20 Glute Exercises to Get Your Best Butt

Being per leg workouts and building arguably our most essential muscle tissue–the glutes–helps to stave off muscle dysfunction and tightness that may lead to harm.
Whether you are hammering out a while within the health club, otherwise you go for some at-home leg workouts, skipping glute day shouldn’t be an choice. Here are 20 of the most effective strikes to construct you butt the correct method.
How to Warm Up Your Glutes
How to do it:
- Sit on one hip with a tennis ball or mobility ball below the surface of your glute.
- Adjust your place on the ball till you discover a sore “trigger” level. Hold on the spot for 30 to 60 seconds.
- Move the ball to a unique spot and repeat. Maintain as a lot body weight on the ball as doable.

How to do it:
- Stand on the band and loop the opposite finish over the again of your neck and stand tall.
- Keeping your decrease again in its pure arch, bend your hips again and decrease your torso till it is practically parallel to the ground.
- Think about retaining your chest up and pointing ahead.
- Explosively prolong your hips to come again up. That’s one rep.

How to do it:
- Lie on the ground facedown together with your arms at your sides.
- Squeeze your glutes and lift your torso and legs concurrently so solely your hips contact the ground.
- Imagine touching your toes together with your fingers.
- Hold for a second on the prime, after which return to the beginning place so your shoulders contact the ground.

How to do it:
- Loop a mini band round your ankles (you can even loop a light-weight band thrice and stretch it between your legs, simply above your ankles).
- With your knees bent barely and aligned with toes, your hips hinged again, and your glutes engaged, take a small step to the left.
- Pause, then step proper foot to the left. That’s one rep.
- Continue stepping on the left, relaxation, then lead with the correct foot.

How to do it:
- Stand with toes shoulder-width aside. Bend at your waist and seize your toes together with your fingers.
- Drop right into a squat whereas retaining your arms straight, elbows inside your knees, chest up, and again flat.
- While grabbing your toes, elevate your hips again and straighten your knees, feeling a stretch within the hamstrings. That’s one rep.
- Move slowly via this exercise.
For a correct lower-body warmup, you need to launch and mobilize muscle tissue, in addition to wake them up. Your glutes can turn out to be inactive in the event you sit a lot of the day. These are among the many finest glute exercises to do earlier than a butt exercise to activate glutes, in addition to enhance vary of movement for heavier weighted lifts like sumo squats. Some require a mobility ball, resistance band, and lightweight dumbbells.
Best At-Home Glute Exercises

How to do it:
- Lie in your aspect on the ground and bend your knees 90 levels.
- Your knees and toes needs to be stacked.
- Place one hand in your glutes and push via your heel as you rotate your hip open, elevating your knee till it factors to the ceiling. The motion ought to seem like a clamshell opening.
- Reverse the movement to return to the start. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
Hold on the prime of the elevate for 1-2 seconds whereas squeezing your glutes.
Variation:
This transfer could be finished whereas utilizing a resistance band across the knees to enhance the problem.

Beth Bischoff
How to do it:
- Attach the suspension coach to a sturdy overhead object and lengthen one deal with so it’s at about knee height.
- Lie in your again on the ground and place the heel of your left foot within the foot cradle.
- Bend your left knee 90 levels and prolong your proper leg on the ground.
- Brace your abs and contract your glutes to bridge your hips off the ground whereas concurrently lifting your proper leg within the air till it’s in keeping with your left thigh. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
Let your hinge cease at your upper-back with every bridge and never your neck.
Variation:
There is a ground model of this transfer the place you retain the foot of your bent leg on the ground as a substitute of suspended.

How to do it:
- Place the ball in opposition to a wall and stand together with your again in opposition to it, holding it in place.
- Place your toes shoulder width and switch your toes out about 15 levels.
- Squat down as little as you may, rolling the ball down the wall as you descend.
- Push via your heels to stand. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
Press your again in opposition to the ball in order that it is secure, however not so onerous that you are feeling undo pressure in your again.
Variation:
You can carry out this transfer whereas holding dumbbells for an additional problem.

James Michelfelder
How to do it:
- Lie faceup on the ground and place your proper heel on the ground and prolong the left leg.
- Brace your abs and contract your glutes to bridge your hips off the ground whereas concurrently elevating your left leg within the air till it’s in keeping with your proper thigh.
- Lower till your glutes are hovering above the bottom. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
Let your hinge finish at your shoulders and never the neck to keep away from pressure.
Variation:
This is a variation of the suspended single-leg glue bridge transfer, the place your bent leg is in a suspension harness.

