The gluteal muscles or in short, glutes are a group of three muscles located in our posterior portion below our waistline. It is commonly known as buttocks aka butts. Anyway, a set of strong and muscular glutes is one of the most important muscles to have in your body especially if you’re a bodybuilder or athlete or any other sportsperson. This muscle group assists so much in our daily movements without our conscience. That’s why, big, strong and muscular glutes are must if you want to be stronger and fitter as well as if you want to look better from the back. So, without further wasting time, let’s know what are the best exercises for glutes that you should include in your leg day to get big, strong, and muscular glutes pretty fast.
Barbell Squat
Barbell squat is called the king of all exercises and the reason is simple; it can literally target all the major muscle groups in your body primarily and secondarily. Moreover, it is one of the most important exercises too. Very few people are there who don’t do barbell squat in the leg day. Anyway, barbell squat targets all the muscle groups in the lower body excellently including glutes and helps you to build significant amount of muscle and strength in your glutes and quads. It is no doubt that squat is one of the best exercises for glutes that you should not avoid if you want big and strong glutes.
So, what you have to do is to lift heavy weight for putting maximum pressure on your glutes as well as other muscles of lower body because it is a compound exercise and as it is a compound movement, you can not only get strong and muscular glutes, but also get big and strong quads and other leg muscles. Lift heavy weight with the presence of an experienced spotter so that you can safely perform the exercise with those heavy weights. Perform 8 to 10 reps to failure per set to maximize the pressure on your glutes and other muscles. So, if you want to get a strong and muscular lower body including glutes, a barbell squat is a must in your workout session.
Also Read: 5 Best Exercises for Calves for Bigger & Muscular Calves!
Glute Bridge (Barbell)
As its name suggests, glute bridge is a special isolation exercise for glutes. However, this exercise also helps to build muscle on hamstrings. Anyway, glute bridge is one of the best exercises for glutes because it can create more than enough tension on your glutes to force them to build more muscle and be stronger.
If you haven’t tried glute bridge yet, get help from your coach and learn the form properly first then perform bodyweight glute bridge for several days until you become habituated with it. Then you can go for barbell glute bridge to put as much pressure as possible on your glutes to make them big, strong and muscular easily. Go for 10 to 12 reps per sets and focus on the proper form & mind-muscle connection to get the most out of this extraordinary exercise.
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Leg Press
Leg press may not seem ideal for targeting the glutes but do you know, if you change your feet position a bit, leg press easily becomes one of the best exercises for glutes. So, if we use shoulder-width feet position while performing leg press, we target the quads mostly, right? But, if you widen your feet position for a couple of inches, your glutes will be targeted more while doing this exercise unlike barbell squat where should-width feet position is enough to put both quads and glutes under tension.
Anyway, so with wider feet position, you can easily put excellent pressure on your glutes while performing leg press. Just like barbell squat, you have to lift or I rather say, push enough heavy weight with your legs to create your desired muscle under tension. 8 to 10 repetitions per set is enough to get a set of big and strong glutes if you push enough weight with the help of your glutes in leg press.
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Barbell Hip Thrust
Barbell hip thurst is like the big brother of glute bridge. People complain that in glute bridge, they cannot add enough weight to put more pressure on their glutes due to the fact that you have to bend your body to create the glute bridge and it’s really uncomfortable to put barbell on the waist in that position. But, barbell hip thrust eliminates that little disadvantage as here, you have to put your shoulders on a bench rather than on the floor and you have to straighten your body from a bended position to squeeze your glutes.
So, you can use enough weight to perform hip thrust. Place the barbell safely on the waist with the help of a spotter or your coach and focus on the form while performing the exercise. 10 to 12 reps per set is enough to put maximum tension on your glutes to make them muscular and strong pretty fast. If you are an advanced lifter, athlete or bodybuilder and if you already are habituated with glute bridge then you can go to the next level by including hip thrust with barbell in your leg day as it is undoubtedly one of the best exercises for glutes.
Romanian Deadlift
The Romanian deadlift is the form of deadlift that targets specifically the glutes and hamstrings and it is one of the best exercises for glutes to do that. Conventional deadlift targets lower back and traps muscles more while Romanian targets glutes and hamstrings more. That is why, you may have seen professional bodybuilders and athletes to perform standard deadlift in the back day and Romanian in the leg day.
So, to get stronger and bigger glutes, you should not miss this amazing variation of the deadlift called Romanian deadlift. Lift as heavy as you can for 8 to 10 reps per set to get maximum benefits from this exercise. Just learn the proper form first from your coach and focus while performing the exercise to avoid mistakes and injuries otherwise, you would be activating other muscles groups rather than the glutes and the chances of injuries would be high. If you want to know more about other variations of deadlifts and their benefits then click here: Best Deadlift Variations.
In the Concluding Lines
Therefore, these are the top 5 best exercises for glutes from which you can include 2 or 3 of your preference mixing one compound movement with one of two isolation movements in your leg day workout session to get the maximum results possible. Always focus on your form while performing these types of complex and heavyweight workouts. Make sure, your form is correct to avoid unnecessary injuries. Lifting heavy is essential for building muscular and strong glutes but lift it with safety and with the assistance of your coach or a spotter. Anyway, hopefully, you have found this article about best exercises for glutes helpful enough. If it really so then don’t hesitate to express your valuable thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks for visiting and appreciating our work.