Booty count: 64. Butt count: 63. Arse count: 3. Backside count: 3. Derriere count: 1. Badonkadonk count: 0 (unfortunately).
V Shred’s Booty Builder Program is all about that bass (throwback to ‘14).
Stuffed inside this 57-page ebook is the ladies’ 12-week guide to building a booty that makes even Kim Kardashian want to call TMZ for a totally-not-staged paparazzi shoot on the beach in Malibu to one-up you because she’s definitely jealous now — all in a matter of 12 weeks.
But will it really unlock a round, firm, cellulite-free butt?
In what will probably be the most out-of-the-ordinary review we’ll ever write on Noob Gains, here’s our take on the V Shred Booty Builder Program.
About the Creator – Vince Sant
OK, until somebody can send us a photo of Vince Sant in his high school yearbook, we’re going to assume Vince Sant (ahem, Vince Sant, Vincent) is a stage name. But that’s beside the point.
Vince Sant is the co-founder of fitness brand, V Shred — a fitness platform with more than a dozen programs including Fat Loss Extreme and Toned in 90 Days.
And is also cofounder of Sculpt Nation — the supplement line he pitches at every waking moment.
Since V Shred’s gone mainstream, he says he’s changed nearly a million lives in three years. (Really, that’s all we know about him, other than the fact he has 680k Instagram followers.)
What Is V Shred Booty Builder Program?
Vince Sant rambles on for 2,000-or-so-some-odd-words to explain why you need to buy Booty Builder now, or else the price will go back up, and you’ll have a pancake or droopy butt forever.
But, if we look beyond the gimmicks …
V Shred Booty Builder is supposedly the answer to a sexy, strong, non-droopy, not flat, not fat, round, shapely butt because we live in a butt-obsessed world, and the human booty isn’t “just there to make you look hot.” (eye roll)
Sant digs himself into an even deeper hole by saying that the “majority” of the girls in the gym only do squats and lunges and that most trainers would tell you to do the same.
The promise of V Shred’s Booty Builder is this … By understanding the anatomy and physiology of the three muscles of the butt and doing the right exercises for the correct number of reps in a particular order, you can sculpt an amazing butt.
Vince Sant hypes this shindig up by saying it can:
- Shape your thighs
- Improve the definition in your calf muscles
- Get rid of cellulite
- Build a pain-free back (what?)
- Enhance your hip-to-waist ratio
- Do all of this without a crazy amount of cardio.
Now, Vince Sant used to charge $500 an hour to train women (again, what?!). But now, he’s offering this program for $34.95 if you buy it now, plus a 100% money-back guarantee.
(We don’t have to tell you that the price is most likely not going up in a few days.)
Booty Builder Details & Features
Listen, we’re going to say this once.
Do not read this book on the subway, at Thanksgiving when your in-laws are over, or in the break room at the office … unless you want to explain why you’re scrolling through butt and bikini bod pics.
After a not-so-casual attempt to sell you his custom training and diet plans (which are a rip-off), we jump into the Booty Builder section of — wait for it — Booty Builder.
Booty Builder
Spoiler alert: the only reason Vince Sant “has” to split Booty Builder into two sections is that the first one is the real builder-of-booties, and the second is a 10+-page advertisement.
Here’s an overview of the next (and only remotely valuable) six chapters:
Meet Your Butt
On today’s episode of “how can Vince Sant possibly start a guide off as strangely as possible,” we have chapter one — Meet Your Butt (really, that’s the name).
Vince Sant is definitely onto something when he says that training your butt the right way begins with a basic understanding of the anatomy and physiology of your booty.
He begins the guide by explaining the three gluteal muscles — maximus, minimus, and medialis (not quite) — and their role in how your lower body moves.
In an odd twist, he also overviews the smaller muscles in your butt region:
- Piriformis
- Tensor fasciae latae
- Superior gemellus
- Inferior gemellus
- Obturator internus
- Obturator externus
This section is more random than a qUiRkY 9th-grade girl on Tumblr circa 2009. There’s no mention of these muscles later in the book, and the anatomical diagram doesn’t even point to where these ridiculously small muscles are in the human physique.