How to do it:
- Stand in your proper leg and push your hips again so far as you may whereas reaching in entrance of you with each fingers.
- Keeping your decrease again arched, let your knee bend as wanted whilst you enable your torso to transfer towards the ground.
- Go as little as you may and maintain for one second.
- Squeeze your glutes to come again up. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
Keep your head aligned together with your shoulders as you decrease your torso. This will assist to keep type in your again.
Variation:
This transfer could be finished with weights–dumbbells or a kettlebell–or with out weights.

How to do it:
- Sit on the ground and place your fingers on the ground below your shoulders, fingers pointing in entrance of you.
- Place your toes shoulder width and squeeze your glutes.
- Push via your heels as you bridge your hips up.
- Your body ought to type a desk, together with your torso and hips parallel to the ground.
- Hold for 2 seconds, then decrease again down. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
If you feel pressure in your wrists or shoulders, flip your fingers outward for higher assist.
Variation:
There is one other model of this transfer the place you let your head fall again behind the shoulders on the prime of the transfer, as a substitute of retaining a impartial neck.

Justin Steele
How to do it:
- Stand with toes shoulder-width aside. Bend at knees and hinge at hips to descend right into a squat, bringing fingers in entrance of you.
- Once thighs are parallel to ground, pause, then have interaction quads, glutes, and hamstrings to explode upward.
- Land with smooth knees. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
Engage your arms for full explosion and steadiness on touchdown.
Variation:
There is a 180-degree model of this transfer the place you add a flip to the leap and land dealing with the wrong way.

How to do it:
- Lie on the ground with legs straight and heels on prime of a Swiss ball.
- Lift your hips till your body is in a straight line.
- Keeping your toes pulled towards your shins, pull the ball towards your butt together with your heels.
- Then, prolong your legs to push the ball away. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
Keep your core engaged all through this transfer in order that your hips do not dip. Also, make certain to carry out this transfer on a floor that permits the soundness ball to transfer simply however not slip.
Variation:
This transfer targets related muscle tissue as the usual glute bridge and banded glute bridge exercises.
Best Gym Glute Exercises

How to do it:
- Lie in your again on the ground with legs prolonged.
- Roll the bar up your thighs till the bar sits in your lap (it’s your decision to place a towel in your hips or connect a pad to the bar for consolation).
- Brace your abs and drive your heels into the ground to prolong your hips, elevating them till they’re in keeping with your torso.
- Simply slide your body below the bar after you’ve rested, and start the glute bridges.
Pro tip
Resist going up onto the balls of your toes as you elevate your hips.
Variation:
You may also do a one-leg variation. If you discover it troublesome to use a barbell, use your body weight or free weights (weight plate or dumbbells).
To make a one-leg variation more durable, inch your self shut to a wall or bench so your trunk is a few foot away. Bring your planted leg flat onto the floor. From right here, elevate your “non-working leg” up into the air, retaining your knee bent. As you elevate up into the glute bridge, drive your heel in opposition to the floor, elevating your hips.

How to do it:
- Grasp a dumbbell in your proper hand and stand on a step or block that raises you just a few inches above the ground.
- Step again together with your proper foot and decrease your body till your left thigh is parallel to the ground and your rear knee practically touches the ground.
- Keep your torso upright. Step ahead to return to the beginning place. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
Your step again ought to trigger you to really feel the stretch in your calf and hamstring, nevertheless it should not be so vast that it pulls your hips backward.
Variation:
This transfer could be finished with out utilizing a step or block as your place to begin.

How to do it:
- Stand tall with a dumbbell in every hand, arms to your sides. Put some slack in your knees in order that they’re in a impartial place, barely bent.
- Step one leg again; this non-weight-bearing leg ought to prolong straight again till it is parallel to the ground, whereas your planted leg stays engaged and planted firmly to the ground.
- As you draw your elevated leg again, bend on the hips so far as you may with out shedding the arch in your decrease again. Your weight-bearing knee needs to be impartial to simply barely bent to keep away from hyperextension.
- Sink your arms towards the ground. Use your glutes to pull your self again to the upright place. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
Contract your glutes as you come back to beginning place. This ought to hold the pressure off of your decrease again.
Variation:
There is the normal Romanian deadlift involving a barbell. You maintain a barbell with a shoulder-width grip and stand with toes hip-width aside. Then bend your knees barely as you decrease the bar alongside your shins till you’re feeling a stretch in your hamstrings.

