those freaks of nature normally come to fruition within competing again, because you see these people and they just build this insane physique. And it's like, how did they do that? It's like, oh, genetics played a role not to take away from their hard work at all, it takes hard work regardless, but some people are just a little bit more blessed about how they're everything, all their anthropometrics lay out for them. You're
Philip Pape 18:28
speaking my language. So I love this. I think you just hit genetics. And rather than make it this like thing we have, and let's move on, it's actually we need to understand our genetics very intimately through our training and biofeedback and collecting data and measurements. And I'm sure there's lots of things we can get into of how to do that. Besides just you see it, and you know it in many cases, but things like muscle, belly insertions, limb lanes, I love all of that, because the listener can then say, Okay, I've been doing X movement, religiously, decent amount of volume, I'm responsive to building muscle, but not in this one part of my body, even though that movement is supposed to be giving me that that's probably a signal that that's not the best for you, assuming that's not a form or other issue. So I love genetics as a baseline of awareness, and then not beating yourself up for it, but being kind to yourself and knowing that this is data that you can now have be empowered from and take action from. So totally love that. And so that that leads into once you have that baseline information, what should we be measuring? And then we can get into the training approach, you know, all the people, the things people are waiting for, like, you know, what, what movements do I do? How do I adjust for me? How do I program and things like that? So how do we start and then get into that discussion? Yeah,
Sue Bush 19:40
as far as what we should measure or kind of keep track of one thing I like to say is if you want to see progress, track progress, and that's where a lot of people fall short is they get so into, I want to see results. I feel like I'm working hard. And it's like are you looking at the data because the only way to move forward is with data driven decision. And that's not just in training that is within everything, whether you're trying to post content on social media, whether you're trying to grow a business, whether you're trying to grow your glutes, you need to be able to look at data to make decisions. And so if you have no idea, you're not tracking your training volume, you're not taking check in photos, you don't know what your weight is, you have no idea how much you're eating, or what that looks like consistency day to day, you have no idea what your steps are, or how long you're sitting in a day. And you don't know how much water you have. If you're not tracking any of that, then how can you expect to see results forward? And so of course, we could go through an extensive list. And even just the list I made of you might say, Oh, that seems like a lot to track. And it's like, Yes, this is hard work period, there. Yes, there are some different things you can do to make sure you're working smarter, not harder. But at the end of the day, you are going to have to put effort forward. And that might mean tracking some metrics. And that's what I always go to when people get started. They're like, Well, how do I do this? How do I do this? How do I do this? And I'm like, why don't you just track what you're doing for a week? Let's circle back on that baseline. And let's make decisions off of that. And people get really antsy. And they're like, well, aren't you just going to tell me what the plan is. And it's like, I can't make a plan, if I don't know the data to then make a thing because if I just say, Oh, just go ahead and get 8000 steps. And just go ahead and do this, it might be that that person's getting 2000 steps a day. And I just told them to go to 8000. Or it might be that person's getting 16,000 steps a day. And I just said get at least 8000. And since I said at least they're going off the charts, and we're getting all this inflammation, possibly and not getting enough food in place. Because I didn't know what the data was. And so the biggest thing I would tell you, regardless of what you track, just track something, even if you just start with one or two things, I'm not saying go from tracking, nothing to track everything. But maybe it's starting at, okay, let me just track my food for a week, not trying to hit specific macros. Let me just see what I'm eating in a week. Okay, maybe from there, I go ahead and I add on my steps, then I go ahead and I add on my water intake, whatever it may be, just tracking some progress is going to be so much better than nothing. But specifically within glute growth. I think that like food and training, obviously go hand in hand with so many things. People hear that time and time again, you might wonder Okay, which one is more important? I think that kind of opens the conversation of like, what came first the chicken or the egg. It's like, both are important period. But if we're looking at some things I think I like to look at if you don't know anything about nutrition, and you already have somewhat of a regular training routine, regardless of if we're going to consider your training, but right or quite wrong. If you already have some sort of training routine, and you're doing nothing with nutrition, then I would recommend starting with nutrition. But if you're in a place where you have gotten some education about nutrition, and you haven't really gotten into training, then let's start with training. And so I don't think it's a one size fits all of Hey, start with this thing, or this is the thing that you need to focus on. And when people make those very specific suggestions, and they just say, this is the one thing that you need to grow your glutes, that drives me crazy, because there are so many things that you need to know, to be able to do that. It's not just you need to eat these foods to grow your glutes, or you need to do this exercise to grow your glutes. It's a multifaceted thing that you need to be able to then look at yourself and reflect and say, What do I need to focus on a little bit more? And have honest conversations with yourself? Because that's something where I see and I'm sure you do a lot across the board is that someone might be like, Well, I am training consistently. And it's like, Are you like, are you actually like, let's have an honest conversation with ourselves about what that looks like. Or even saying, like, I train hard. It's like, okay, are you? Are you tracking your training sessions at all? Are you just trying to gauge it by if you feel tired at the end of it, or if you feel sore the next day. And so really digging into what it means for each person, because it also means different things for each person, is the big thing that I try to dive into, especially if I'm talking about a client or someone's like asking me a question in the DMS of like, Should I do this? Or should I do this? I'm like, Well, why do you want to do that? What does this other thing I normally respond with asking more questions? Instead of just giving an answer? I'm
