In this article I’m going to try to please the male readers, female readers, and trainers. If you’re simply looking for a good butt workout then skip down to the bottom of this article. But if you want some substance and you really want to understand the glutes, then you should probably read the entire article.
Ladies
Okay ladies, you say you want a nice butt. You like to talk about how you’re going to get your butt into top shape. You get envious when you see a woman with a perfect butt prancing around. Well here’s your opportunity! I’m going to give you the ultimate program to improve the appearance of your butt. Best of all, it’s free!
The World’s Best or Worst Relationship Advice Ever…
I’ve trained enough women in my time as a personal trainer to know that most of them would do just about anything to get their man to pay more attention to them. I’m far from a relationship expert but here’s one thing that women could stand to learn about men. We are all very shallow. Have you ever witnessed the crap that an attractive woman with a perfect booty can get away with? She can tell stupid jokes and every guy will laugh. She can nag at her boyfriend and he’ll cave in and comply with her every demand. She’ll get job opportunities that she doesn’t deserve. In essence, she can get away with practically murder. Why do guys act like this? Because the mere thought of getting to see her naked turns us into robots!
Want to know the single best thing you can do to get your man’s attention? Work overtime on your booty! I’m not saying it’s right, I’m just saying it’s a fact of life. Even women have a hard time keeping their eyes off of a woman with a perfect booty even if they have no lesbian tendencies! It’s almost hypnotic. As a matter of fact, I bet this article alone would cause most men’s’ testosterone levels to rise 30% just from looking at the pictures. Sexual attraction is biochemical; don’t ever underestimate the role of hormones when dealing with relationships.
Admit It! It’s Hard to Look Away!
If you can transform your booty into something like this your man will become your puppet. How do I know this? At my Scottsdale studio called Lifts several guys came to my gym to personally thank me for making their girl’s butt look so good. My female clients would tell me that their men were turning into perverts, groping them constantly throughout the night. One of my clients said she had to start pretending she was asleep to avoid her husband’s persistent sexual advances.
The good thing for women is that men are pretty lenient with booty size as long as there’s good shape. Seriously, as long as your booty is round, firm, and perky it can be small like that of Jessica Alba or Anna Kournikova or big like that of Kim Kardashian or Vida Guerra. Throughout this article analyze the booties on the various women. There exists one common theme; they’re all round and delicious.
Men
Men, I realize that many of you want a nice butt but you’re not allowed to admit it. It’s just not manly to work the glutes. So I’ll do you a favor and word everything in this article toward women. Just know that the same advice that applies to them applies to you.
Okay men, let’s fantasize for a minute. Envision a world full of Reef bikini models scouring the Earth. Everywhere you go you see scantily clad women running around showing off their perfect booties.
Of course this vision is impossible but right now I’d estimate that less than one out of a hundred women have butts like the girls in the picture above. For simplicity’s sake, let’s say that 1% of woman have a rockin’ behind. What if we could triple that and take it to 3%? That’s three times the number of great booties out there roaming the Earth. How can we turn this dream into reality?
Let’s make a pact. Anytime you hear a woman complain about her butt, send them to this article. Email the link to as many ladies as you know. If you’re a trainer, start implementing the methods herein and teach your clients how to perform the newer exercises you’ll see later in the article. We have to at least try!
Perhaps you are in a relationships. I don’t care how much you love your girlfriend or wife, you know you’d be a little more “into” her if she looked like this:
Women Don’t Listen to Their Boyfriends!
Unfortunately, from my experience women don’t listen to their boyfriends and husbands. You can tell them exactly what to do and they won’t follow your advice. Whether it’s the whole, “Never a prophet in your own land” phenomenon, or they simply feel more confident when they pay for the advice or hear it on television, you probably have a hard time getting through to them. So make me out to be the bad guy. Direct them to this article. Whenever they complain about their butts or vow to “get their butt in shape,” you tell them that the Glute Guy has laid out a perfect plan for them.
Trainers
Personal trainers, would you like to become the best trainer in your area at sculpting booties? Would you like more clients?
