My partner (22F) really wants a bbl and I’m opposed due to known dangers. Is building a full rear realistic through bodybuilding?

@mlenadc Here's a sneak peek of /r/xxfitness using the top posts of the year!

#1: Finally started exercising regularly and I’m pissed off that it actually works

#2: The hate and misinformation on cardio makes me so sad.

#3: Did anyone else grow up convinced they were uncoordinated/not athletic simply because you didn’t excel in gym class?

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@decibyte If she wants to look good in yoga pants that's completely achievable through resistance training. It'll also look proportional as well.

A disproportional look with zero hamstring or quad development would have to BBL, but it's also a pretty bad look imo.
 
@decibyte BBLs look terrible. I’ve seen one in real life and the lady looked like a bug. It often looks like a dirty diaper.

If your gf has small butt genetics she can still get a great ass by doing heavy barbell hip thrusts. I know because I am a woman with small butt genetics who finally has a nice butt from barbell hip thrusts as well as leg machines, dead’s, and squats.
 
@roni2014 Well, it’s kind of hard to say because I had been lifting for 5 years before I started doing hip thrusts. I was doing squats, lunges, split squats, step ups, and dead lifts. I still felt like I didn’t have enough muscle growth until I started doing hip thrusts (5 years later) so I really had a nice butt but wasn’t satisfied until I started doing hip thrusts.when I started doing HT i was already pretty strong and could hip thrust like 205 lbs or more, but I finally feel like I have the “curve” I’m happy with. I felt like even a month after I started doing HTs it was making a big difference.
 
@astroblema Not disagreeing completely but I will say if you have a surgeon who is board-certified and uses an ultrasound guided technique for their BBL procedures, you’re going to get farrrr better results that look way more natural.
 
@decibyte Bodybuilding gives a different shape. Take a look at powerlifting women, it’s a different body shape than BBL. Also the time it takes to build muscle and keep her diet on point, it’s better to do a lean bulk than dirty bulking if she’s concerned about gaining weight around the belly
 
@pleasantgirl She talks about wanting to look “snatched” and have a lean belly sometimes, but I think that takes a back seat (no pun intended) to her developing her back seat. You think she’d have to eat a ton for results?
 
@decibyte Well even for BBL she might have to gain weight to be able to do the procedure. Maybe skinny BBL the risks and the post-operation is the same. If she had never done any surgery in her whole life I wouldn’t recommend starting with this. It’s a very tough recovery and if done abroad there is also the impact on how long you have to stay to be fit to return to your home.

I’d say to try to get a good coach for bodybuilding, and a good nutritionist, and weigh the pros and cons of both ways. The post-op of any major surgery takes at least 1 year to get the full results. I definitely think that with discipline you can get in very good shape in less than a quarter of that
 
@decibyte Of course she can build her glutes in the gym. Very few people are 'non-responders' to strength training.

I think the real concern here is the lack of regard for safety. A BBL is not something she should be getting just because she has a bit of insecurity about her butt. The mortality rate for BBLs is estimated at 1 in every 3,000. That's really high, and is a reason why many surgeons will not perform the procedure.

The BBL is also not a quick fix. It involves many months of recovery, bruising and possible post-surgery complications. There is a risk that not all of the newly grafted fat cells will take, and they'll instead be absorbed back into the body. Also, in years to come that extra fat sitting there is going to sag. That will require surgery to fix, or a proper exercise regime try to perk things up again.
 
@decibyte People who get BBL not only have the surgery, but also Photoshop the hell out of everything they're in. Video is done with specific lighting, from specific angles and with specific lenses and even then can be further touched up depending on the shot and budget. On top of that, a lot of the butt comes down to genetics: muscle insertions and size, coupled with fat storage. But here's the thing: if she trains for 'booty gains', she may not get to what she's thinking about now, but end up at a place she's thrilled to be at.

I think if you asked most women, they'd say they'd rather look 'toned' than 'skinny fat'. And honestly, it doesn't take much to look how the average person wants.

The advice you'll see on bodybuilding subs is about maximizing—but muscle gain is a bunch of logarithmic curves stacked on each other:
  • the first set per session offers the most stimulus—and it drops off quickly
  • the first set per week offers the most stimulus—and it drops off quickly
  • the more muscle you have, the slower your body is to add new muscle
So that means you can do a small fraction of what someone who is maximizing does in order to gain almost all the same muscle—say, 80% from 20% the time investment—and that gap narrows over time as you approach your body's natural limit for muscle gain[sup]1[/sup] i.e. you start off and after 1 year you've done 20% as much as someone and they end up 2 months of lifting ahead of you... but now they're gaining muscle more slowly, and that trend continues over time till they're actually gaining more slowly than you (though, are closer to their natural limit).

Honestly, in her shoes I'd just
  • get some adjustable dumbbells, a pull-up bar and maybe some sort of pad to raise her off the floor to increase the limited range of motion for floor press
  • start having a few protein bars/drinks a day if she doesn't eat a high-protein diet as-is
  • do a 15-20 minute a day 4-day routine that repeats after the 4th day:
  1. one main lift — 2-3 warmup sets, 2 sets of 6-15 reps of upper-body press OR upper-body pull OR deep squats OR Romanian deadlifts, 2 minute rests
  2. optional accessory movement (bicep curl, tricep overhead extensions, lat raise, calf raise, pullovers) done for 2 sets of 10-30 reps myo-rep style[sup]2[/sup]
  3. glute accessory (reverse lunges, hip thrusts, walking lunges, glute bridge) done for 2-4 sets of 10-20 reps myo-rep style
Makes for a big emphasis on the legs, but using dumbbells means those are going to be harder to hit well vs. a barbell. glute and leg volume may be a bit high to start, but she's female so recovery is usually a bit quicker, the rep range is higher, it's done using myo-reps and the rest of the volume is low to accommodate it.

[sup]1. though, there's a minimum threshold—for absolute novices it's 1 set per week, beginners may need 1-3 sets per week, intermediates may need 4-6, advanced 6-9+[/sup]
[sup]2. do a set of 10+ reps, then rest for 3-5 deep breaths, hit it again[/sup]
 
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