Mae West once famously mentioned that as a woman gets older, she has to choose between having a great bottom or a youthful face. The theory behind this is that to have a great bottom, you need a low percentage of body fat which will in turn shrink your face, resulting in a drawn wrinkled mug. So to have a great face you’d need a higher body fat which will give you a fuller more youthful face but a saggy fat bum! This is in fact, complete B******t.

The fact of the matter is that if you drop your body fat percentage too low, yes your face will look drawn and haggard because (especially as a woman) you need a certain amount of fat to stay healthy. In fact, a healthy body fat percentage is directly related to a healthy oestrogen level and this is of course vital. What we need to look at is whether you have a healthy body fat percentage and a healthy muscle mass! The Gluteus Maximus (bum muscle) are the biggest muscles in the human body and if they are underused and atrophy (shrink), you will never want to strip down on the beach again! It doesn’t matter if you have a body fat percentage of Bruce Lee on crystal meth, there will not be enough muscle to give your butt shape.

So what is the secret to good looks and a great bum for a more mature woman?

1. Keep your body fat percentage between 18 and 22 percent. When you get yourself in shape, this will be easy to maintain as well as keep you healthy and looking great in the face.

2. Have at least 3 resistance training sessions per week in amongst your other training.

3. On your resistance training days forget about those nonsense back leg raises and start squatting, lunging and deadlifting. To build lean muscle and keep it there, you have to challenge the muscle and doing floor ballet isn’t the way to do it.

4. Become the Hare and not the Tortoise. The Tortoise may have won that race but the Hare looked better! Sprinting will have your body composition and bum muscle shape go through the roof but slow paced cardio will start making you look like, well, a Tortoise.

Bottom line (no pun intended!) is to maintain muscle mass for your bum and a healthy body fat to keep oestrogen levels normal and face looking great. So yes you can have both and don’t listen to people that don’t like to squat 😉

Stay healthy
Rupert Hambly