At the risk of sounding cocky I believe that I’m the most effective trainer in the world at delivering quick and dramatic results for individuals who wish to make their butts look better. In this article, I’m going to reveal my secrets. I’m going to hand them over to you so you can be a “master butt sculptor” and a “glute guru.” But first allow me to go off on a tangent.
When I had my Scottsdale studio, I was turning out nice booties like they were on an assembly line. Here’s an example of one of my client’s results over the course of year:
I took a risk and chose to not renew my lease in hopes that I could become a popular fitness writer so I could spread my methods. The way I saw it, as a personal trainer I could only affect dozens of clients. However, as a writer I could “train the trainers” and affect literally thousands of clients. If I can get you aboard, the number of people I affect can raise exponentially.
Abandon Your Ideals and Get the Job Done!
I know a lot of strength coaches and personal trainers. Some of the coaches work for teams while some have their own facilities. Out of all of the coaches I know who own their own facilities, all of them take on personal training clients. Sure, they train a lot of athletes, but they also train regular folks. Most regular personal training clients come to trainers for body sculpting purposes! It is our job to deliver to them the results they want. If a male client wants big biceps but you’re so anti-bodybuilding that you won’t prescribe him a single biceps-isolation exercise, or if a female client wants a nice butt but you won’t prescribe her a single glute isolation exercise then you are doing them a disservice. The reason why celebrity trainers get popular is often due to the fact that they’re the best at listening to what their clients want and designing a program specific to those needs. Most coaches and trainers are too hung up on their own ideals to maximize their effectiveness as trainers.
Should We Train Women Like Athletes or Bodybuilders?
This question comes up a lot. The answer is neither. Bodybuilding exercises such as leg press, hack squats, leg extensions, and leg curls serve no purpose in a woman’s routine. These exercises act on the quads and hamstrings, not the glutes. The quickest way to get a great booty is to focus on glute exercises. Every lower body exercise a woman performs should hit the glutes hard. When you do this, the quads and hamstrings get plenty of stimulation but the glutes grown in proportion to the legs. You don’t want the quads and hams to grow while the glutes remain dormant. This will make the glutes look even worse as they will be overshadowed. However, certain bodybuilding methods are advisable when training women. More on this later in the article.
Furthermore, when you train athletes you get them as strong and powerful as possible regardless of the physique adaptations that are imposed. Sport-specific exercises like power cleans can build up a woman’s traps too much. Even squats and deadlifts if progressed upon over and over and over can get a woman’s quads and backs too big. However, many sport-specific methods are advisable when training women.
What Caused Me to Write this Article?
To be honest, I try really hard to write about all kinds of fitness-related topics. I don’t want to “type-cast” myself into a trainer who only specializes in the glutes. Truthfully, I’m very interested in all the body’s muscles, joints, and systems. I love sport-specific training, max-sprint speed development, bodybuilding, powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, strongman, MMA, and physical therapy. About the only thing I’m not that interested in is endurance events and any sport or event where the hips don’t move through much of a range of motion. However, I can’t help but write about the glutes when I keep seeing room for improvement in the fitness industry.
In the past week alone I’ve stumbled upon several online forms of media which enticed me to write this article.
The Brazilian Butt Lift Infomercial
First, while I was working on a TMuscle article late Monday night (sometimes I keep the television on in the background just so I feel like a normal human being who stays connected with the outside world), an infomercial caught my eye. It was called The Brazilian Butt-Lift. A Brazilian trainer named Leandro Carvalho who is referred to as “the supermodel’s secret to a perfect butt” has supposedly created the ultimate plan to sculpt a woman’s butt to perfection.
Although Leandro has also been referred to as the “Butt Master,” and “Tush Technician,” I could create a much better program. I’m not saying the program would sell better (to make an infomercial work there are lots of things to consider. Infomercial companies usually end up making fun-looking dvd’s with a lot of dancing, including bands for resistance because they’re easy to ship, a simple diet plan, and a whole lotta shady science), but I am saying that the program would work better.
Here are some things I noticed throughout the infomercial:
Bad
1. There was a ton of lumbar compensation during the various exercises by the models. You want the glutes performing the movements; not the spinal erectors!