Philip Pape 24:25
laughing inside because this is what happens to get to coaches who agree and all this stuff. And I think the listener, they've heard a lot of this, like, you're the female version of me and with a lot of what you're saying. I mean, everything from the tracking. Yeah, you're so right. Like, is it harder to track? Or is it harder to just continue having no clue why what you're doing is not giving you the result you want? Like that's one of the things to say, Yeah, it's hard but like tracking your budgets hard to and it's better than being broke, you know,
Sue Bush 24:50
choose your heart. Like just decide which hard do you want to take because those are all going to be hard, and it might feel like something might feel easier. But is that Short Term comfort long. Yes, comfort, because you have to think about that to have it might feel like it's easier in the moment to do something else. But in the long run, how is that going to make you feel because that's how I felt even about fitness is that I used to make fun of people who ate healthy, and we're like working out because part of it was likely because I wasn't doing it. And I felt insecurity about that, whatever it may be. I also just felt that I didn't understand that people could truly be happy doing that I was coming from a place of like, that doesn't make me happy to train and do all these other things or to eat a certain way. But it came down from also I was living day to day with being depressed because of the foods that I was eating. And from my lack of movement, and the lack of keeping promises to myself, and I literally had to hit rock bottom before I realized, like, oh, this easy isn't actually easy. This is causing most of the issues in my life. I am the one contributing to my own downfall here. And that's what I mean about honest conversations is it you can say I don't have enough time, I don't have enough this, I get it. Like, I'm not here to tell you like you do have enough time, you just need to do X but you you get to decide what you do with your time. So if you want to continue to say, I can't do that, or that doesn't make me feel good, or that feels hard. You have to ask yourself all right, then are you okay? Loving the way that you're living? And you can't expect to see the results? If you, again, are not wanting to put an effort, I always talk about having to align your effort with your expectations. If you have a certain expectation of what you want to occur, does your effort match that? And most of the time, it's no, and you have to fill that gap of you either have to lower your expectation, or you have to increase your effort. Yeah,
Philip Pape 26:48
there's so much reframing there. I mean, it does often come down to identity and self talk and expectations. You also mentioned individuals who asked you these questions that are always going to have an independent answers. And that's why you follow up with questions back to them. But I also like how you said if you've got if you've got a piece taken care of, maybe it's this other piece that we want to focus on, even if it isn't optimal over here. I think on one of your podcasts, you talked about harmony versus balance, right? Like we don't, we're not trying to balance everything in perfect proportion to everything else, we're trying to integrate everything. And if there's one area that's lagging, maybe that's where we focus, let's set the context. Then for the glute training discussion. If someone is listening, who does have most of the things in place, let's say they have been tracking their food, they understand their maintenance calories, they know how to eat plenty of protein, they're eating nutrient dense foods, things like that. And they're training three or four days a week with typical hypertrophy or strength program. And now they're like my glutes aren't where I want them to be. Where would we go from that point in terms of training considerations, or anything else,
Sue Bush 27:50
the first two things that I look at within that are going to be training intensity and training execution. So we actually we have a staff of coaches, and we, one of the coaches had reached out to me and was like, Hey, this is what's going on with this client. They are doing this, this and this, they're checking all the boxes. But here are the pictures, I'm still not seeing the results that I want to see with this client. And I said, Have you ever seen a video of them exercising? And they're like, well, they send some exercise videos, but it's always when they are doing very lightweight, and trying to nail down the movement. I said, Do you know that for a fact, are you making that assumption that that is that what they're doing in that video, and they were like, Oh, wow, I feel like such an idiot for not looking at the sooner I was like, you don't need to feel like an idiot. This is just the gap. And this is where a lot of coaches and especially online coaches fall short is they do not look at the people training, that is the most massive thing that you miss out with, with training online is you don't actually get to see the person train. And that's why it is a very huge part of our service is you are going to send videos of your training and we mark in the training, these are the videos I want to see this is when I want to see them. And this is the reason I want to see it, whether it's checking your form or checking your intensity on something. Because I find most of the time, even if someone's like, Oh yeah, I'm hitting this RP, and I am training hard. It's like Ben, let me see it. Let's see what failure looks like for you. And that's not to say that you should take everything to failure. I think that that that's where I struggle with talking about intensity is I