But it does back his point: one exercise won’t be enough to sculpt a round butt. (Unless you read this V Shred post saying the one exercise you need to round your booty is the hip thrust.)
Creating Your Unique Butt
There were probably a million possible ways to say this, but Sant chose the most bizarre way: your butt is as unique as your fingerprints.
He also says that there’s nothing wrong with “admiring” another person’s butt, which is true if you’re scrolling through Instagram while on your own living room couch and totally false if you’re in public and hiding behind an end cap at the grocery store.
In this section, Sant blames your booty potential on two things: lifestyle and genetics.
While Sant admits that your somatotype, ratio of fast to slow-twitch muscle fibers, and where you’re genetically coded to store fat, sculpting an Insta-worthy butt requires the right process.
That means building muscle (to add roundness and increase your daily calorie burn) and shredding fat simultaneously (with high-intensity cardio). Apparently, the secret is slow-twitch training, which he says targets 68% of glute fibers.
In his mind, the three pieces to a round butt are high-intensity cardio, HIIT, and weightlifting (isn’t that the “secret” to every fitness goal?).
The key takeaway (because there’s a bit of rambling thrown in here): while you can’t spot-reduce body fat on your butt, you can intentionally build up your glute muscles.
Kiss My Butt, Cellulite
(Before you say, “oh, no, tell me he’s not …” yes, Vince Sant is going to tell you all about your cellulite and how it “doesn’t look good” — his words.)
Sant is right about one thing: 90% of women do have cellulite; it might even be closer to 98%.
The reason: estrogen. In Kiss My Butt, Cellulite, Sant blames cellulite on the higher estrogen levels in women, how our bodies store fat and the enlargement of fat cells in puberty.
Here’s how cellulite happens …
There are five layers of the epidermis. (Sant also includes an anatomical diagram of a human, but choosing a skinless one was an odd choice.)
Collagen and elastin are located in the dermis and hold the skin together. A weak dermis allows subdermal fat to push through in the form of cellulite — bringing your body fat closer to the skin’s surface.
According to Sant’s logic, the best way to get rid of cellulite is to … tighten the skin by eating a diet rich in certain nutrients and optimizing blood flow to share those nutrients with your cells.
You’d think he’d mention cutting foods high in fat and sugar out of your diet or — who knows — cardio to burn fat and weightlifting to create firmer muscles. But no.
Instead, he takes a detour with his “fixes” to cellulite, including:
- 12 foods to beat cellulite, like green tea, cayenne pepper, and blueberries (and not a single explanation for why)
- Quitting smoking, even if it means hypnotherapy (hint: doesn’t work)
- Less yo-yo dieting
- Creating a negative energy balance to lose fat
- Reducing your stress
- Drinking more water
- Letting your butt “breathe” by not wearing nylon
- Cleansing with rosewater to improve collagen (haven’t found a legitimate study for this)
- Exfoliating after a hot bath to open the pores
This section feels more like a snake-oil salesman’s pitch than a truly informative guide to “beating” cellulite.
It also suggests that developing cellulite depends on your habits and tightening your skin, which isn’t entirely true. Cellulite is also partially genetic and hormonal, is just as much a fat storage issue as a skin problem, and happens in thin supermodels.
Butt Kicking Cardio
Aha, we’re finally at the fun part! Sculpting a toned, round butt means decreasing your overall body fat with cardio — high-intensity cardio, to be exact.
In Butt Kicking Cardio, Sant includes a list of 14 strategies for using cardio to burn fat. That includes wearing a weighted vest when running, stair-climbing, tracking 10,000+ steps per day using a pedometer (do those still exist?), not running on empty, and trying 10/20 HIIT.
He also explains the how, why, and when behind each method.
But if pounding the pavement for a morning run or 60 minutes on that g’damn elliptical low-key makes you question your entire existence, you now have at least a dozen more options.
Working Your Butt Off
Hey, it only took 27 pages (out of 57) to get here!
