The Best Glute Exercises + Create Your Own Workout

Happy Friday! Hope you had a fantastic week 🙂 

This week I wanted to share some of my favorite glute exercises and a sample workout with you! I also want to give you some tools to help create your own workout and make this customizable for you and YOUR goals. Little hint though- you won’t find a million banded exercises here!

But, before we get into the workout, I wanted to share why I chose these exercises and what makes them the best for your glutes. Personally, I always like to know the science and reason behind things and it helps me to understand why I’m doing something. In terms of exercise, it’s always important to know how the muscle you’re targeting works. We don’t want to waste our time doing movements that aren’t beneficial (or even worse, that could be damaging). 

To start, it’s helpful to know the musculature of the glutes. There are three muscles that make them up: gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. Each muscle has a different origin and insertion (where the muscles attach to your bones) and a different function. Because of that, we need to perform different types of exercises to be able to properly target each one and build a strong, well balanced muscle.

  • Gluteus maximus: This is the largest of the three muscles. This muscle is responsible for extension and external rotation of the thigh at the hip joint, as well as thigh abduction and thigh adduction.
  • Gluteus medius: This muscle is responsible for thigh abduction, thigh internal rotation, and stabilizing the pelvis.
  • Gluteus minimus: The gluteus minimus is the smallest and most deep of the three glute muscles. It is responsible for thigh abduction, thigh internal rotation, and stabilization of the pelvis.
Now, I know that those all sound a bit too scientific possibly and maybe not that interesting to you. What you need to take away from that, is that essentially, your glutes are responsible for more than a squat or a hip thrust. They work in three planes of motion (scientifically called the sagittal, frontal and transverse planes). You can think of those as front-to-back movements, side-to-side movements, and rotational movements. And in order to fully work the muscles and get the shape you want, you need to be sure that you hit all movements in your workouts weekly. It’s so important to not skip muscles or muscle groups in general in your workouts. This can lead to imbalances in your body and could potentially lead to injuries. 

 

Your glutes are also one of the largest muscles in your body and responsible for a significant amount of your daily activities. So, having strong glutes will allow you to perform better in other areas of the gym as well.

Some of my favorite exercises:

Hip Thrust Glute Workout

Hip Thrust:

This is one of the best and most effective exercises to work the glutes, because it works them in a way that other exercises can’t. This is because the greatest amount of tension and effort of the movement is achieved when the glutes are fully contracted (shortened), rather than when they are stretched. 

For a hip thrust, you want your upper back stabilized on a bench, feet planted on the ground and the weight will go at your hips. The focus should be on driving through your heels and squeezing the glutes to move the weight upward. Be sure that your core is engaged and you have either a neutral pelvis or a posterior pelvic tilt (pelvis slightly tucked under). Your chin will remain tucked to your chest throughout the full movement.

Other variations: B-stance hip thrust (one leg positioned further in front), single-leg, banded hip thrust, banded hip thrust with abduction, glute bridge (back on floor), feet elevated glute bridge, pulse hip thrusts, kneeling hip thrusts…

Reverse Lunge Glute Workouts

Lunges:

Lunges are another key exercise for the glutes. This is much more of a compound movement and will also largely work the quads. I love this exercise because it’s fairly simple to perform, and I feel this a lot in the ‘under booty’ area, or the lower part of your glutes.

Again, there are so many ways these can be performed to target the muscles in a different way. Which you choose should be based on your preference and which one you feel the most. Personally, I love Smith machine reverse lunges and curtsey lunges the best.

Other variations: Dumbbell reverse lunges, deficit reverse lunges (front foot standing on a box or platform for additional range of motion), lateral lunges (works more of the adductors and gluteus medius), stationary lunges, pulsing lunges, walking lunges, overhead weighted walking lunges, front lunges, curtsey lunges (works more of the gluteus medius as well)…

Deadlifts for Glute Growth

Deadlifts:

The deadlift is often thought of as mainly a hamstring exercise (which is true). However, as I mentioned previously, it’s important to work your muscles in different ways. To perform a deadlift properly, you will be activating your glutes through a hip hinge motion as well. This works the lower glutes in addition to the hamstrings.

Other variations: Single-leg deadlifts (my favorite), narrow stance deadlifts, traditional barbell deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, Smith machine deadlifts, deficit deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, straight leg deadlifts…

Also in the same ‘hip hinge’ family: Back extensions, good mornings

Exercises to Grow Your Glutes

Squats:

I think squats have somehow gotten a bad reputation for solely working your quads, or that you shouldn’t perform these if you want to grow your glutes. Personally, I disagree and think you should absolutely include some type of squat in your workouts. 

Squats will work the lower glutes very well, in addition to the quads. They are also a great compound movement and will work your calves, hamstrings and core as well for stabilization.

Other variations: Barbell vs. dumbbell squats, front squats, narrow stance squats, sumo squats, split squats, Smith machine squats, banded squats (helps work the gluteus medius more), goblet squats…

Accessory Movements:

This is where you’ll find movements that include more band work. Notice I did not make this a specific key movement. You won’t grow your glutes by just adding a band to every lower body exercise. It takes lifting heavy (and also eating in a calorie surplus) to actually grow your muscles. A booty band will certainly help you feel the ‘burn’ though, and I know they are trendy and can be fun.

Bands are also great to implement in your warm-up to help ensure your glutes are activated and ready to work through the rest of your workout.

Additional movements: Banded seated abduction, abduction machine, cable abduction, banded side steps, side step-ups, plyometrics (such as jump squats, jumping lunges, pop squats), glute kickbacks, lying side leg raises, clamshells, adduction machine…

Creating your own glute workout:

Now that we have covered some of the key exercises, let’s talk about setting up a workout. Again, this will be dependent on what you prefer and what your goals are, and what areas you need to work on. 

I recommend starting with the following formula:

  • 2-3 warm-up exercises
  • 1-2 variations hip thrust/glute bridges
  • 1 variation squats
  • 1 variation deadlifts
  • 1 variation lunges
 This set-up ensures you have time to warm-up your muscles first, move through compound movements, and then finish with single-leg or more isolated exercises. If you want to add extras (like plyometrics) I recommend adding them at the very end.

Example workout:

Warm-up:

  • 2×20 Bodyweight glute bridges
  • 2×20 Banded side-steps
  • 2×20 Banded clamshells

*Perform the warm-up exercises in a circuit, or complete all sets/reps of each exercise before moving onto the next. Your goal here isn’t heavy weights, just activating the muscles you plan to use in your workout later on.

Workout:

  • 4×8-10 Weighted hip thrust
  • 3×12 Weighted, banded glute bridge
  • 3×12 Smith machine squats
  • 3×8-10 Dumbbell straight leg deadlifts
  • 3×15 Weighted deficit reverse lunges
*For the workout portion, perform all sets/reps of each exercise before moving onto the next. This allows you to lift heavier weight for each set. Be sure to take enough rest time between sets as well (at least 1-2 minutes).

If this helped you, or you try the workout, please let me know! I’d love to hear what you thought. I think I’ll be doing the sample workout this weekend actually!

And, if you need suggestions on your training, check out these posts: eating/training for your goals, sample core workout. I also post other tips/workouts on my Instagram as well!

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