SEC-20/W4 | Fitness Training - Strengthening the muscles at the buttocks and hips region

It's another week to strengthen the muscles in the butt. I haven't still recovered from the quest for stronger legs experience. The pain is all over my legs and waist including my hips and thigh. The experience was cool though and beneficial to me as well as I am now able to walk distances. You won't believe where I walked from. This makes me ever ready to take it on with school in this biting economy.

This week's program is on strengthening the muscles round the butt. I'll not say this is a program exclusively for women who need butt to look good. It's also applicable for me because we do sit on hard surfaces and when the butt muscles is not built, adding more flesh to it, it becomes a problem and one can't sit on a hard surface for long because the bone now feels the pain not the butts again.

Before carrying out the challenges for this week, I did warmups. The essence of these warm-ups is to help or prepare us for the main program. It's more like writing a mock exams to see if you'll be able to write the main exams.

The warm-up programs I did were;

• jumping jacks to free and relieve my body from unnecessary fatigue, preventing me to stretch properly
• mountain climbing was also what I did on a step to prepare my legs for what it's going to face and
• jogging to implement the same functions in my body before doing the main program.

Cardio was necessary as well: This includes running, russian twist and dumbbell lifts. I did just these three programs before moving on.

• Running wasn't a program as I ran to sbd fro and then rested for a while due to increased heart beat.
• Russian Twist was done by me sitting on the floor, moving my legs to my butt and then tick my tummy in while suspending my body on nothing

Once this was attainable, I took to considering the first program which had to do with lifting a dumbbell. Sad to say, I had just one dumbbell available which I worked with.

Let's see what I did in this week's challenge. It was one of the best experience I had this week. I was able to complete the repetitions meant for beginners. Yes of course, I did both the programs meant for beginners and advanced but couldn't complete advanced based on my capacity. This are what I was able to do with the limited strength I had. _Have you ever heard of the word Deadlift _?

As the name implies, it's really a deadly lift as you can get cramps or even twist your muscles if you're not careful or following instructions directed by the fitness coach. I choose deadlift to challenge myself. I've seen women do this. Why can't I?.

It was quite unfortunate I wasn't able to go to the fitness center to carry out these programs. I used my environment to do them with the available fitness materials I had. Before doing this deadlift, I tested my legs to fitness and also did stretches to avoid scenarios where I'll have cramps as my body is not really used to lifting weights. I wanted giving it a try.

The Materials I made available for this program were just;

• my mind
• a dumbbell made of stone

I programmed my mind into doing this program and this is how I did it. I started with the beginners level. I stood upright with the dumbbell in my hands. To accomplish this, I had to bend down with the dumbbell and raise myself up again. This was done consistently by me for a couple minutes before resting and then completing the program.

The pain were to be felt on my arms, my butt when bending down and my hips and legs when raising my body up. It wasn't easy doing this 3 sets at a blow. I just had to try my best in accomplishing this task. Indeed, it was a dead lift. This is a video of me doing this program. After this particular program, my hips and butt were especially worked on with side Lunges.

Side Lunges

Side lunges is an activity or program done to strengthen the hip muscles in conjunction with the butt and you'll be stretching and compressing both your hips and butt. I did this program in beginner level and then rested before going to advanced for a little while and then quit. This program was done by me;

• squatting
• stretching one of my legs to a far end while the other stays with me as support
• moving my supported leg to the stretched one, up and down for a minute plus. It wasn't that easy as the pressure and compression was felt on my hips. I felt my hips growing muscles already.

My happiness was that I was able to do the program before moving to the most difficult amongst them which is Single leg deadlift. Practicing the deadlift two legs was already enough pressure talk more of single leg. Do you know what? I smashed it. I didn't pass by. I ensured I accomplished this. If my coach is able to do this program, who am I not to?

Single Leg Deadlift

This is synonyms to the deadlift mentioned earlier. The difference is that while the latter using two legs to lift the dumbbell, the former will require you using a single leg, bending and stretching the legs at that. It was achievable. I did this by holding the dumbbell with my hands and then bend to the ground as if I want to drop it on the floor.

Once it touches the floor, I'll lift one of my legs in form of stretching done. Though my legs were shivering and shaky, I performed it well. I was proud of myself for trying to do all the difficult tasks this week and running away from the simple tasks. This is a video of me doing single leg deadlift.

Ending the programs, I did butt stretch. This was done through squat. I was directly stretching my butt by bringing it down to a position where muscles will start building up and compression would be felt. It wasn't that easy enduring the stretches from the squat exercise but I nailed it. Asking for my experience?

My experience doing the programs is indescribable. Irrespective of the fact that pain was felt, I was happy I could achieve something. I hope my butt muscle grows as I'll be consistently working on it to avoid the pain from hard surfaces. It was indeed therapeutic and I'll give this analysis based on the areas the really did lots of impact on.

Category	Result
Butt	My butt was stretched and I felt the muscles jiggle
Arms	Though it wasn't part of the program but a complement hips and butt, I felt the concentration on my arms when lifting the dumbbell which makes it even more beneficial to me.
Legs	My legs were the backbone of this whole program. I did a lot of support and I also felt the muscles jiggle, implying that the exercise has been done and completed.

If you don't feel pain or sweat during a program, it actually means you're not doing it well because these programs aren't for fun. They are meant to make us experience pain n In order to gain. The only challenge I had that day which is gone was my inability to sit and stand for long because of the compression on my hips and legs

My happiness was complemented when I drank fresh coconut water to relieve the stress and pain from the exercise. Just look at the way I was smiling as if nothing happened.

You need to stay fit to be strong. I invite @patjewell, @dove11 and @o1eh to join this week's challenge.