How To Build Your Glutes And Make Them Stronger

It’s unseasonably colder this winter in Switzerland, but we are deep into character-building season. This is the time to focus on yourself, locking into your existing habits, releasing the ones that no longer serve you and building new habits. I really believe that it is one of the best seasons for this. It has been sixteen months post injury. I mentioned at the eight month mark that I had adapted my training to focus on the muscle groups that were lacking in strength and size. The other muscle group are my glutes.

Building glutes has never been a focus in all my years of training. Training for both strength and performance is the primary goal. Having made that shift eight months ago, I can definitely feel and see the fruits of my labour. Hopefully, I’ll see this transfer over into my big lifts and make my way back to the platform.

We are one week into the new year and this is the time for new beginnings. If investing in your health and fitness is one of your major goals, I want you to begin without certainty. Give it your all and learn your lessons as you journey towards it. Do the things that scare you. Train movement patterns that you haven’t done before or you see as a weakness. In the next 90 days, prove to yourself that you won’t let fear stop you from reaching your goals. In the same light, if you miss a day make sure that you get up and try again the next day. Good things come to those who continuously get up and never stay down.

Training Legs & Glutes

Most women who want to build their legs, especially their glutes, train them at least two to three times a week. From what I have seen both offline and online, they are the muscle groups that are trained more than others, with back training as a close second. When I first started training, I did not like leg days at all. Once I realised that having a balanced physique meant that I needed to train all muscle groups equally. Or prioritise one group, depending on my goals, my mindset switched. In short, I taught myself how to enjoy leg days more. Then I got into powerlifting and you pretty much train legs everyday.

As I learn more about the science of fitness, I have executed different approaches to build up weaker parts of my body into strengths. That has led me to lift numbers that I would have never imagined when I first started out. In the same vein, I have also pursued to learn more about the science of nutrition and how different foods and their quality can enhance growth and strength. This leads me into this new series helping you transform your body one muscle group at a time. So far, I have covered shoulders, quads, back and hamstrings.

What Are The Glutes

Your glutes a.k.a your bum run from the top of your hamstrings to the base of your lower back. They are the biggest muscle group in the lower body and are used in your daily activities such as climbing, running and what you do in the gym. Strong glutes help with movement, posture and prevent injuries. When you train your glutes properly, you are building full lower body strength, challenging hip stability and boosting performance in and out of the gym. Building well-rounded glutes takes more than hip thrusts. The stronger your glutes, the stronger your three big lifts will be.

Check Out the Pinterest Dumbbell Only Series

The Anatomy of the Glutes

To understand how to train the glute muscles, you need to know what the muscles are and how they function. The glutes are made up of three muscles: the gluteus maximus, the largest muscle in the glutes; the gluteus minimus, the smallest and deepest glute muscle; and the gluteus medius, which sits on the upper and outer portion of the hips. These muscles make up your bum. The largest muscle in the glutes is the main driver for hip extension movements and provides support for hip rotation. The smaller two muscles are responsible for hip stability, hip abduction and hip rotation. These three muscles work together to improve balance, reduce the strain on your knees and lower back by maintaining posture and pelvic alignment. Aesthetically, they enhance the shape of the glutes giving it that lifted, juicy and defined shelf-like look.

Importance of the Glutes

Your glute muscles are responsible for pelvic alignment and maintaining posture and balance. One of the things that I had to work on during physiotherapy was stabilising my pelvis as the injury tore and weakened the muscles near my hamstrings and glutes. To this day, I include a pelvic tilt exercise as part of my warm ups to improve its stability and support my spine. If you work a desk job, it is so important that you move your body through short walks during the day or do desk stretches to break up the cycle of sitting for too long.

Four Types of Glute Movement Patterns

This is one of the most sought-out question on the Internet when it comes to glute growth. I responded to a question about this on Threads earlier this week. If your goal is to build your glutes and increase their size, there are four movement patterns that must be included in your training programme. These movements are: the hip hinge, squat or a lunge, a thrust or a bridge and an abduction. These four exercises are key for building glutes.

Hip Hinge

The glutes are hip extenders which means that they move the leg backwards from the hip joint. The muscles in the body that use the hip extension are the hamstrings, the glutes and the adductors. Some of the exercises shared can be used to train all these muscles simultaneously. That is one of the reasons why you see hamstrings and glutes trained together regularly. The exercises in this categories emphasis and maximise glute development in the lower glutes and hamstrings.

Squat/Lunge

To emphasis and maximise glute development in your lower glutes and your quads, you want to include a squat or a lunge exercise. This provides the most tension in the glutes when they are in the fully stretched position. Lunges are amazing for unilateral strength as they will challenge both core and hip stability. Example exercises include Bulgarian Split Squats, Walking Lunges and any variation of a lunge is going to target glute hypertrophy (muscle building).

