The BEST Exercises for Your Glutes

Oct 22, 2018

It is ALL about the peach, the bootay, the badonkadonk, the heiney, the caboose….wow it is really easy to come up with a list of euphemisms for your ass, had to stop myself early! I have to say, the trend toward developing delicious looking round, firm, functional glutes has got to be one of the better fitness trends we’ve seen. My favourite part is the universal appeal of glutes to both men and women. EVERYONE likes a nice ass. Except for older folks, if you were born prior to 1955 you are probably against the idea of growing bigger anything seeing as slim was the physique of choice. It’s a generalization I know, but I have yet to work with a client over the age of 60 who is interested in growing their glutes….but that is neither here nor there!

Today “strong is the new skinny”, which is a saying I don’t love…..replaces one infatuation with another. Now instead of constantly scrutinizing our thinness we can focus on how lean/toned/jacked & tanned we are…but I digress…wow two rants and we aren’t even into the meat of the article yet! Speaking of meat, let’s talk about meaty glutes. In today’s post we dive into the the BEST exercises for building strong, functional, and nice-looking glutes. Spoiler alert: squats are not the best exercise for juicy glutes. Shocking I know! But let me explain….

In typical Coach P fashion, let’s dive a little deeper into the what, where, how, and when…

WHERE ARE YOUR GLUTES?

You’re sitting on them, next question…

WHAT ARE YOUR ‘GLUTES’?

You have three glute muscles: gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. Together we refer to them as the “glutes” pronounced: glooootes, also known as “dat ass”.

WHAT DO THEY DO?

Your glutes are responsible for the following:

hip extension (think kicking your leg straight back)
hip external rotation (think rotating your hip away from the midline of your body)
trunk extension (think lifting your torso up from a bent over position)
hip abduction (think kicking your leg out to the side)
posterior pelvic tilt (think tucking your tailbone under)

Wow! Your butt is pretty impressive isn’t it? And we haven’t even commented on it’s shape! But let’s go there. How do you get that lovely peach shape? A lot of people would have you believe that you need to squat to build strong, beautiful glutes. Here is what I love about that advice: it lures women away from the stairmaster and in towards the weight room. Here is what I don’t love about that advice: it’s not true. Let’s not discriminate though, for the men reading this blog it’s possible you already dwell in the weight room quite a bit. You might even be one of the few men who train their legs! If that is you, congratulations, I bet you have a lovely ass. But if you’d like an even more lovely ass, keep reading….

Hip extension can occur in a vertical or horizontal plane. Vertical hip extension looks like standing up from a squat: at the bottom of an ass-to-grass squat your hips are flexed, as you stand up and your knees straighten, your hips come forward into hip extension. Horizontal hip extension looks like the thrust motion of a barbell hip thrust: at the bottom of a thrust your hips are flexed and your glutes are stretched, as you thrust your hips extend as you lift them towards the ceiling contracting your glutes. Horizontal hip extension exercises have increased muscular tension on the glutes throughout the entire range of motion compared to the decreasing force experienced during vertical hip extension exercises as you approach ‘lockout’ (Contreras et al, 2011). Hip thrusts also have the unique advantage of being performed with a bent leg, limiting the capability of the hamstrings to take over (unlike the good morning or stiff-legged deadlift). If you are BIG into glutes and glute training, I highly recommend a visit to “The Glute Guy” Bret Contreras. He has devoted his life’s work to helping people build beautiful peaches…..oh and he also invented the hip thrust #funfact

SO WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO TRAIN YOUR GLUTES?

Well, it depends folks. Are we training for performance (sprinters, jumpers, field or court athletes?) or for aesthetics (body builders, models?). To be fair, the real answer is that the best way to train you glutes is to hit them from a variety of angles using variable forces in variable positions. A fully loaded glute arsenal will include bent leg and straight leg hip extension exercises, bent and straight leg hip abduction exercises, bent and straight leg hip external rotation exercises all performed in both vertical and horizontal planes. DON’T get overwhelmed…scroll down for video examples of what I’m yammering about. If we are talking sport performance, we might use a lot of the same exercises the aesthetics athletes are using but our training parameters might look a little different. As with most training programs, the specificity, volume, frequency, and intensity principles must be manipulated appropriately to see the desired results. Small sidebar: this is probably one of the most important reasons to hire a trainer, trainers take the guesswork out of your training and take you from “working out” to actually training towards a goal. If you think your glutes need special attention (not in a creepy way? well….is there really any other way?), I’m happy to put together a targeted training program for you. The #1 most important reason to hire a trainer is accountability, sometimes YOU are your biggest barrier and you need someone else to do the thinking. With a custom program you just show up at the gym and DO IT! No thinking required. Sidebar over…

THE HIP THRUST IS SUPERIOR

As the Glute Guy will tell you, the hip thrust actually elicits more muscular activity than the squat. Squats are an important staple in any program but if the goal is bigger, rounder glutes, squats should not be your first choice, the hip thrust should be! In addition to the hip thrust you should consider, rounded back extensions, quadruped pendulum hip extensions, glute bridges, banded abductions, cable kickbacks and more! Ah but the recipe is not universal! Some men and women will grow round, delicious rumps doing nothing but squats….while others will stick to minibands and see amazing gains. It’s hard to know what is going to work for you until you try it! You will know which exercises give you the most bang for your glute bucks if you pay attention to the mind-muscle connection you experience! If you can’t feel tension in your glutes, you likely aren’t getting any. Experiment with band, barbell, and dumbbell work to find out which exercises you connect most with. Once again, variety is your friend. Hit the glutes from multiple angles in multiple positions, and don’t be afraid of throwing in a targeted glute day 1-2x/week. Your glutes are the biggest muscle in your entire body, own them! Show them who is boss!