feel like people then go to the extreme and they're like, I need to be limping out of the gym. And I need to take everything to failure and actually be dying. And it's like, you need to again, put in effort. You do need to have intensity. But there is a push and pull to that when it comes to your recoverability and what it looks like for the goal of the training. And so I always look at the execution and intensity and I've even found when it comes to my clients, that the clients that normally our coaches themselves, they'll be like, I just want to learn from you or I just want the accountability. And then I'm like then I need to see the these videos and they're like, I know how to do the exercise, like I'm a coach too. And I was like, All right, then like, send the video, and I'll tell you, it's all good to go. And that's normally they are shocked, of like, Oh, I'm not having the best execution and this or I'm not having the right intensity within what I'm doing. And so I would highly recommend that if you are working with a coach to send videos to your coach, even if it feels like you don't want to whip out your phone in the gym, and you don't want to have the tripod and all that stuff. Again, that's one thing of are you willing to have less results by not having that slight discomfort of having your phone out? Or are you willing to take the video to make sure that you get the best results possible. And so I would highly recommend that you're sending in regular videos, that's something we also say, as the clients that have the best results. Time and time again, are the clients that regularly send an exercise videos. And I will even like nag, some of my clients have like I haven't seen videos in this amount of weeks. And like I need to check back on this, instead of just saying we're going through the motions. The most value that I got from this was the fact that I had someone that I could talk to about anything and that there was going to be no judgment, it was just Well, here are your goals, here's the best way that you're going to achieve it. And then let's work together to help you feel inspired and motivated to do that. And a lot of people out there trying to be coaches, and not all of them have done the work and also just be a genuine person that is positive. And coming from the heart in terms of wanting to help and Philip really embody all of those qualities, I would recommend him to just about anyone that's looking to achieve goals in that realm of their nutrition and building new habits. So if you have a coach, then go ahead and send them a video, if you don't have a coach, then I will have a video that I'm going to send a fill up for him to put in the show notes. But it's me going through like RP and intensity. And I think that that's going to be really, really helpful because I go through a whole training session or most of our training session, and I talk through in my head of why I'm writing it a certain RPE. And what you have to keep in mind for them. And then our YouTube channel also has almost every exercise of how to do the exercise execution because that is so so important to be able to have the correct execution. But even just videoing yourself, like that goes such a long way, even if you don't have a coach that you're sending it to. Because I do not want you trying to look over in the mirror and make sure that your form is correct. Take a video of yourself, go back and watch it I do that personally still like yes, I have a coach and I send stuff to the coach, but not everything because sometimes I take a video and I'm like, Oh, I can just make this small tweak. And then I'm good to go. And I will watch our own videos, compare, make sure that it's all set, and use that time and time again. So regardless of if you have a coach or not, there is an actionable plan for you recording yourself training and being able to send that and again, having those honest conversations of is this hard? Versus is this reaching the actual RPE that I need to because I have very many times gone in, done a set and been like, Man, that was hard. I'm not gonna go up and wait. And then I think back and I say, How many more reps could I have done at that weight? And sometimes I will, I'll be like, Oh, that was hard. That was definitely an RP a. And then I'll ask myself, how many more reps could you have done, and I'll be like, maybe three or four. And it's like that just went from an eight to a six RPE real quick. And I realize how much stronger I am. And having that logbook is a big, big part of it. Because if you are not tracking things in a logbook, whether it's a digital logbook, or an actual logbook, then do not complain about your progress. I swear to God, do not complain about your progress if you are not tracking anything within your training, because I have notes and it not only helps me to cut out all the guessing of what weight I should go to even if the training stimulus changes, even if the order of the exercise change, even if anything changes, I can make a very, very, very good educated guess. And almost always be within five to 10 pounds of where I need to be on the first time I do something because of keeping that logbook, not just because oh, she's a coach, this is what she dedicates her time to and all of that. It's because I take the extra effort and I track these extra things. And I make notes. So it'll say this was a little bit easy starting off, go to this wait next week, or this is what it's not just keeping the weight because if you're like oh, I can keep track of like I did 80 pounds for this last time. It's like it's not just knowing your general wait for it because again, the rep range can change. The set number can change the tempo can change where it is in this session can change so many things. But then there's also different forms of improvement of it's not just I just increased in weight, you could have had better form at the same way. You could have had better engagement I The same way you could have had better tempo at the same way, you could have used the same weight and gotten more reps or done it for more sets or done it with less rest, and between the sets. So there's so many things that go into it. And there's no physical way unless you have a perfect photographic memory for you to not track those things and think that you're just going to go into the gym and know what to do. Because you're likely wasting your time trying to pick the right weight, than when you finally get to the right weight, you're you might have accumulated volume from trying to pick the right weight, you're elongating your sessions, you're making it confusing for yourself, and you're not being able to just go in there and train. And that's where people are also getting frustrated. Of I'm not able to see the results that I want. And it's like, yeah, because you're not going in there and tracking what you need to to get it done. So having a logbook is outside of just filming yourself is going to be a huge part of the intensity to make sure that you've got everything locked down. So once they are doing a podcast with someone you agree with everything, because then you're just like it is
