Written by Garett Reid | NSCA, CSCS, CISSN, M.S.E.S.S
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
Did you know that the largest muscle in your body is the gluteus maximus? That’s right, and it’s also one of the strongest. But, for many of us, it probably doesn’t feel that way. If you are lacking size and strength in the booty region, or you feel that your butt is too big (and not in a good way), it’s time to get down to business.
We are going to teach you everything you need to know about training the gluteus maximus, which includes the best exercises, techniques for maximizing glute activation, workouts, and more. Unlike most “Best Gluteus Maximus Exercises” articles that you’ll find, the exercises we have in store for you are complete, no-nonsense glute builders.
We are talking about big, powerful lifts, as that’s what it takes to build bigger and stronger glutes for both men and women alike. It’s also what will help you to lose fat and keep it off.
And while it’s good to do some isolation exercises if you feel they work well for your glutes, you should be putting most of your time into compound exercises, as they will provide you with the best results for your buttocks. Remember, it’s the largest muscle in your body, so it requires exercises worthy of that ranking.
Table of Contents:
- What is the gluteus maximus muscle?
- What does the gluteus maximus do?
- Why strong glute muscles are so important
- Causes of a weak glute maximus
- 8 best gluteus maximus exercises
- Gluteus maximus exercises at home
- How to grow your gluteus maximus
- How long does it take to see results?
- Best gluteus maximus workouts
- Glute maximus workout FAQs
WHAT IS THE GLUTEUS MAXIMUS?
You have three gluteal muscles, the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. Your glute max is the largest and outermost muscle of the three gluteal muscles, making up most of your butts shape and appearance.
The gluteus maximus muscle, of which you have two, one on each side of your buttock, is a thick, fleshy, quadrilateral-shaped mass with fibers that are directly obliquely downward and lateralward.
In the most simplest terms, the gluteus maximus starts at the top of your pelvic bone and it travels down connecting to the upper part of your femur (thigh bone). Obviously, on the posterior side.
In more complex terms, the gluteus maximus has multiple origin points and two insertion points. For those who are more familiar with anatomy, it’s origin points are lateral/posterior surface of sacrum and coccyx, posterior side of ilium, thoracolumbar fascia, and sacrotuberous ligament, and its insertion points are Iliotibial tract, gluteal tuberosity of femur.
Out of the three gluteal muscles, the gluteus maximus has the most potential to increase in size and strength, considerably. In fact, it’s one of the easiest muscles in your entire body to develop (although genetics do factor into this as well)...that is, if you know what exercises to perform and how to maximize glute activation (which is why you are here).
Here is a picture so you can see where the gluteus maximus is located and where it sits in relation to the other gluteal muscles.
As mentioned, the gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the human body. Interestingly, compared to other primates, the large size of our gluteus maximus is a very defining characteristic of humans. Being that we have a big and powerful gluteus maximus, we can maintain the trunk in an erect posture with ease, whereas other primates, which have flatter, punier gluteus maximus muscles, can not sustain standing erectly.
The ability to stand erect is a very important function of the gluteus maximus, but it is definitely not all the gluteus maximus does for us. So, let’s dive into the functions of the gluteus maximus.
WHAT DOES THE GLUTEUS MAXIMUS DO?
Besides determining the shape of your butt (and being one of the most instinctually attractive muscles on the human body, especially if strong and healthy looking), the gluteus maximus has many important functions.
Here are the main functions of the glutes:
- Stability: The gluteus maximus balances the pelvis and femoral heads (upper leg bones) to allow for an upright posture. It also assists in stabilizing the hips and knees when lifting one leg off the ground, walking, running, and so on.
- Hip Extension: The gluteus maximus, along with the hamstrings, is a primary mover during any movement that involves hip extension. Hip extension occurs when you walk, run, stand up from a seated position, climb stairs (the gluteus maximus really shows its power when sprinting, climbing, and coming up from a squatting position). All in all, any movement that lengthens or opens the front of your hip is hip extension. So, you are constantly performing hip extension, and thus using your glutes, day in and day out.
- Hip External Rotation: The gluteus maximus helps to move your leg laterally (outward, away from the body), which is hip external rotation.
- Hip Adduction/Abduction: The upper fibers of your gluteus maximus help abduct the hip and the lower fibers help to adduct the hip.