2. There were misleading graphics and information inferring that the glute medius and glute minimus add to the lower-outer shape of the glutes. This isn’t true; they’re smaller muscles that located on the upper-outer glutes.
3. I didn’t see a single bridging movement being performed. Bridging movements reign supreme for glute activation and constant tension.
4. The program included tons of lunging and squatting movements despite the creator’s claim that they aren’t optimal because they bulk up the quads. I’m not saying lunging and squatting movements are bad; I’m just saying that it was a blatant contradiction.
5. There were misleading before/after photos involving women who in the after-pics would excessively arch their low backs and anteriorly tilt their pelvises to create the illusion that the shape of their butts improved when in actuality they simply altered their postures.
6. Lots of fun dancing that may burn a lot of fat but won’t do much for butt sculpting
7. There appears to be a lack of progression schemes. People start at totally different levels. One person may be able to start off squatting against resistance while another may take months to build up the strength, mobility, and stability to be able to perform a bodyweight full squat.
8. No weights for more advanced customers. Sure, you can get a great a great butt with just bodyweight exercises, but weights will allow you to get there much quicker.
This is Bullshit! I Guess Nowadays You can Completely Fabricate Anatomy
This is More Realistic
Good
1) Leandro spoke about how the butt needs variety and can’t be sculpted optimally by just hitting it from the same angles over and over. Amen! Hallelujah! This is what I’ve been preaching for the past several years! Unfortunately I wasn’t popular until several months ago so no one heard me shouting.
Many of these things are to be expected from an infomercial (especially a Beach Body infomercial; they have it down to an exact science).
Valerie Waters on Fitcast
Earlier this week I was listening to a podcast featuring Valerie Waters. She mentioned that she is known in Hollywood for her ability to get women’s butts looking very good in a very short period of time. While I have no doubt that she does a great job at sculpting booties, I am positive that she could do better. I hope that she reads this blog so she can become even better at what she does.
In this article, Valerie lists her top 3 butt sculpting moves as the Valslide reverse lunge, high step up, and standing donkey kick. Obviously Valerie is going to be a bit biased since she is the inventor of Valslides.
While these are excellent glute exercises, there are even better ones for sculpting the butt. For the record, I like the Valslide reverse lunge. Some individuals see more glute activation by using Valslides than they do with a regular reverse lunge due to the ability to better control the eccentric component of the exercise. However, in advanced exercisers it flip-flops. For example, I’m advanced and I see less activation when I use Valslides in comparison to reverse lunges with the same amount of resistance because I am able to more effectively use the hip flexor muscles of my rear leg to contribute to the lift which decreases the contribution required from the glutes of the forward leg. And while high step ups are amazing and often underrated for glute development, donkey kicks have much room for improvement as they are way too easy for most individuals. We need to set the bar high if we want to better the world’s glutes!
Adam Campbell on Dr. Oz
The other day I saw that Adam Campbell from Men’s Health Magazine made an appearance on The Dr. Oz Show. He did an excellent job as he gave the thumbs down to the thighmaster and butt-toning shoes. He also did a great job recommending Valslide lunges and glute bridges. However, many individuals find regular glute bridges too easy. Beginners start out at very different levels. Some can’t do a single bodyweight bilateral glute bridge while activating their glutes significantly, while others can bust out a hundred repetitions. In fact, I once trained a stripper who busted out a hundred bodyweight glute bridges during her warm-up in her very first session with me. I told her to do 20 and she cranked out 100 in probably 50 seconds. It was crazy! Obviously her job and “extra-curricular activities” gave her a head-start on typical clients but you have to inform people how to progress in an exercise or you’ll turn the advanced clients off. I sure wish Adam would have told the audience that they can place a dumbbell in their lap for extra resistance once they are able to perform 20 repetitions.
I’m obviously very advanced in glute strength but I can do ten barbell glute bridges with 495 lbs. A bodyweight glute bridge gets my mean and peak glute activation to around 20% and 35% mean and peak activity depending on the exact location of the electrodes. A barbell glute bridge gets my mean and peak glute activation to around 65% and 140% respectively. Without the use of resistance, many individuals get short-changed.
