A strong, well balanced glute routine does much more than change how your jeans fit. The best glute exercises help you support your lower back, improve posture, and power up everything from daily walks to heavy lifts. When you train your glutes correctly, you build strength and stability across your entire lower body.
Below, you will find a clear guide to the best glute exercises, how often to do them, and how to put them together into a simple workout that fits your schedule.
Understand your glute muscles
Before you pick exercises, it helps to know what you are actually trying to train. Your "glutes" are not just one muscle, they are a team of three.
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Gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in your body and it is responsible for hip extension, like when you stand up from a chair or climb stairs.
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Gluteus medius sits on the outer side of your hip and helps with side to side movement and hip stability.
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Gluteus minimus is the smallest and lies underneath the medius. It works with it to stabilize your pelvis when you walk or run (Gymshark).
You feel glute max most in powerful movements like squats, hip thrusts, and deadlifts. The medius and minimus switch on with side lunges, clamshells, and band walks. A balanced routine needs all three so you build strength, shape, and injury resistance, not just one big muscle at the back.
Why strong glutes matter
Strong glutes are important for more than heavy squats. They support almost every lower body movement you make during the day.
According to Planet Fitness, glute strength improves posture, athletic performance, mobility, and lower back support (Planet Fitness). When these muscles are weak, your body tends to lean on your quads and lower back instead. Over time, that can show up as tight hips, sore knees, or nagging back pain.
If you sit a lot for work, your glutes can become "sleepy." Sweat notes that long periods of sitting reduce how well your glutes fire and push more work onto surrounding muscles, which increases your risk of pain and injury (Sweat). Targeted strength work helps wake them back up so they do their job again.
For runners specifically, strong glutes keep your pelvis level, extend your hip as you push off, and help align your legs and torso. This can lower your risk of common overuse injuries like shin splints, runner’s knee, and IT band issues (Trail Runner Magazine).
Activate your glutes before training
You get more from the best glute exercises when your muscles are properly activated first. Glute activation is a short set of moves that "wake up" the muscles and build a stronger brain to glute connection so they actually do the work during your workout (Sweat).
Sweat suggests a warmup circuit like this before lower body sessions (Sweat):
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Clamshells, 20 reps per side
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Crab walks, 20 steps
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Donkey kicks, 20 reps per leg
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Glute bridges with a resistance band, 15 reps
Move slowly and with control. Focus on feeling the glutes squeeze rather than just rushing through the reps. A few minutes of this can help you lift more effectively and reduce lower back strain.
Best bodyweight glute exercises
You do not need a gym to build stronger glutes. Bodyweight moves can be very effective, especially if you are just getting started or training at home.
Healthline notes that a twice weekly glute workout using bodyweight exercises can deliver visible results in one to two months, even without weights (Healthline). You can increase difficulty over time by adding more reps, slowing the tempo, or using short holds at the top of each movement.
Squats
Squats are considered a gold standard glute exercise, particularly when you go through a full range of motion with control (Healthline).
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Stand with feet about shoulder width apart.
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Push your hips back and bend your knees as if sitting in a chair.
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Keep your chest lifted and weight mostly in your heels.
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Stand back up and squeeze your glutes at the top.
If you are new, aim for a depth where your thighs are roughly parallel to the floor. Slow, controlled reps will challenge your muscles more than quick, partial squats.
Bridges
Glute bridges target the gluteus maximus and hamstrings and also support hip mobility (Planet Fitness).
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Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat, hip width apart.
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Press your feet into the floor and lift your hips so your knees, hips, and shoulders form a straight line.
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Pause and squeeze your glutes at the top.
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Lower with control.
Trail Runner Magazine also recommends bridges to strengthen both glutes and hips and to help prevent running injuries (Trail Runner Magazine).
Clamshells
Clamshells are a small movement that hits the gluteus medius and minimus. They are helpful for hip stability and side leg strength, and are often used to prevent runner’s knee and IT band problems (Trail Runner Magazine).
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Lie on your side with your knees bent at about 90 degrees and your hips stacked.
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Keeping your feet together, lift your top knee as high as you can without rolling your hips back.
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Slowly lower.
Adding a resistance band around your thighs increases the challenge. Healthline also highlights clamshells as a great option to target glute medius and improve overall shape (Healthline).
Lunges and split squats
Forward lunges, split squats, and curtsy squats all train your glutes one side at a time, which helps correct strength imbalances. Healthline notes that curtsy squats in particular emphasize the glute medius for side leg movement and rounder glute shape (Healthline).