The gluteus maximus plays an important role in core stability, balance, bracing impact, and transferring force from the lower to upper body as well.
And while the gluteus maximus has many important functions, a lot of people’s gluteus maximus are underactive during these functions, requiring other muscles to compensate for its lack of activation.
For example, an individual may not utilize their gluteus maximus well for hip extension, relying mainly on their hamstrings to power the movement. This will cause underdeveloped glutes, muscle imbalances, and oftentimes it can lead to injury from overuse of the hamstrings or weakness of the glutes.
So, it’s important that you focus on gluteus maximus exercises regularly and build a good mind-muscle connection during workouts. This way your gluteus maximus will activate as it should during daily movements and sports. Having well-developed, strong, well-functioning glutes is very important for the longevity of our bodies. We love working the muscle group using buttocks lifting exercises as it targets the glutes, helping to strengthen and sculpt them.
While the above information explains why the gluteus maximus muscle is so important, let’s discuss it with more focus on fitness and sports. We will also explain the causes and issues of weak glutes...
WHY GLUTEUS MAXIMUS EXERCISES ARE SO IMPORTANT
Your glutes are involved in so many exercises. Pretty much any compound exercise that involves your quads or your hamstrings can also serve as a gluteus medius exercise. Think about it, your glutes are a primary mover for squats, deadlifts, lunges, leg presses, hip thrusts, and the list goes on.
Your gluteus maximus is like the glue that holds all lower body movements together (and is a huge stabilizer of your upper body). The stronger your glutes are, the more strength you will have for compound movements.
This applies to athletics too. Your gluteus maximus powers movements like sprints, jumping, shuffling, acceleration and deceleration when shifting movements, and the list goes on. So, if you want to be powerful and explosive, you need strong glutes.
It’s not just about being strong, powerful, and explosive when moving either. Your gluteus maximus and its two siblings (the glute medius and gluteus minimus) play a key role in injury prevention, bracing impact, having good posture, hip stability, and maintaining a healthy low back.
On top of all that, stronger glutes are bigger glutes, so if aesthetics are important to you, strength training and gluteus maximus exercises are a must.
All in all, the gluteus maximus is not the biggest muscle and one of the strongest muscles in your body for no reason. It has a lot of important responsibilities, and the stronger they are, the better you will move, feel, and look.
Causes and Issues of Weak Glutes
The most common causes of weak glutes are sitting too much, inactivity, and poor glute activation when exercising.
The first two are straight-forward fixes, stop sitting down so much and be more active (workout!). Poor glute activation, on the other hand, requires a little more detail...
Just because you are exercising, doesn’t mean you are activating your glutes as well as you should, even if you're including a gluteus medius exercise (or several). This is especially true if you have weak glues to begin with. A lot of people start off with weak glutes and get into fitness and never learn how to activate the glutes properly during exercise. This leads to quad dominance and hamstring dominance when doing leg exercises, which creates muscle imbalance, significantly increases the chance of injury, and decreases strength and mass potential.
Thankfully, it’s never too late, and for those of you who are just starting your fitness journey, you can make sure you don’t let this happen in the first place. All you have to do is place emphasis on glute activation, which we will teach you as you continue reading through this article.
8 BEST EXERCISES FOR GLUTEUS MAXIMUS
The best way to build the size and strength of your gluteus maximus is with free weights and the right gluteus maximus exercises. So, assuming you have access to free weights like barbells and dumbbells, here are the 8 best exercises for gluteus maximus muscle and strength building (after these 8 exercises we also have bodyweight exercises for the gluteus maximus).
You can get even more great exercises and workout tips in our article: The Ultimate Guide To How To Grow Glutes.
1. Back Squats:
The reason we chose back squats as one of the best glute exercises is that it places a lot more emphasis on your posterior chain than front squats, which is great if you want to target your glutes.
To get even more specific, low bar back squats place the most emphasis on your glutes. A low bar back squat has the bar sitting lower on your back than high bar back squats, as the name suggests.
Tips for getting the most glute activation from low bar back squats:
- Go as deep as you can. It’s better to go with a lighter load if it allows you to get deeper into the squat. By getting deeper into the squat (even lower than parallel), you will be creating much greater stretching tension in your gluteus maximus, which is a very important aspect of building muscle.
