2940: The Real Reason Your Butt Won't Grow (It Is Not Your Genetics)
September 7, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readThe Real Reason Your Butt Won't Grow
Most people who want a bigger butt are training backwards, and it has nothing to do with genetics. The hosts of Mind Pump draw on decades of personal training experience with female clients—roughly 60% of their client base, and 80% of those women wanted to build their glutes specifically. The core problem isn't effort or exercise selection; it's a misunderstanding of what actually signals the body to build muscle.
Why "Toning" Is Sabotaging Your Results
The fitness industry has spent years marketing programs that promise to "shrink your waist and build your butt" simultaneously. The hosts call this out as "bullshit." There is no such thing as toning—muscles either build or they shrink. A muscle that grows feels firmer, but that's building, not toning.
The real issue is that many popular programs emphasize the wrong things: the burn, the feel, short rest periods, and small isolation movements like kickbacks, dog pees, and glute bridges done with light weight. These produce a sensation in the glutes, which tricks people into thinking they're working. But as the hosts explain, "The only person that will build a bigger butt following a crappy workout program is someone that has insane muscle building genetics"—less than 1% of the population.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (04:18) **The Real Reason Your Butt Won't Grow** - The hosts state the core problem: training backwards, not genetics, is why most people don't build glutes.
- 2 (05:36) **The Conflicting Goal: Shrink vs. Build** - Explains why 80% of female clients fail to build a butt despite wanting it.
- 3 (07:04) **Genetics Are Not the Excuse** - Addresses the "is it my genetics?" question that causes people to give up.
- 4 (08:08) **The Marketing Lie: "Toning" and "Bulky"** - Blames fitness marketing for scaring people away from building muscle.
- 5 (09:49) **Why "The Burn" Is a Lie** - The feeling of a burn does not equal muscle growth.
- 6 (11:51) **The Heavy Squat vs. The Burn Class Example** - Concrete comparison to demonstrate the principle.
- 7 (12:42) **You Must Eat to Grow (The "Bulk" Word)** - The non-negotiable diet component for building glutes.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
MAPS Abs and Butt: https://mapsabsandbutt.com
Code: LAUNCH for 40% off. Includes Butt Building Diet Guide, Women's Supplement Guide, at-home dumbbell version, and a free second program at checkout (Muscle Mommy or Muscle Mommy 15).
In this episode the guys break down the real reason most women never build the butt they want — and it has nothing to do with effort or genetics. They cover why you cannot shrink your way to a bigger butt, why high rep burn workouts and kickbacks produce almost no results, why the exercises that feel the best in your glutes are often the worst for building them, how much protein you actually need (and why it feels like force-feeding at first), why building muscle first makes getting lean dramatically easier, and why strength in the squat, hip thrust and deadlift is the only metric that actually tells you it's working. Sal shares the story of a client who went from 1900 to 2900 calories, built significant muscle, and then leaned out effortlessly without going nearly as low as before.
MAPS Abs and Butt: https://mapsabsandbutt.com
Code: LAUNCH for 40% off. Nine-week program focused on abs and glutes. Includes free second program (Muscle Mommy or Muscle Mommy 15), Butt Building Diet Guide and Women's Supplement Guide.
SPONSORS
Super Patch: https://mindpump.superpatch.com
No code needed, use URL for $30 off. Freedom (pain), Liberty (mobility), REM (sleep), Victory (athletic performance) and Focus (concentration) patches. Backed by over a dozen peer-reviewed studies.
LINKS
Mind Pump Store: https://mindpumpstore.com
Maps Fitness Products: https://mapsfitnessproducts.com
Instagram: @mindpumpmedia
0:00 - Intro
2:26 - The real reason your butt won't grow — and it has nothing to do with effort
4:27 - Why toning is not real and why you have to stop being afraid of building
7:35 - Why the exercises that feel the best in your glutes are often the worst for building them
10:00 - Five sets of heavy barbell squats beats 90 minutes of burn class — every time
11:14 - The diet truth: you cannot build a bigger butt while staying in a deficit
13:03 - How much protein you actually need — and why it feels like force feeding at first
17:36 - Why your body needs a reason to build muscle and what that reason has to be
20:45 - The best butt building exercises and why programming matters as much as the exercises
25:08 - Strength is the most important metric — if you are getting stronger your butt is growin
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