What a perfect opportunity to spread the word about the barbell glute bridge – on National television! Oh well, it will have to wait for another day.
Valerie Waters “Exercises for a Great Butt” Video
Just recently I came across this video by Valerie Waters. Again, lots of Valslide lunging. That’s one good movement, what about recommending some bridging or quadruped movements? We need multiple angles!
Mike Boyle Interview With Valerie Waters: “How to Get Your Best Butt”
How To Get Your Best Butt! Episode #19 from valerie waters on Vimeo.
A couple of weeks ago I saw this interview with Mike Boyle. While I certainly agree with much of what Mike is saying, I wish he would have said to people, “learn how to do single leg hip lifts.” Single leg hip lifts are an amazing exercise that Mike programs for his athletes (I call them single leg hip thrusts). He even figured out a crafty way to use band resistance for them. Mike’s been recommending bridging movements for many, many years now.
Remember, we need lots of angles for optimum glute development. Squats, lunges, deadlifts, single leg hip lifts, etc. In my opinion Mike missed out on a great opportunity by intentionally “dumbing it down” for the audience. Too many experts and gurus do this these days which is unfortunate. Don’t avoid speaking about a great exercise just because the audience may not know what it is. Instead, take the time to teach them the exercise or at least mention it. People are pretty resourceful these days. If they don’t know of an exercise many will look it up on Youtube or Google or it will plant a seed so that next time they hear about it they will be sure to look it up!
Physiologically, How do we Transform a Booty from Pathetic to Perfect?
Most women don’t understand what needs to take place in order to go from flab to fab in the glute region. Their butts are often flabby and wide so all they can think about is making their butts smaller. This makes them want to starve themselves and perform a ton of cardio. While they certainly need to whittle off the fat, they usually don’t have any muscle or shape underneath their fat so they would be left with nothing but a flat, saggy butt after the fat had melted off. In order to have a nice looking butt, a woman must have muscular shape to give it the sought-after round, perky, and lifted appearance. You want glute depth, not width. It’s not easy to build glute muscle so they must train hard and intelligently. The good news is that exercises that work the glutes are difficult so they significantly raise the metabolism. A simple booty workout is actually a form of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) so the workout will burn fat off of the butt while simultaneously adding muscular shape. This is how you get a nice butt! Look at all the pictures in this article. Nearly all of the girls have more glute muscle than a typical woman.
Benefits of Using Different Exercises to Hit Different Angles
Let’s say that all a woman ever does for her glutes is squats and lunges. Unfortunately squats and lunges always hit the quads really well but for some individuals they don’t hit the glutes very hard. Some individuals don’t use good form and therefore fail to hit the glutes during squats and lunges, and some individuals simply have unique anthropometries (body-types) which prevents their glutes from getting maximally targeted from squats and lunges even if they’re using great form. To obtain the best butt possible, we need to hit the glutes from a variety of angles with a plethora of exercises. Look closely at Ronnie Coleman’s glute fibers. When analyzing the fibers, it makes sense that they’d need a variety of exercises to maximize their potential.
Special Glute Experiment – More on Exercise Variety for the Glutes
A few months ago I decided to conduct a unique experiment where I placed electrodes on the glute medius, upper glute max, mid glute max, and lower glute max and performed a variety of hip extension, hip abduction, and hip external rotation movements while measuring the electromyography (EMG) activity in the various muscle parts. Here is a chart that shows the results of the experiment (the top number is the mean or average activation according to maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) while the bottom number is the peak or highest activation according to MVC):
The Winners
Based on this experiment, here are the top three exercises in terms of mean and peak activity for each muscle part:
Glute Medius
Mean: Quadruped Hip Circle, Band Standing External Rotation, Barbell Hip Thrust
Peak: Quadruped Hip Circle, Quadruped Band Donkey Kick, Quadruped Hip Extension
Upper Glute Maximus
Mean: Barbell Hip Thrust, Band Skorcher Hip Thrust, Quadruped Hip Circle
Peak: Quadruped Hip Extension, Barbell Hip Thrust, Bird Dog
Mid Glute Maximus
Mean: Band Standing Hip External Rotation, Band Skorcher Hip Thrust, Barbell Hip Thrust
Peak: Band Standing Hip External Rotation, Band Skorcher Hip Thrust, Cable Standing Hip External Rotation
Lower Glute Maximus
Mean: Deadlift, Band Hip Thrust, Band Standing Hip External Rotation
Peak: Single Leg Hip Thrust, Shoulder Elevated Single Leg Hip Thrust, Deadlift
As you can see, the results were pretty shocking. My findings indicate that the glutes show varying levels of activation in the different regions of the muscles depending on the exercise performed. Of course, we already knew that the various heads of the delts, pecs, and traps have varying roles and levels of activation depending on the exercise, but this study indicates that the same is true regarding the glutes and possibly more muscle groups.
