Top 19 gluteal exercises to stimulate all your parts and gain muscle faster

When you go to train your glutes, what exercises do you do and why? It is very common to perform different exercises in the gym without knowing if they are overlapping with each other or if they work together to achieve the goal. We currently have information to focus our training on the buttocks so that we train it effectively, choosing the exercises in the training plan to cover the entire gluteus. Anteroposterior loading: trunk over hip extension The anteroposterior load is that which moves forwards and backward with respect to our body. The bar, dumbbells, pulley, or any weight is always pushed perpendicular to our body. We always refer to the body, not what the load does. That is what will mark the front and back. All the following exercises push the hips while the legs are grounded, known as trunk-over-hip extension. In another block of exercises, it will be the legs that move while the pelvis and the middle area of ​​our body remain fixed. Gluteal bridge The gluteal bridge is one of the exercises to start training the gluteus. It is preferable to start doing it without weight and with high repetitions to "awaken the gluteus", and once we have mastered it we can include some load. The band on the knees also serves to activate other parts of the gluteus that are responsible for preventing the knees from coming together. Hip thrust The hip thrust is to the gluteus, while pull-ups are to the back or the bench press is to the chest. It is the basic exercise of this muscle group that we will use to handle high loads and observe how we are improving the strength of the gluteal muscles. Hip thrust with legs elevated This version of the hip thrust with raised feet is not very popular in gyms, partly due to its complexity when it comes to preparing it. By also raising the feet, we gain amplitude of movement, which will be interesting to further stimulate our buttocks. Hyperextensions in a specific bank Properly executed hyperextensions will recruit the entire back, of your legs, leaving out your lower back. It is preferable that it be done with the knees bent, to affect the gluteus more and deactivate the hamstrings, but it is complex since few gyms have a bench that offers this option. Pull-through The pull-through is one of the gluteal exercises that is becoming more and more popular in commercial gyms due to its effectiveness in stimulating the gluteal muscles. The body movement is the same as we do in a deadlift, but the load instead of going from the feet to the head as it does in said exercise, in this one it goes from the back to the front. Anteroposterior loading: hip extension In all the previous exercises, the trunk moves while the legs remain supported. In this group of exercises, what we move are the legs while the trunk remains stable. In this way, we stimulate the same muscles, but we affect to a greater extent different fibers, although one or the other cannot be isolated. Reverse hyperextension is One of my favorite gluteal exercises because of its ease of execution, little need for equipment, and the great gluteal activation it produces. Try doing eight or ten reps without weights, and you'll get it into your exercise arsenal if you don't already have it included. The knees must remain flexed to attack the buttocks more and the back of the thighs less. Multipower Quadruped Glute Kicks Quadruped hip extensions are often performed without a load in group activities such as GAP. In most cases, they are not in great demand, so this variant using the multipower machine is a good option to stimulate the buttocks to a greater extent. Hip extension, on a multi-hip machine, The pendulum hip extension is one of the classic gluteal exercises. As we have discussed in other exercises, it is preferable for the knees to be flexed to activate the gluteus more than the back of the thighs. Axial load with knee flexion-extension The exercises in this group are not specific to the gluteus, but they do stimulate it as a synergism (helper) muscle. In this group, the load moves from the feet to the head, which changes the force vector and the type of work that the gluteus performs. The idea is that you choose exercises from each of the sections presented in this article. In this way, the gluteus maximum, gluteus medium, and gluteus minimum will be stimulated, which is the muscle we refer to when we talk about the gluteus. Romanian deadlift The Romanian deadlift (not to be confused with the conventional deadlift) consists of flexing and extending the trunk, while the knees barely flex, and it is the hip that works as a hinge. This movement will stretch the glute when the bar is close to the ground and work maximum stretch ranges. Good morning with bar The good morning exercise performs the same function as the Romanian deadlift, but in this case, the weight is on the lower back. It is necessary to have a good technique to do it, and there are many people who do not feel the gluteus with it. Discard it in that case and go mostly with the Romanian deadlift. Deep squats are for quads, right? Yes, they especially train that muscle group, but when we perform a deep back squat, the gluteus has to help at its point of maximum stretch. In this way, we give tension at that point of stretching, while the exercises in the previous sections do so at the point of maximum contraction. That is why we recommend choosing exercises from each section to fully stimulate the buttocks. Kneeling squats Seated squats are a mix of a squat and a hip thrust. In the video, you can see how the hip extends (we go from sitting to standing upright). The glutes are the main muscles that perform this hip extension. Wide walking strides To attack the gluteus to a greater extent, it is preferable to take long strides. The strides that we perform on the spot or short strides stimulate this muscle group to a lesser extent. By making them wide, a greater hip extension is produced, and you know who makes that movement: the glutes. Hip abduction So far, we have seen trunk extension exercises over the hip (the legs stay still and the trunk move) and hip extension (the trunk stays still and the legs move). In this group, we present some exercises in which we open our legs outwards, which is called the hip abduction technique. Multi-hip machine abduction The machine is called multi-hip because it allows us to carry out the different movements of said joint. In this case, we force outwards to focus on the gluteus medium, and gluteus minimum. We must not confuse this movement with the external rotation of the exercises in the following section. The muscles will work similarly, but the objective of this article, more than a list of exercises, is to know the movements of the gluteus and thus distinguish one exercise from another when we see it to attack the gluteal muscles from all possible angles and ways. Monster walks, The monster walks are a hybrid between hip abduction (opening the leg) and external rotation that we will see in the previous section. It is a very interesting exercise to introduce in the warm-up or at the beginning of the session and wake up the gluteus so that we can activate it better later. External rotation simulates the opening of a clam, which is why many exercises receive that name: clam or clam (in English). In this case, the hip works like the hinge of a door that opens, and the gluteus is in charge of making the force to open that door. Banded clamshell The monster walk is a hybrid between hip abduction (opening the leg) and external rotation that we will see in the previous section. It is a very interesting exercise to introduce in the warm-up or at the beginning of the session and wake up the gluteus so that we can activate it better later. External rotation simulates the opening of a clam, which is why many exercises receive that name: clam or clam (in English). In this case, the hip works like the hinge of a door that opens, and the gluteus is in charge of making the force to open that door. banded clamshell The frog pump is a very interesting hybrid to stimulate the gluteal muscles. Join your soles as you can see in the video and perform a gluteal bridge. Due to the position of the feet and the elastic band around the knees, the gluteus will work in different planes, which makes this exercise a 3x1. Seated hip external rotation with band This gluteal exercise can be done at home or anywhere with a single elastic band. The objective is to join and separate the legs as much as possible, as you can see in the video. Machine hip external rotation This is a version of the previous exercise, but this time with a machine. The movement is the same, separating the legs making force towards the outside, and keeping the hip as if it were the hinge of the door.