- Squeeze your glutes at the top. You want to move through the greatest range of motion possible, so just as you want to go deep, you want to come up and full contract your glutes at the top. To do this, drive your hips forward to a neutral position and squeeze, just be sure not to push your hips past natural as that will put pressure on your low back. This is not a hip thrust kind of squeeze, it is a contraction done like you would if you were just standing normally.
- Use a slow tempo, especially on the eccentric phase. Control the weight load as you go into your squat, moving deliberately slow. Eccentric contraction is considerably more effective for building strength and mass than the concentric phase. So, treat it as such.
If you are having troubles getting good glute activation, which you will surely know the day after your workout as the glutes should be sore, you can try box squats as well. This is a helpful variation for people who are quad dominant.
Note: You can also try squatting with a fabric booty band. People squat with booty bands for this reason exactly, because it helps produce better glute activation. They are called booty bands for a reason!
2. Hip Thrusts:
The hip thrust is about as glute-centric as a compound movement gets and is probably the best exercise for gluteus maximus (if I had to pick a favorite). Yes, your hamstrings are powering the movement too, but you can really hone in on your glutes with this one.
It is one of the best gluteus maximus exercises for gaining strength and mass. This is because it allows for incredible contraction tension. In fact, hip thrusts provide significantly greater glute activation through contraction than any other exercise, which makes up for the lack of stretching tension.
Note: By wearing a fabric booty band above the knees, you can further increase the tension on your gluteus maximus and gluteal muscles as a whole.
Tips for getting the most glute activation from hip thrusts:
- You may have to play around with your stance to move the tension more from your hamstrings to your gluteus maximus, but generally speaking a wider stance with your feet rotated slightly outward will place greater emphasis on your glutes.
- Complete full reps by achieving a posterior pelvic tilt and driving your hips forward to the top and up as high as you can (while maintaining a stiff torso).
- Once you reach peak contraction, really squeeze your glutes and hold it for a second or two.
- Drive the force from your heels, not the balls of your feet.
Related: Best Barbell Hip Thrust Alternatives
3. Sumo Deadlifts:
While conventional deadlifts are good for your glutes, sumo deadlifts are the best variation to include in your workouts for gluteus maximus as they target the gluteus maximus to a greater extent.
This is because your foot placement and hip and knee angle causes a hip external rotation in addition to hip extension, both of which your gluteus maximus act on.
Tips for getting the most glute activation from sumo deadlifts:
- Get your butt down as low as you can while maintain a straight spine. This will require a good understanding of how to perform hip hinges.
- Drive the force from your heels, not your toes, and use your glutes and legs to lift the bar up from the start, not your arms and back.
- Fully contract your glutes at the top once your hips are in a neutral position.
- Move as slowly as you can on the eccentric phase and remember to use a hip hinge to lower it down. If you are dropping the weight down because it is too heavy to bring it down slowly, you are really missing out on glute activation, and you should lower the weight.
4. Stiff-Legged Deadlifts:
A lot of people confuse stiff-legged deadlifts with Romanian deadlifts (RDL), but the two are different. Stiff-legged deadlifts (aka straight leg deadlifts) bring the weight down further, where RDLs bring it down to about shin level. So, with a barbell, you’d be touching the plates to the ground with stiff-legged deadlift.
While RDLs are also good for your glutes, we chose a stiff-legged deadlift because it has a greater range of motion, and thus you get more of a stretch in your glutes. If you have trouble maintaining good form due to poor hip mobility (inability to do a deep hip hinge) then stick with RDLs until your hip hinge improves.
Tips for getting the most glute activation from stiff-legged deadlifts:
- Begin with each leg straight. Do not bend down at the knees to bring the weight to the floor, but rather perform a deep hip hinge with your knees bent slightly. Your low back should not arch if you have a good hip hinge pattern. The deep hip hinge will allow you to get incredible stretching tension in your glutes.
- As you come up to the starting position, drive your hips forward by squeezing your glutes and once you reach the standing position, really squeeze the heck out of your glutes. A lot of people don’t remember to really squeeze at the top. Also, there is no need to push your hips past neutral to get good gluteus maximus contraction.
5. Weighted Step Ups:
Steps ups are great for your legs and glutes, but they can be turned into one of our favorite gluteus maximus exercises if you use an even high platform to step up on. So, to make this exercise more effective for your glutes, step higher! With the higher step up, you get a greater range of motion for your gluteus max.
