One of the more common physique changes that both men and women look into is how to fix a saggy butt.
But what causes a saggy butt? What exercises lift your buttocks? What are the best tips for how to lift your butt?
In this article, we will discuss the common causes of a saggy butt, how to lift your butt, or how to fix a saggy butt, and then provide step-by-step instructions for the best exercises to help fix a saggy buttocks.
We will cover the following:
- What Is a Saggy Butt?
- What Causes a Saggy Butt?
- How to Fix a Saggy Butt
Let’s dive in!
What Is a Saggy Butt?
If you have a saggy butt, you are likely aware of what a saggy butt looks and feels like, but before we delve more deeply into how to lift a saggy buttocks, it’s useful to briefly discuss what a saggy butt is.
A saggy butt is when your buttocks droop down toward the back of your upper thighs rather than popping out and appearing like a perky butt or peachy butt.
A saggy butt may appear like a flat butt that has excess skin or fat tissue hanging down a bit.
What Causes a Saggy Butt?
There are several potential causes of a saggy butt or disappearing butt syndrome.
The primary reason for having a saggy butt is due to muscle atrophy (muscle loss) in the gluteal muscles.
The gluteal muscles, also known as the glute muscles, are a group of three muscles.
The largest gluteal muscle is gluteus maximus. This muscle makes up the bulk of the buttocks and is responsible for hip extension.
The gluteus medius is a smaller gluteal muscle that helps abduct the leg at the hip, stabilizing the leg in the frontal plane with a side-to-side motion.
The functions of the gluteus medius muscle are particularly important during walking and other unilateral movements because this muscle helps stabilize the pelvis and prevent the weight-bearing hip from dropping down relative to the leg that is in the swing phase.
Thus, when the gluteus medius is weak, there will be a lot of up and down motion of your pelvis when viewed from the front during walking and running, which is known as the Trendelenburg sign.
The gluteus minimus is the other primary glute muscle, and it lies underneath the gluteus medius close to the hip joint.
It assists the other glute muscles (helping to pull the leg up and swing the leg out to the side). The gluteus minimus also helps control hip rotation, bring the leg inward, and provide stabilization to the hip.
The primary difference between having a saggy butt and having a flat butt is the location and extent of excess skin and adipose, or fat tissue.
With a flat butt, the gluteal muscles are underdeveloped, and the skin around the butt may be taught though not filled out with large, shapely, strong gluteal muscles.
With a saggy butt, or what some people like to call saggy butt syndrome, the butt actually drops down lower than where it would normally appear in a perky buttocks that comes straight out from your body at the top of your legs.
If you have a saggy butt, you might still have a decent amount of gluteal muscle tissue, but more often than not, there is a degree of sarcopenia, which is muscle loss, which has caused the once-perky and full butt to sag down.
Sarcopenia can occur either due to disuse or aging. A saggy butt is particularly common in older individuals.
If you stop working out and stop deliberately trying to strengthen and build your glute muscles, the size of your muscles will decrease with age (age-related sarcopenia).
In fact, after the age of 50, we lose about 1-2% of our muscle mass per year, and one study found that people may have lost up to 50% of muscle mass by age 80.
Additionally, the collagen in your skin begins to break down with age, which further leads to the sagging of the skin.
If you have a lot of fat tissue in your butt (which is particularly common for women due to differences in fat distribution and hormonal profiles relative to men), the weight of the fat tissue, coupled with the weaker skin and atrophy of the glute muscles can lead to a sagging butt.
Sudden weight loss and a poor diet can also contribute to developing saggy buttocks.
How to Fix a Saggy Butt
Although some degree of butt sagging may also have a genetic contribution, and once you get past a certain age, it is more difficult to build or even maintain muscle mass, there are a few exercises you can do to help fix a sagging buttocks.
When doing workouts to fix a saggy butt, follow the guidelines for muscle growth (hypertrophy), which are to perform three sets of each exercise, using loads that are 65 to 85% of your 1RM for 8 to 12 reps.
The fewer reps you perform, the higher the relative weight should be.
Research suggests that compound exercises tend to be best for building mass and increasing strength. However, adding isolation exercises can also lead to increases in hypertrophy.
As for your question, what exercises lift your buttocks, here are some of the best glute exercises to lift a saggy butt:
#1: Single-Leg Romanian Deadlifts
The single-leg Romanian deadlift is one of the best exercises to lift a saggy butt.
Here are the steps to perform this glute-building exercise:
- Stand with good posture, feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, arms at your side, and a dumbbell in your right hand.
- Bring your left arm out to the side for balance and engage your core and glutes.
- Lift your right leg off the ground and extend it behind as a counterbalance as you bend your left knee about 20 degrees to activate your glutes while you hinge from your hips to bring your torso towards the floor.
- Reach your right hand with the weight down towards your left foot.
- Engage your glutes to stand back up, extending your hips until they are fully locked out.
- Complete 8-12 reps and then switch sides.
#2: Step-Ups
The weighted step-up is one of the best butt-lifting exercises to strengthen your glutes.
Here are the steps:
- Stand facing a plyometric box that is roughly knee height. Hold a heavy dumbbell in each hand with your arms down at your sides.
- Step up onto the box with your right foot, pressing through your heel to engage your glutes and extend your right knee fully.
- Step your left leg up onto the box to follow.
- Step back down backward with your right foot first and then your left foot.
- Continue leading with the right foot for 8-12 reps, and then switch sides.
#3: Fire Hydrants
This exercise for a saggy butt works your gluteus medius.
Here are the steps:
- Get on your hands and knees with your core tight, back flat, and ankle weights on your ankles.
- Use your core to stabilize your hips while you lift your right leg directly out to the side, keeping the knee bent.
- Hold for 3 seconds.
- Return to the starting position.
- Perform 8-12 reps and then switch sides.
#4: Deficit Reverse Lunges
The deficit reverse lunge is one of the best exercises to lift a saggy butt and improve functional strength in the glutes.
Here are the steps:
- Stand up on a step or BOSU ball with a dumbbell in each hand.
- Engage your core as you step one foot back off the step as you drop into a deep lunge by bending both knees. Your foot knee should be aligned with your toe, and your back knee should almost touch the ground.
- Push through the heel on the step to return to the starting position.
- Complete 8-12 reps on one leg and then switch sides.
#5: Barbell Hip Thrusts
Studies have found that the hip thrust can be more effective than squats at building strength in the glutes and more effective than deadlifts for activating the glutes.
For this reason, you should try to include it in your saggy butt workouts.
Here are the steps:
- Place your shoulder blades on the long side of a bench with your body bridging off the side, knees bent 90 degrees, feet flat on the floor, and your butt in line with your back and body.
- Rest a barbell across the crease in your hips.
- Lower your hips towards the floor, and then squeeze your glutes to lift back up to the top position where your thighs are parallel to the ground.
If you don’t have access to a gym but still want to strengthen your glutes, you should try our no-equipment glute workout.
