What The Research Says
But are hip thrusts really superior to squats when it comes to building a better backside?
Little research existed to challenge that claim until recently. A 2020 study published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine compared the effects of squats and hip thrusts on strength gains and hypertrophy in the glutes and quadriceps . The study found squats resulted in not just an increase in quadriceps size , but that squats increased glute size by 9.4% compared to just 3.7% for hip thrusts.
Per this study, squats can increase muscle mass in the glutes and thighs more than hip thrusts, but as previously believed, hip thrusts isolate the glutes more than squats. So, if you want to build your booty while keeping your legs the same size, hip thrusts fit the bill.
However, that doesnt mean you should stop doing squats. To get the best of both worlds, youd benefit by doing two lower-body workouts per week with one workout focusing on hip thrusts and the other on squats.
Best Glute Workout For Sport
An athletic training style for the glutes should emphasize strength, explosiveness, and durability. This means that a focus on plyometric drills, strength training, and stability to cap the session is a good rule of thumb if youre looking to improve the physical characteristics that are most relevant to your sport.
Its also important that any glute training for sport performance not interfere with sport practice itself. In fact, a good glute program should enhance the skills you practice on the track or field.
What To Do Next
I hope youve enjoyed this definitive guide to glute training. Everything you need to get great glutes is in the paragraphs above. If youve enjoyed this article, then pick 3 friends with whom youd like to share it and then share it with them.
You could be a hero to your friends helping them go from saggy or flat bum to feeling proud of what they see in the mirror. Or this could also save many people you know from potential back problems. Be a good friend and share the love.
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Banded Barbell Romanian Deadlift
This variation helps add tension to the glutes in the standing position a position where there is usually no resistance. The resistance band helps give a counterbalance to your torso and allows you to lean forward into the movement. It also gives you an external cue to help you bend your hips rather than rounding at the low back, improving your hip-hinging abilities. Lastly, the horizontal band position can help increase the load placed on the muscles across the range of motion.
Mistake #: Getting Hung Up On Exercise Sticking Points
What do I mean by sticking points? I mean the part of the exercise thats hardest. Most exercises have one part of the movement thats harder than the rest, and this part is almost always the part where you hit failure.
With most pressing movements like squats and leg presses, its the bottom of the movement if you squat with a full range of motion, youll eventually get stuck at the bottom of the squat, unable to get back up. Now, this sounds like it might be desirable for glute training since the bottom of the movement emphasizes the glutes but it isnt. Most people consciously or subconsciously avoid that sticking point, either by doing fewer reps than they should or by gradually making their squats shallower as their glutes get fatigued. All of the muscles involved in the squat even the glutes would get trained better if the sticking point wasnt there.
To fix this, youll need to match the exercises strength curve to its resistance curve, so that no particular point in the movement becomes a sticking point.
The fix: Accommodating resistance training
Accommodating resistance is the technical term for resistance that is lower at the hardest part of a movement and higher at easier parts of the movement. In practice, this is achieved by replacing about 20% of the barbell weight with chains or elastic bands. Since chains are heavy and not fun to carry around, youll probably want to use bands.
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Butt Exercise: Lateral Step Up With Kickback
Degree of difficulty: 3 out of 5
- Overview: This exercise works both the adductors and abductors, but the kickback targets the glutes. To add difficulty, use ankle weights.
- Get ready: Stand to the left side of an aerobic step or box.
- Go: Step sideways onto the box with your right leg only, then contract your abs and squeeze your left glute as you bring your straight left leg behind you in a kickback motion. Hold for one count, then release the glute and step carefully off the box with your left leg, followed by your right. Repeat for reps, then switch sides.
Kims tip: Be careful not to spring up. You dont want to get a bounce motion in there. Youre isolating the squeeze-hold and the step up to make sure youre not using your calves.
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Butt Exercise: Leg Press Kickback
Degree of difficulty: 4 out of 5
- Overview: If your gym doesnt have a dedicated butt blaster machine, use this insteadit uses the same range of motion, and targets the middle portion and upper crest of the glutes.
- Get ready: Turn yourself around in a 45° leg press machine so your stomach and elbows are resting on the back pad, knees on the seat. Put one foot in the middle of the platform.
- Go: Unhinge the weight, then press your foot back at a 45° angle by straightening your leg, squeezing the glutes at the top. Return halfway to the starting position, then repeat for reps.
Kims tip: Dont arch your back. Make sure your foot is square so your toes are pointing straight down, and dont use a weight thats too heavy.
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How To Warm Up Your Glutes Before Training
Dont dive into your glute training without first diving into some proper mobility work. When youre doing them right , theres nothing easy about glute work.
