Butt Amnesia: The Latest Fitness Affliction

Rachel Cosgrove's new book will buff you up.

We recently had the pleasure (and pain) of meeting and working out with author and certified trainer Rachel Cosgrove at her Newhall, CA, gym, Results Fitness. Cosgrove’s new book, The Female Body Breakthrough: The Revolutionary Strength-Training Plan for Losing Fat and Getting the Body You Want, advocates pushing yourself — hard — to get a better body. “Most women have been conditioned to train from the point of view of what they can’t do,” says Cosgrove, who doesn’t tolerate any “girlie push-ups” at her facility. (She will, however, let you work up to a full-body push-up by starting partially standing, leaning against a barbell.)

After an hour of Cosgrove’s “base workout” (i.e., where her Breakthrough program begins), we were feeling pretty thoroughly worked out, especially in the rear area. A former dancer, Cosgrove explained that she has noticed that most women suffer from “gluteal amnesia.” Not that we forget that our butts exist, she says, but that we fail to engage the buttocks muscles during everyday activities and consequently end up with a pancake booty when we hit middle age because the muscles under the skin and fat have wasted away.

Even after one workout, we (and our re-awakened butt) were certain that this is an effective program if you stick with it with for the 16 weeks required. Which, of course, is a very big “if” when you’re dealing with a high-intensity regimen like this. However, if you’ve promised yourself that 2010 is going to be the year you give yourself a total-body makeover, this is the book that can do it for you.

Do you think you’d be willing to make a commitment like this if you knew you’d see results?

Tags: author, Bodybuilding, Buttocks, California, dancer, exercise, gluteal amnesia, Gluteal muscles, Human anatomy, Newhall, Rachel Cosgrove, Weight training