Note: You don’t have to start with a very high step up, but try to do higher steps as you progress. Even with a lower step up your glutes will be working.
Tips for getting the most glute activation from weighted step ups:
- Make sure you are pushing yourself up by the heels of your feet, not the balls of your feet.
- Move slowly on both the eccentric and concentric phase so you can focus your mind on your glutes.
- Again, use a higher step up for more glute activation.
6. Bulgarian Split Squats:
Both Bulgarian split squats and standard split squats are great for your glutes. However, Bulgarian split squats will help you get greater glute activation because they are harder.
One of the great things about both Bulgarian split squats and split squats is that they help you to work on muscle imbalances AND you get great activation in all of your gluteal muscles at the same time because it requires more hip stability.
The reason we chose split squats over lunges is because with split squats, you have greater (and more consistent) tension on your gluteus maximus.
Note: One thing that can make split squats better than Bulgarian split squats is that you can use a heavier weight load. With Bulgarian split squats, you generally won’t go too heavy and you will use dumbbells, but with split squats, you can perform them in a squat rack with a barbell. You should be able to split squat around 50% or so of your normal back squat working weight, which is usually more than what you will do with a Bulgarian split squat. So, we do recommend that you do both split squats and Bulgarian split squats.
Tips for getting the most glute activation from Bulgarian Split Squats:
- Use a more narrow and slighter wider stance to get more glute activation. The more forward your front foot goes, the more quad focused the exercise becomes.
- A lot of people don’t use a full range of motion with split squats. While pulse like split squats will keep tension on your glutes, using a full range is better overall.
- You can do split squats with a single dumbbell or a kettlebell by holding it at your front near your chest, but it’s better to have two dumbbells held at your sides or a barbell on your back, as this load position is better for your posterior side.
- Keep your back straight, don’t lean forward.
Related: 10 Best Dumbbell Glute Exercises
7. Single Leg Press:
Two-leg leg presses won’t give you considerable glute activation unless you go very low, using the fullest range of motion. But, with a single-leg leg press, your glutes will be activated in a significant way due to hip stability, making it one of the top gluteus maximus exercises.
Tips for getting the most glute activation from single-leg leg presses:
- Place your foot slightly higher than you would with a two-legged leg press. Also, try turning your toes slightly outward.
- Press through the heels of your feet until your leg is nearly straight (knee bent just slightly, don't fully lock out).
- Use higher rep ranges than you would for free weight exercises. 12-15 reps is best.
- Move slowly on the eccentric phase.
Related: 7 Leg Press Foot Placements & Muscles Worked
8. Kneeling Squats:
The kneeling squat is two-fold in its benefits. First, it is a great way to focus on your glutes. Like hip thrusts, it’s almost what one could consider a glute isolation exercise as it takes the quads out of the squatting equation. Second, it will help you get better glute activation during your back squats as it teaches you how to use your gluteus maximus for hip extension during a regular squat.
This is a great exercise for people who have trouble activating their glutes during squats. After doing this exercise for some time, you will surely get better glute activation when performing back squats.
We know this is more of a lady-friendly exercise, but for men who are not embarrassed to do this exercise, your glutes will thank you! This is a good exercise to do towards the end of your workout, when your glutes have already been worked by bigger compound lifts.
Tips for getting the most glute activation from kneeling squats:
- Sit back until your butt touches your calves. Then squeeze your glutes to extend your hips forward, driving your body upright.
- Squeeze the heck out of your glutes at the top. There’s no need to push your hips past neutral to get a good squeeze.
- Use a smith machine so you don’t have to worry much about stability and you can really just focus on your glutes.
10 Best At Home Gluteus Maximus Exercises
If you train at home without weights or you simply prefer to just do bodyweight exercises, you can still train your gluteus maximus effectively. BUT, you will need the right approach when performing gluteus maximus exercises.
Just because you are training with bodyweight exercises doesn’t mean progressive overload gets thrown out of the window. You just have to focus on the methods that apply to bodyweight training, which includes adding more volume to your workouts, increasing time under tension, and decreasing rest time (i.e. use 30 seconds of rest time rather than the standard 60-90 seconds for hypertrophy with free weights).
It should also be noted that just because your don’t have free weights at home doesn’t mean you can't increase the load. Anything can be used to add resistance to your bodyweight. For example, you could fill a backpack up with books, you could hold onto 1 gallon jugs of water, you could grab a rock from your yard, etc. It’s not as easy to gradually increase the weight this way, but if you had a scale, it can be done.
