You’ve tried everything you can think of to get firm glutes, from the Stairmaster to lunges to 200 squats a day. And, I’m sure by now, many of you have seen or heard of the 30 Day Squat Challenge (or others such as the plank, pushup, etc), which proclaims to be a bubble butt workout to get your behind in shape in 30 days. All you have to do is abide by the daily body weight squat repetitions it lays out.

It starts with about 50 squats and then on day 30 ends with something like 250-300 squats. I too was caught in the buzz of these challenges after hearing much talk over the radio, social media, and even from friends; plus, who doesn’t love a good challenge that claims to get your glutes in shape? As someone who normally relies on the use of weights for my squat exercises, I thought, ok let’s give this 30 Day Squat Challenge a try and see what it’s all about!

What I found was that yes, I was terribly exhausted each day that I performed the amount of squats asked of me. I had raised my heart rate quite a bit and this bubble butt workout had my legs and butt burning terribly by the end of each day; but I was also becoming terribly bored. By day 12 I had given up. I didn’t feel stronger and I can’t really say that my butt had seen any improvements. Sure I could perform 120 air squats now, but so what?

The Best Bubble Butt Workout

The truth is, performing high number of body squat repetitions isn’t actually growing the muscles in your gluteus and making them stronger. What it is doing is helping you build endurance in those muscles, and it takes much more than endurance to get a J-Lo or David Beckham booty. As with growing any muscles in your body, you need to make them stronger by adding resistance/weight to the exercise. By far, the best bubble butt workout – the all around best gluteal exercise is the squat.

Ideally, you want to perform 2 to 3 sets of 12 reps of weighed squats using a barbell, smith machine, or dumbbells. You also want to make sure that you are continually changing your squat routine. If you’ve been doing 3 sets of 12 squats for 2 months now, it’s safe to say it’s time for a revamp. Try adding more reps, more weight, or changing to sumo squats, front squats, and even overhead squats for an advanced leg and shoulder workout.

It’s the tired story we always hear but refuse to believe, muscle burns fat! And yes, most of our glutes have fat on them that needs to get burned off and turned into muscle; or maybe you’re trying to get some muscle on there. The only bubble butt workout that will help build a nice, strong butt is to squat with some resistance! Remember, we spend most of our lives on our feet, so doing squats with light weight is of limited utility. You’ll really need to exceed your body weight in order to get some meaningful results. Get started on that booty you’ve always wanted with the ultimate bubble butt workout!