Whether your goal is improved athletic performance, competing in physique/bodybuilding competitions or just becoming more functional in day-to-day life, training the glutes is an essential component of your training.

What Are Glutes?

When talking about the glutes, in relation to our training, we typically refer to either the Glute Maximus or the Glute Medius…

Glute Maximus – This is the heaviest and most coarsely fibered muscle in the human body. The Glute Maximus powerfully extends the hips, laterally stabilises the hip and knee joints and laterally rotates and abducts the thigh.

Glute Medius - The Glute Medius abducts the femur at the hip join, medially rotates the thigh and stabilises the pelvis during exercises like walking or running.

As you can see, the glutes, as a muscle region, play a role in a variety of important movements, and thus, there are lots of exercises that we can use to train the glutes. Here are some of our favourites…

Best Glute Exercises

Barbell Hip Thrust

The hip thrust is a great exercise for inducing high amounts of glute muscle activation in the shortened range of motion of the glutes, where other exercises typically don’t.

• Sit on the floor with your feet flat on the floor, your upper back driving into a Hip Thrust Bench and a Barbell, loaded with bumper plates or hip thrust plates, across your hip crease.

• Hold the bar secure with your hands.

• Drive the floor away with your heels to lift your bum off the floor until your hips are fully locked out.

• Squeeze your glutes at the top.

• Reverse the movement to complete the rep.

Barbell Back Squat

The back squat works the hips through both abduction and hip extension, making them great for growing the glutes. They are also practically very easy to load heavy and work close to failure.

• Set up a barbell on a Squat Rack.

• Grasp the bar with both hands, comfortably outside shoulder width, before stepping under the bar and securing it on your traps (the squishy bit of the upper back).

• Take a deep breath and brace before lifting the bar off the rack and stepping away.

• Stand with your feet just outside shoulder width, pointing slightly out.

• Proceed to sit as deep between your knees as you can.

• Stand back up to complete the rep.

Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat

The Bulgarian split squat allows you to train the glutes at a greater hip flexion range of motion than bilateral alternatives, due to it being on one leg, allowing you to train the glute at longer muscle lengths that a bilateral exercise. It also benefits from the back leg supporting the exercise so you can load it heavier that some other true unilateral exercises.

• Place one foot up behind you on a Split Squat Stand, with the other foot in front of your torso, with your foot facing forward, in line with your knee.

• Lean forward onto the front leg so that it is bearing the weight.

• Lower your back knee to the floor, driving through the front heel throughout.

• Once your front hip is fully flexed, reverse the movement to complete a rep.

Step Ups

The step up also works the glute through high ranges of motion but without any assistance during the main phase of the exercise. This makes it great for training single leg strength and stability.

• Place your working foot up on a Plyo Box in front of you, approximately knee or shin height (depending on ability)

• Lean forward onto the front leg and drive through the box to step up with your non-working leg, keeping the non-working leg raised with your knee in the air at the top of the movement.

• Reverse the movement, keeping the weight in the front leg, to complete a rep.

Kettlebell Swing

The kettlebell swing works the glutes and hip extensors rapidly, but under load, allowing you to hit closer to the mid-section of the force-velocity curve, improving your glute power output.

• Stand with your feet outside shoulder width (like Ronaldo taking a freekick), with a kettlebell in front of you.

• Hinge down to the weight before reaching forward to hold the kettlebell.

• ‘Hike’ the bell back between your legs like an American Football hike, before rapidly reversing the momentum of the bell, so that it swings out in front.

• Repeat this movement continuously to perform a set of swings.

Broad Jump

Broad jumps are typically performed without any load, allowing you to exercise near maximal velocity through the hips. This allows you to work on your rate of force development and speed through the glutes, making you faster and more powerful.

• Stand with your feet outside shoulder width (again, like Ronaldo taking a freekick).

• Rapidly hinge back to load your hips, before rapidly reversing your momentum to jump as far forward as you can.

• Land heel to toe to cushion your landing.

Zercher Step Up

The Zercher position helps to force us to load the hips more by pulling our centre of mass forward, where otherwise we may struggle and lean back onto the non-working leg excessively. This makes it a great variation for training your glutes.

• Hold a barbell in a Zercher rack position: between your biceps and forwards, with your fists to the sky.

• Place your working foot up on a box in front of you, approximately knee or shin height (depending on ability)

• Lean forward onto the front leg and drive through the box to step up with your non-working leg.

• Reverse the movement, keeping the weight in the front leg, to complete a rep.

Glute Focused GHD Hip Extensions

The Glute Biased GHD Hip Extension is a great way to load the glutes while reducing the axial loading on the spine which we see in other compound exercises, like back squats. This makes it a great exercise for anyone managing lower back pain or those that want some extra glute training alongside the heavier spinal loading exercises.

• Lock your ankles and hips into a GHD Machine, with your legs straight and hips comfortably past the pad.

• Hunch your back as much as possible to lock the lumbar in place and shift more of the load into the glutes.

• Lower your chest to the floor until you feel a stretch on the glutes.

• Drive your hips through the pad to come back to the start position to complete a rep.

So, if you want bigger glutes or stronger, more powerful glutes, add some of our favourite glute exercises into your training regime. You do not need to stick to just one! Use a handful in your training to maximise your gains!

Written by guest author Ewan Hammond.

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Tags: Exercise Type > Strength ; Misc > Workout