GLute Exercises For A Nice Perfect Butt

I have done an article on glute exercises and building buns that rock the boat before. Actually there are a few around the site, so I decided to put the information together and update it a little. I also took information from author and friend Nick Nilsson who has written a book on the subject, so look no further! Everything you need for putting together a glute rocking, butt shaping exercise routine is right here:

Lets start off with my favourite standby exercises for firming and tightening up that butt.

Motivated now boys and girls? Here are the exercises to get those bubble butts!

1. Back step lunge glute exercise
2. Sumo squat glute exercise
3. Single leg, bench step-up exercise

Here are how the glute exercises are done:

The Back step lunge glute exercise: Start with you standing with your feet together. Keep your chest out and your abs tight, do not slouch forward. Place your hands on your hips or by your sides if you are not using extra weight. Step backward with your left leg. Bend both your knees until your left knee is nearly touching the floor. Your right shin should remain in a straight line with your ankle perpendicular to the floor. Pull yourself forward using the right leg until you’re in the standing position again, squeeze your glutes. Then swap legs and perform the exercise again stepping back with your right leg. Stay tight and watch your balance.

Watch The Exercise Clip This version includes a kick but you’ll get the idea.

Lunge Kick Glute Exercise

For Sumo squats, stand with your legs wide apart - (about a foot wider than shoulder with on each side). Point your toes out ward (I think like a sumo wrestler but you might want to use the ballerina approach!). Keep your chest out and your abs tight. Holding one end of a dumbbell with both hands or a barbell behind your back, lower yourself making sure your back is straight. If you lean forward you will lose the effect and not be able to go deep enough into the squat. Squat low until your thighs are parallel to the floor and make sure to push through your heels squeezing your glutes and inner thighs.

Watch The Exercise Video

Sumo Squat Glute And Thigh Exercise

The single leg bench step-up exercise is terrific but hard! Position a bench in front of something tall and bolted to the floor. The power rack is a good piece of gear to use for this. Stand on the bench holding onto the power rack and squat down using only ONE LEG. The hanging leg should be curled up by your butt just resting (or squeezing your hamstring if you’re a keener!) With the assistance of your arms helping to pull you up, push with all you have using your hamstrings and butt to get back into the standing position.

Using the glute exercises routine:

If you need some glute size do 4 sets of 8-10 on all exercises. If its toning you after make sure you do some killer cardio and keeps the sets and reps at 3 sets of 15-20. Have fun, walk funny!

You can also watch this video to see some variations and ways to use them in a routine. This is me personal training a couple of my favourite clients!

Bonus Glute Exercises!

Now I know this is supposed to be my top three best glute exercises but some new exercise keeps popping up that I love!

Here are a couple more of my favourite glute exercises!

The Centurian (100 reps) Step And Sumo Squat!

Get a step, maybe three levels high and every five step ups do two glute sumo squats (on these squats do a special glute exercise variation where you extend your leg straight out to the side and squeeze the glutes). You will look like a dancing sumo!

Now if you have tried all these glute exercises before and still see nothing..it could be a couple of things:

1) There is still too much fat around your glutes, do some more cardio and train fast like in the above video. If you need some help with your cardio to bring out that glute definition then take a look at the cardio section on this site.

2) Your not increasing the weight on your glute exercises, so your glutes are not changing as a result. I know women that want to decrease the size of thier glutes are opposed to increasing the weight because they dont want bigger glutes but this will not happen without male hormones.

3) Your body is used to these glute exercises and you need some new and fresh glute exercises. Make sure your form is PERFECT! Work the glutes and not your quads.

Powerful Glute Exercise Tips, Tricks For Building Larger, Firmer, Rounder Glutes From Nick.

Do your thighs get more work than your glutes when you’re doing glute exercises? This information is going to change the way you train your glutes forever!

It’s a common problem that many people run into when they’re trying to build and work the gluteus maximus: the thighs take over the exercises and the glutes get left out in the cold!

One of the major reasons this happens is that some of the most effective glute exercises are also among the most effective thigh-building exercises, e.g. squats, lunges, leg press, etc.

And, quite often, a person who has smaller glutes and whose goal is to build their glutes already has muscle attachments and leverage issues that favor thigh development over glute development. This can set them back right from the start.

If this sounds like you, read on, because the information you get today is going to change the way you approach your gluteus maximus training forever!

Let me put it this way…if your glutes already have a hard time getting involved in exercises, performing more glute exercises won’t solve the problem! You’ve got to properly target your training to make sure the glutes get worked more than the thighs or you simply WILL NOT be able to maximize your glute development.

Today, you’re going to learn a number of training techniques that can help build those large, round firm glutes you’ve been looking for! They will help you to overcome any physical and anatomical limitations your glutes may have.

Glute Exercise Techniques:

1. Consciously squeeze your glutes HARD while doing your exercises

Are you sitting in a chair? Clench your gluteus maximus as hard as you can. Feel the squeeze? This is what you need to strive for while doing glute exercises.

When you do a lunge, squeeze the gluteus maximus hard while you’re pushing up. This will help to activate the glute muscle. It’s all about getting your mind into the muscle and forcing it to contract rather than just going through the motions of an exercise. By concentrating on squeezing the glutes hard during your sets (of whatever exercise you’re doing), you’ll be activating the muscle fibers of the glutes and increasing the amount of work they do.