This experiment has huge implications for sport-specific training and figure training as maximum glute activation appears to be region-specific and requires a variety of movement patterns to optimize activation across the entire spectrum of muscle fibers.
This experiment also lends validity to “low-load activation training” as the glutes seemed to be highly activated by certain simple bodyweight movements such as quadruped hip extensions, single leg hip thrusts, bird dogs, and quadruped hip circles.
It also has huge implications for research as it shows that data will be considerably different depending on where the electrodes are placed on the glutes for EMG experiments.
What in the Hell is the Skorcher?
The Skorcher is a machine I invented to be able to perform hip thrusts with extra range of motion and band resistance. I am not having it manufactured so you will not be able to perform Skorcher hip thrusts. Just perform barbell hip thrusts instead. Here’s a video of yours truly performing band Skorcher hip thrusts while rockin’ out to Miley Cyrus!
What Rep-Range is Best for the Glutes?
Most texts state that the gluteus maximus are a 60-68% slow-twitch muscle. This lends support to going light for high reps. However, an overwhelming amount of journal studies show that the glutes don’t activate much in simple tasks such as walking or standing from a seated position. This lends support to going heavy and/or explosive for lower reps. Anecdotally, bodybuilders have realized that the lower body tends to respond best to higher rep ranges. However, I believe that we should utilize low reps, medium reps, and high reps when trying to build the glutes and shape the butt.
Just consider the exercises themselves. Some exercises lend themselves better to heavy weight for lower reps such as squats and deadlifts. Some exercises lend themselves well to medium reps such as hip thrusts, pull throughs, and walking lunges. And some exercises lend themselves well to high reps such as side lying abductions and side lying clams.
Going Too Heavy and Going Too Light
Let’s say I prescribe a client really heavy pull-throughs or walking lunges. In the case of the pull-through, they’ll stumble and lose their balance and fail to work their glutes. If you go too light you won’t work the glutes either so there’s a happy medium that must be reached with pull-throughs. The same goes with walking lunges. Go too heavy and you won’t maintain forward momentum. It’ll look like a static lunge followed by a farmer’s walk. Again, a happy medium must be reached to work the glutes the best, form can’t be compromised but there needs to be ample tension on the glutes. Here are examples that illustrate this concept:
Benefits of Doing Squatting/Lunging Movements
These movements work the quads really well and they work the glutes best in a position of deep stretch. Because of the eccentric activity in the stretch position, they lead to the highest levels of glute soreness and inflammation. This muscular damage is a critical part of hypertrophy adaptations. Several journal studies support this last statement. Many folks believe that the squat or lunge is the best glute exercise. Maybe they’re right; maybe they’re wrong.
Benefits of Doing Deadlift/Good Morning Movements/Back Extension/Reverse Hyper Movements
These movements work the hamstrings really well and they move the hips through a full range of motion while hitting the glutes pretty hard. Many folks believe that the deadlift is the best glute exercise. I’ve heard some say that the back extension is the best. Maybe they’re right; maybe they’re wrong.
Benefits of Doing Bridging/Kickback Movements
These movements keep the knees bent while they move the hips through a full range of motion. Because of the bent knees which decreases hamstring contribution and increases glute contribution and the emphasis on end-range contraction, they lead to the highest levels of cramping or “pump.” This pump is a critical part of hypertrophy adaptations as well. Several journal studies support this concept despite what many naysayers believe. Most of my clients believe that barbell glute bridges, hip thrusts and pendulum quadruped hip extensions are the best glute exercises due to the fact that they “feel” their glutes working most in these movements. Maybe they’re right; maybe they’re wrong. We don’t know enough about hypertrophy to know for sure.
