Can training your glutes on the treadmill really work?
Nowadays, you increasingly see people at the gym copying exercises from so-called Instagram and Facebook influencers online. That's probably also where the trend of running the treadmill on a steep incline comes from. When you ask people why they do this, the answer is often the same: «I want to train my glutes on the treadmill to get a firm bum.» Is that actually effective?
So how do you actually get a firm bum?
This is mainly about "toning" the bum. That means increasing muscle mass and reducing fat mass, which can be achieved by aiming for a negative energy balance, taking in fewer calories than you burn. Where body fat is lost is largely down to genetics and can hardly be influenced. What you can do is build up muscle mass locally. So can you actually build muscle through glute training on the treadmill?
Hardly.
For muscle mass to increase, the following conditions need to be met:
- Time under tension until muscular failure of around 60 - 100 seconds.
- A training resistance that can bring about muscular failure within those 60 - 100 seconds.
In all likelihood, both conditions are not met for many people when they train their glutes on the treadmill.
There's little point training your glutes on the treadmill. So what's the alternative?
A muscle responds to every training stimulus with a specific adaptation. If a stimulus acts on the muscle over a longer period (several minutes to hours), the muscle becomes more resistant to fatigue, while its cross-sectional area barely changes. To increase muscle mass, the muscle needs to be brought to complete exhaustion within 60 - 100 seconds. On top of that, protein intake needs to be high enough and available at the right time. Only then can the muscle access the building blocks it needs.
That's why a strength machine is far better suited than a cardio machine for bringing a muscle to complete exhaustion in a short time.
In the blog below, you'll find exercises for training your bum. These are far more efficient than training your glutes on the treadmill.
4 glute exercises for a firm bum.
Have fun, and let your bum burn!