Philip Pape 36:04
it is. But this is super important. What this section right here, I mean, literally, we just cut this out as its own masterclass. Because the answer to the question of what do we do for our training for glutes wasn't, you know, do these movements or follow this program, right, it was train hard execute, use the proper intensity, and here are the tools for how to do that this is applicable to everything in your training. And it's super important. And when you were talking about videos, I just again, I was chuckling inside because how many times have I told people just take a damn video, send it in, you're gonna you're gonna accelerate your personal growth so much from one video, versus banging your head against potentially terrible form for the next, you know, three months of your training that
Sue Bush 36:41
also compounding and causing aches and pains. And you're like, I can't train because I just feel awful. And it's like, yeah, or that could be because of how your training. Yeah,
Philip Pape 36:51
and it gets worse and worse as the load goes up, right? Because you're just doing bad form with heavier load, you're actually reminding me of other areas outside of fitness at all, like public speaking. I mean, one of the ways I got better at speaking was videoing myself and having other people look at it and myself look at it. Anything you do in life that you can record or take data, it goes back to your original principle is going to accelerate the growth. You mentioned some really good things right? Like not looking at the mirror, I think that's funny, because you could get really hurt like twisting your Yeah, look, don't do that. Even if the mirror is ahead of you just don't do that.
Sue Bush 37:24
I'm going to keep my check to make sure my spines in alignment, but then I'm going to actually just completely turn my spine and put it in a very an advantageous position. Yes,
Philip Pape 37:33
I mean, you know, maybe if you're doing bicep curls or something like that, it's fine. But and then you said log everything. And by logging, not just logging your training. You know, we do talk about that a lot like using a notebook or an app or whatever it makes sense. But like you said, there are many other kind of hidden variables, if you will, there's things that change from what you planned, there are the speed or the RPE, or AR AR, however you want to measure the intensity and the movement, which you can correlate with your video, like you said, are you slowing down or what is hard look like to you, because not everybody slows down the same way. And I found that like on certain movements, I'm going to slow down more than others as I get to that RPE. Also, I don't know if you mentioned it, but like all the stuffs happening outside the gym, like if you have that information as well, that's going to affect your training session, too. Even
Sue Bush 38:17
on my training log at the top of it, I say the time in which I'm training. So if ever a weight is off, or like you know, those times where you're just like this just felt hard today, or things just felt heavy today. So for that reason, I have things written at the top and I say what time I'm training, how many meals iPad, and then I just say the date that it is. And then if I have any extra notes. So if I say something like I'm on my cycle, I'm having cramps, or this is I ate too far away from when I'm training or if I just see it, and it's like, Hey, you're training at 5pm and you've only had two meals in, then that might affect how your strength is or I'll know how to pour night asleep last night, whatever it may be. So that when I'm looking back at numbers, it's not just I'm taking the number from last week and putting it into this week, I'm looking at the factors from the previous session and taking that into the following one. Because there's been so many times I've even surprised myself being in a place where it's like, okay, I was hitting this RP and this was really hard last session. And then the next session, I'm like, Oh, I just kind of zoomed past that way. And it was great. And it's not like, yes, there is the adaptations that you have in the growth. All of that is a part of it, for sure. But it's also the aspect of, okay, if you had better factors going into it, and you were able to be more primed for it, then you're going to have a better session. And that just it reinforces so many things by keeping that data. Because anytime I'm thinking like, Oh, that was hard, then I'll look back and I'll be like, Oh yeah, cuz you're doing 20 more pounds than you did the week before. So it's okay that it's difficult, or it was hard. That's because you didn't sleep well last night and you got over 8000 more steps than you normally get the day before so your legs might be a little bit sore. And so understanding the data and being able to take that into it. Fish allows you to, again, reframe things so much better, that you don't always have to fight against yourself. I learned, I guess it wasn't that many years ago. But I did learn within the past few years that life is a lot better when you're not constantly fighting yourself. There are many other things to fight with. There are many other things that you're going up against. There are many things outside of your control, but control the controllables. And don't fight against yourself. And so if I've seen a, these are the things going on, then I'm not going to take that and either tear myself down, or try to do the impossible up against what's already stacked. It's like, this is what I know to be true. What changes do I need to make because of that? Or what do I need to take into consideration because of that? So then it's not that I constantly feel like, my favorite is I'm hitting a plateau. It's like,
Philip Pape 40:53
the buzzword of the day it?
