Expert: Kim Farmer - 10/6/2007

Question
Hi there i am a 30 year old mother of 4. I am not overweight but could use some toning up. I am doing 30 mins excersise a day, i know it's not alot but i am raising my children on my own and have a 9 month old baby so it's all i can manage right now. I am also breast feeding. I have noticed that my butt has dissapeared. I mean it's still there of course and i'm not thin but my butt seems flatter somehow. I used to have a very perky butt and now it's sort of flat. Why has it gone flat if i'm not too thin everywhere else? Is there a way i can get it back?
Do i need to be doing more than 30 mins excerise a day? My workout is one i have a DVD for. It's call belly butt and thighs. It consists of 3 ten minute workouts targetting each area. I do also try to have a brisk walk every other day on top of this. If theres something more i could be doing i am open to suggestions. Thanks so much for your time.

Lauren

Answer
Hi Lauren-
I'm glad to hear that you are fitting exercise into your schedule AT ALL.  With your busy schedule, you should feel proud of yourself!  If you are looking to tone up, then you need to make sure that you are incorporating resistance training into your workout.  Your video sounds good for that, so keep doing it and maybe try other videos or your own exercises. When you say that you are doing 30 minutes of exercise, I'm not sure if that includes cardiovascular exercise everyday too?  Walking every other day is ok, but be sure that you are getting some cardio in at least 5 days a week even if you can only fit 20-30 minutes in.  

As for your glutes, there really is no way to control where the weight starts coming off at first, but you can work on building the muscles and making them more pronounced through resistance training.  

The e-book I just wrote addresses your challenge of finding time to fit in more exercise and it also has some suggestions for different exercises.  I'm obviously biased, but it is full of information that has helped many people and it is only $9.95.  Go to my website at http://www.milehighfitness.com/benefitstoexercise.htm or also www.milehighfitness.com.  The cover is dark blue.

I hope this helps and keep it up!

Thanks.
Kim