Seems I caused quite a stir by putting these photos up on Facebook….we had a ton of comments! Some of them great, others, well…

“I’d never want a bubble butt like the one on the right,” said one. “Cosmetic surgery,” said another, and one got upset that I was comparing caucasion to a Brazilian butt. Still another woman said the butt on the right was photogenically enhanced…

What’s the deal? I’m all for opinions, but I sensed a growing tension and competitiveness amongst my fellow sisters…

First of all, it’s not my photo, so please don’t shoot the messenger. Second of all, I was trying to (again) dispell the myth that squats create a wide, ugly butt. I see my role as one of education, given my experience, is all.

Does the lady on the right actually squat? I have no idea, to be honest, but from where I’m standing, it certainly looks like it. I’ve been to enough competitions to know what a squatting butt looks like – high, firm and with less fat on it. But I know for sure the lady on the left does not squat (or not properly, anyway). 

How can I say that? Because I used to have that butt – it was big and fat for years, then when I lost the weight, it was simply flat. It was only after learning to squat (at the tender age of 48) that it started to get rounded, higher and smaller.

Don’t believe me? Ask my hubby!  I don’t have a butt like miss right, but it’s kinda in between miss left and miss right…it’s certainly a helluva lot better than it was! And if I can do it at my age, you can make improvements too!

Several commentors said they had been squatting for years, but their butt never looked like that. Genetics do play a role, sure, but could it be that you just aren’t squatting well enough, or consistent enough, or heavy enough? It might not really be your thing, and that’s ok too! It took me 6 months to perfect a simple bar squat, but I was committed to learn, really learn, this movement that had evaded me for over 20 years. For me, the only real change came when I started doing 8-10 sets of heavy squats (this is relative for every woman) every 6 days or so, coupled with another 12-20 sets of straight glute exercises.

My posts are meant to educate, challenge, and shift how we view things, but let’s not lose sight of the sisterhood! The way I see it, that’s one of the biggest issue facing women today, the falling away of support by other females, especially in the area of health, bodies, and….here it comes….butts! I’ve seen it for years…the healthier (and dare I say sexier) women may become, the more they offend / challenge other women. I’ve even seen it in families, with co-workers…in the closest of relationships.

Ladies, support your fellow women, be they squatters or non-squatters. We’re all in this together, young or old, runners or weight lifters, rounded-butts or flat-butts! We can choose to differ, for sure, but we need to keep the sisterhood intact. As Don Miguel Ruez says in The 4 Agreements - be impeccable with your words. We are, after all, cultivating a new generation of women whom we hope will support each other in their fitness and beauty goals, and in knowing they deserve to feel (and look) their best!

From your sister,
karen

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 6th, 2012 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Get Motivated!, Healthy Eating, Spiritual Matters, The Real McCoy!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.