One of the most effective warm-ups for any muscle group is going to be the exercises you are performing in that days training session. For example, if youre performing back squats, you can warm up by performing light reps and increase intensity as you proceed towards your working sets. This ensures that the appropriate muscles and joints are being primed, reducing the risk of injury and improving your overall training performance.
Stronger Glutes Stronger Everything Check Out Our 10 Favorite Glute Exercises For Strength Activation And Size
The gluteus maximus that is your butt for the uninitiated is the largest muscle in the body. Even if filling out a pair of Wranglers isnt at the top of your training priorities list, developing strong glutes will help you build better squats, deadlifts, and everything in between . If you cant figure out the most efficient way to activate your glutes, youre just not going to be able to maximize your gains.
Here, youll learn why glute training is often more effective than the old well, glutes are involved in squats and deads, so that should be enough . But how do you know which glute exercises are best? Weve also included the 14 best strength-building glute moves for you to fold into your training program.
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Optimal Glute Training Intensity Volume & Frequency
Optimal glute training volume and frequency depend on how well-developed your glutes are. To determine that, test your strength-endurance on the barbell hip thrust.
Bodyweight x 1020 reps
Intermediate glutes: 45105 lbs x 815 reps
Advanced glutes: 115185 lbs x 815 reps
Elite glutes: 195+ lbs x 815 reps
Workout : Bodyweight Only
A1) Bulgarian split squat, 4 sets per leg unweighted to fatigue
A2) Jump lunges, 4 sets to fatigue
B1) Glute-ham raise, 3 sets per side unweighted to fatigue
B2) Unilateral hip thrust, 3 sets per side unweighted to fatigue
Note: This workout is meant to be done at home or while traveling. If you dont have the equipment/partner to do the glute-ham raise, leave it out and raise the other three exercises to five sets each.
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How To Do Hip Extensions
You Can Bet Your Ass That These Workouts Will Grow And Strengthen Your Butt
Everybody wants a nice butt. Bodybuilders need a well-developed posterior to bring a complete package to the stage, powerlifters have to have strong glutes to lock out heavy pulls or squats, and pretty much everyone wants to look good in jeans.
Glute training has risen to prominence in the fitness world, but many mainstream exercises and workouts are inherently flawed. Building a rock-solid booty takes a bit more finesse than yet another set of unweighted kickbacks.
If you want to train your butt properly, youve come to the right place. Here are five workouts that have been fine-tuned to guarantee glute gains.
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Use These Glute Exercises To Shape A Better And Bigger Butt
If your looking to get a bigger butt and a shapely physique like Jennifer Lopez you better work and while your at it do some glute exercises! From six pack abs to a big bottom a sexy body comes in many forms but it all comes down to the curves of our silhouette. Theres no doubt the butt has become a popular body part since the days of Sir-Mix-A-Lot. With superstars like Beyonce, Nikki Minaj, Cardi-B, and Jennifer Lopez all touting there impressive backsides its no wonder our butts have become THE body part women who embrace their curvaceous physiques.
We all want our butts to be as high, tight, round, and firm as those seemingly perfect celebrities but getting it is another matter. Because so much of our bodys shape and figure comes from our genetics and our butts is the area where we tend to hold the most fat for the longest. Making it very difficult to shape and tone. But not impossible.
Our glutes are made up of three muscles the gluteus maximus, the gluteus medius, and the gluteus minimus.
Leg Extensions And Leg Curls:
Now I hope I didn’t give you the impression earlier that these exercises are not worth doing. These exercises are beneficial for the bodybuilder or fitness enthusiast. They are great for warming up, super setting, warming down or building mass and density. These exercises of course stimulate just the hamstrings and quads so they are great isolation movements.
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Squat With Backward Leg Extension
Mix this move into your butt workout and you’ll strengthen your quads while working your booty. When you’re extending your leg back at the top of your squat, make sure to seriously squeeze your cheeks to get all the move’s benefits, says Kym Perfetto, NASM-certified trainer and YouTuber extroardinaire.
A. Stand with feet slightly wider than hips-width apart.
B. Shift weight back into heels and lower into a squat.
C. Return to standing, shift weight onto left foot, and engage glutes to lift right leg straight behind body with foot flexed.
D. Return to starting position and repeat, alternating sides.
Try to do AMRAP for 30 seconds.
How To Warm Up For Glute Workouts
Glute warm-ups should prime the muscle for work but also wake up the other muscle groups responsible for working synergistically in hip extension. This means incorporating exercises and drills that promote increased stability and alignment of the trunk and limbs.