Working Your Butt Off covers building muscle mass in the three gluteal muscles. To do that, Sant includes three Booty Builder workouts:
Glute Activation Circuit
What on earth is a Glute Activation Circuit?
Ope, here goes: Vince Sant claims that most of us don’t know how to properly activate our glutes, which is why he included a four-exercise circuit to apparently teach us just that.
Spoiler alert: the four exercises to turn you into a glute-flexin’ master are glute bridges, lean backs, toe-hold sumo squats, and split squats.
After 15 reps of all four, you’ll rest for 60 seconds and repeat.
The demo photos and descriptions are a nice touch. But Sant also leaves behind a trail of unanswered questions like: how many rounds should you do, where in the program are you supposed to do this workout, and what happens if you can’t do 15 reps?
Bodyweight Circuit
Wasn’t … that … just … it? OK, apparently, the bodyweight circuit is a full-body workout with a little extra focus on your glute muscles.
This time around, you’re performing eight exercises (really seven if you don’t count the double-counted skipping) for 30 seconds each for up to four full circuits. Exercises include belt kick squats, push-ups, and mountain climbers.
Again, we have no idea when you’re supposed to do this workout. But if the entire session lasts about 30 minutes, get ready to burn about 120-ish calories.
Butt Resistance Workout
The final workout is the real ultimate grand supreme “Booty Builder” workout.
For the first six weeks, you’ll do Workout A on day one, three straight days of cardio, and Workout B on day four.
(If we entertained this idea, we’d have the same dizzy spell we had after watching the entire Bodybuilding.com forum try to figure out how many days are in a week; we’ll pretend it makes sense.)
In each of these two Butt Resistance Workouts, you’ll perform four glute-focused exercises for 3–4 sets of 12–15 reps — such as squats, box jumps, hip thrusts, and deadlifts.
After six weeks, you’ll jump into another booty-buildin’ workout, bump up the weight (or really — add weight), and drop down to a once-a-week frequency.
Here’s where things get a little goofy.
During weeks 7–8, Sant quite literally asks for the bare minimum — one set of 10–15 reps for each of the five exercises. Adding goblet squats and kettlebell swings into the mix makes sense, but we can’t find the logic behind suddenly dropping from 26 sets a week to literally five.
The Butt Stops Here
Please, end the puns.
In The Butt Stops Here, Sant pats himself on the back by saying you now have access to three of the “greatest ass-kicking resistance workouts on the planet.” Now that’s a sense of confidence we all wish we had.
He ends this first half of the guide with an off-the-cuff comment about how 78% of people will “keep going back to the bad habits that gave them a fat ass in the first place.” To avoid becoming a statistic, all you have to do is do exactly what Vince Sant says in Booty Builder.
(The worst part is that he’s not joking about any of this. There’s not a single “JK” or “that was sarcasm,” or, hell, even a “Bazinga” — none of that.)
Fitness Programs
As if the “Save 20% Coupon Code” slapped on the top-right corner of literally every page in Booty Builder wasn’t bad enough … pages 46–57 are jam-packed with V Shred ads.
That’s right, after spending $34.95 on this program (when it’s really supposed to be $47), 21% of your purchase goes toward seeing ads to other V Shred programs, including this one!
How Vince Sant can justify that is beyond us. Then again, we also reviewed the V Shred custom diet and training plan, and it didn’t exactly go as expected.
V Shred’s Booty Builder Pros
- Sant doesn’t reveal any of this outwardly, but many of his chosen glute exercises were examined in a 2020 study analyzing gluteus maximus activation. Split squats, hip thrusts, and deadlifts — among others — all made the cut.
- Hey, uh, at least he didn’t include nonstop plugs for his supplement brand, like he did in virtually every other V Shred program (Ripped in 90 Days being one of them).
- Though his approach is a bit shallow and sometimes misguided, Sant does include a good bit of foundational knowledge about cellulite, the anatomy of the butt, and the layers of the skin.
- He offers a decent amount of guidance when explaining how to perform each exercise without breaking form or risking injury.
