If you wanted a glute workout routine, look no further because you have come to the right place.
It can be a bit intimidating and somewhat overwhelming at times with all of the “Booty popping” workouts out there to know what will actually work or not.
The sole purpose of this guide is so I can give you everything you need to create your own glute workout routine.
I will touch on what exercises you need to be doing, how many sets and reps to include in your workouts, as well as dietary guidelines because diet plays a huge role in growing your glutes.
This guide will be broken up into two sections, training and nutrition.
We will touch on workouts first, but before we dive any farther, I need to answer this question I get asked daily on instagram or Tik Tok.
Glute Workout Routine
How To Lose Belly Fat & Grow Your Glutes
I would say at least 5-15x per day I get asked the question something to the effect of “How can I get a flat stomach and grow my glutes at the same time?”.
Trust me, I get it, who wouldn’t want to do that. Yet if only it were that easy.
Here is the deal. There are only going to be two scenarios in which you can lose body fat and grow your glute muscles at the same time.
- You are brand new to following a structured strength training program.
- You have taken an extended period away from following a structured strength training program.
For each one of those scenarios I would say the time frame would be 3-6 months.
Unless you fall into one of those two scenarios, you are not going to build your glute muscles while losing belly fat at the same time.
I wrote an entire separate article on why these are the only two scenarios you can lose fat and build muscle at the same time, you can read that article here.
Or if you are a visual learner, I have a YouTube video I did explaining it here as well.
Why? Why am I killing your dreams right now?
Let’s talk about it.
I mentioned earlier how your diet is going to play a role in your glute workout routine , this is a preview as to why.
For you to lose body fat you need to be eating less calories than your body burns, aka being in a calorie deficit.
For you to gain muscle mass or size you need to be eating more calories than your body burns or at the very least eating the same amount of calories as your body burns, aka being in a calorie surplus or at maintenance.
These are clearly two different scenarios that requires two different dietary guidelines.
When you are in a calorie deficit in order to lose body fat your body does not have enough calories coming in to maintain it’s current weight, let alone optimizing building lean muscle mass.
Again unless you are one of the two scenarios we laid out above, it is going to be damn near impossible to lose fat and build muscle at the same time. You are going to have to choose between the two.
Here is what I would say to you. If you are a female looking to grow your glutes, I would get down into the 19-24% body fat range first and then look at going into a calorie surplus to grow your glutes.
If you don’t know your body fat or have an accurate way to track it, that is completely fine too. Simply get down to a relatively lean physique, nothing super crazy, and start to looking at tackling this your new found project of growing your glutes.
Now even if you aren’t that low of a body fat and you have more weight to lose, you should still do literally every single thing I say in this article when it comes to exercising.
Why? Because you technically you can still grow your glutes in a calorie deficit, it will just be incredibly slow. Like if paint drying and grass growing had a baby slow.
Yet none the less, you still want to be following the exercise guidelines I lay out below.
We will talk a bit more about this when we talk about dietary guidelines, so stick around a bit later in the guide.
Glute Workout Routine : Exercise Portion
You Need To Have This In Order To Grow Your Glutes
Let’s have a quick discussion on how your glute muscles actually grow.
Your glute muscles, just like any other muscle, grow from resistance training and applying what is called progressive overload.
The process of building muscle is a stress – adaptation response. You provide a stress on your body ( resistance training ) and the body adapts (growing bigger, stronger muscles).
Yet the part that most people forget about is you need to continuously provide a stress great enough on your body that your body has to respond to it.
Meaning what you did 6 months ago to build muscle is not going to work now if you want to continue building muscle. Your body has already adapted to that stress, therefore it is no longer great enough to elicit the adaptation response.
This is where progressive overload comes in.
Over time you need to continuously be doing more than you are this week, last week, last month, and so on.
If 4 weeks ago you were lifting 100 lbs for 10 reps on squats, if you want to continue growing muscle, you better be doing say 110 lbs for 10 reps or 100lbs for 12 reps.
You have to push yourself to try and do a little bit more each time, looking to beat what you did last week and the week prior.
This is the only way you will continue to build muscle. ( Side note: this is why tracking your workouts is so damn important! ).
What Exercises To Include In Your Glute Workout Routine
When it comes to exercise selection there are certainly exercises that are more beneficial to include in your workout plan to grow your glutes than others.
First, let’s cover some exercises to do before you even head into the actual workout.
For every single one of my online coaching clients I program in something I call activation warm ups.