Things like single-leg bridges or hinges, split squats, or some light cable kickbacks before your big lifts or during early sets can help keep your movement locked in for the whole session.
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How To Do A Single Leg Chair Squat
Butt Exercise: Medicine Ball Hip Thrusts
Degree of difficulty: 4 out of 5
- Overview: By rolling the medicine ball closer to or farther away from your glutes, you will feel this exercise in different areas of your glutes. Find the one that allows you to feel it most in the lower-middle portion of your glutes. For added resistance, place a dumbbell or weight plate on your pelvis.
- Get ready: Lie on your back on the floor with your knees bent and your heels on a small medicine ball.
- Go: Contract your abs, then squeeze your glutes and hamstrings to thrust your hips upward. Hold for a count, then lower yourself three-quarters of the way back to the floor, keeping your abs contracted, and repeat.
Kims tip: Keep your head on the floor. Doing this with your head up is a good way to pinch a nerve in your neck.
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Reverse Lunge With Knee Drive
How to:
Glute Bridge Without Resistance Band
- Lay face-up on the floor or mat with your hands comfortably to your sides .
- Bend both your right knee and left knee and slide your heels up toward your buttocks.
- Maintaining the bend in your knees, plant your right foot and left foot the entire time, and push your hips toward the ceiling.
- Attempt to make one straight line from your chest to your knees, squeezing your glutes.
- Hinge your hips back to the floor and repeat.
Rep count: Start with 2-3 sets of 8-10. Work up to 3 sets of 15-20. Move on to the next exercise.
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Bridge With Leg Extension
“The bridge isolates the gluteus maximus because the leg is bent at the knee and therefore the hamstring is less active,” says Robert Forster, a physical therapist and founder of Phase IV and Forster Physical Therapy. “Extending the opposite leg serves to put much more work onto the glute of the stationary leg, and balancing on one foot recruits the other glute muscles on the outside of the pelvis for stability,” he explains. While you power through this move, remember to avoid overextending your hips, which causes you to arch your back and turns your butt exercise into a backbend.
A. Lie faceup with knees bent, feet flat on the floor, and hands at sides.
B. Do a pelvic tilt, making sure lower back is pressing into the floor. Then squeeze glutes and press through heels to raise hips off the mat to create a straight line with body, aligning knees, hips, and shoulders.
C. Straighten right leg, keeping quads and knees aligned, and hold for 3 counts.
D. Drop right foot to the ground to return to starting position. Switch sides repeat. Continue alternating.
Try to do 3 sets of 10 reps per side.
The Best Butt And Leg Exercises To Try At Home
Like Schwartz mentioned before, the glutes can become “lazy” or “sleepy” from inactivity or sitting for long periods. For that reason, it’s important to actively “wake them up” before you try an exercise. “Two exercises I’d suggest right away are both straightforward activation drills: Fire Hydrants and Donkey Kicks. Both are ‘simple’ yet require a lot of mindfulness to get the most out of them,” Swartz says.
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Glute Workout 2 Shape And Tone
This workout is designed for those who want shapely glutes that are firm to the touch and fit beautifully into any pair of jeans.
- Knee Tuck Hip Bridge 10 reps per leg
- Band-Resisted Lateral Shuffle 10 shuffles each way
- Quadruped Hip Extensions 10RM per leg
- Step Ups 6RM
- Cable Kickbacks 10RM per leg
Bb Landmine Rdl Glute Squeeze
The Landmine Romanian Deadlift, also known as the Landmine RDL, is a variant of the Romanian deadlift that is primarily used to work the hamstrings and glutes.
While all hip exercises primarily target the hamstrings, the RDL has long been considered a variation of the “leg” deadlift. A sensible option to increase training frequency and exercise movement patterns is to do an RDL on a leg training day and another deadlift variation on a back or pull training day.
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- Stand with a bar between your legs, hands on the handlebars, and place the bar in the groove of the V-bar.
- Standing up straight and starting the RDL, push your hips back and hinge forward until the bar is just below knee height.
- Go through your entire foot and focus on pushing the floor away.
- Return to the starting position and repeat as many repetitions as desired.
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- Stand in front of a step or weight bench with a plate or pair of dumbbells in hand.
- Put one foot on the bench, press down with your heel, and lift your body up until your leg is straight while extending your back leg behind you, contracting your hamstrings and hips.
- Without placing the second foot on the bench, slowly lower the free leg back to the ground.
- Keep your feet pressed against the bench and repeat with the same leg.
- After completing the rep with one leg, switch legs and repeat.
Build that butt with this follow along full glutes workout circuit video!
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