[Dianna1395]

Thank you everyone for your replies!

Thematrix, my friend and I tried yoga and pilates in the past and both of us noticed that our butts kinda got "longer" lol The pilates instructor did in fact tell us that the exercises would eventually make our muscles leaner and that's definitely not the look I'm going for. I want a big, bubble butt!! 

Honeydew, thank you for the link. I also don't like the idea of IGF-1 injections but interesting that cinnamon contains IGF-1! Cinnamon buns anyone?  I tried cinnamon essential oil once though and it gave me palpitations. I also keep reading that cinnamon EO could be toxic for the liver/kidneys so this is putting me off...

Ella and Zara, when it comes to butt/breast lotions, volufiline, voluplus (which contains nutmeg apparently) and whatnot, I'm not really a believer! I tried a cream with volufiline and it did absolutely nothing. Fish oil/flaxseed oil also didn't do anything. Just ended up with an oily butt lol Thank you for mentioning  Abby on youtube though Zara. Will check her out.

Dianna1395, will check out the glute guy. I think I know (and do) the exercise you mentioned; you basically sit on your knees and then shoot up, squeezing your glutes. I like that one for toning at least but I'm not going to do heavy weights anymore. It's exhausting and my butt got smaller. A couple of other members on here also experienced the same thing (smaller butt from low reps, heavy weights). Maybe heavy weights don't work the same way for everyone?!

Hi Bettie,
I think the mass comes from how intense the exercise is. I was training for YEARS and had the same problem - lots of strength, smaller muscles. I likely wasn't eating enough. 4 hours a day in the gym, 2 hours lifting, 2 hours cardio, all one session, 6 days a week...  I even noticed my strength going down towards the end of that adventure.

I'd suggest using heavy, but lighter, weights.  ;-)  Meaning, don't go to the max you can do, but do a heavy weight, and more reps. This isn't 5/3/1, it's a 3X10 or pyramid method. So, do 40 pounds (20 in each dumbbell), and push yourself through controlled reps: Set of 10, squeezing glutes at top, 3 seconds up, squeeze glutes for 1 second, 4 seconds down, flex glutes at bottom. Rest 15 seconds, next set.

When I was getting smaller myself, I was using a barbell and regular squats, but it was 240 lbs, crank out the reps, 3 X 10, with a minute or longer between sets. As I burned off the fat, I got longer and longer between sets....  Just didn't have the ability to recover. Worse, I went to a 5X5 pattern, 5 reps per set, for 5 sets. Weight went down, too, until I was doing more like 105 lbs...  And my muscles were SCREAMING. Had to make foam rolling a daily routine, up to 30 minutes... 

So, weights may vary for you - I'm genetic male - but I know it can be done, as I'm achieving growth now using a pyramid of 12 reps @ 10#, 10 reps @ 15#, 8 reps @ 20#....  And I know I can lift more than that. But the technique seems to be working, and I'm not gasping for breath and praying for death between sets (which is only 15 seconds). You do get a pump, and that helps indicate growth. (Other approach is lactic acid training, that's probably beyond where you want to go. T-Nation has articles if you want to go looking.)

Like everything else, right? YMMV, take what works and discard what doesn't.  :-)

Best of luck,
-Dianna