Anyway, the point is, just because you don’t have conventional free weights doesn’t mean you can’t build a stellar butt or utilize this list of gluteus maximus exercises.
As with training at the gym, you need to focus on the right at home exercises for gluteus maximus. The following gluteus maximus exercises are great for building your glute max. Remember to focus on full range of motion, creating maximum tension in your gluteus maximus, and performing sets with an adequate amount of time under tension (minimum of 30 seconds but ideally around 45-60 seconds for bodyweight exercises).
1) Single Leg Glute Bridges:
2) Hip Thrusts:
3) Curtsy Lunges:
4) Lateral Lunges:
5) Bodyweight Squats, Jumping Squats & Pulse Squats:
6) Jumping Lunges:
7) Kneeling Squat Jumps:
8) Step Ups:
9) Reverse Plank:
10) Sprints:
Tip: Make sure you warm up the glutes properly before working out. Just because they are bodyweight exercises doesn’t mean you should skip a warm up. And really focus on both stretching tension and contraction tension with each rep.
Get yourself some 41 inch loop resistance bands for your at home gluteus maximus exercises. They are inexpensive yet very effective and they can be used in so many ways. You can replicate any exercise you do with barbells or dumbbells, plus you can use them for warming up, stretching, and assistance exercises!
TIPS FOR HOW TO GROW GLUTEUS MAXIMUS
When it comes to how to strengthen gluteus maximus and build serious backside muscle, you must:
- Perform the right muscle-building and strengthening gluteus maximus exercises and make sure you have good glute activation.
- Have the correct rep scheme, weight load, and time under tension when performing gluteus exercises. In other words, you must overload your gluteus maximus enough to stress it more than it's used to.
- Employ the progressive overload principle when doing gluteus maximus exercises so that you can continually overload your gluteus maximus as time goes on.
- Eat right, sleep right, and stay consistent.
Let’s run through each of these glute training tips.
1) Gluteus Maximus Exercises & Glute Activation:
Obviously, you should be performing lower body exercises like squats, hip thrusts, and deadlifts if you want to build your gluteus max. But, just because you are doing those exercises for the gluteus maximus doesn’t mean you are getting a good glute workout in.
When performing your lower body exercises, you must ensure your glutes are being activated properly. To do this, begin by incorporating a warm up that emphasizes your glutes. For example, you could do squat pulses, as the pulse is performed in the range of motion where the glutes should be the most active. Frog pumps are also great.
Be slow and controlled and really hone in on your glutes when warming up. Do a few exercises that focus on glute activation and work in the range of motion that has your glutes in constant tension.
You can also do simple things like squeeze the heck out of your glutes in a standing position for 10 seconds, then release. Keep doing this for sets of 10-20 seconds. Do it in-between sets of your glute activation workout and your main workout. Do this even at times when you aren’t about to work out. Build that connection.
Now, in terms of when you are performing gluteus maximus exercises like squats or hip thrusts during your main workout, to get better glute activation, slow things down. Use a slow tempo and a lighter weight and really focus on your glutes. Squeeze your gluteus maximus at peak contraction and feel the stretch by working in a full range of motion (if you are unable to use a full range of motion on any given exercise, you may need to work on your mobility or consider an alternative).
2) Variety & Training Variables:
In regards to gluteus maximus exercises, it’s important that you have a good variety and you employ different training variables. Your gluteus maximus is a big muscle, so it needs to be hit from different angles to work it in its entirety.
To hit it from different angles, you need to do a variety of exercises, i.e. squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, cable pull throughs, lunges, leg presses, and so on. Each of these movements works the gluteus maximus differently and together will be the variety you need to work all of its muscle fibers.
Training variables include load placement, body positioning, hand position, as well as rep schemes, weight load, volume, and so on. The latter are obvious, and we will get into best practices for them in a moment, but let’s talk over the less discussed variables of load placement, body positioning, and hand placement.
Load placement has to do with where the load is placed in relation to your body. For example, a front squat, back squat, and zercher squat are all barbell squats but they have different load placement.
Body positioning has to do with your stance. For example, a split stance, staggered stance, and bilateral stance are different body positioning. Thus, staggered stance squats, split squats, Bulgarian split squats (back leg up on a bench), wide stance, toes pointed outward, and regular bi-lateral squats are all examples of the body positioning variable.
