What should I do on my Rest days?
Listen to your body and don’t do anything that might disrupt your glute training sessions or move you further away from your physique goals. For example, you can go for a walk, a light swim, yoga, or anything you enjoy that doesn’t interfere with your next training session.
If you don’t like cardio and are very active in your daily life, don’t feel compelled to force yourself. Your heart will be healthy from all the walking and physical activity.
You can perform additional barbell glute bridge sets, but only if you feel you have superior recovery. You can do these flat from the ground or with your feet elevated onto a 2 to 4-inch block.
You could do 3 sets of 8 to 20 reps but that’s it. Obviously, it’s mentally challenging to go to the gym and just do 3 sets, but I don’t want you overdoing it so please follow directions.
In short, there are two exceptions when it comes to working your glutes on off days: barbell glute bridges, or a 10-minute bodyweight and band workout.
What if I am still sore? Should I train or take another rest day?
Training sore is fine unless it puts you at an increased risk of injury. If you’re having a difficult time getting into position or completing a full range of motion due to pain, do not train.
Otherwise, still train but make sure to perform a slightly longer warm-up for each exercise and use slightly lighter weights. Use your own discretion to avoid injury but training sore will not impair gains in and of itself.
What if I don’t have resistance bands?
They’re important, you should buy a pair. They are available at Amazon. This is a good place to grab some: https://www.elitefts.com/sling-shot-hip-circle.html
You can add more to your repertoire from here of varying resistances.
What if I can’t do squats?
Do hack squats or machine V-squats instead with the same set/rep scheme. If those are also an issue you can do a split squat, or as a final alternative, the leg press.
Why such little exercise variation from week to week?
The goal is to get stronger, more efficient, and improve your technique on the key movements. Changing your exercises on a weekly or bi-weekly basis will more than likely to flatten out the progression curve. They do change slightly week to week and quite a lot from Phase 1 to Phase 2, but the majoriity of the program maintains the same exercise selection.
This is to ensure progression by adding volume/total work incrementally to these specific movements that deliver the best results.
The Hip thrust feels awkward to me. Is there any alternative exercise?
Yes, but give it your best effort first. The barbell hip thrust has been shown again1 and again2 to be highly effective as a glute builder for a reason.
If you find the bar uncomfortable, you can purchase a hip pad (https:// bit.ly/BarbellPadRed). Alternatively, you can do banded hip thrusts, or as a final alternative, the leg extension machine
The Workouts are too Easy. Am I too Advanced for them?
If you think the workouts are too easy, chances are you are not pushing any of your sets to true failure. In other words, you’re not putting in enough effort, which is the level of exertion you apply to each set. If 10 reps of a particular exercise is too easy, you need to increase the weight.
However, you do not need to increase the sets, add additional exercises, or combine workouts. When you’re conditioned to performing five or more sets of an exercise, anything less feels like a step in the wrong direction.
We get it; we’ve been there before. But when you push your sets close or to muscle failure, you don’t need to perform as many reps. In fact, doing less volume and putting more effort is just as effective at building strength and muscle, with the added benefit of reducing training time and overall volume.
Remember, it takes time to learn how to push yourself close to failure because you don’t know what going to failure feels like until you’ve done it for several weeks or even months. Once you develop the skill and the conditioning, you will realize that doing fewer reps and pushing yourself harder actually yields amazing results.
IF I CAN PERFORM 15 REPS WHEN THE SET CALLS FOR 12, DO I PUSH THE SET TO FAILURE AND KEEP THE WEIGHT THE SAME, OR STOP AT THE PRESCRIBED REP AND INCREASE THE LOAD?
Let’s say you’re doing barbell hip thrusts during Day 1, which calls for 4 sets of 12 reps. Say you pick 150 pounds and you get to 12 reps, but you realize you could do a few more reps. In this case, you may want to stick with 150 pounds for all the sets because the sets will get harder as you accumulate some fatigue.
However, say you get to 12 reps and you know you could have gotten another 5 to 8 reps. In this case, up the load to 160 pounds. If that’s too easy, up the load to 170 pounds for the next set. Eventually, you’ll hit your settling point and arrive at the proper load that allows you to hit the right number of reps.
Week 1 of every 4-week cycle is dedicated to mastering proper form and figuring out the right loads to use the following week. The main thing is to go up over time and utilize progressive overload.