Cycling is most likely beneficial to your buttocks. To be honest, any type of workout is beneficial, and the motions required when pedaling should automatically engage your buttock muscles. Some people question whether riding will make their butt bigger or smaller.
Does Cycling make the bum flat, bigger or smaller?
Too much cardio might be terrible for your buttocks if done excessively. If you have a high metabolism and struggle to grow muscle, doing a lot of cardio can inhibit muscle gain, limiting the size of your buttocks (remember that your butt muscles make up a good portion of the shape of your butt).
On the other hand, cardio is wonderful for fat loss, so if you have some extra weight around your buttocks and hips that you’d like to drop, Cycling can be a great way to do so. To acquire a bigger butt, you must aim to increase the size of your butt muscles, which typically requires Cycling with resistance! The good news is that cycling uphill can give this significant resistance.
So, whether Cycling will make your butt bigger or smaller depends on your riding and current physique – whether it’s hilly or flat, how much Cycling do you generally do? and whether your butt shape is due to muscle or fat. Overall, Cycling produces awesome-looking butts. If you are concerned that you are doing too much cardio and that it is affecting the size of your buttock muscles, you can counterbalance this with some buttock weight-lifting exercises.
A Little Butt Anatomy:
Your buttocks are made up of three primary gluteus muscles. The gluteus maximus is responsible for extending your leg rearward beyond your hip – imagine swinging your leg backward behind your chest or pushing through from a bent posture to straight as you would during squats.
The gluteus Medius and minimus are likewise part of your buttock. However, they are triggered primarily through sideways rotation (abduction and adduction) towards and away from your body’s centerline. Because pedaling a bicycle does not need this type of sideways movement, these muscles do not play a significant role.
So, does Cycling work buttocks?
The good news is that pedaling involves a hip extension, which should activate your gluteus maximus! The bad news is that most people have inactive glutes, so their buttock muscles do not function as well as they should. When your glutes become lethargic, other muscles, such as your quadriceps, take control. This is one of the reasons why many individuals get sore quadriceps after Cycling but never feel it in their buttocks. Here’s how to fix it to get a nice butt exercise while cycling.
How to Exercise Butt Muscles While Cycling:
Tip Number One: Visualize and Activate Your Glutes
The first step toward making Cycling advantageous to your butt is to ensure that you are activating and using your butt muscles when pedaling. Visualize your muscles contracting on each pedal’s downstroke. To visualize this, imagine each down stroke on the pedal as a single-legged squat in which you push through your heel from a bent leg position. As you make this motion, squeeze and clench your glutes on that leg.
Tip Number Two: Determine Cycling Position
Set up your bike so that your legs are in the optimal position to activate your glutes when cycling to improve your cycling butt workout. When you consider the motion, you use when doing squat exercises, it is not a stretch to understand that the best approach to target your glutes while Cycling is to place your seat such that your knee is bent to close to 90 degrees when your pedal is up. When you push down on the pedal, it feels like you’re doing a deep single-leg squat which you can drive through your glutes. A lower seat position permits pedaling to smack the buttocks the hardest. At the top of the pedal, with legs nearly parallel to the ground, focus on using your glutes rather than quadriceps to push down on the pedal. Also, raise the handlebars to keep your body as upright as possible.
Tip 3: Take a seat, when Climbing a Hill
Take a break from using your bike’s gears when cycling up hills for a great butt workout. Try to ride in a higher gear, which provides a nice level of resistance on the pedals. Then, while pedaling, stand up. Again, try to maintain your body as upright as possible without leaning too much forward because this helps put more stress on the glutes.
Try several things to determine what works best for you. This motion is quite similar to step-ups, which are excellent for your buttocks. You can improve this motion by deliberately focusing your mind on squeezing and contracting your glutes rather than allowing your quads to do the work.
Cycling is a Winner in the End.
Cycling is absolutely good for your butt! It mixes aerobic and resistance training for fat loss and muscle building. The crucial thing is to ensure that you can stimulate your glutes rather than allowing your quadriceps to take over the pedaling movement.
It may take some experience to feel your Cycling in your buttocks, but if you experiment with seat positioning, modify your riding style when climbing hills, and, most importantly- focus on squeezing your glutes with each pedal- your buttocks will be aching in no time. Cycling will not make your butt bigger, but it will tone it and help you lose weight!
If you want to know what Cycling does to your legs, Click does Cycling makes your legs bigger?