The 15 Best Exercises for Glutes, Plus 5 Workouts | BarBend (2024)

The gluteus maximus — that’s your butt for the uninitiated — is the largest muscle in your body. Even if filling out a pair of jeans isn’t at the top of your priority list, bigger, stronger glutes will help you build better squats,deadlifts, and everything in between.

You need the right glute exercises to boost your performance in and out of the gym.But how do you know which glute exercises are best? You read this list and put the movements into action. Here are 15 of the best glute exercises for mass and strength (and some workouts) you can try on your next leg day.

15 Best Glutes Exercises

1. Conventional Deadlift
2. Back Squat
3. Hip Thrust
4. Belt Squat
5. Romanian Deadlift
6. Bulgarian Split Squat
7. Sumo Deadlift
8. Cable Glute Kickback
9. Step-Up
10. Goblet Squat
11. Good Morning
12. Kettlebell Swing
13. Split Squat
14. Glute Bridge
15. Curtsy Lunge

Recent Updates: This list was originally curated by Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist Austin Current. The exercise selections were revised and updated on Feb. 23, 2024, by BarBend’s Senior Writer Jake Dickson. The update removed several redundancies and included several new movements that better reflect BarBend‘s ongoing commitment to providing the best evidence-based content to its readers.

1. Conventional Deadlift

Why Do It: Theconventional deadlift — the king of alldeadlift variations — is one of the most popular exercises around, and rightfully so. It challenges the muscles around the hip, knee, and ankle. It also taxes the muscles surrounding your wrist, elbow, and shoulder to hold the barbell, but those joints do not contribute directly to the range of motion.As it primarily focuses on hip extension, you can do deadlifts while training back, legs, or anywhere else it fits nicely in your programming. The raw mechanical tension applied to your backside is unrivaled by most other weight room exercises as well.

Equipment Needed: Barbell, weight plates, belt (optional), straps (optional)

How To Do It

1. Set up for the deadlift by taking a hip-width stance, hinging at the hips, shooting your butt back, and reaching down to the barbell.
2. Grab the bar with a close grip, just outside your shins.
3. Flatten your back, pull your chest up, and take a breath in.
4. Push into the floor with your legs to break the bar off the ground.
5. As the bar passes your knees, thrust your hips forward and squeeze your glutes to come to a standing position.

Coach’s Tip: Take some time to experiment with your starting position to find something that really engages your glutes.

Sets and Reps: 3-4 x 6-8

2. Back Squat

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Why Do It: Theback squat is a compound exercise that challenges every muscle in the legs, especially the glutes. Its primary use in training is to challenge hip extension, driving the lower body up from the bottom position and placing a high amount of tension on the glutes.The back squat leads to strength and muscle gain and reinforces other exercises like the deadlift, split squat, and lunge. It also recruits the core and improves your posture.

Equipment Needed: Squat rack, barbell, weight plates, belt (optional), weightlifting shoes (optional)

How To Do It

1. Unrack a bar from a squat rack by placing it on your upper back with a close grip and taking one or two steps back.
2. Take a comfortable stance; place your feet between hip and shoulder-width apart and turn your feet outward to whatever angle feels natural.
3. From here, inhale into your belly and feel your weight distribute evenly across your feet.
4. Squat by breaking at your knees and hips simultaneously and sitting down as low as you’re able.
5. Once you reach the bottom, reverse the motion and stand back up by contracting your quads.

Coach’s Tip: Squat depth is the most important factor when it comes to engaging your glutes. Try to squat as low as you can with good form.

Sets and Reps: 3-4 x 6-8

3. Hip Thrust

Why Do It: This exercise effectively loads the glutes in their shortened position without loading the spine. What separates the glute bridge from the hip thrust is the range of motion.Folks typically perform glute bridges on the floor, which limits how much you can flex your hips and makes using heavy weights somewhat awkward. Hip thrusts require you to sit up against a bench and offer more range of motion to blast your glutes with. What’s more, thrusts let you apply lots of heavy tension to your glutes while leaving your lower back almost entirely out of the equation.

Equipment Needed: Weight bench or plyo box, barbell, bar pad, weight plates

How To Do It

1. Sit with your upper back against a weight bench and a loaded barbell in front of you. Roll the bar back until it brushes up your hips.
2. Bend your knees and plant your feet on the floor to seal the bar into your hip crease. Grab the bar with a wide grip.
3. Initiate the thrust by pushing your hips upward until your body forms a straight line from your kneecaps to your shoulders.

Coach’s Tip: Place a protective pad on the barbell to avoid hurting your hips and groin.

Sets and Reps: 4 x 8-12

4. Belt Squat

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Why Do It: The positioning of the load in the hip belt squat allows for a more vertical spine, taking some of the load off the low back, and increased training volume without more wear and tear since the weight is pulling your hips down rather than pressing on your torso.

