3 Often-Overlooked Ways to Build a Better Butt

You may have heard the saying, "You can't get the butt you want by sitting on the one you have." And while that's pretty much true, these three ways to build your booty may actually involve a bit of sitting down.

The maxim "abs are made in the kitchen," applies to your butt, too. If you're doing a lot of squats, deadlifts and glute bridges, working up a sweat and taxing your muscles, you need to fuel your body properly.

While all macronutrients (carbs, fat and protein) play an important role in a solid nutrition plan, if a stronger backside is your primary goal, focus on upping your protein and fat intake.

Generally, the range you want to aim for is 45 to 65 percent carbohydrates, 20 to 35 percent fat and 10 to 35 percent protein, according to The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institutes of Medicine.). But those ranges leave a lot of wiggle room and every body is different, so you may need to play around with your ratio a bit.

That doesn't give you license to eat steaks and cheese all day, though (though some of us may want to!). Make sure your macros are coming from quality sources. For protein — which helps rebuild muscle — opt for eggs, chicken and salmon (or quinoa, lentils and almonds if you're following a plant-based or vegetarian diet). For fat, choose from avocados, olive oil, nuts and seeds.

Muscle isn't actually built in the gym or during your workouts. It's built when you're resting between your workouts.

"Rest is important for two reasons," says Ben Lauder Dykes, Fhitting Room instructor and 30-Day Squat Challenge host. "One is that rest helps us recover from fatigue, so that when we work out again, we can train at a high level. The other reason is that we need time for our bodies to go through the recovery stage to see adaptations."

When you exercise, you're causing micro-tears in your muscle fibers (which is partly why you might feel sore the next day). Your body repairs these tears and your muscles get stronger in the process, but if you don't take rest days, your muscles never get the chance to fully recover, so your gains will plateau and you run the risk of overtraining.

Consider this your permission to take it easy every once in a while.

If you really can't sit still on your off days, make it an active-recovery day by doing some stretches and foam rolling.

"The best stretches to do after squats would be a pigeon stretch for the glutes and hips and a quad stretch, which can be performed either lying or standing," Lauder-Dykes says.