Benefits of Doing Abduction/External Rotation Movements
Abduction exercises often hit the upper glutes really hard while external rotation movements hit the entire glutes really well. In fact, as you can see in the chart above the band external rotation is an amazing glute exercise…most likely the best glute isolation movement in existence. It’s difficult to master, but if you can do it, you’re glutes will respond very favorably! Doing these movements first in a routine often allows the client to feel their glutes working more on subsequent exercises which is a huge plus.
Why Most Personal Trainers Fail
Many personal trainers fail at delivering great glutes to their clients because of several reasons. First, they don’t adequately understand the concept of progressions. Most start their clients off with too much weight or too difficult a variation to handle. Second, they don’t understand corrective exercise. Many clients can’t automatically perform squats or hip thrusts. They need to improve their ankle, hip, and thoracic mobility, they need to learn how to activate their glutes, they need to improve their flexibility in various muscles, etc. You can’t just throw a bar on someone’s back and tell them to squat. Start out with bodyweight, progress or regress as needed and use corrective strategies to get the clients moving properly.
Why Most Strength Coaches Fail
Some strength coaches fail at delivering great glutes to their clients because they are too rigid in their beliefs to the point where they are anti-bodybuilding. Female personal training clients often come to coaches/trainers to improve their physique. This requires the coaches to step out of the box and borrow some techniques from the bodybuilding world. Get over it! Some of these methods flat out work, and you’re not going to injure anyone as long as they use good form.
The Plan
1. Screen
2. Warm-Up
3. Progressions
4. Advanced Protocol
Screen
Ideally prior to your first workout you’d receive a proper screening. I’m biased toward the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) but in order to use good form on various exercises you need to have proper levels of mobility and stability in the various joints.
Warm-Up
Ideally for each workout you would warm-up by completing a circuit consisting of drills from each of the following five categories. The screen would determine which drills and how much of each category should be performed prior to the workout. The warm-up should last around 20 minutes:
1) Foam Rolling/Trigger-Point Therapy – this addresses soft-tissue quality and density, gets rid of trigger points, breaks up adhesions, and increases blood flow to allow for better contractility and flexibility
2) Static Stretching – this addresses soft-tissue flexibility. In general, all of the muscles that act on the hip – from extensors to flexors, abductors to adductors, and external to internal rotators, need to be loose.
3) Dynamic Mobility Drills – this addresses mobility and ensures that joints like the ankles, hips, and thoracic spine can move properly to allow for proper movement during exercise performance
4) Core Stability Drills – this addresses core stability and ensures that you are able to brace the lumbar spine and move at the hips and thoracic spine in order to produce proper motor patterns
5) Glute Activation Drills – this addresses glute activation and ensures that your glutes are turning on and firing properly so you will use them during your workout
Warm-ups are for everyone; beginners and advanced. Nobody is too good for them. We all need to make it a habit of going through the motions of a proper warm-up so our muscles don’t tighten up and/or quit activating.
Progressions
Ideally you would start at the most basic exercises and demonstrate proficiency before moving on to a more difficult variation. For example, you must demonstrate that you can squat and lunge with bodyweight before you hold onto dumbbells or place a barbell on your back. Before performing barbell hip thrusts, you must be able to demonstrate proficiency with bodyweight hip thrusts.
Start with simple bodyweight exercises like squats, static lunges, single leg reaching RDL’s, glute bridges, quadruped hip extensions, and side lying clams. Once your form is perfect and you feel the exercises working the right muscles and you are controlling the movement, move onto more difficult variations like bodyweight walking lunges, Bulgarian squats, single leg glute bridges, and bird dogs. Once you master those, finally you can move onto weighted movements and more advanced variations.
What if I Just Jump Right into the Advanced Protocol Even Though I’m not Ready for it?