Equipment Needed: Belt squat machine

How To Do It

1. Stand on the platform and fasten the belt around your hips.
2. Place your feet to the left and right of the pulley in the platform and place your hands on the handles in front of you.
3. Engage the pulley system and find your balance. Take a breath into your belly.
4. Sit straight down, allowing the pulley to guide your movement.
5. Squat as low as you comfortably can and then push back up to a standing position.

Coach’s Tip: Think about allowing the pulley system to pull your hips straight down into the bottom of the squat.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 12

5. Romanian Deadlift

[Related More: Romanian Deadlift Vs. Deadlift — Which is Better for Your Program?]

Why Do It: The Romanian deadlift is, essentially, a top-down version of the conventional deadlift. By starting from a standing position and performing a hip hinge until the bar reaches your knees, you apply a lot of mechanical tension to your glutes that you don’t get from regular deadlifts.

Equipment Needed: Barbell, weight plates, belt (optional), straps (optional)

How To Do It

1. Bend over to pick up a lightly loaded barbell and assume a close hip-width stance.
2. Hinge at the hips, pushing your pelvis backward until you feel a strong stretch in your posterior chain. Let the barbell glide down your thighs.
3. Thrust your hips forward to return to a standing position.

Coach’s Tip: The depth of your Romanian deadlifts will depend on how flexible your hamstrings are. Try to hinge over until the bar is roughly knee-level.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 8

6. Bulgarian Split Squat

Why Do It: The Bulgarian split squat isolates one leg at a time, allowing a weaker leg to catch up in size and strength.The rear foot elevation allows you to sink down into hip flexion more, placing more muscular tension on the glute of the front leg. It’s also a phenomenal exercise for identifying and attacking any side-to-side discrepancies in strength or motor control, improving your balance as you beef up your backside.

Equipment Needed: Barbell in squat rack, plyo box, weight bench, or other surface for your back leg, plus dumbbells (optional), kettlebells (optional)

How To Do It

1. Place your non-working leg onto a knee-height bench or box about two feet behind you.
2. Balance yourself on your working leg with a weight in each hand.
3. From here, sink your hips down and back, allowing your working leg knee to bend and travel forward as needed.
4. Reverse the motion by pushing into the floor until your leg is straight.

Coach’s Tip: To emphasize your glutes even more, limit how far forward your knee travels over your toes and actively push your hips backward instead.

Sets and Reps: 2-3 x 10-12

7. Sumo Deadlift

[Read More: Try This Two-Move Finisher Glute Training Routine]

Why Do It: The sumo deadlift is a widely used exercise with many benefits, especially when it comes to adding strength and size to the lower body. The ultra-wide stance places the hips into external rotation, placing tension on the adductor and glute muscles — most notably the smaller glute medius and minimus. Most people can maintain a more upright torso with the sumo deadlift as well, which is beneficial if you want to minimize loading on your lumbar spine.

Equipment Needed: Barbell, weight plates, lifting belt (optional), straps (optional)

How To Do It

1. Address a loaded barbell by taking a very wide, toes-turned-out stance. Point your feet towards the weight plates and open your hips.
2. From here, break at the hips and sink down until you can grab the bar with both hands.
3. Brace for the pull by inhaling air into your stomach, pushing your knees out to the sides, and pulling your chest up.
4. Initiate the movement by pushing into the floor with your legs and standing up until you can lock your hips out.

Coach’s Tip: The sumo deadlift has no eccentric phase. Keep your hands on the bar but allow it to fall freely to the floor between reps.

Sets and Reps: Try 3-4 sets of 3-6 reps with a heavy weight.

8. Cable Glute Kickback

Why Do It: Glute kickbacks are devilishly effective atgrowing your glutes because they isolate the muscle; a quality you can’t often find without turning to machines or cables. In this variation, your setup and technique are crucial to the success of the exercise and placing maximal tension where it needs to be. If you can get the angle right, the glute kickback offers unparalleled isolation to your behind through its entire contractile range of motion. Kickbacks make for top-tier finishers at the end of a workout.

Equipment Needed: Cable station, ankle strap

How To Do It

1. Place a strapattached to the cable around the ankle. Keep your back in a neutral position with your abs engaged.
2. Tilt your body forward and kick your leg behind you while maintaining a slight knee bend.
3. Raise your leg until you fully contract your working glute while relaxing your non-working leg.

Coach’s Tip: Keep your knee straight — but not locked out — for the duration of your set.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 15

9. Step-Up

Why Do It: If you aren’t keen on lunges or split squats but want to train your glutes unilaterally, you can grab a plyo box or weight bench and smash some step-ups.Due to the alignment of this exercise, you can place a lot of muscular tension on the glute max without external load. This exercise has many benefits and can be performed with little to no equipment. All you will need is astep-up box orbench. You can add dumbbells (as shown) for an added challenge.

