4 Exercises I Would NEVER SKIP if I Wanted Bigger Glutes
Most women would love to grow their glutes. And it can definitely be done without doing crazy, unnecessary exercises or spending an excessive amount of time in the gym.
But it does take a few key things:
- adequate calories
- adequate protein intake
- resistance training (specifically hypertrophy based training following progressive overload)
First up- Calories are KING
A huge piece of growing muscle is eating enough overall calories. Your body will not want to prioritize growth when it’s under-fueled. This means you need to eat at maintenance or slightly above maintenance calories to properly fuel your body and prime it for the ability to build muscle mass.
If this sounds scary to you, or you’re worried about gaining fat while eating higher calories, I want you to first take a step back and assess your goals. We can’t always be in a fat loss phase. And just the act of simply losing body fat does not guarantee that you will end up with the SHAPE that you want.
Muscle is where we get that shape, the curves, the rounded glutes and shoulders, etc. It comes from spending intentional time building the muscle to give you structure and shape so that when you do cut calories at a later date, there’s something there to reveal.
So- how do you determine your calories? There are several ways, but I would recommend finding a calorie calculator online such as this one.
Enter your current stats (not what you hope to be, but where you currently are). For most women, you’ll likely fall under the ‘lightly active’ category if you routinely workout a few times a week. It’s better to choose a more conservative activity level rather than a higher one than what you can consistently achieve.
From here you’ll receive a few sets of numbers for calories (below is just a random example):
We only care about the top number- how many calories to maintain your current weight. This is the minimum number of calories you want to eat to maintain your current body weight. There is research that shows you can actually eat just below this number and still build muscle while losing a tiny bit of weight, however this is more of an exception and not considered to be the rule. This method works well for those women who are new to lifting, have taken an extended time off lifting (such as postpartum, coming back after 3+ months off, etc.) or those who have never tracked their food intake and followed a progressive overload training program. If you fall into any of those categories, you can choose to subtract about 100-200 calories from your maintenance numbers.
If however, you do not fall into any of those categories, then you’ll want to stick with the maintenance number for your calories while working toward building the glutes.
*Under NO circumstances should you ever consume the calories listed for ‘extreme weight loss.’ That would not be sustainable and if followed longer than a few weeks there is a high possibility for negative impact on hormones, metabolism, sex drive, mood, strength, and more.
Next- Protein is QUEEN
Now that we know your expected calorie intake for muscle growth, we’ll calculate how many grams of protein you need to consume.
Protein is a critical piece in the puzzle for muscle growth. We need our bodies to trigger something called muscle protein synthesis (MPS- the process by which your body uses amino acids to build muscle). This is done by either resistance training, or leucine intake (an amino acid found in protein). Typically, we want about 20 grams of protein per meal to initiate MPS.
Overall daily protein intake is especially critical because we want consistent intake of protein to continue to be able to feed these muscles in order for them to grow.
To determine your protein goal, we will calculate this based on weight.
current body weight x 0.8 = MINIMUM protein intake goal
current body weight x 1.0 = MAXIMUM protein intake goal
for example, for a 165 lb woman, her protein intake ranges would be:
MINIMUM = 132 g
MAXIMUM = 165 g
If you are currently eating significantly less than your minimum calculated number, then start diligently tracking and aiming to hit the minimum first.
The minimum target is adequate for muscle growth. However, you may choose to up your protein intake to a middle ground, or to your max number if you are comfortable with this.
*The rest of your calories will come from carbs and fats. It is important to have a good ratio of both for hormone function, temperature regulation, and total calories. We care less about the actual numbers of these and simply focusing on tracking total calories and protein is enough.
The 4 Main Exercises I'd Program for You
Now onto the key exercises I would program for your workouts if you wanted to build bigger, rounder, lifted glutes!
HIP THRUSTS
This requires the glutes to use the greatest force in their shortened position (at the top of the contraction). This is a hip hinge pattern and a key movement of the glutes. Use a barbell, dumbbells, do it single leg, etc. Find what allows you to feel the greatest mind-to-muscle connection (everyone is different).
STEP UPS-
A step up allows you to work the glutes with the greatest force placed during their lengthened position. This can great a lot of mechanical tension on the muscle without placing much effort on the low back- a huge win! This movement can be done with a barbell, dumbbells, or even body weight. Take it slow and really focus on the lowering phase on the exercise to maximize glutes.
SQUATS-
While a squat can recruit largely quad muscles, there are some variations of the exercise that really help target the glutes. A barbell back squat going to parallel or lower depth, a weighted sumo squat (barbell or dumbbell), and Bulgarian split squats can be excellent exercises. Choose at least one for your glute workout.
DEADLIFTS-
This is another hinge movement pattern but focused on the glutes in their lengthened position. Hip extension is the primary movement pattern of the glutes and key to helping grow the muscle. You can perform these with a barbell or dumbbells, or opt for a single leg version as well!
If there's a SECRET SAUCE, it's this!
Okay, we know your calorie and protein intake needs for building bigger glutes. We also know which specific exercises can improve the shape of the glutes.
Now we get to talk about the FUN part- the secret sauce, if there ever was one.
Hypertrophy training! This is a style of resistance training that is using a specific range of sets and reps per exercise to elicit that muscle protein synthesis (or MPS) that we talked about earlier.
For hypertrophy training, we ideally want to aim for 3-4 sets of 6-12 reps per exercise. And overall, about 8-10 sets per muscle group per week. Now, this can feel like a lot of overall volume if you are not currently training consistently or have never followed a training plan before. So, take time to build up to that as needed!
This could look like (10 set example):
- 3 sets of 8 reps for hip thrusts
- 2 sets of 8 reps for step ups (per side)
- 3 sets of 12 reps for deadlifts
- 2 sets of 10 reps for sumo squats
Or this could look like (10 set example):
- 3 sets of 12 reps for single leg hip thrusts
- 4 sets of 6 reps for barbell deadlifts
- 3 sets of 8 reps for Bulgarian split squats (per side)
*Now remember we said that we need about 8-10 sets per muscle group across the week. If you want to do these all on one day, great! If not, you could even split this up into two days.
Workouts Programmed for You
If you feel overwhelmed trying to create these workouts on your own or want the structure and plan to ensure you are doing it correctly, you can also join the BUILD program. This is a program I created to help women build muscle, strength and confidence in the gym, and they are the exact workouts I follow on a weekly basis.
You get 2 options: a 5-day muscle group split, or a 3-day full body plan. Both are just as effective, it simply depends on your goals, your time commitment, preference, and lifestyle.
Workouts can be done either at home or the gym, with swaps/modifications listed for your equipment and experience level.
You also have access to message me as your coach for form videos/questions, or motivation.