Why You Should Build a Booty
by Dr. Darcy A. Ries
I can still remember my teenage self, standing at the bathroom mirror next to my mom, complaining about my butt being “too big.” What I most remember is her retort that at least I had a butt. It had never occurred to me that a shapeful derriere was a good thing. This was the 90’s after all, and uber-thin was in.
A few years later, Beyonce was on to something with her call to be bootylicious. But in this case, we’re talking muscle, not “jelly.” Vanity aside, you might be surprised to learn that having a stacked backside offers up some serious health benefits. While this is something all folx can work towards, if you’re a middle-aged woman on the cusp of or in the throes of perimenopause, take particular heed.
A strong, shapely booty could be the health insurance you’re looking for.
Your glutes are some of the largest real estate of muscle in the body. When it comes to metabolic health, training the large muscles of the body (vs. smaller ones like the biceps or triceps in the arms) gives you way more bang for your buck. And while it’s good exercise to shake a tailfeather in a dance class, you won’t specifically build much of a booty via cardio – unless you’re doing short interval sprints. Beyond this, you’ll want to do strength training.
Exercises like squats, split squats, lunges, deadlifts, clamshells, hip thrusts and bridges can all be part of your strength training arsenal. These all inherently work the legs and/or core as well, but with proper form they target the glutes for some serious strength building. They offer the perfect antidote to a flat, pancake butt. A flat bottom means your glute muscles have atrophied – fancy verbiage for wasted away. This primarily is driven by a sedentary lifestyle, as well as the aging process itself. If you sit more than you move, you’re a prime candidate for muscle wasting. And this has broad-reaching effects on your health. Like what? I’m glad you asked 😉
More muscle = better metabolic health
Metabolic health refers to how efficiently the body can make and use energy. Being metabolically healthy means you have stable, optimized blood sugar, triglyceride, cholesterol and blood pressure levels, as well as a waist circumference within the healthy range. Muscle strength – and the metabolic health associated with it – lowers your risk for multiple chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, osteoarthritis, stroke, and certain cancers, and reduces all-cause mortality.1
One especially impactful way to improve your metabolic health is to strength train. The body’s cells contain little energy-makers known as mitochondria. These cellular powerhouses turn the food you eat into energy the body can use. Muscle tissue is especially rich with mitochondria, and can contain hundreds or even thousands within a single cell because muscles require so much energy. Exercise – especially strength training – literally grows more of these tiny powerhouses, and encourages the ones already present to be more efficient at their job. Muscle helps the body better utilize both glucose and fatty acids, making the body more metabolically flexible and able to shift between these energy sources as necessary.
Structural support and joint protection
The muscles on your frame are a natural support system, providing stability and lessening the strain on your ligaments. Think about it – if your muscles have atrophied, your ligaments need to pick up the slack and work overtime to hold your skeletal system together. This can lead to undue stress on the joints, making daily activities more difficult, painful, or both. The glutes, specifically, serve as a source of strength and stability for the hips and, downstream, the knees. There is some evidence that muscle loss is associated with the progression of knee osteoarthritis, leading to an increased risk of surgical knee replacement.2 Having flat and inactive glutes negatively affects the gait and worsens stress on the knees.
Bone health and osteoporosis prevention
Maintaining healthy muscle mass helps stave off bone loss. We begin to lose bone mass steadily after age 30. If you’re on the perimenopause train, this age-related decline becomes even more pronounced with hormonal shifts like waning estrogen. Weight bearing activities, such as walking, are of course key in preventing bone loss, but so is building muscle. In fact, research indicates that resistance training can have a more profound impact on stimulating bone growth than aerobic exercise.3
It’s been shown that increased muscle mass correlates with better bone mineral density.4 When you strength train, your muscle movements pull on the bones, creating a mechanical stress that stimulates bone building and remodeling. Essentially, lifting or carrying a heavy weight tells the body it needs a stronger framework, and the body responds to this challenge in kind by developing both muscle tissue and bone. Stronger bones mean reduced risk of fractures and falls.
Your muscles impact your brain
Say what? Yes, increased muscle mass and strength has the added benefits of supporting your cognition and mental health. Resistance training has been shown to reduce depression and anxiety.5 It protects against neurodegeneration by lowering inflammation in the brain and stimulating pathways that maintain central nervous system function.6 It does this via little chemical messengers known as myokines, which muscles release when they’re under exertion – especially the hard work of strength training.
Need to get your buns moving? Start here.
Bodyweight strength training is an excellent place to start if you’re just beginning your strength journey. You can build upon this with resistance bands, then progress to weights as your strength gains accrue. If you have past injuries or any joints that cause you problems currently, consider consulting an experienced personal trainer or physical therapist. They can instruct you in proper form, as well as assess your functional movement and ensure you have good joint control before adding heavy weights.
Back to the teenage girl in the mirror…
I wish I could go back and tell my teenage self that her booty, hard won from track sprints, was going to set the stage for her early metabolic health, and thus, congratulate her. I’d like to thank her for maximizing those bone-building years by staying active. And as I now approach the age my mom was then, I’m doubling down on all efforts to avoid a flat mom-bum. Because I know that the benefits of a backside are about so much more than beauty.
Dr. Ries offers naturopathic consultations for individuals motivated to change their health, naturally. Physical activity, strength and nutrition are crucial building blocks for whole-body wellness. These can be augmented with a variety of natural medicine tools to achieve symptom relief, improved function, and enhanced health. Schedule a free 15 min. Discovery Call to learn more.
References:
- Giovannucci, E.L., Rezende, L.F.M. and Lee, D.H. (2021), Muscle-strengthening activities and risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and mortality: A review of prospective cohort studies. J Intern Med, 290: 789-805.
- Wu T, Wang X, Cai Z, Cao P, Dang Q, Zhou W, Xie J, Chen J, Wang T, Tao G, Han W, Zhu Z, Wang J, Hunter DJ, Barazzoni R, Ding C, Li J. Longitudinal Associations Between Baseline Sarcopenia and Knee Osteoarthritis Progression and Risk of Knee Replacement. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2025 May 5. doi: 10.1002/art.43213. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40325921.
- LAYNE, JENNIFER E.; NELSON, MIRIAM E.. The effects of progressive resistance training on bone density: a review. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 31(1):p 25-30, January 1999.
- Qin H, Jiao W. Correlation of muscle mass and bone mineral density in the NHANES US general population, 2017-2018. Medicine (Baltimore). 2022 Sep 30;101(39):e30735. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000030735. PMID: 36181112; PMCID: PMC9524880.
- Cunha PM, Werneck AO, Nunes JP, Stubbs B, Schuch FB, Kunevaliki G, Zou L, Cyrino ES. Resistance training reduces depressive and anxiety symptoms in older women: a pilot study. Aging Ment Health. 2022 Jun;26(6):1136-1142. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2021.1922603. Epub 2021 May 18. PMID: 34003711.
- Rai M, Demontis F. Muscle-to-Brain Signaling Via Myokines and Myometabolites. Brain Plast. 2022 Oct 21;8(1):43-63. doi: 10.3233/BPL-210133. PMID: 36448045; PMCID: PMC9661353.