Equipment Needed: Weight bench or plyometric box, dumbbells (optional), kettlebells (optional), barbell (optional)

How To Do It

1. Start with one foot close to the edge of a knee-height step-up box or bench, ensuring the whole foot is in contact with the surface, with the other foot hanging off.
2. Drop the foot to the ground, controlling your body weight with the opposite leg.
3. Tap the heel of the foot to the ground and drive through the step with the working leg to return back to the starting position.

Coach’s Tip: The higher the surface you step to, the more you’ll engage your glutes due to the added range of motion.

Sets and Reps: Try 2 or 3 sets of as many as 12 to 15 repetitions.

10. Goblet Squat

[Read More: 2 Front Loaded Squat Variations Every Lifter Needs More Of]

Why Do It: This front-loaded squat variation ensures that the lifter stays upright and is done with either dumbbells or kettlebells, making it manageable and more beginner-friendly. Goblet squats can be added to a larger group ofexercises for more leg muscle and endurance for more advanced trainees. But the benefits for beginners are nearly endless; it’s easy to perform, encourages good posture, and serves as a great handshake to squatting in general.

Equipment Needed: Dumbbell or kettlebell

How To Do It

1. Stand with your feet around shoulder width apart with a dumbbell or kettlebell and hold the weight directly under your chin with your elbows tucked in.
2. Brace your core, tense your back, and ensure that you feel stable.
3. Keep your chest up and squat down until both of your legs bend to around 90 degrees. Stand back up by driving through the floor.

Coach’s Tip: Don’t rest the weight on your chest. Actively hold it aloft with your arms and upper back.

Sets and Reps: Go for 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps here.

11. Good Morning

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Why Do It: Hip hinge movements like the Romanian deadlift are diabolically effective at building your glutes. However, oftentimes, you must use heavy weights to get the most value out of those movements. This isn’t the case for the good morning exercise. By placing the barbell on your back (instead of in your hands), the resistance ends much further away from your glutes — making the reps much harder. This provides a two-for-one benefit — light weights feel heavy and stimulating while also teaching you how to hinge properly with a braced core.

Equipment Needed: Barbell, weight plates (optional), squat stand or power rack

How To Do It

1. Unrack a barbell from a squat stand or power rack as if you were going to perform a standard back squat.
2. Take a close, hip-width stance, then slowly shoot your hips back behind you and descend into a low bow.
3. Your torso should end up nearly parallel to the floor before you reverse the motion and squeeze your glutes to return to a standing position.

Coach’s Tip: Avoid training too close to failure on this exercise, as there’s no way to safely dump the weight off your back.

Sets and Reps: Try 2 sets of 8-12 reps with a moderate weight and slow tempo.

12. Kettlebell Swing

Why Do It: Kettlebell swings pull you into a hinged position and require you to generate heaps of explosive power through your hips to finish the rep. This teaches you to flex your glutes rapidly, forcing blood into the muscle and accumulating tons of metabolic stress. The kettlebell swing works well as a conditioning tool or for active recovery.

Equipment Needed: Kettlebell

How To Do It

1. Set up with a kettlebell between your feet with a shoulder-width stance or slightly wider.
2. Hinge down to grab the kettlebell and sweep it back between your legs, and then rapidly thrust your hips forward.
3. The momentum should naturally elevate the kettlebell upward to around belly button height. Allow the bell to fall naturally and kick your hips backward to recycle into the next repetition.
4. String your reps together smoothly and you’re off to the races.

Coach’s Tip: Keep your arms relaxed and tucked to your sides. The height of the kettlebell is irrelevant to training your glutes.

Sets and Reps: Warm up your glutes with 4 sets of 15 to 20 repetitions.

13. Split Squat

Why Do It: Split squats serve as a great introduction to single-leg training. They work your glutes individually, and even light weights (or none at all) will feel challenging. Split squats are also easy to customize — adding a low weight plate as shown above will stretch your glutes a bit more.

Equipment Needed: Dumbbells (optional), kettlebells (optional)

How To Do It

1. Stagger your stance, placing your dominant leg about two feet in front of you. Your back foot should be up, touching the ground only with your toes.
2. Square your hips, ensuring they’re pointed forward, and lean heavily into your front leg, placing most of your weight on it.
3. Drop your hips down and forward as low as you can before your back knee touches the floor.

Coach’s Tip: Think of your back leg like a kickstand; it’s only there to help you stabilize your body.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 10

14. Glute Bridge

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Why Do It: Your glutes perform hip extension; straightening out your legs and torso. This movement pattern isn’t always easy to figure out, and the glute bridge serves as a great teaching tool to help you learn how to use your butt muscles in harder exercises.