Sue Bush 40:56
Is it a plateau? Or did you just not know what data you are even looking at? And so you just stepped on the scale, maybe three times within a week, and it's the same number or you feel like your quote, use the same way and can't progress? It's like, let's look at the other data. And then let's really determine is this a plateau or not? Because I will tell you eight times out of 10 it's not normally a plateau?
Philip Pape 41:22
Yeah, so good. That's so good. That is the first thing is that 10 times out
Sue Bush 41:26
of 10. But you know, I'll give some people the benefit of the doubt that it could be so eight times out it did. Yeah.
Philip Pape 41:31
And I mean, if it's like if we define plateau is just data hasn't moved, factually, that may be a plateau, but like you said, there could be, you know, five variables playing against each other that kind of offset. And then therefore this, this one will didn't change. But something else is going on there. Even recently.
Sue Bush 41:46
I mean, I have had a lot go on personally in my life. That's been a lot. And so I could have been said, Oh, I'm plateaued right now. And it's like, no, it's just that fitness isn't the number one focus because your stress bucket is overflowing, and you only have one stress bucket. And so you had to bring training volume down. So that's just not the main thing that you're going to see progress. And right this second does not mean you're plateauing does not mean you'll never see results, it just means that you have to again, be honest with yourself about what's the priority, what you are dedicating your time and energy to and what that looks like, instead of just claiming that something isn't going the way that you want it to maybe you haven't given it enough time, and you just want things to happen faster. And I mean, spoiler alert, we'd all like things to happen faster, better, stronger, easier, all of that. But as my parents said, fair comes once a year, if you miss it, it's your own darn fault.
Philip Pape 42:41
There you go. There's another thing I said recently, it's, it's gonna go as fast as it's going to go if you're doing it, right. Like that's it, it's just gonna go as fast that's as fast as you can go is when you're doing it, right. It may be slower than you want. Okay, so now somebody is dialed in on their training and their execution, their intensity, they're taking videos, maybe they have a coach, or maybe they're just they're listening to these podcasts and actually taking action, like we suggest, they're logging everything, and now they're like my glutes still have more opportunity to get bigger. So we're 45 minutes in and now people want to know, Okay, does it come down to exercise selection programming, like what what are the next steps,
Sue Bush 43:17
I will say that it's not ever going to be one particular exercise or one rep scheme or a certain amount of sets or a specific intensity, there's not going to be a perfect answer for that. But if you have nailed down your intensity and your execution, and you're doing all the other things within food and rest and recovery, all that jazz, then I would say we're looking at exercise selection overall. And part of it like I kind of already talked about is going to be what exercises work for you. And that is not synonymous with what exercises do you like doing is going to be what exercises work for you. So a good example of this, and this goes even just hand in hand with glute training overall, back squats, back squats can 100% target your glutes. I'm not here to dispute that or to argue that that is a fact that you can target your glutes with a back squat. For me personally because of having a long torso and longer femurs back squat and targeting my glutes is very very difficult because of the forward lean necessary to target my glutes and how the bar path needs to go to allow it to be a movement where my hips are moving back. It is extremely difficult for me to do so output wise it doesn't make sense for me to hammer down and say well back squats are what the answer for me to get in. That's not saying you shouldn't do back squats to grow glutes just for me specifically might not be the best exercise for output. But I could swap that over to we actually have a Cybex squat press for leg press and that is mimicking the back squat. But with I have not only more stabilization so I can have more output but it just allows me to push harder be cuz I'm not having to worry about carrying this load and bending my body in this position, that doesn't always work for me. But talking about back squats in general, I would say that if you're trying to grow your glutes, they can be a part of the program. But I want to make it a main focus, just because when we look at the systemic fatigue, that is going to happen from doing back squats, because when we talk about exercise selection, we're not only talking about okay, what exercises are going to be best. But we also want to keep in mind what that looks like for your overall intensity, and then your overall volume, and how much volume because when we're looking at hypertrophy, when we're looking at growth, it is going to be a volume gain to a certain extent, and how much volume you can get on the muscle. If we're using back squats as our main mover for glutes, you can't get in as many back squats or after you do your set of back squats, if you try to go into a bunch of other glute movements, you are not only going to be absolutely taxed from the whole fatigue for your whole body that went into the back squats. But it's also putting you in a place where I mean that's going to go into you can't perform other exercises. And that's even something within programming that people get hurt because they do something and they are going at a certain intensity, then they try to go into another movement that is going to require a lot of stabilization, like a back squat requires a lot of stabilization, because there's not that extra stabilization in place like machines create stabilization for you. And so if you're thinking about how can I bias this and not