You will not be able to use good form, you will most likely injure your low back or knees, and your glutes will not look any better than before. In fact, they’ll probably look worse since you won’t activate them much (so they won’t grow) but you’ll definitely activate all the synergists which pick up the slack for the weak glutes (erector spinae, hamstrings, quads, etc.). This means that the other muscles will grow but your glutes won’t so they’ll look even smaller and more pathetic. Go about things wisely and start at the bottom and move up gradually.
Advanced Protocol
At last! This is what you’ve been waiting for. The advanced program! It is important that you’ve spent adequate time preparing your body to perform the following program and that you have the necessary levels of mobility & stability to perform each of the movement patterns correctly. Without futher ado, here’s what you’re going to do when the time is right:
1. Pick an Abduction/External Rotation Exercise and do 2 sets of 10-20 repetitions
Options: x-band walk, band standing abduction, band seated abduction, band/cable hip external rotation
* On these movements you must focus on “feeling” the glutes doing the work.
2. Pick a Quad-Dominant Hip Extension Exercise and do 3 sets of 6-10 repetitions
Options: full squat, box squat, front squat, Zercher squat, walking lunge, high step up, Bulgarian squat, pistol
3. Pick a Hip-Dominant Hip Extension Exercise and do 3 sets of 6-10 repetitions
Options: deadlift, sumo deadlift, trap bar deadlift, Romanian deadlift, rack pull, single leg RDL, good morning, back extension, reverse hyper
4. Pick a Bent-Leg Hip Extension Exercise and do 3 sets of 10-20 repetitions
Options: hip thrust, glute bridge, single leg hip thrust, pull through, pendulum quadruped hip extension
*On these movements you want shorter rest times and you want to try to force as much blood into the glutes as possible. Think constant tension and think “pump.” You should be waddling like a duck after these movements.
How do I Perform Some of these Movements?
Here are some videos that can help you out. I took some videos of my niece who trains with me once per week for the past six months or so. If a 13 year old girl can do it, so can you!
Pause Squat
Here is my niece doing 3 pause-squats with 95 lbs.
Deadlift
Here is my niece doing 5 deadlifts with 115 lbs.
Bottom-Up Single Leg Hip Thrust
Here’s my niece doing a new variation I just made up; I call it a bottom-up single leg hip thrust:
Barbell Glute Bridge
Here’s my niece performing a barbell glute bridge with 95 lbs for 30 reps! (Ideally her knees would stay a little more stable):
Hip Thrust
Here’s an entire video I filmed showing how to do a proper hip thrust:
Band Hip External Rotation
Here I show how to do a proper band hip external rotation. Cables can be used for this exercise as well.
What if I Want to Do a Full-Body Workout, Not Just a Glute Workout?
No problem, just alternate between lower body and upper body movements and throw in a horizontal press (bench press, push up), vertical pull (chin up, pull up, pulldown), vertical press (military press, seated db military press), horizontal pull (one arm row, inverted row, seated row), and ab/core exercise (plank, side plank, Pallof press, ab wheel rollout, bodysaw, suitcase carry, landmine, cable chop, cable lift).
So one workout could look like this:
band hip external rotation
push up
front squat
chin up
sumo deadlift
db military press
barbell glute bridge
one arm row
ab wheel rollout
If doing full body workouts just do two sets of each exercise.
What if I Want to Work My Butt Out at Home and Don’t Have any Equipment?
You can still get a great workout. Here are a bunch of great glute exercises you can do at home:
How Often Should I Work Out?
My niece is seeing great results training with me one day per week (but she also plays volleyball throughout the week). Most people see the best results when they hit their glutes three times per week. Really strong people like myself see better results when we hit the glutes twice per week. I’ve trained some clients five days per week and hit their glutes hard every day with great results.
Bottom line – The number of days isn’t too important and depends on the training split, the training load and intensiveness, how advanced the lifter is, etc. I recommend 3 full body workouts per week or 4 upper/lower split workouts (meaning 2 upper body and 2 lower body workouts per week) for most women.
Conclusion
There you have it! That’s the secret to amazing glutes! Now spread the word so we can live in a world like this:
by Bret Contreras
source:bretcontreras.wordpress.com