Hand positioning is how you grip the weight, for example an underhand grip, overhand grip, neutral grip, as well as grip width. This training variable is more applicable for upper body movements, but there are ways to play around with it for lower body movements too.
By altering training variables like load placement and body positioning, or adding a level of instability to your lifts, you can overload your muscles and stress them in different ways.
3) Reps/Time Under Tension, Sets, & Volume During A Workout For Gluteus Maximus:
The glutes respond best to performing gluteus maximus exercises within a rep range of 6-12 reps and with heavy resistance, relative to your strength level, which should be about 70-80% of your 1RM.
Don’t rush through the reps. You’ll see the best growth with time under tension being anywhere from 20-60%. For strength, it is considerably lower, with about 4-20 seconds of time under tension using a load of 80-90% of your 1RM.
The goal for each workout should be to hit your glutes for at least 10-12 sets, so that can be 2 big lifts done for 5 sets each or 3-4 exercises done for 3-4 sets.
If you want to see the greatest possible gains in your gluteus maximus, you should aim to work them twice a week, spread out evenly through the week. Studies show that targeting muscle groups twice a week is significantly better for hypertrophy.
With that, you’d get a total of 20-24 sets per week for your glutes, with 6-12 reps of each gluteus maximus exercise for each set. That’s a considerable amount of volume, and volume is what it takes to build muscle.
If you are doing gluteus max exercises without weights, slow down the tempo and increase the reps. 15-20 reps using a slow tempo or 10-15 reps explosively would be ideal.
Note: The 6-12 rep range with weights has a considerable crossover between strength and hypertrophy, so you will see improvements on both fronts. Ideally, you could increase the weight load each set (after warming up to the working weight) and build both hypertrophy and strength during your workouts. We recommend doing this for the big compound exercises like squats, hip thrusts and deadlifts (and the variations), and for more isolated exercises, work in a higher rep range of 10-12 (and even as many as 15 reps), really focusing on time under tension.
4) Progressive Overload:
Building your dream glutes is not going to happen overnight. It’s a long process that involves consistency. But it’s not just about staying consistent, you have to also continually progress.
Your muscles are incredible at adapting to the stress you place on them. The process of muscle adaption happens quickly. To continue placing enough stress on them so that they have to keep adapting, you need to use the progressive overload principle.
The progressive overload principle involves various techniques to ensure your muscles are getting enough stress as you gradually get stronger and bigger. Methods include increasing the weight load, increasing reps, increasing the overall volume of your workout, increasing intensity, decreasing rest time, and doing exercises that are more difficult.
All in all, it’s very important that you use progressive overload in your training if you want to see considerable results, especially if you are not a beginner to fitness. Focus on one or two methods for 4-12 weeks. The improvements should be gradual, although some weeks may be better or worse than others.
After a training cycle, take a rest period of a week or so, then start a new plan, focusing on a new set of progressive overload methods. By taking a rest period every cycle, you will ensure that you are not overtraining and you can avoid plateaus.
5) Eat Right & Sleep Right:
It should go without saying that if you want to build your glutes, you need to eat for muscle growth and sleep right. Without enough protein and sleep, you will never grow your gluteus maximus no matter how effective your workouts are.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO SEE RESULTS WHEN BUILDING THE GLUTEUS MAXIMUS?
Beginners will see changes to the size and shape of their butt quickly. Newbie gains are rapid because the body is hyperresponsive to the stimulus provided by strength training. So, if you are just starting out with gluteus maximus exercises or just getting back into fitness, you should see significant results in a matter of 3 months. In fact, if you stick with training for a long time, and you do things correctly right out of the gate, this will be the time when you see the most noticeable change.
Unfortunately, after your newbie gains, it will take a lot more work to see improvements. Moreover, it will take time.
Nevertheless, if you employ progressive overload correctly, you can continue to make progress in the development of your gluteus maximus. If you stick with training for 3 years, we guarantee you can achieve the booty you’ve always wanted. Not just a nice, shapely booty, but a powerful, strong, athletic one.
LOWER BODY & GLUTEUS MAXIMUS EXERCISES & WORKOUTS
There are so many ways to structure a workout, but just to give you an idea of what a good glute focused workout looks like, here are two workouts, one for people who train with free weights and one for people who want to do bodyweight only exercises.
