Glute Training

Overview

The glutes are the largest muscle in the body and the one with the most confident advice attached to it, most of which is a list of exercises somebody felt a burn doing.

There is actual evidence here, and it is more interesting than the list.

Key Points

• Hip thrusts and squats both build glutes, to a similar degree.
• Squats additionally build the quadriceps.
• Higher EMG activation did not mean more growth.
• You need a hip extension movement and a knee bending one.
• Load progression matters more than exercise choice.

The study worth knowing about

Hip thrusts produce much higher glute EMG activation than squats. That finding is real, well replicated, and is the foundation of nearly every glute programme sold online.

Then somebody trained two groups for nine weeks, one squatting and one hip thrusting, and measured the muscle.

So: the hip thrust's large activation advantage produced, at most, a modest hypertrophy advantage — and the squat gave you quads on top.

The general lesson is worth more than the specific one. Activation is not growth. How much a muscle lights up on EMG during one rep tells you surprisingly little about what twelve weeks of training it produces, and "this exercise activates the glutes 130% more" is a claim about the wrong thing.

What to actually do

The glutes extend the hip, abduct it and rotate it outward. A programme that covers those and progresses is a good programme.

Stretch and contraction are both covered there on purpose: RDLs load the glute long, hip thrusts load it short, and there is reasonable evidence that training a muscle through a full range including the stretched position matters.

Two days a week

Which is what the forum asks for most often, and what [training frequency](/wiki/articles/training-frequency) supports.

Day one, heavy

• -Squat or leg press — 3 x 5 to 8
• -Romanian deadlift — 3 x 8 to 10
• -Bulgarian split squat — 3 x 8 to 10 per leg
• -Cable abduction — 2 x 15 to 20

Day two, glute focus

• -Hip thrust — 4 x 8 to 12
• -Reverse lunge — 3 x 10 to 12 per leg
• -Back extension — 3 x 12 to 15
• -Abduction machine — 3 x 15 to 20

Ten to twenty hard sets a week total, which is the usual range from [training volume](/wiki/articles/training-volume-explained).

The thing that actually decides it

Not exercise selection. Load progression.

Hip thrusting 60kg for a year builds what 60kg builds. The same programme with the weight climbing to 100kg builds considerably more, and that is the difference between the people who change shape and the people who do not. See [progressive overload](/wiki/articles/progressive-overload).

Glutes tolerate heavy loading well, and most people under-load them badly — partly because the hip thrust is unglamorous to load heavily in a busy gym, and partly because the burn from a banded circuit feels like more work than a hard set of five.

What does not work

Common Mistakes

Frequently Asked Questions

Hip thrusts or squats for glutes?

Both. A nine week trial found similar glute growth from each, with squats also growing the thighs.

How often should I train glutes?

Twice a week, with ten to twenty hard sets in total across the week.

Why is the hip thrust recommended so much if squats work as well?

Because it produces far higher EMG activation, which is a real finding about a different thing. When growth was measured directly the gap was modest.

Do I need to feel the burn for glutes to grow?

No. Burn reflects metabolite build-up, not stimulus. A heavy set of six that burns little grows more than a long banded set that burns a lot.

Can I build glutes at home?

Somewhat, and it gets hard once bodyweight stops being challenging. Single leg work, slow tempos and elevated variations buy you a while; after that you need load.