Recruit your glutes with these beginner, intermediate and advanced exercises.
The first benefit of strong, well-trained glutes is obvious – they look damn good in a pair of jeans. But there are many other reasons why you should ensure glute exercises feature in your workouts.
The glutes play a key role in keeping your body aligned correctly, which helps you avoid injuries, and provide the power for many movements, especially walking or running up hills or stairs. If your day-to-day involves sitting behind a desk there’s a good chance your glutes aren’t firing as efficiently as they should, and this can contribute to the type of lower back pain that plagues office workers.
To help you get to work on your glutes we asked Andy Macaulay, trainer and ambassador for Virgin Active, and Toby Lynes, The Fitting Rooms Gym personal trainer, to pick and explain the best beginner, intermediate and advanced glute exercises.
Beginner Glute Exercises
Glute bridge
“This is a great move for beginners, activating the glutes while giving a good stretch without the need for equipment,” says Macaulay.
“Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Keep both arms on the floor by your sides with palms facing up. Before lifting your hips, check your heels are close to your butt and your feet are hip-width apart. Squeeze your glutes and lift your hips until you form a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. Pause at the top and squeeze your glutes again to make sure they’re still active, then lower slowly.”
Reverse lunge
“Stand with your feet hip-width apart,” says Macaulay. “Step one leg straight back and lower your torso by bending your knees until both are at 90°Ensure your front heel is grounded, your hips don’t rotate and your chest remains upright throughout. Rise back to standing by pushing down through your front heel and squeezing your glutes.”
Squat
“One of the most popular and versatile exercises for glute and leg training, the squat is highly effective if done correctly,” says Macaulay. “It can also help improve your strength, power, speed and endurance, as well as weight loss.
“Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your knees and lower your hips, pushing your knees out over your toes – this takes the pressure off your lower back while promoting glute activation. Lower until your thighs are parallel to the floor, then push back up through your heels. When starting out, focus on mobility – if you find your heels lift, try shortening the range of the squat so that they stay down.”
Floor hip extension
“This is a simple yet effective exercise for working your glutes,” says Lynes. “Get into a press-up position and bring one knee to your chest. Then extend the same leg behind you until it’s completely straight and parallel to the floor. Try to limit the arch in your lower back when extending your leg.”
Cable hip abductions
“This simple movement will work the muscles on the side of your bum,” says Lynes. “Attach a pulley from a cable machine to one ankle. Hold on to something for support and raise the leg attached to the machine out to the side. The most effective approach is long sets – keep going until you feel the burn.”
Intermediate Glute Exercises
Bulgarian split squat
“This is not only is a great way to activate the glutes but also improves your lower-body stability, plyometric ability and mobility,” says Macaulay.
“Stand facing away from a bench, then raise one leg behind you and rest the top of the foot on the bench. Keep your torso upright and brace your abdominals to help keep your hips square to the bench. Bend your knees to lower slowly until the rear knee nearly touches the floor and the front thigh is parallel to the ground. Pause at the bottom, then squeeze your glutes to push back up explosively.”
Sumo squat with kettlebell
“The wider foot position of the sumo squat allows more external rotation of the hips which improves glute activation,” says Macaulay. “It really burns! Holding a kettlebell is a great way to progress to back squats.
“Stand with your legs wider than shoulder-width apart and your toes pointed out. Hold the kettlebell handle in both hands between your legs, with your palms facing in. Looking forwards and keeping your chest up, lower your body by bending your knees until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Then push back up. Keep your back straight and heels on the ground throughout, and keep the pace slow and controlled.”
Single-leg glute bridge pulse
“This is a great progression from the beginner glute bridge,” says Macaulay. “Once you’ve gained the strength to keep your hips square this is what you should try next.
“Use the same form as a standard glute bridge until your hips are raised. Then raise one leg until it is stretched out straight. Squeeze the glute muscle on the side of the grounded foot while pushing down through the heel. Pulse your hips at the top ten times before swapping legs.”
Advanced Glute Exercises
Barbell lunge
"Once you’re confident with the dumbbell lunge, try this challenging progression,” says Lynes. “By eliminating the grip strength required for dumbbell lunges you can load more weight, making it a fantastic exercise to strengthen your glutes and hamstrings.
“Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart holding the bar behind your neck, resting on your traps. Inhale and take a big step forwards, keeping your torso as straight as possible. Bend your knees to lower your body until your front thigh is roughly horizontal. Exhale and return to the start position. If you take a small step the quadriceps will mostly be isolated, but we want to hit your glutes, so take a big step!”
Barbell hip thruster
“This move delivers fantastic posterior strength,” says Macaulay. “Sit with your upper back against a bench, a barbell over your hips, bent knees and your feet firmly on the ground close to your glutes. Drive up through your heels and push your upper back onto the bench to lift your hips and the barbell. Squeeze your glutes and press your hips up as high as possible. Pause for a second or two at the top, bracing your abs to maintain a strong neutral position, then lower back to the start. Make sure you are driving straight up through your heels and avoid pushing yourself backwards over the bench and arching your spine.”
Stiff-leg deadlift
“This move will improve your posture and set your glutes and hamstrings on fire!” says Macaulay. “Standing upright with your feet hip-width apart and your arms straight down, hold the bar with an overhand grip, palms facing you, so it’s resting against your thighs. Inhale and bend at the hips, lowering your upper body toward the floor. Tilt your tailbone back, keep your back straight and your knees soft but straight, and look forwards as you descend. Keep the bar close to your legs – if the bar moves away from your legs it places increased stress on your lower back. Stop the movement when you feel a slight stretch in your hamstrings. Exhale as you stand back up.”
Hill sprints
“Head for the great outdoors to really fire up the glutes, but make sure you stay fast and explosive,” says Macaulay. “Running through fatigue can force your body to recruit other muscles and prevent the focused gains you’re after.
“Find a hill and sprint up it as fast as you can, driving your knees up and forwards. Push down with your feet as if you’re pushing the ground away from you. Once you start slowing down, stop, walk back down the hill and wait until you completely recover. Do three hill sprints at first and progress to ten.”
Written by Nick Harris-Fry for Coach and legally licensed through the Matcha publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@getmatcha.com.