We chose the gluteus maximus exercises for each buttock-focused workout strategically. The goal is to hit your gluteus maximus from all angles, so we incorporate various exercises to ensure that the gluteus maximus is being worked in its entirety (remember, it’s a big muscle so one type of exercise is not enough for full development).
Before you start any workout, be sure to do a dynamic warm. An ideal dynamic warm up before a leg workout will include exercises for glute activation.
Gluteus Maximus Workout with Weights:
| Back Squats | 4 sets | 6-12 reps |
| Stiff Leg Deadlifts | 4 sets | 6-12 reps |
| Split Squats | 3 sets | 8-12 reps each side |
| Steps Ups | 3 sets | 10 reps |
| Reverse Plank | 3 sets | 30-60 sec holds |
Rest 30-90 seconds between sets and exercises.
If you train your lower body twice a week, you can do switch up your day 2 workout as such:
| Sumo Deadlifts | 3 sets | 6-12 reps |
| Hip Thrusts | 3 sets | 6-12 reps |
| Bulgarian Split Squats | 3 sets | 6-12 reps each side |
| Kneeling Squats | 3 sets | 10-12 reps |
| Planks | 3 sets | 30-60 sec holds |
Lower Body Bodyweight Glute Workout:
|
Superset: Jumping squats x 12 reps Glute Bridge x 30 sec |
3 sets | 45 sec rest between supersets |
|
Jumping Lunges x 30 reps |
3 sets | 30 sec rest between sets |
|
Superset: Curtsy Lunge x 10 reps each side High Step Ups x 10 reps each side |
3 sets | 45 sec rest between supersets |
|
Descending Ladder: Kneeling Squat Jumps x 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 |
Until complete | No rest |
Descending Ladder Explanation: Perform kneeling squat jumps for 10 reps, then hip thrusts for 1 rep, then kneeling squat jumps for 9 reps, then hip thrusts for 2 reps, and continue like this, only resting when needed, until you finish with kneeling squat jumps for 1 rep and hip thrusts for 10 reps.
Why do supersets for the bodyweight glute workout?
The supersets in the bodyweight workout allow you to maximize time under tension and to bring your muscles to full exhaustion. Supersets are great for bodyweight gluteus maximus exercises as they bring the intensity level up. That said, they are also good when training with weights, just use them in a way that allows you to maintain good form.
After every workout, take 5-10 minutes to stretch. In those 5-10 minutes, aim to do a couple of stretches that target the glutes. Here are some more of the best glute stretches for before and after glute training!
GLUTEUS MAXIMUS WORKOUT FAQs
Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about gluteus maximus exercises and workouts.
What exercises target the gluteus maximus best?
The best gluteus maximus exercises are ones that bring the muscle through a wide range of motion to maximize stretching tension and/or contraction. If we had to choose the top 3 gluteus maximus exercises, they would be low bar back squats, hip thrusts, and step-ups. And, make sure you emphasize a strong mind-muscle connection when doing them.
Can you isolate the gluteus maximus with gluteus maximus exercises?
You can’t 100% isolate the gluteus maximus because the muscle feeds into the hamstrings. That said, certain exercises do well to really hone in on just the gluteus maximus, and there are ways to make big compound lifts more glute focused by altering load placement, body positioning, range of motion, and tempo. Moreover, it's important to really build a strong mind-muscle connection when performing gluteus maximus exercises.
How to make my butt tighter and toner?
The good thing is, no matter if you are trying to grow your glutes or lose fat surrounding them, you should still follow the recommendations above and the exercises to come. The stronger and healthier your butt muscles are, the more of a fat burning machine your body will become. The only extra thing to note about specifically losing fat is to up the reps and decrease the rest time. This will ensure you are burning a lot of calories each workout. Also, do more cardio.
How often should I train my glutes?
You should do gluteus maximus exercises at least once a week, but ideally, you should hit them twice a week if you want to see quicker results. Studies show that working out muscle groups twice a week is significantly more effective for hypertrophy.
Can I train glutes everyday?
If you are doing a full body plan where you do one or two gluteus maximus exercises per workout that targets your glutes and you are in great shape and basically in maintenance mode then it is ok to train your glutes every day, as you are not going to be overloading them to the point where they need time to recover.