have my other muscles or the muscle I need to work get so fatigued, then you want to keep that in mind. But I also like to be able to think about what it looks like for what position you're training that muscle in. So there's research to show that lengthen position is best for hypertrophy. But all three lengths are going to be needed to have more complete growth, like more total growth overall. So when I always mention those back to back, because I don't want someone to say okay, I'm only going to do lengthen exercises, because they do go you need to do all of them within shorten mid range and lengthen, to be able to have the best growth overall. So what I would advise that obviously, this is going to be more general information. Overall, I'm not personally programming for each and every one of you. But I would say pick two exercises that challenge the glutes most in the lengthen position, and then one to two exercises that challenge the glutes most in the shortened position. So some examples of this for being able to get in the lengthen position are going to be like a bent knee RDL that would be great for getting your glutes in lengthened position, or like I already mentioned, have a leg press when you have the right foot positioning and all of that to be able to get the glutes in the lengthened position as well as just because of squat slash a leg press or going to be like a split squat, that type of movement, you're doing a squat movement, then a split squat is another great option to get your glutes in that lengthened position. And then for getting them in the shortened position, we want to take a look at something like a barbell Glute Bridge, or a glute Meade kickback, or even like a 45 degree hip extension. So you basically want to pick two exercises that do the lengthened to that do the shortened and then be able to use those to challenge the glutes again, most in totality. And by simply doing these exercises are not going to ipso facto get to the glutes of your dreams. It's being able to train hard over time with proper program design and progressions. And but it's just something to keep in mind. Why? Because I always like to give something actionable, instead of just talking in huge generalities. And then people are like, Well, how do I apply that to myself, of here's some action that you can take of making sure that you're training things in the lengthen in the shorten, being able to really get good at those exercises and get after that, because I also think I know I talked about volume, but people think more is better. And that's not always the case with anything in life. But people think I need to be training glutes three times a week to see growth. And I can tell you that you can see plenty of growth with training them two times a week, and maybe even better growth because you have the proper time to recover in between, which means that you're going to have more strength and output during the sessions that you're doing them to be able to see the growth that you want to be able to see overall. And I also find that when people are programming that they might program just because they want to be like intense or they want to feel sore, they want to do as many leg movements people to kind of go into the gym and be like, what's a leg movement or what's a glute movement, I'm going to destroy my glutes, where people then end up basically doing the same movement pattern over and over and over again. In fact, Alex was just telling me that like the rock walked through, like his leg workout for something. And it was that he started with a 45 degree leg press. Then he went into a vertical leg press. Then he went into a hack squat. Then he went into like a split squat. And then he went into something where it was Just like the squat movement the whole time, and it's like you didn't have any hinge, you didn't have any hip extension, we need to be able to work the glutes through all of those ranges. And that's what I see is that people just like, duplicate what they're trying to do. And it's like, instead of being like, Okay, I'm going to do back squat, then I'm going to do leg press, then I'm going to do a split squat, because these are all leg and glute exercises, like, let's be a little bit more intelligent with this, and think, How can I have a squat? How can I have a hinge? How can I get to hip extension, and being able to include all of that within your training, and again, you don't need to annihilate yourself with 20 different exercises, I can tell you can get the job done with four or five exercises, and you will be good if again, you're having the correct intensity, the correct execution, and being able to I guess that's with execution of like knowing how to actually engage the muscle, instead of just thinking, How do I get from point A to point B? It's like, how do I make sure the tension is on the muscle. And that's something where I'm not going to sit here and act like I'm an anatomy expert. Maybe Alex could say that about himself. But I will not say that about myself. But what I will say is understanding or learning a little bit about anatomy is going to help you largely because your understanding of again, not so much that point A to point B, but why you're trying to move things. And I'm not saying you need to memorize exactly where the origin and insertion point is, of all of the muscles, because those are a lot of long and confusing names. And it might confuse you are discouraged, you have like I don't understand this. And again, you don't need to, but knowing generally of like, okay, for my lat, it's actually going to attach on the back of my upper arm. So that means I'm going to need to have a neutral grip to hit my lap more. And I want to think about lowering this upper arm first, instead of just pulling my arm through like that's going to help you understand things better. If you just know, some generalities of this originates in this area. And this, like inserts in this area so that you can have that better picture, you can have that better visual of what you need to do when you're going through the movement.
