Build Your Dream Glutes with These 5 Moves!

The glutes are muscles that are strong enough to take a lot of pressure off of our low-back and our lower body joints, when utilized properly. These are also muscles that people generally would like to build up for aesthetic reasons. I am here to take a lot of the guesswork out of how to build your dream glutes, and share our top 5 exercises that you should be performing every week! Full exercise demonstrations for all of these exercises can be found on the Infinite Motion App. 

There are 3 main parts to the glutes: The glute maximus, glute medius, and glute minimus. The glute maximus is the largest of these muscles and helps to extend, externally rotate, and abduct (bring the leg out from the body) the hips. It also assists in maintaining an upright posture.

Glute Maximus Anatomy

The glute medius primarily performs abduction, along with flexion, extension, and both internal and external rotation of the hip. The glute medius works with our tensor facia lata (TFL) and quadratus lumborum (QL) to keep our pelvis level and stable. The glute minimus is the smallest of the glute muscles, and also assists in stabilizing the pelvis, along with hip abduction and internal rotation. 

Glute Minimus and Glute Medius Anatomy

Now that you know a little bit about how these muscles work, here are the exercises that we suggest performing every week in order to build bigger glutes:

1. Low-Bar Back Squats

   
   

   

   
   

We recommend working up to a barbell version of squats, but they can be started with bodyweight or a light weight at first. This exercise is great for working on stability of the lower-body joints as well! Squats allow for a deep range of motion in the glutes while using a fair amount of weight on them. If you are focusing on driving the hips down and back as much as you can (increasing your squat depth) this will stretch the glutes out even more. We recommend trying a low-bar back squat (barbell placed along the rear delts) if you want to allow for even more of a glute bias on these. 

Honorable Mentions that are similar to low-bar barbell back squats: high-bar barbell back squats, goblet squats (dumbbell/kettlebell), smith machine squats, leg press

2. Barbell Romanian Dead Lifts (RDLs)

   
   

   

   
   

Just like the squats, we recommend working up to a barbell version of RDLs, but they can also be started with bodyweight or a light weight at first. This exercise is great for building up your glutes, as well as your hamstrings. Having larger hamstrings will help your glutes look more proportional to your body. This exercise relies on building up strong back extensors and grip strength, so it might take a little longer to build up the weight on it. Just like the squat, you will be able to go into a deep range of motion on it if you are thinking about pushing your hips back further. In order to bias the glutes, try doing these while maintaining a deeper knee bend. This action will allow you to push your hips back further and stretch the glutes out more. We recommend these over deadlifts because they focus on a slow stretch of the glutes and hamstrings as your bring the weight down and control it back up. 

Honorable Mentions that are similar to barbell RDLs: barbell or kettlebell deadlifts, dumbbell RDLs, smith machine RDLs

3. Smith Machine Glute Bridges (Hip Thrusts)

   
   

   

   
   

These are our favorite isolation exercise for the glutes since they can be loaded up with a lot of weight pretty quickly. Unlike the squats and RDLs though, the range of motion is not as large on the glutes, so we recommend doing these after performing your squats and/or RDLs. Our favorite option for these is utilizing the smith machine. This will make it less exhausting to load up the weight after performing your barbell exercises, and will allow you to start from the top of the rep— which will help protect the low-back. Focus on controlling your movement on these, while also pushing your hips a little faster through the top of the movement— aiming for a stretch in the front of the hips to achieve full hip extension. 

Honorable Mentions that are similar to smith machine glute bridges: glute bridge machine, barbell glute bridges, kettlebell glute bridges, b-stance or single leg glute bridges

4. Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squats

   
   

   

   Kettlebells are pictured, not dumbbells. Use dumbbells if you want a deeper range of motion in the hips.

There are many versions of single-leg exercises that are great for building the glutes, but dumbbell Bulgarian split squats are our favorite. When you are first trying these out, your bodyweight might be enough. Wait until you can do 8-12 good reps on each leg before adding weight. These will also help you build up good foot/ankle, and hip stability. If you want to do these with a glute bias, we recommend focusing on more hinge back in your hip (less of your knee pushing forward), which will lean your torso forward more. Focus on keeping 80% of your weight in your standing leg. Choosing to do these with dumbbells rather than kettlebells will allow you to come down a little deeper in your split squat before hitting the ground with the weights. If you are brave, you could try setting these up in a squat rack with a barbell instead. Make sure to leave a rep or two in the tank if you’re going to try these with a barbell, and don’t neglect setting up your safeties just in case. 

Honorable Mentions that are similar to dumbbell Bulgarian split squats (other single-leg exercises): barbell Bulgarian split squats, standing split squats (on the floor), walking lunges, reverse lunges, single leg RDLs, single leg glute bridges

5. Hip Abduction Machine

   
   

   

   Lean forward to allow your outer hips to engage a little better (not pictured).

This is our favorite isolation exercise for the outer portion of the glutes. This should be done at the end of your workout, since it’s pretty easy to perform— it doesn’t take much energy or concentration. This exercise will help define the outer portion of your glutes. However, don’t expect this exercise to get rid of your “hip dips” — these are a normal anatomical part of your body. Our favorite way to perform these is with a bit of a lean forward, possibly holding onto the machine, to get an extra stretch on the glutes. 

We hope that this guide is helpful towards building your dream glutes, as well as having strong hips to support the rest of your body while doing everyday tasks. If you need anymore guidance to figure out a program that's right for your specific goals please send us a message or try out a free month of our Infinite Motion App!