Bonus Glute Exercise: Super
I said Id give you our top seven glute exercises, but I dont think youll complain if I over deliver and hit you with eight! The super-dog exercise is a move which we developed to not only test our clients end-range glute strength, but also to train and improve end-range hip extension strength.
We actually like to use bent-leg super-dogs for really glute-focused work in our active warms-ups on leg/glute days. Simply flex your knee to around 90 degrees of the lifting leg, instead of keeping it straight as shown in the video. We also like to use either the straight or bent-leg super-dog as a glute burn-out for high-rep sets of 30-75 per side at the end of a comprehensive glute workout.
Single Leg Glute Bridge
a) Rest your upper back on the floor and place your feet hip-width apart, knees bent at 90º, so your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees.
b) Squeeze your glutes and lower your hips thats your starting position.
c) Then drive through your heel to return to the top, pausing for 3 secs before slowly lowering down. Repeat.
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Pop onto FitBoard or the fitness board on Pinterest and you’ll soon learn that it’s all about the butt! Who doesn’t want a backside that turns heads? You can do cardio until you’re blue in the face, but you won’t build a great bum unless you do some weight training. Not sure which moves or techniques are best for building the perfect booty? We’ve got you covered.
Here are five of the best glute training techniques and exercises you can do, including a complete workout from IFBB Bikini competitor India Paulino. Incorporate these techniques in your lower-body training regimen and you’ll be blown away by the results. A full set of glutes is in your future!
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The Best Glute Exercises For A Bigger Stronger Butt
What youll learn here
Its impossible to discuss the best glute exercises without mentioning the hip thrust.
But lets be honest. Imagine trying to hit the optimal weekly training volume for your glutes solely through the hip thrust! Its going to be:
- Challenging
- Boring AND
- A super inefficient way to grow your glutes
Wait. Super inefficient? Doesnt the hip thrust elicit the highest glute activation levels?
Whats up with that? Also, if only doing the hip thrust isnt feasible, which of the other best glute exercises should you include in your training plan? Keep reading to get your answers!
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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Bodyweight Exercises That Build Glutes
Now that we know how to build our glutes using only bodyweight exercises, heres a list of exercises that you can do with just you! Theres no need for any barbells, dumbbells or kettlebells here. Were using just your bodyweight.
The 10 best bodyweight glute exercises are:
Glute Bridge
Fire Hydrants
Tip #: What Makes Your Butt Grow
Its done through something known as progressive overload.
Progressive Overload Defined:
In order for a muscle to grow, strength to be gained, performance to increase, or for any similar improvement to occur, the human body must be forced to adapt to a tension that is above and beyond what it has previously experienced.
If you want your butt to grow, youll want to consistently overload the muscle group through weight training by getting stronger, and increase your intensity slowly over time.
A quick example is to take a simple movement like a bicep curl. The first time you attempt the movement, you wont be able to curl the 30 pound weight. Chances are youll need to start with the 5-pound weights and move up over time.
You might do 3 sets of 10 reps with 5 pounds for 3-4 workouts before you feel comfortable moving up to the next weight, which could be 7.5 or 10-pound dumbbells.
This principle should be applied to every other exercise if you want to improve your strength and experience muscle growth.
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Tip #: Follow A Proven Booty Workout Schedule
There are many ways to create a program that works for you. Depending on your goals, you could train twice per week using a full body training split, or you could train 6 days per week focusing on different body parts each session.
Its mostly up to you, but there are some factors that must be taken into consideration when choosing a workout plan thats good for you.
Here are a handful of variables to think about when choosing how many days youll be able to work out per week:
- Work schedule
- Lifestyle factors
- Stress levels
For sake of example, a majority of people will be able to get to the gym or train regularly 3 to 4 times per week.
The free Booty Building Workout Im providing focuses on 3 days per week, but can be scheduled for 4 days as well.
Its common to follow full body, or upper/lower split program over 3 to 4 days per week, from beginner to advanced trainee.
My beginners workout routine is an example of a full body program.
Heres a sample schedule of how a full body program would look:
3 Days Per Week:
Saturday: Full Body TrainingSunday: Off / Cardio
All workout programs and training routines have their place. Any of them can work as long as it fits your schedule and youre able to recover from them.
Bigger Butt Workout #: Barbells & Dumbbells
- Barbell Back Squat: warm up and 3 sets of 4 to 6 reps
- Barbell Hip Thrust: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
- Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
- Bulgarian Split Squat: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
If you want to mix heavy barbell lifting with some supplementary dumbbell work to make sure your lower-body development is balanced, this is the perfect workout for you.
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Bigger Butt Workout #: Barbells
- Barbell Back Squat: warm up and 3 sets of 4 to 6 reps
- Romanian Deadlift: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
- Barbell Lunges: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
- Barbell Hip Thrust: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
If you have access to barbells, this is one of the best glute-building workouts you can do. Barbell exercises are ideal for safely implementing progressive overload .
Why Cant You Only Do The Hip Thrust
So, why is only doing the hip thrust an inefficient way to grow your glutes despite its impressive glute activation levels?
It comes down to 2 things: muscle growth mechanism and activation pattern of gluteal muscles.
More specifically:
- Muscle growth mechanism: The hip thrust is great at driving hypertrophy through mechanical tension and metabolic stress . It doesnt do all that well when it comes to the remaining key driver of muscle growth: muscle damage .