If you don’t believe this technique can work, try this: go for a walk up and down some hills squeezing your glutes hard as you push yourself forward with each step you take. The following day, sitting down will take on a whole new challenge!

2. Push with your heels on glute exercises

The transmission of force and tension from your foot through your leg and glute can be altered by where you put the tension on your foot. If you push with the balls of your feet (the forefoot area), more tension will be placed on the frontal thigh (the quadriceps). If you focus on pushing more with your heels, more tension will go through the back of the thighs and to your gluteus maximus.

By pushing with your heels, you can take FULL advantage of this force/tension relationship. For example, when you’re doing lunges, try to raise the toes of your front foot off the ground. This removes tension from the front and focuses more on the heel. This will, in turn, send more tension to the gluteus maximus, making them work harder.

There are several practical techniques you can use to really force the heel push. For example, on lunges, do them with your heel on the edge of a stair or Step platform. Place ONLY your heel on the surface and do the lunge from there (be careful of your balance on this, however, as your base of support is decreased with this technique).

If you’re doing the leg press, you can focus on the glutes by placing your heels on the top edge of the foot plate (the rest of your feet surface will be off the top and not pushing on anything). When doing squats, simply raise your toes up in your shoes to achieve a similar effect.

3. Visualize “sitting back” when you’re doing your gluteus maximus exercises

This idea is similar to the concept of pushing with your heels above. When you “sit back,” more tension will be sent through the back of the thighs and the glutes. If you lean forward (the opposite of the “sitting back”), you will tend to throw more tension on the quadriceps (the front of the thighs).

We can use both the squat and the lunge as examples of this. When doing the lunge, don’t let your torso angle forward while you’re performing the movement. This will throw more tension on the quads. Visualize yourself “sitting back” into the movement. Your body won’t let you lean back far enough to fall over but this “lean-back” will put more tension on the glutes immediately. This is something you can try at home right now and feel the difference right away.

If, when you’re doing squats, you don’t normally feel the glutes working very strongly, you could very well be leaning too far forward as you squat. This throws more tension onto the quads and lower back. This problem is often caused by a lack of flexibility in the calves. To fix this, stretch the calves for at least 5 minutes before doing any squat exercise. You will soon find you’re able to sit back more and maintain a better body position (more upright torso). This will turn the squat into a great glute building exercise for you!

IMPORTANT! If you do Smith Machine squats, specifically with the feet placed a little forward of the bar while you sit backwards into the bar as you do the movement, beware! This variation of the squat places a TREMENDOUS shearing force on your knees.

Unfortunately, the knee joint simply wasn’t designed to push backwards against resistance in this fashion and long-term use of this squat variation can lead to knee injury (basically, every time you do this exercise, you’re grinding the connective tissue down a little more - not a good situation). Don’t worry, though! Squats themselves, when done properly, are an excellent exercise!

4. Pre-Exhaust Glute Training

Pre-Exhaust Training is one of the single most effective techniques for FORCING reluctant muscles to respond to training.
The idea behind this technique is simple: first, use an exercise that works ONLY the target muscle. Then, immediately follow that with an exercise that works the target muscle AND several other muscles in addition. You essentially exhaust the target muscle first (with an isolation exercise that works only that single muscle) then use an exercise that utilizes other muscles (a compound exercise) to help push that already pre-exhausted target muscle harder.

The two isolation (single-muscle) exercises that I recommend for the glutes are low pulley glute extensions and gluteus maximus push-ups. Low pulley glute extensions are done by attaching an ankle harness to your leg, standing facing the pulley machine and extending your leg straight back behind you. Glute push-ups are done by laying flat on your back with your knees bent 90 degrees and feet flat on the floor. From this position, push your hips up towards the ceiling, squeezing your glutes hard. This exercise can also be done one leg at a time (just cross the non-working leg over the other).

Do as many reps of this exercise as it takes to reach muscular fatigue (it could be 8, 15 or even more, depending on the resistance and your strength). The real muscle-building work gets done on the second glute exercise.

When you’ve completed your set, immediately (and I mean IMMEDIATELY - no rest periods here) move into the compound exercise for the glutes. Compound exercises for the glutes include squats, lunges, leg press, and (my personal favorite glute-builder) the one-legged bench step squat.

Use a fairly heavy resistance for the compound exercise…as I mentioned above, this is where the muscle-building work gets done. Use a resistance that will allow you get about 8 to 12 reps per set. This is the most effective rep range for muscle building.

In my experience, the best pre-exhaust approach is to focus on one leg at a time rather than doing both. It may take a little longer but the glutes get worked more thoroughly and your results will most likely be better. For example, do One- Legged Glute Push-Ups with your left leg then immediately do Bench Step One-Legged Squats on your left leg. Take a rest then do a set for your right leg.

Conclusion:

Regularly using the four training techniques I’ve described above can have a HUGE impact on your glute-building progress. It’s all about properly targeting your training to FORCE the glutes to take the lead in the exercise. With these tips, you will build larger, firmer, rounder glutes. Guaranteed!

Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for more than 15 years. You can pick up his routine for building a killer butt and thighs using the glute exercises you learned above here on his website.

“I give it a thumbs up” - Ray Burton