To keep the focus on your glutes, lean slightly forward from your hips and think about driving up through the heel of your front foot.
Best glute exercises with weights
Once bodyweight moves feel easy, adding resistance is the next step. The goal is progressive overload, which simply means gradually challenging your muscles with more work over time. Gymshark explains that you can do this by increasing reps, reducing rest, using resistance bands, or lifting heavier weights so your muscles keep adapting instead of stalling (Gymshark).
For muscle growth, they recommend working mostly in the 8 to 12 rep range at about 60 to 80 percent of your one rep max (Gymshark).
Here are some of the most effective loaded moves.
Barbell hip thrusts
Hip thrusts are one of the best glute exercises for pure gluteus maximus activation. Research summarized by Gymshark shows hip thrusts can produce higher glute max activity than back squats and split squats (Gymshark).
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Sit on the floor with your upper back against a bench and a barbell across your hips.
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Plant your feet slightly wider than hip width, with knees bent.
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Drive through your heels to lift your hips until they align with your shoulders and knees.
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Pause and squeeze your glutes, then lower with control.
To emphasize the upper glutes, you can widen your stance a bit or add a mini band above your knees and actively push your knees out against it (Gymshark).
Squats and deadlifts
Back squats, front squats, deadlifts, and Romanian deadlifts are powerful compound lifts that work your glutes, hamstrings, and quads together. Gymshark lists these as six of the best moves for glute strength, power, and size (Gymshark).
To keep squats glute focused, sit your hips back and avoid letting your knees slide too far forward. For deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts, hinge at your hips with a flat back and think about pushing the floor away with your heels as you stand up.
Bulgarian split squats
Bulgarian split squats are a single leg squat variation where your back foot rests on a bench or step. They build serious glute and quad strength, improve balance, and help iron out differences between your left and right sides.
Gymshark notes that Bulgarian split squats can be easier on your knees than traditional back squats, which makes them a smart choice if heavy squats bother your joints (Gymshark).
Single leg deadlifts
Single leg deadlifts challenge your glutes and hamstrings while also improving balance and core stability. Trail Runner Magazine highlights them as an effective way to strengthen your glutes and reduce injury risk, especially when you add weights like kettlebells or dumbbells (Trail Runner Magazine).
Move slowly, keep a slight bend in your standing knee, and reach your free leg back as your torso tips forward so your body forms a straight line from head to heel.
How often to train your glutes
You do not need to train glutes every day to see results. In fact, your muscles grow when you rest and recover, not just when you work them.
Planet Fitness recommends working your glutes about two to three times per week and leaving at least one day of rest between sessions so the muscles can repair and get stronger (Planet Fitness). Healthline also suggests that a twice weekly routine with bodyweight moves is enough for most people to notice changes within one to two months (Healthline).
Beginners often see visible glute growth within about six weeks of consistent training, while more experienced lifters may need longer. Gymshark points out that staying consistent with at least two glute focused sessions per week and getting enough protein in your diet will help you progress faster (Gymshark).
Aim for 2 to 3 focused glute workouts per week, with rest days in between, rather than trying to train them lightly every day.
Simple glute workout you can try
If you want a starting point, you can use this as a template and adjust reps or sets based on your fitness level.
Warmup and activation
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10 bodyweight squats
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15 glute bridges
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15 clamshells per side
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10 donkey kicks per leg
Repeat once.
Strength block
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Hip thrusts or bridges, 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps
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Squats or goblet squats, 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps
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Bulgarian split squats, 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps per leg
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Single leg deadlifts (with or without weights), 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps per leg
Rest 60 to 90 seconds between sets. Pick weights that make the last 2 reps challenging but still allow good form.
If you are training at home with only bodyweight, swap in more reps and slower tempos, for example 3 sets of 15 to 20 air squats and bridges with a 2 second pause at the top.
Putting it all together
The best glute exercises are the ones you can perform consistently with good form. Your plan does not need to be complicated. Focus on a handful of basics that hit all three glute muscles, warm up with activation moves, and slowly increase the challenge as you get stronger.
You might start by adding just one or two exercises, like squats and bridges, twice a week. Once that feels comfortable, you can introduce hip thrusts or Bulgarian split squats and play with bands or weights. Over time, these steady, small steps will add up to stronger glutes, better posture, and a more resilient lower body.