Thrust/Bridge

The thrust and/or a bridge movement will target both the upper and the lower glutes. It is going to provide the most tension in the glutes when they are in the fully contracted position. A hip thrust, a KAS bridge and a barbell glute bridge with a one second pause at the top would be my go-to for this movement. I’m currently doing a barbell glute bridge in my programme and instead of being on a bench or a box, you perform this exercise on the floor. The range of motion is smaller than a hip thrust but it is still an effective exercise.

Abduction

Lastly, we have the abduction which mostly targets and emphasises development in upper glutes by targeting the gluteus medius. To really hit and build that upper glute shelf, you need to train the upper glutes through multiple planes of motion. This is what the abduction exercises are great for. One exercise that is underrated, in my opinion, is the side-lying hip raise.

Glute Exercises To Add To Your Routine

Now that you understand the science behind the glute muscles, let’s get into what you are really here. If you are doing at least one exercise in each of the four movement patterns listed above as part of your routine or as a complete workout on its own, you will see the results. However, this needs to be paired with eating in a calorie surplus with nutrient-dense foods as muscles need fuel to grow, proper hydration, rest and recovery including adequate sleep and patience. It takes time for muscles to grow.

Hip Hinge Glute Exercises

Romanian deadlifts (any variation)

Most deadlift variations target the hamstrings but a RDL takes your quads out of the equation with a slight bend in the knee. This will allow you to get a full stretch in your hamstrings and glutes. For strength and hypertrophy, start off with 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps.

45 Degree Hyperextension

I do find this exercise a little awkward to do because the machine is not made with short people in mind. However, an alternative set up was recently shared that might be beneficial for you. It definitely has a learning curve to get used to the exercise. First, I started out with a band to get used to the form and technique. Then gradually moved up to weights. I find that pointing my feet out, having a neutral spine and not trying to go down too low lets me feel the full stretch in my glutes.

Good mornings

Good Mornings are similar to RDLs with the exception that the weight is behind you instead of in front of you. It is a great exercise to help you practice bracing your core and the hip hinge movement. If you feel pain in your back, remove the weights and focus on your form. It is not an ego exercise, use weights and focus on getting the movement right. Slow and controlled actions are necessary.

Squat or Lunge Exercises For the Glutes

Bulgarian Split Squats

Bulgarian Split Squats give your glutes a good stretch at the bottom of the movement. You want to avoid moving up and down in a straight line as you perform this as it will take the tension out of your glutes. When you perform this, think about sinking your hips back and down as you maintain a slightly forward torso.

Walking DB (dumbbell) Lunges

In general, lunges are the queen of glute exercise. They are explosive as they push your legs against the ground and mimic the up-and-down movement that your glutes are responsible for. For walking lunges, you want your stride to be moderate with a forward leaning tilt to target the glutes.

Reverse Lunge

Reverse lunges is more dynamic than Bulgarian Split Squats as you are moving and not stationary. Make sure that you are pushing your foot into the ground with a forward tilt to really hit the glutes.

Thrust & Bridge For The Glutes

Hip Thrusts

The Hip Thrust can be done on so many machines and with free weights. If you don’t have any of the new machines in the gym, you can use a smith machine or a barbell. There are two ways to perform the hip thrust: (1) with the scoop method and (2) with the hinge method. I’ve gone back and forth with these methods and prefer the hinge approach as my back remains neutral. Play around and see which one works for you.

Glute Bridge

You will most likely see people do glute bridges as a bodyweight exercise, but you can also do this with weights. Don’t overlook and underestimate this exercise. You can do it as a single leg exercise to improve muscle imbalances. You can add load, tempo, pauses and isometric holds to add some progressive overload to the movement. Again, focus on squeezing the muscles hard and that mind-to-muscle connection.

Single Leg Hip Thrust

The Single Leg Hip Thrust is a variation that will build unilateral strength as it challenges both your core and hip stability. I like to use a dumbbell but have seen others perform it as a landmine version. You can add load, tempo, pauses and isometric holds to add some progressive overload to the movement.

Abduction Glute Exercises

Side-Lying Hip Raises

You will most likely see people do the side-lying hip raises as a bodyweight exercise from the floor. However, you can do this with plates and from a bench or a box to increase the range of motion. What is great about this exercise is that it will hit the gluteus maximus and medius at the bottom of the movement while, focusing on the gluteus medius more at the top of the movement.

Cable Kickback (Diagonally and back)

This variation of a cable kickback will help you target your gluteus medius effectively as you want to kick your leg diagonally out to the side and behind you. Play around with your foot angle to find the best position to fire up your upper glutes.

Seated Hip Abduction

For more exercises and optimal frequency for training the glutes, I highly recommend learning more about stretchers, activators and pumpers from Bret Contreras. This helped me understand more about maximising glute development when I first started out.

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What are some of your favourite exercises for the four glute movement pattern? Share them below so that this can be a resource for everyone who wants to grow in 2026. With that said, I hope that you all have a great start to the second week of the new year. Make sure to hit that subscribe button to join the community and never miss out on a post. Find me on Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok for more powerlifting and wellness content.

Until next time,

Folakemi