That said, we are assuming you are looking to make improvements, in which case you’d need to overload your gluteus maximus each workout. By doing that, you need to give it time to rest just like you would any other muscle group. If you are doing a workout split, then you should be able to do enough exercises in one workout to overload your glutes.
This will require a period of recovery, which can take anywhere from 2-5 days. We recommend upper lower splits and push pull leg splits for those who want to focus on building their glutes. This will allow you to train your glutes every 2, 3 or 4 days. With this kind of plan, you can streamline hypertrophy.
Now, if you want to lose weight, you could be successful with a full body routine, where you pretty much only do efficient compound exercises each workout. Compound exercises will get your heart rate up to a much greater degree, which will allow you to burn more calories each workout. Nevertheless, you should still take a 1-3 days off from training per week to avoid overtraining and fatigue, and to ensure each workout is intense. It's better to have 4 intense workouts a week than 7 mediocre workouts.
Will 100 squats a day do anything?
100 bodyweight squats a day will do something for you when first starting out, but remember, your muscles adapt quickly. So if you plan to continue doing just 100 squats a day, you need to progressive overload with decreasing rest time and increasing intensity (i.e. using a slower tempo). That said, 100 squats a day is not impressive and will not be effective for making any real improvements in the long run. It’s more of a maintenance method to be done in tandem with other bodyweight exercises.
Now, if you are talking about barbell squats, then 100 squats a day is a recipe for disaster. 100 squats a workout, twice a week is a good amount of volume and you can improve by increasing weight, decreasing rest time, altering reps per set, and so on...but doing this every day is too much. It would be way too taxing on your body and would likely cause knee pain.
How to reduce the size of my gluteus maximus?
First, is the size of your glute max too big or is it the fat surrounding it? If it’s fat, then you need to focus on burning more calories during your workout by decreasing rest time and increasing volume. Also, mix in cardio and hiit with your gluteus maximus exercises.
If it’s the actual size of the muscle, and for some reason you want to make it smaller (and assumably tighter), then you really just need to adjust your diet by eating at a deficit. As for your training, use lighter weights and higher reps when doing an exercise for gluteus maximus, targeting the muscle once a week rather than twice a week. AND, do a lot of cardio.
Exercises For Gluteus Maximus: Final Takeaways
You've now got the best gluteus maximus exercises, workouts, and training tips to build some serious backside muscles. Don't neglect your gluteus medius exercises and gluteus minimus either, because if you want a good butt, you need to train all your gluteal muscles, with the gluteus maximus, of course, taking precedence.
And remember, for best results, it also takes a strong mind-muscle connection and an emphasis on progressive overload. Train hard, focus on glute max exercises, eat well, and take time for your muscles to recover.
Follow all of this, and all that'll be left to do is watch those glutes grow!
Looking for a great glute routine packed with awesome gluteus maximus exercises that you can perform anytime, anywhere? Check out the Best Glutes Workouts At Home! And for more great gluteus muscles training tips, head to our Ultimate Guide To How To Grow Glutes.
Prepare to maximize your gains with our exclusive 12-week hypertrophy training program. Choose between a 4 or 5 day training split and gain 2-12 pounds of muscle over 90 days...
8 Responses
Inna
Hello! Could you tell me, please, a person needs to squeeze (slightly) his/her back leg while doing split squats in order to protect knees?
Bridget
I have problem knees (pretty much bone on bone from running) and have to be careful when doing glute exercises. What suggestions/which exercises do you recommend for building the GMaximus without hurting the knees? Thank you, great article!
Michelle Monique
Excellent! Very informative. I’ve been working out for years and recently experienced severe debilitating sciatic nerve pain on my left side. and have been doing extensive research on stretching and workouts. I feel I am much more informed by the information provided in this article and am looking forward to incorporating it into my current workout.
Cleber
Excellent article. Enjoyed very much reading through it.
I’m sure it will help my running.
Chrollo
Highly impressed with this article. It really covered everything I wanted to know and then some. Really great writing here.
Betânia
Excelente article. I am using the information here to help bring my gluteus training to the next level.
Rimi
Very informative article. Everything I was looking for regarding gluteus maximus is found here, the muscle info, the exercises, a workout plan.. Thank You!!
Priyantha
Hi, thanks a lot. very informative . never read an article with so much info.
Cheers !
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Garett Reid
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