Glutes are for more than just sitting…
The buttocks are made up of three parts called the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and minimus. They complement each other in our everyday movements, such as walking, maintaining a stable position, and straightening the hip joint. They are involved in every movement at the hip joint, so unless we sit on a chair all day, we have great opportunities to activate this muscle group of muscles.
Exercises on machines
Machines dedicated to glute training are often ones where we also train the legs - a Squat or a Hack Squat are great examples, but also special ones designed for the isolated movement and leg abduction to the side or extension in the hip joint. Machine training is great for beginners because it allows you to isolate the movement and feel the specific target muscle contract. However, it is worth adding multi-joint, compound exercises with free weights, such as squats or lunges, to your exercise plan over time.
Leg extensions backwards or to the side with the lower lift
All you need is the lower lift of on the cable machine and a special grip to fasten to your ankle. We attach the cable of the lift and, maintaining a stable position of the whole body, we extend the leg back. Depending on the selected load and the way we perform the movement (backward, to the side, foot slightly turned outwards - it is worth experimenting with this exercise), we contract various parts of the buttock muscles. The pace (preferably slow) and the precision of each movement are really important here. To maintain a stable position, we recommend you hold on to the cable tower with your hands.
Gluteal elliptical cross trainer
If you want to engage your buttock more whilst also doing cardio exercises, just take a slightly lowered position, bend your knees. Note, the lower you go, the harder it is. It absolutely is not easy so prepare yourself! Similarly, during training on a stationary bike - if instead of sitting you pedal in a standing position, with a strong tilt of the torso forward (as in spinning classes), the gluteal muscles will be very much involved this way.
Exercises with free weights
The possibilities here are virtually endless. All you need is a weighted barbell, space and you already have a recipe for great glutes! It's worth remembering that the glute’s are a deceptively big muscle group and shouldn’t be trained lightly. Therefore, hot the weights hard for the best results!
Squat and half squat with a barbells
Start from a standing position, holding a barbell across our shoulders. Keep your back straight and look ahead with your feet planted firmly, shoulder-width on the ground. As a note, do not take our toes or heels off the ground here, we want to drive up out of the squat through our heels. Inhale and drop down with the bar level across your shoulders until your leg gets to a 90-degree angle in the knee joint (half squat) or to a full squat. Exhale as we drive up and back to an upright position, carrying not only our own weight, but also, of course, the barbell. It is always worth when starting squat training to check whether we are doing it correctly. Preferably under the guidance of an instructor or a really experienced person. This is a potentially dangerous exercise - we risk a lot if our position is not stable and correct.
Hip Ridges with a barbell
The starting position here really sets up the rest of the exercise. Place your feet on the floor and lean back on an exercise bench. The lower back must be outside the bench, with your body supported across your shoulders. Legs bent at the knees at an angle of 90 degrees, torso, hips, and thighs form one line to the bench with your abdominal muscles tensed. Inhale and lower your hips down, as if we wanted to sit on the floor. Stop just short and then exhale as you push back up, lifting your hips back up to the starting position, squeezing your buttocks together tightly. If we add extra load by placing the barbell across the hips, the exercise will really stress the glutes.
Lunges with weights
As with the squat, let's check if we are doing this exercise correctly as your knees are especially vulnerable to injury here. Start in a standing position with a straight back, tense the abdominal muscles that stabilize the spine and then step one leg back. Resting on the toes of the feet, do a one-legged squat. Return to the starting position and repeat with the other leg. The number of reps here can surprise you as it can quickly build fatigue. Taking a step forward will also strongly engage the thigh muscles. If we can put the load on our shoulders (barbell) or hold it in our hands (dumbbells) as in a squat, we can up the intensity even further.
How often and how hard should you train your buttocks?
This depends on the goal. If we want to sculpt them, then in general, exercise with less weight and favour more reps in each set (even up to 20 reps). In turn, to build more mass and develop the glutes more, we require more weight and in turn, fewer repetitions (up to 12).
Remember: Glutes are big muscle group - they need some time to regenerate, especially if we are doing "mass" or "strength" training. Four or five rest days between workouts should be enough.