How to do it:
- Hold a bar on the backs of your shoulders as if to squat.
- Rest the highest of your one foot on a bench or field behind you in order that your again knee is bent 90 levels.
- Bend your hips and proper knee to decrease your body till your rear knee practically touches the ground. Drive via your planted leg to rise. That’s one rep.
- Keep your torso upright. If you don’t need to use a barbell, you may maintain dumbbells at your sides.
Pro Tip
Keep your higher body posture sturdy and aligned all through the motion. Keep your dip shallow for extra emphasis on the quads, and deepen it for extra emphasis on working the glutes.
Variation:
This transfer could be finished with or with out weights. For learners, attempt beginning by interlocking your fingers behind your head. Then transition to holding a medication ball earlier than transferring to dumbbells or kettlebells.

How to do it:
- Stand together with your toes exterior shoulder-width and toes turned out about 15 levels.
- Bend your hips again and let your knees bend as wanted till you may grasp the bar at shoulder-width.
- Keeping your decrease again in its pure arch, push your hips ahead to elevate the bar to lockout. That’s one rep.
- To start every subsequent rep, push your hips again and decrease the bar to mid-shin degree.
Pro tip:
Do not bend your knees extra and make it a deadlift—the motion should come virtually completely out of your hips.
Variation:
There’s additionally a dumbbell single-leg variation of this transfer, the place you maintain a dumbbell in every hand at your sides and lean ahead whereas lifting one leg straight behind you. As your chest comes ahead, the dumbbells ought to shift out of your sides to immediately over your planted foot.
Return to beginning place by reducing your again leg as you come up and returning the dumbbells to your sides.

How to do it:
- Set up in a squat rack or cage and grasp the bar as far aside as is snug and step below it.
- Squeeze your shoulder blades collectively and nudge the bar out of the rack.
- Step again and stand together with your toes shoulder-width and your toes turned barely outward.
- Take a deep breath and bend your hips, then knees to decrease your body so far as you may with out shedding the arch in your decrease again.
- Push your knees outward as you descend.
- Extend your hips to come again up, persevering with to push your knees outward. That’s one rep.
Pro Tip:
“Optimum form and range of motion for the squat is very dependent on your physicality, structure, joint integrity, limb length, strength, flexibility, and current condition,” Reames says. Your vary of movement is 90 levels max on the knee. Some individuals are ready to go decrease than this, however not everybody will squat to parallel, he says. And that is completely okay. “Stick to type and the suitable resistance ranges for you; the squat remains to be among the best and easiest strikes for general strength, building lower-body muscle, core strength, and athletic efficiency.
Variation:
There are quite a few variations to this transfer. Two of them are the overhead squat–the place you carry out the transfer whereas holding the bar over your head, and goblet squat–the place you maintain the weight in entrance of you.

How to do it:
- Stand with toes hip-width aside.
- Hinge at your hips, bend your knees, and decrease your fingers to grip the bar’s handles within the center.
- Inhale and brace your abs as you retract your neck so you’re feeling such as you’re making a double chin, trying on the ground a number of toes in entrance of you.
- Keep a flat again as you drive your heels into the ground and elevate the bar up, pushing your knees out so they do not collapse in.
- Stand upright, squeezing your glutes as you lock out your hips (with out leaning again). Bend your hips again and decrease the bar. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
The massive knuckle of your center finger ought to line up with the middle of the bar.
Variation:
There are quite a few variations to the deadlift with totally different weight. This transfer may also be finished utilizing resistance bands.

How to do it:
- Stand perpendicular to a bench or different elevated floor that’ll put your thigh parallel to the ground if you step on it.
- Hold a dumbbell in every hand and step up onto the bench, leaving your trailing leg hanging of.
- Drive via your entrance heel to stand.
- Pause briefly, then slowly decrease to beginning place. That’s one rep.
- You may also stand parallel to the bench and carry out lateral dumbbell stepups, and even add a leap to both variation driving via your planted foot and touchdown softly on the path leg.
Pro Tip
“You can work one side first then the other, and/or alternate legs,” Reames says. Keep your higher body leaned ahead to incorporate as a lot weight bearing on every repetition, he provides.
Variation:
This transfer may embody a reverse lunge, the place you drive your trailing knee up towards your chest as you step up, after which step again right into a reverse lunge as soon as your again on the ground.

How to do it:
- Hold a dumbbell or kettlebell with two fingers.
- Squat by sitting the hips again and down, retaining your weight within the heels of the toes, with out lifting toes.
- Your elbows ought to contact your knees on the backside of the squat. Rise and prolong powerfully via hips to rise. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
Hold for a beat on the backside of the transfer to guarantee you do not bounce or rock your hips.
Variation:
For a fuller vary of movement, let your elbows drop barely under your knees, however not a lot that the weight dips under your chest.