- Combined with a legitimate full-body program, Booty Builder could act as a specialization routine and produce results. Although you could also add leg presses, leg extensions, leg curls, and calf raises to these workouts and just call it “leg day.”
- The full Booty Builder program includes five workouts, including one for glute activation, another for full-body calisthenic training, and three resistance-based glute sessions.
- If the sales page is accurate, Booty Builder comes with a 100% money-back guarantee with a no-questions-asked policy. (Though, he does call it the “custom diet plan” in that same promise, which makes it seem like a pretty dire half-ass copy-paste error.)
- The exercises aren’t anything out of the ordinary — in the best way possible. All you really need are a bench, barbell, weight plates, box, kettlebells, and dumbbells. (Of course, you can find equipment and exercise alternatives on trusty ‘ol Google!)
- If your diet is under control and nutritious, Booty Builder can work. The several cardio sessions per week will burn fat, while the twice-a-week resistance training workouts will build lean mass in the glutes.
Booty Builder Program Cons
- Fellas, if you’re reading this review because you think Booty Builder will guarantee your girl an unforgettable birthday or Valentine’s Day… don’t.
- The sales pressure is real. No legitimate program would have a ticking clock like nearly every V Shred program. Really, if you don’t buy it within a few days at this once-in-a-lifetime price, it’ll go up? Puh-lease.
- Dedicating some 20% of the guide to advertising more V Shred programs (including this one!) was … a choice. Not to mention he describes one of the programs as being “designed for guys like you.” He either doesn’t know how to read the room, or he simply copied and pasted this guide from other male-oriented guides.
- We’re not saying we’ve never made typos. But the sheer number of errors throughout the text brings “I didn’t even run this through Grammarly” and “I didn’t think to hire a proofreader or editor” vibes.
- The 20%-off coupon code affixed to every page is tacky. Vince Sant really wants you to become a return customer.
- There’s a lot — a lot — of ramblings that seem more likely randomly-strung-together facts about exercise than anything else. Sant mentions concepts like fast and slow-twitch muscle fibers, the minor muscles in the butt, and visceral fat … and then never talks about them again.
- Why wouldn’t you mention calculating daily caloric intake, macronutrients, or the best nutrients for tightening the skin? Sure, he mentioned 12 foods that supposedly beat cellulite, but he doesn’t explain why or how. If you want to build muscle and burn fat, diet is a huge piece of the equation, dontcha think? Heck, that’s why he made a separate recipe guide.
- It feels pretty icky for a guy writing a book for women to bluntly say “cellulite doesn’t look good” to an audience of female readers with a 90%+ chance of developing cellulite. We didn’t expect him to go the body positivity route, but that was a bit low.
- Unlike other V Shred programs, there is no invite to the platform’s official private Facebook group or follow-along Booty Builder workouts on V Shred’s “My Stuff” portal. (We’re only bringing this up because the guys’ Big Arms program does.)
- The 12–15 reps per set seem to lean into the idea that women shouldn’t lift heavy weights because they might edge right past Hollywood’s top actors in the running for the lead role in the next Hulk movie. Higher reps can help with hypertrophy, but Sant should’ve mixed in some lower-rep-higher-weight exercises, too (i.e., 6–12 reps per set).
- The schedule is really confusing. It’s not clear when you’re supposed to do the Glute Activation and Bodyweight Circuit, and the schedule for the Butt Resistance phase doesn’t exactly line up with the traditional seven-day week (sorry, not sorry).
Wrapping Up This V Shred Booty Builder Program Review
The V Shred Booty Builder Program had a butt-load of potential … and more than enough booty puns to go around. But it’s not really all that great a program.
Yes, the chosen exercises target the glutes, most of the anatomy and physiology details are accurate, and you’ll probably build some muscle and burn a little fat with Booty Builder.
But there are also so many detours and dead-ends in this program that we can’t help but wonder how useful it would actually be. The snake-oil vibes, leaning into the stereotypes, random details thrown into the mix, and 11+ pages of ads were all major red flags.
Honestly, you could find better butt-sculpting workout alternatives online for free.
Rating: 4.5/10