Equipment Needed: Exercise mat (optional), dumbbell (optional), kettlebell (optional)

How To Do It

1. Lie on the floor on your back and bend your knees so your feet plant flat on the floor. Relax your arms by your sides.
2. Lift your hips off the floor by contracting your glutes.
3. Push your hips up toward the ceiling until your body forms a straight line from kneecap to shoulder.

Coach’s Tip: This is a bodyweight glute exercise, but you can apply some extra load by holding a dumbbell or kettlebell in your lap.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 15

15. Curtsy Lunge

Why Do It: Your body isn’t designed to only move forward and backward. Side-to-side and twisting motions occur in the real world — and your glutes need to be prepared to handle those demands. This move also earns points for convenience, it’s a great glute exercise to do at home if you don’t want to head to the gym.

Equipment Needed: Dumbbells (optional), barbell (optional)

How To Do It

1. Stand upright with your feet under your hips.
2. Take a step backward with your working leg, but cross it over and behind you; if you’re using your left leg, step back and to the right.
3. As you step back, bend both knees and sink into a lunge position.
4. Reverse the motion, pushing hard into the floor to engage your glutes.

Coach’s Tip: This move requires you to work in multiple planes of motion. Start with just your own body weight before adding any extra load until you get the hang of it.

Sets and Reps: 2 x 10-12

Glutes Warm-Up

One of the most effective warm-ups for any muscle group will be the exercises you perform in that day’s training session. For example, if you’re performing back squats, you can warm up by performing light reps and increasing intensity as you proceed toward your working sets.

[Related: Prime YourGlutesUsing These 12 Warm-Up Exercises]

This ensures that you’re priming both the upper and lower glutes, reducing the risk of injury and improving your overall training performance. Here’s a sample warm-up you can use on your next glute-focused workout:

• 5-10 minutes on the incline treadmill, stair climber, or elliptical
• 2 sets of 15-20 banded side shuffles, unweighted step-ups, or bridges
• 1-2 sets of your first compound exercise with the empty bar or light dumbbells

Five Glute Workouts To Try

Glute training has become prominent in the fitness world, but many mainstream exercises and workouts are inherently flawed. Building a rock-solid booty takes a bit more finesse than yet another set of unweighted kickbacks.

At-Home Glute Workout

Glute exercises with weights will give you the most bang for your buck. However, you may not have a fully-furnished home gym and might need to resort to some bodyweight glute exercises from time to time. Give this at-home glute workout a try:

[Read More: Try These 10GluteExercises at Home]

Glute Workout for Beginners

Bilateral bridges, hinges, and squatting patterns are the bread and butter of developing the glutes. In order to get there, early focus should be placed on mastering technique, preventing unilateral differences in skill or strength, and improving hip stability. Since these exercises will become staples for any number of glute workouts, building a strong foundation is critical.

Glute Workout for Strength

Working with free weights like the barbell or dumbbells is the best way to combine strength, skill, and function. Choosing a barbell or dumbbell version of the squat or hinge to primarily focus on while rotating through other methods of challenging the remaining patterns is a great tool for training with long-term progress in mind.

In simple terms; if you want to build strength, you need to perform glute exercises with weights. Compound exercises are preferable here.

Glute Workout for Hypertrophy

Using a leg press to train the squatting pattern, lifting straps for grip on dumbbell or barbell moves, and using machines for burnout are great ways to maximize results over the course of a workout. A mix of all modalities – barbells, dumbbells, and machines — is useful and can be rotated to keep training fun and stimulating.

Glute Workout for Endurance

Long walks, hiking, or standing for extended periods of time can all challenge the endurance of the glutes. Choosing exercises that mimic and overload those patterns can reinforce proper mechanics when these real-life challenges occur, and also help build a solid foundation of glute development in the process.

Glutes Anatomy

Your glutes are the largest single muscle in your lower body, and they’re also the most powerful. That said, there’s a lot of booty-related misinformation out there — “upper glute exercises”, “lower glutes”, and so on. These regions aren’t specific muscles that you can target individually. Here’s how your glutes actually work:

• Gluteus Maximus: The largest and most superficial (close to the skin) of the glute muscles. This region of the muscle does the most work when you perform glute exercises with weights that emphasize hip extension.
• Gluteus Medius: This muscle is found high on your hip and to the side. Your glute medius is a stability-focused muscle that helps control the movement of your thigh bone in your hip socket.
• Gluteus Minimus: This tiny, deep muscle in your hip isn’t something you can effectively target in the gym with most exercises. It assists your other glute muscles and helps stabilize the pelvis, preventing it from tilting side to side.

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