How to do it:
- Stand dealing with landmine, holding barbell fist-over-fist so thumbs are on prime. Step again so body leans ahead, putting some body weight into barbell, to start.
- Drop down right into a squat so barbell is slightly below chin, then reverse. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
Widen your stance to deepen your squat and have interaction extra muscle teams.
Variation:
There are quite a few variations to this transfer, together with the sidekick squat, the pistol squat, and the prisoner squat.

How to do it:
- Stand with toes shoulder-width aside with dumbbells within the front-rack place, to start.
- Keeping weights close to shoulders, decrease right into a squat, then explosively stand to rise, activating glutes, urgent hips ahead, and locking out knees; use the momentum to assist drive the weights overhead, palms dealing with one another. That’s one rep.
- Immediately reverse the movement, reducing weights to front-rack place and transitioning right into a squat.
Pro tip:
Foot place is essential for this transfer. You need to place your toes barely wider that shoulder-width with toes barely pointed outward.
Variation:
This transfer could be thought of a variation of a leap squat or a kettlebell press-out with a squat.

How to do it:
- Stand holding dumbbells in every hand at your sides (you can even do that with simply your body weight).
- Step to one aspect and decrease your hips to the bottom by squatting with the stepping leg, retaining the opposite leg straight.
- The arms ought to stay nonetheless with one dumbbell on the surface of the squatting leg, the opposite between your legs—or put each arms between legs.
- Push up together with your bent leg to return to the beginning place. Repeat on the opposite aspect. That’s one rep.
Pro tip:
Keep your shoulders sq. all through the transfer.
Variation:
There is an unweighted model of this transfer the place you convey your left arm throughout your body to contact proper toes, whereas retaining your again straight and shoulders sq.. Reverse the motion and return to standing.
Why it is Important to Train Glutes
Combined with the hamstrings, calves, and again, the glutes are probably the most highly effective muscle tissue within the human body.
This muscle group—collectively referred to as the “posterior chain”—generates extra drive than another human motion, whether or not meaning energy cleans, deadlifts, field jumps, or just lifting a heavy suitcase off the ground and into the overhead compartment.
Will glute exercises make your butt greater? Yes, and that’s an excellent factor. You need the glutes to be firmer and extra muscular, although, as with every transition from flab to muscle, the result’s a little bit of an optical phantasm because you’ll be leaner and maybe lighter.
How to Program Butt Workouts
Don’t anticipate to head to the health club and do each single glute exercise we have highlighted under in one-off glute workouts. The glutes could also be sturdy, however they are not invincible.
Instead, break up this checklist of strikes into 4 or 5 totally different teams of exercises to hit your gluteus minimus, gluteus medius, and gluteus maximus (that is the most important muscle within the body). Piece collectively just a few strikes that require the identical piece of apparatus—like, say, the suspension coach, Swiss ball, or barbell. Workout tools wanted for glute exercises can run the gamut from machines to free weights to no tools in any respect (suppose sprints, body weight squats, and lunges)
You can mix them as a circuit: Do as many reps as doable of every exercise in 45 seconds, relaxation for 15 seconds, then transfer on to the subsequent exercise; relaxation for 2 minutes after every spherical.
Alternatively, do these glute exercises in conventional straight sets—say, 2 to 5 sets of 8-15 reps, with 60 seconds of relaxation in between. Vary your relaxation, sets, reps, and exercise choice to make sure you benefit from these glutes exercises.
How Can You Get the Most Out of Your Glute Workouts?
The glutes, maybe greater than another body half, profit from body weight training, although dumbbells, barbells, and cables can play a task, too. Since most of us spend little time serious about glute activation, take heed to firing (squeezing) these glutes throughout butt workouts. Go gradual, maximizing time below pressure through the eccentric a part of the elevate, holding, then ending with a quick concentric motion.
By various the workload, training your muscle tissue from a number of angles, and incorporating instability into your exercise routines, you may strengthen your glutes (and sculpt your butt whilst you’re at it).
In addition to your effort within the health club, consider life as one day by day glute exercise. For occasion, merely squeeze every cheek separately. This could be finished whereas sitting in a gathering, on a convention name, or whereas caught in visitors. Look for alternatives all through your day to train your glutes, whether or not taking the steps as a substitute of the elevator or squatting to choose one thing up quite than bending over on the waist.
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