This is not your typical “fake stretch, swing my arms around, bend my back a bit” warm up.
This is taking your muscles through a full range of motion and properly contracting them to warm them up, thus activating them.
These aren’t exercises to be done for gaining tons of strength or applying the progressive overload principle we touched on above, these are simply for feeling your muscles turning on so to speak.
I will include some of my favorites below.
Glute Activation Warm Up
Glute Bridge
The glute bridge and variations of the glute bridge are a staple in any workout plan to grow your glutes. For the purpose of this activation warm up, you can use the simple floor glute bridge to help activate your glutes.
Sets : 2-3
Reps : 8-15
Notes : Remember the purpose of this exercise is not to build a ton of muscle, it is simply just to activate your glutes. Be sure to not rush the movement and hold it for 2-5 seconds at the top to really ensure your glutes are burning.
Single Leg Glute Bridge
Again, a variation of the glute bridge. A bit more advanced and something to throw into your activation warm up.
Sets : 2-3
Reps : 8-10/ea
Notes : Remember the purpose of this exercise is not to build a ton of muscle, it is simply just to activate your glutes. Be sure to not rush the movement and hold it for 2-5 seconds at the top to really ensure your glutes are burning.
Band Adduction
Notice how this is a warm up activation exercise, not a main booty builder. This is great for activating the muscle, we will go over main exercises to grow your glutes a bit below.
Sets : 2-3
Reps : 8-10/ea
Notes : Do NOT arch your back as you do this, look to maintain a neutral spine.
Butterfly Bridge
Yet again, a variation of the bridge once more.
Sets : 2-3
Reps : 8-15
Notes : Push your heels together hard and use this to really wake your glutes up.
I would pick 1-2 movements from the ones above, do them before you head into your actual workout, and simply be sure you feel your glutes warmed up and ready to go.
Glute Workout Routine : Best Glute Building Exercises
When it comes to the bread and butter movements for building your glutes there will be two main movement patterns we will be focusing on.
- The glute dominant exercises
- The hip dominant exercises
I want you to also notice how every single one of these exercises will be a compound movement.
A compound movement basically just means you are using more than just one part of your body to do the work, normally your whole body is involved.
The smaller activation stuff has it’s time and place, but if you really want to make the most of your workout plan to grow your glutes, you should be prioritizing compound based movements like the ones I will put below and applying the progressive overload principle to them.
The glute dominant exercises can be found below.
Glute Dominant Exercises
Single Leg Torso Elevated Glute Bridge
The single leg torso evaluated bridge is a step up from the regular glute bridge you saw prior because this time you are adding a stability factor as well as elevating your torso. You can add weight on your hips to this variation as well.
Sets : 3-4
Reps : 8-12/ea
Notes : Be sure to push through your heels and feel the contraction at the top. Keep your core braced like I am going to punch you.
BB Hip Thrust
The BB Hip Thrust is a more advanced version of the floor glute bridge. It provides a larger range of motion and can take on new strength levels.
Sets : 3-4
Reps : 5-15
Notes : Be sure to keep your chin tucked, shins parallel to the ground, and get your lower traps / shoulder blades placed comfortably on a bench, box, or couch.
Bulgarian Split Squat
The Bulgarian split squat may be the top single leg booty builder there is.
Sets : 3-4
Reps : 6-12/ea
Notes : Be sure to keep a lean forward in your torso and keep your shins vertical to the ground.
Now, let’s talk about the hip dominant movements.
Hip Dominant Movements
RDL
The rdl is a staple in any workout plan to grow your glutes because it takes the muscle through a full stretch and full contraction.
Sets : 3-4
Reps : 6-10
Notes : Show your chest to the wall in front of you, keep a slight bend in your knees, push your hips back, feel a big stretch, then bring your hips back forward and lock your legs out.
** that can be done with dumbbells, barbell, band, etc **
SLRDL
Taking things up a notch with this single leg variation of the RDL now, the single leg requires more stability from you working your glutes even more.
Sets : 3-4
Reps : 6-12/ea
Notes : Take your time and do not rush the movement, all of the same principles apply from the regular RDL.
Glute Bias Back Box Squat
The glute bias back squat is a hip dominant movement because you are really bending at the hips for this variation. This can be done with a dumbbell, kettlebell, bodyweight, etc.
Sets : 3-4
Reps : 8-12
Notes : Take a wide stance, around hip width. Point toes out slightly. Have a slight lean in your torso, push your knees out, and focus on keeping tension on your glutes the entire time.