- Activation of gluteal muscles: The hip thrust is a hip extension movement pattern. That primarily targets the gluteus maximus. While the gluteus medius and the gluteus minimus are activated to some degree, they arent the prime movers here. For that, youd need hip abduction movement patterns .
If you want to learn about how the glutes work and why theyre so important, heres a guide on getting a bigger butt you should check out.
Of course, The Best Glute Exercise that ticks all boxes by driving muscle growth through all 3 mechanisms and activating all 3 gluteal regions doesnt exist.
Thats why youll have to mix-and-match a variety of glute exercises.
Summary
The hip thrust is undeniably one of the best glute exercises to exist. Even then, it cant ensure optimal glute development on its own. Youll need a variety of exercises to help target other muscle growth mechanisms and glute regions.
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Butt Exercise: Split Squat
Degree of difficulty: 4 out of 5
- Overview: This exercise works both glutes at the same timeone gets stretched while the other is contracted. To add difficulty, use a stability ball instead of a bench.
- Get ready: Stand a few feet in front of a bench. Carefully extend one foot back to place it on top of the bench with the sole of your shoe almost parallel to the floor.
- Go: Bend your front leg to lower your torso straight down toward the ground, making sure your knee stays behind your toes, until your thigh is about parallel to the ground and your back knee is within a foot of the floor. Press through the heel of your front leg and squeeze your glute as you rise straight back up.
Kims tip: Make sure the movement goes straight down, not forward.
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Butt Exercise: Side Band Walking
Degree of difficulty: 5 out of 5
- Overview: This exercise effectively targets the glute-ham tie-in, where most women tend to carry body fat.
- Get ready: Tie a resistance band just below your knees, and descend into a quarter-squat position, feet slightly more than shoulder-width apart to put tension on the band.
- Go: Keeping your abs tight and staying in the quarter-squat, step to the right with your right leg first, then your left, keeping tension on the band throughout. Repeat for reps, then switch sides to lead with your left leg.
Kims tip: I really like this one because it hits an area in your glutes thats really hard to get to.
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Blogilates ‘lift Your Butt’ Bum Workout
Expect a sweet, sweet burn in this glute circuit from fitness superstar Cassey Ho, a.k.a. Blogilates. Lots of reps paired with little rest means your muscles will fatigue more quickly leading to those much sought-after gains. The whole workout is only seven and a half minutes long so fight the urge to give up!
Scientific Glute Workout For At Office
scientific glute workout Im going to show you a glutes workout with 6 of the best exercises to grow your butt. If youre ass aint grass yet then here are some scientifically proven ways to activate those glutes even more when performing the above exercises.
Scientific Glute Workout, Im going to show you a glutes workout with 6 of the best exercises to grow your butt. Science your human genetics Im going to be doing the exact same thing in this video but for League leads and specifically the gluteus. The science behind growing your glutes.
Heres what Ill go through. Im going to show you a glutes workout with 6 of the best exercises to grow your butt. The science behind growing your glutes. If youre ass aint grass yet then here are some scientifically proven ways to activate those glutes even more when performing the above exercises. Science your human genetics Im going to be doing the exact same thing in this video but for League leads and specifically the gluteus.
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Bodyweight Single Leg Deadlift
a) Stand with one foot on the mat with a slightly bent knee and one foot slightly raised.
b) Hinge at the hips to push your bum and raised leg backwards until your upper body forms a flat line.
c) Use your glutes to return to standing, trying to keep your raised leg floating off of the ground. Repeat.
Your Best Bets To Target The Glutes
Now, lets get specific. What exactly are the best exercises for seeing growth in the glute muscles?
- Side plank abductions
- Kettlebell swings
- Hip external rotations
- Single-leg elevated hip thrusts
Most of these exercises achieve a 70% or greater maximal voluntary muscle contraction . The higher that percentage, the more youre working those glutes and the faster youre moving toward bigger muscles.
Side plank abductions come out on top with 103% MVIC, and single leg squats are the next best with 82% MVIC .
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Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat
A close relative to the Bulgarian split squat, this variation isolates one leg at a time, which also allows a weaker leg the ability to catch up in terms of size and strength. The rear foot elevation allows you to sink down into hip flexion more, placing more muscular tension on the glute of the front leg.
Follow The Rule Of Thirds
“I recommend training the glutes three times per week with a variety of loads and exercises,” says Contreras. “Approximately one-third of the glute exercises you perform should be horizontal in nature, one-third should be vertical in nature, and one-third should be lateral/rotary in nature.” So for example, you’ll want to do exercises like hip thrusts and cable pull-throughs for horizontal loading, deadlifts and step-ups for vertical loading, and lateral band walks and clamshells for lateral/rotary loading.
The rule also applies to weight, rep ranges, and effort. “Roughly one-third of loads you use should be heavy for lower reps, one-third should be medium for moderate reps, and one-third should be light for higher reps. In terms of effort, around one-third of your sets should be carried out to failure or one rep shy of failure, one-third of your sets should be performed to two to three reps shy of failure, and one-third of your sets should be taken nowhere close to failure.”
This strategy for how to get a bigger butt helps ensure you’re working your glutes from all angles while keeping you from burning yourself out or getting too fatigued.
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How To Do The Goblet Squat
Stand with your feet around shoulder width apart with a dumbbell or kettlebell and hold the weight directly under your chin with your elbows tucked in. Brace your core, tense your back, and ensure that you feel stable. Keep your chest up and squat down until both of your legs bend to around 90 degrees. Stand back up by driving through the floor.
