[sebbie]

The glutes play a key role in practically any kind of leg movement, and thus are subject to toning from practically any exercise that works the lower body. The size of one's glutes is to a certain degree, genetically determinined, but that is also true of any other muscle in the body. Some people even without a lot of exercise are going to naturally have bigger, more muscular glutes.

The real issue is not size per se but rather the degree of toning. If you are not exercising your lower body, the glutes grow soft and flabby, and you end up with a layer of fat over the top and an unattractive looking rear end.

I always thought my glutes were rather small, and, as a teenager I admired the guys who could fill out the rears of their jeans better than I could. That was a period of time when tight-fitting butt-focused jeans were all the rage among teen boys my age.

But as I have grown older, I am rather happy things worked out the way they did. The guys I went to school with that had the good-looking butts as teenagers now mostly don't look so good. Meanwhile, I have been exercising a lot and still have this undersized but now-toned butt. Each glute fits in the palm of my hand. That allows me to run the sily but really fun experiments I have been doing with the little Seobean and Aqux swimsiuts, If I were bigger back there, I could not pull those stunts

No, I will never have a protruding butt shaped like some of the twenty-somehing swimmers whose pictures we see posted here. I was never genetically programmed for that. But then, those "tunneling" guys dont have the genes necessary to fiti into a little Aqux or Seobean suit like those Asian guys in the photos do. Which looks cooler is not easy to say.

My exercises include not only stationary rowing but leg presses and leg lifts using weights. I am not a runner or a cyclist, but that is fine with me, and that might work as well.

I think the rule here is to simply work with what you have been given genetically, both literally and figuratively. Butts come in many shapes and sizes, and no single shape or size would necessarily somehow be considered ideal.

FWIW, women worry more about this even than med do. Most women would prefer that their butts be smaller not largers, also to look good in really snug jeans which are all the rage among women currently, but then J. Lo has never let her oversized butt slow her career. Indeed, it might be the "base" of her success in the movies and on stage.

A preoccupation with butt size is part of what I am sensing as a rather new (at least for the US) emphasis on maintinging and lowering body weight for both men and women. After 20 years of the US population rapidly growing on average more and more obese, things are finally settling down and people are starting to get interested in getting to and maintaining an ideal weight. Part of this is that we are seeing more and more clothing for men with designs that emphasize the physique of a toned body as opposed to designs that are made to hide body fat.

One other thing I have done is bought a good-quality digital scale. Then I have been daily recording my body weight on a big spreadsheet to 0.2 lb. I now have 2 1/2 years of data. Today's weight? 147.6 lbs. I've discovered that my weight over long periods of time remains pretty stable. THe lowest number I have recorded is 145.4 and the highest is 155.6 over the 2 1/2 year period.

Of course part of this is maintaining healthy eating habits too. Interestingly, my diet is not that strange. I still eat some fast food, for examplebut just order the smaller portions, smaller burgers and 12 ounce not 24 ounce soft drinks! The sugar quickly gets burned on the rowing machine!

Sebbie