Philip Pape 52:08
Yeah, I think that's important. I mean, that sets us for almost a form of mind muscle connection or whatever phrase you want to use to be aware of how your body moves, and not repetitively hitting the same movements that I just just to kind of wrap up those takeaways. And then I think we have time for maybe a couple more questions before we wrap up is number one, doing movements that work for you. And like you said, if you have if your lengths are such that you have a very horizontal back angle with like a low bar squat, just to get sitting back, and the massive fatigue that comes with that you're probably not hitting your glutes too much, right? Whereas like, I know, my backing on the back squat, I get sore glutes. So for me that that's something that hits them and I don't want bigger glutes. So I'll also not do that. Scott, I'm just getting. The other thing is this the fatigue and stimulus kind of balance or you know, similar fatigue ratio of knowing what biases, the things that you don't want to come along for the ride. So you mentioned machines can give you stability, sometimes that's a people criticize that aspect of machines. In your case, you're saying take advantage of that, because now you can isolate the movement that or the muscle that you care about. You also mentioned working across the lengths. And that led to the discussion of like proper diversity of these exercises, and again, knowing your insertions. So really good principles for any part of the body, not just glutes, which I love these discussion, because it is very principle based. If I messed anything up, let me know. I did want to ask a tangent to this because we had somebody in our community. We had a bunch of questions when I couldn't get to them all. But Denise asked about movements that are gentle on the back because she had back surgery. A lot of people haven't back surgery these days, you know, herniated discs and all that. And she said certain exercises like deadlifts, or the glute machine will seem to aggravate her back now. And she's asking if it's a core issue. Now I know you can't, you would want to ask her 10 questions to find out what's really going on. But is there anything that jumps to your mind of like, general advice in that area,
Sue Bush 53:56
in your core is going to play a role in that of just how you are executing that movement and being able to engage things because oftentimes you hear like deadlifts hurt my back, where it can just be of how you're setting up the movement or how you're even initiating the movement of maybe the setup is great, but then you're just pulling from your lower back because you don't know how to engage those other muscles. But I would say that things were again, you have more stability, I know you mentioned the glute machine causing some issues. But I would really be able to go back look at videos either of yourself, watching videos of someone performed the movement, and then being able to go through it. But again, the more stability that you can create while still training your core, I would highly recommend to really look at your core and like Phillip mentioned at the beginning your core isn't just your abs, it's going to be like your whole trunk and core box. So that is going to include a lot of things that a lot of time to blur just looking at the ABS overall. So really being able to think about what that looks like for your whole core because that is going to be huge and being able to all also create like the internal intra abdominal pressure to be able to do some of those movements like being able to perform a deadlift, you have to be able to create that internal pressure and your core to be able to truly perform that without hurting your back. So I would say it could be a core issue, but it also could be making sure that the movements are going to be the best for you, overall. Yeah,
Philip Pape 55:24
and I mean, I will say, for having trained all the years, I've trained still to this day, if I'm just a little sloppy, am I already else, I know I'm gonna have a sore back the next day, because you know, there's certain movements where you've got to be tight, you've got to brace. Sometimes you wear a belt, or whatever makes sense, depending on the movement, but I love that. So, okay, I like to ask this question of all guests. So before we wrap up here, and that is, is there any question you wish I had asked? And what is your answer?
