All About Glutes

I like big butts….

Don’t lie, you were singing the song! haha.  😆 If you don’t know it, well, google it. It’s funny!

If you are a female you’ve definitely thought at least once “how can I target my glutes?”. Have you ever lost body fat and then questioned where your badonkadonk disappeared to?!? Let’s make sure that never happens again and if it hasn’t happened to you, let’s make sure it never does!!

Besides just looking good, the glutes actually serve a very important purpose and can cause a lot of issues when they aren’t functioning. They are the prime movers of your hips and help support your pelvis. These are some of our favorite glute focused exercises that will help you build strong glutes and prevent low back pain!

Glute Activation:

Before jumping right into building up that bubble let’s be sure that you can connect with that muscle group. Like any other muscle, it’s crucial to have a full contraction if you expect progress (strength or growth).

Click to view video from Leila, one of our coaches.

Hip-thrusts or Glute Bridges:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these and many variations. There are so many different tweaks you can do with either of these to better activate and connect with your posterior chain as well! The key with any “thrusting” movement is full hip extension. What does that mean? It means fulling contracting your glutes. I typically refer to this as the “ugly butt squeeze”. You know, the one that you really hope no one sees, hahaha. Do that! That fully extends your hip. You want your upper leg (thigh/femur) to extend behind your body without your low back hyperextending. I’ll touch on more of this below.

Note: Thrust- shoulders elevated vs Bridge- shoulders are on the ground

Check out these examples of some thrust/bridge variations: 

Barbell Hip-Thrust

Straight Leg Glute Bridge on the Swiss Ball

Bent Leg Glute bridge on the Swiss Ball

Glute Kickback:

These are great for isolation. I wouldn’t recommend them at the beginning of a session unless it’s to warm-up a bit, but instead I would end with these or perform them after a heavier compound movement like the thrust/bridge, squat or leg press.

You can do these several ways, but here are a few I enjoy:

Banded Glute Kickback (great at home option)

Cable Kickback

Romanian Deadlifts

Technically these are more hamstring focused, but it just didn’t feel right leaving them out. You’ll find that you can probably go pretty heavy on these once you get the form right, but that doesn’t mean going a bit lighter isn’t a great option as well. Be sure your watch your form so you protect your lower back and keep the focus strictly on your glutes and hamstrings.

As you can see in the demonstrations, there are a few variations. Try them all and see which you like the best!

RDL on the power squat

RDL using a barbell, but you could also use Dumbbells

That concludes today’s glute training examples. There are so many more we could show you and will if you’re interested! Just let us know by commenting or rating this post below.