I'm going to show you a glutes workout with 6 of the best exercises to grow your butt. Here's what I'll go through:
By the end of this article, your butt is going to be booty-full.
Before that: if you're looking for a training program that'll help you set up every single one of your workouts for optimal muscle growth for EVERY muscle group (not just the butt!), I've got just the thing for you. Every BWS program is designed to be an all-in-one, science-based process that’ll get you to your dream physique FAST. And best of all? It's all rooted in science. For more information:
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If you want to understand how to get a bigger butt (and fast), you first need to know the muscles involved. The glutes are composed of 3 main muscles - 2 of which you want to focus on:
In the butt workout I'll cover below, the first, second, and last exercise will target the glute max in 3 different ways. The third and fourth exercises will then target the glute medius as a superset.
Let’s get into it!
The deadlift is going to be our primary heavy exercise for the glute max since it mainly involves pushing your hips forward (i.e. hip extension). But there are a few tweaks we'll want to make to ensure that your glutes are doing most of the work. Only have access to dumbbells? Don't worry. You can still apply many of the following tweaks in the same way.
First, we're going to use a foot stance that's about hip-width - with the toes slightly pointed outwards. This is important because if your stance is too wide (e.g. with a sumo deadlift), you'd be shortening the range of motion. This, in turn, limits your glutes' ability to push the hips forward.
Once you're in your deadlift position, squeeze your glutes hard and push your knees out against your elbows. In doing this, you should feel more of your glute muscles 'turn on'.
From here, brace your core, tuck your chin, and push your feet through the floor WHILE driving your hips forward to stand up. It's important to shift your thinking from:
This ensures that your glutes - rather than your lower back - are moving the weight. On the way down, we're going to reverse the motion.
With your knees slightly bent, push your hips back to lower the bar. But only push your hips back as far as they can before your lower back starts to round. Otherwise, the tension will shift from your glutes to your lower back instead.
When done properly, you should feel a deep stretch in your glutes and hamstrings as you lower the bar. Once the bar is just past your knees, squat it down and then reset. Using dumbbells instead? You'll then want to instead stop just past your knees before coming back up - rather than going all the way down to the floor. Perform 3 sets of 6 heavy reps, with 3-4 minutes of rest between each set.
Now, we'll move on to exercise 2 in your butt workout: the glute-focused walking lunges. This will still demand the glute max to work hard. But it will also add a new balance demand on the glutes that you don't experience with deadlifts.
Bodyweight walking lunges will be our exercise of choice. But, once again, we'll implement a few tweaks (3, to be exact) to make it more effective than your standard lunge.
First, we'll align your body into a position that shifts more of the tension to your glutes rather than your quads. You can do so by slightly leaning your upper body forward while keeping your head in line with your body. And you'll want to maintain that position as you lunge.
Next, instead of simply stepping "up" after each lunge, think about stepping "forward". This subtle shift in thinking as you perform each step will shift more tension to your glutes rather than your quads. Use your front leg to propel and pull yourself forward. You can imagine that there was a thin wall of glass in front of you - and you're trying to lunge through it.
The third tweak is tricky to do. But it will help put more stretch on the glutes in the bottom position. This, in turn, requires them to work harder for you to return to the starting position. To implement the final tweak:
Do 2 sets of 10 reps on each leg with about 2 minutes of rest between each set.
Knowing how to tweak exercises that suit your physique goals is pretty complicated. Thankfully, though, our Built With Science programs take the guesswork out of training, nutrition, and even mobility work - so you can focus on what matters: making gains. If you're interested:
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Next, we're going to focus on the gluteus medius in our butt workout with a superset exercise, where we'll perform 2 exercises back-to-back without rest. Note: I first came across this superset from Coach Paul Carter.
The first exercise we'll use is the glute medius kickback. It's a slow, controlled movement that may not look like much range of motion. But trust me - it'll ensure that tension is placed on your glutes rather than your lower back.
To perform glute medius kickbacks:
If you execute this properly, you should feel a good burn in the upper/side portion of your butt. Do 12 reps on each side. Then, immediately move to the next exercise: the rear foot elevated split squats (RFESS). This exercise will also train the glute medius, but will now do so by challenging you to keep the hips and knees balanced as you move.
Here's how to perform the RFESS:
Then, you're going to repeat that 2 more times for a total of 3 supersets for each leg.
In our deadlift and lunges, your glutes were challenged the most at the bottom position. This is where the glutes are fully stretched. This is one way to stimulate growth. But there's another way to stimulate growth: that is, with exercises that are most challenging at the top position. This is where the glutes are fully contracted.
This is where our last movement comes into play. I'll show you a gym version and a home version for you to pick from. The gym version is the 45° hip extension. To maximize glutes activation, we'll use a few technique tips covered in a previous article I made with the help of glutes researcher, Bret Contreras:
And now, for the home version (exercise 6). It'll require just a stack of books:
And congratulations! You've just finished a great booty-building butt workout.
The Best Glutes Workout
Glute-Focused Deadlift: 3 sets of 6 reps
Glute-Focused Walking Lunges (bodyweight): 2 sets of 10 reps each leg
Superset: 3 sets of 12 reps each leg
Glute Med Kickbacks
RFESS
45° Hip Extension OR Single Leg Elevated Glute Bridge: 3 sets of 15 reps
You can implement this glutes workout once a week. Or, implement these exercises into your other workouts throughout the week if you prefer. Either way, I hope you were able to see the importance of carefully selecting your exercises - as well as performing them in a way that maximizes growth for the target muscle.
Within our Built With Science programs, we apply that to each and every one of the workouts we provide. To join today, just take the free analysis quiz below to discover which of our programs will best help you transform your body:
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And to check out some of my other articles, you can click here if you want to work on balancing your hips, and here if you want more butt stuff. Thanks for reading, and I'll see ya next time!