Sue Bush 55:47
I wish you had asked what I am personally doing to grow my glutes and answer that I am doing the PD glute program to grow my glutes. So it's actually a 16 week program, which if you follow it, I can guarantee that you are going to see glute growth, which I know there's not a lot of guarantees in this world. But I will guarantee if you actually put in the effort, you will see the results from this. This is a program that we spent years working on trialing different sessions on clients trialing different phases on clients being able to work through what was going to be best. And then I ran through the 16 week program once we had it finish. And I saw throughout the 16 weeks, I saw three inches of blue growth. Now, of course, and I know we kind of mentioned that we'd circle back to it. So I'll loop it into this so that we can wrap it up, wrap it all up with a bow on it of gaining loot tissue and possibly some extra body fat. And just in general, I would say that first we need to keep in mind that muscle weighs something period. So even if you are saying I want to gain five pounds of glute tissue, no fat whatsoever, that means that the scale is going to go up at least five pounds. But with that to gain muscle, you cannot gain muscle completely without gaining any type of fat. But you can minimize that fat gain, which I think is where people get really backwards is they want to think I want to gain no fat. But instead you should really say how can I limit the amount of fat that I am going to gain. And so that's something that we really worked on. And we also have a podcast episode about how to properly be in a surplus. And what it was kind of thought of, I need to be in this massive bulk and I need to eat all this food. That's like, yes, you need to eat food, if you want to grow a big ass like that's facts, but is also going to be the aspect that you don't need to be like eating so much food, we can be in a very small surplus and still see the results for wanting if again, that intensity and recovery is linked in together, they all work together. So it's not going to be just if if I train really hard in the gym, and then I never sleep, then I'm all good to go. Or if I eat all this food and I do this, then it's all said it's going to be multiple things that work together in that. So you don't need to gain a ton of fat, but you are likely going to gain a little bit. But also you can hope that some of that goes to, to your behind as a whole. But within the program, I'm actually running it again for the second time I took about I don't know maybe it was six to eight weeks of I was just doing like 30 minute sessions by and doing full body sessions because that's all I could mentally and personally handle. And throughout that time, even with a lot going on. Personally, I was able to maintain the glute size that I had grown, I think that it only the most I quote unquote lost was half an inch. But as soon as I started eating enough again, and training again, that came back pretty quickly. And I was able to maintain the glute size that I put on, even without having the program in place. And then I'm rerunning the program as a whole. But the main reason I want to mention it is that while it is a 16 week program, we actually decided to give away the first four weeks for free to really be able to get people into it to see how great it was to see what those results looked like. And I just want everyone to have nice glutes. So I will have that link in the show notes for if you are interested in growing your glutes and you are like, Okay, I took the actionable things, but I'd rather have like a surefire plan, then I would highly recommend jumping in on that. And then purchasing the other 12 weeks afterwards. Because the 16 weeks as a whole is where you're really going to see the results. Because there is that progression, like I talked about, the way that you're going to see results over time is having the proper programming and the proper progression. And so we actually set it up perfectly that those first four weeks, no matter what training you're coming from, because oftentimes maybe someone's coming from a type of training and then they're going into another one and it's not geared the best and that shift the volume allocations are can be a lot of things at play. So those first four weeks is basically getting you all set on all the movement patterns and getting you all set on volume. So no matter what training phase you're coming from, that's going to kind of, quote unquote reset where you're at. And then you'll be able to go into the 12 weeks and just like exponentially see the results from there and get you to where you want to go. So that is what I'm doing right now I am extremely passionate about it just because of the time that went into it as well as I've reaped the benefits from it, and I just want to shout it from the mountains. And someone even called my results fake, which then made my ego way too big, because I was like, I have never had enough glutes or another muscle for someone to claim that it's fake. I'm like I will take you have no idea what that just did for my ego, you probably meant it as a major dis, but it really, really pumped me up there. But I just want other people to have that too.
Philip Pape 1:00:41
But so with all these goodies that you're giving my audience the glute program, plus, you mentioned the video about RPE and intensity. Yeah, we're gonna have a bunch of well deluded people that's not even worth walking around. All right, so where can listeners learn more about you, we'll definitely have those call outs in the show notes. But any anywhere else you want them to find you
Sue Bush 1:01:00
I would say the main place that you can find and interact with me would be Instagram and it's su Gaines su e g, a i n z, you're wondering where that name came from? It actually was from the fact that I went to a two Chainz concert in college, and then I became Sue chains. And so then when I started fitness, it just made sense to become Sue Gaines. So from Instagram, you can basically find anything else that you need from me. But I'll also have a podcast but you can go over and hear Philip on as well. That's right.
Philip Pape 1:01:31
That's right. All right. I'll put that all that in the show notes as usual at SU gains, the bonus video, the glute program, all that amazing stuff. This was awesome Sue, even better than I as great as I thought it would be having you on here to talk about this because it was very principle based and super helpful, no matter who you are, male, female, what you're going after in the world of training to get that physique you want. So thank you so much for coming on. So
Sue Bush 1:01:51
thank you for having me.
Philip Pape 1:01:54
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of wit's end weights. If you found value in today's episode, and know someone else who's looking to level up their wits or weights. Please take a moment to share this episode with them. And make sure to hit the Follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode. Until then, stay strong.