Glute Workout Routine : Setting Up Your Routine
Now you have activation work and you have your main compound movements you should be doing, but how do you come up with an actual plan for this?
Don’t worry, I got your back.
First let’s talk about how much volume you should give to your glutes.
Volume
When I speak about volume I am talking about the amount of working sets per week you are doing of glutes.
Meaning I am not counting activation, I am not counting warm up sets, I am talking about how many sets you are doing close to failure (which we will touch on next).
If you are looking to grow your glutes, I would try to focus on getting around 12-20 sets of glutes per week.
Intensity
Intensity is one of if not the most important factors of this equation. You can have the best exercises with the perfect sets and reps, but if you are not bringing adequate intensity to your workouts your glutes will not grow.
By intensity I don’t mean how much you are sweating or how out of breath you are, I mean how close to failure are you pushing yourself?
For example if you had a set of 10 reps to do, did you finish that set of 10 reps without pushing yourself at all? Was it a breeze? Could you have maybe really done 5 or 10 more if you really pushed?
Or, are you getting done that set of 10 reps with the last two reps being incredibly challenging, you were wondering if you were going to get them or not, and you maybe could have done 1 or 2 more reps if you were lucky.
That is what I mean by intensity and if you want to grow your glutes, you better be doing a lot of the ladder.
If you want to know how to pick the right weight to lift, I talk about that more in depth in my article here .
In my workout vlog, you can get a better idea of what I mean and what your sets should be looking like.
Frequency
Frequency refers to how many days per week you are going to train your glutes.
I would recommend anywhere between 2-3x per week training your glutes.
This is because you have to be realistic and realize the average person can get in the gym 3-5x per week.
Dedicating 2-3 of those days to work on your glutes will allow you to not only get the adequate volume necessary to grow but also proper recovery, which we will talk about now.
Recovery
Too many times recovery gets overlooked and it is a damn shame.
I talk about this in my 5 best beginner weight lifting tips but working out is only half the battle.
We talked earlier about the stress – adaptation process. You put a stress on your body by working out so you can then recover from that stress and adapt to it by growing stronger and bigger muscles.
Yet that is the point. If you cannot recover from the stress you are putting on your body, your body will not change. You are missing 50% of the equation here.
Ways you can make sure you are recovering properly are
- getting 7-9 hrs of sleep each night (this is by far the most important!!!!)
- Taking 2-4 rest days per week (and when I say rest, I mean you rest, don’t go to spin classes)
- Eating proper protein amounts and calorie amounts to facilitate recovery (we will touch more on this in the diet section )
Trust me, if you are under recovering all of your hard work in the gym will be for nothing. Focus on proper recovery and you will get proper results.
Glute Workout Routine : Sample Plan
Now that we have covered the best exercises, we have talked about volume, intensity, frequency, and recovery, I want to give you what a sample plan to grow your glutes may look like.
Let’s say you have 4 days a week to train. What I do with a ton of my online coaching clients is have them follow a 4 day lower – upper split.
There will be two upper body days so for the purpose of this article I won’t go over those.
Yet let’s take a look at what the two lower body days may consist of.
Day 1
1a. Glute Bridge 2×10
1b. Band Adduction 2×8/ea
2. BB Hip Thrust 3 x 8-10
3a. SLRDL 3 x 8-10ea
3b. BGSS 3 x 10-12ea
4a. Glute Bias Back Ext 2 x 12-15
4b. Goblet Squats 2 x 10-12
Day 2
1a. Single Leg Glute Bridge 2 x 8/ea
1b. Pigeon Stretch 2 x 30 sec
2. BB RDL 3 x 6-8
3a. Glute Bias Back Squat 3 x 8-10
3b. Reverse Lunge 3 x 8-10ea
4a. Single Leg Hip Thrust 2 x 12-15/ea
4b. Dragonflys 2 x 10-12
.
** 1a and 1b indicates a superset. This means you complete each exercise back to back with no to minimal rest. Rest after both exercises are completed**
As you can see you are hitting your glutes with the activation warm ups. You are getting your main compound movements in, obviously keeping in mind the progressive overload principle of either adding more weight or reps week to week.
Also you are getting 8 direct sets of glute work in on your first lower body day and 8 direct glute sets on your second lower body day as well, leading to 16 sets of glute for the week, falling right within our range.
This can (and has been for my online coaching clients !) a very effective workout program you could follow. Notice how it isn’t super fancy.
You are probably looking at this going “wow, this looks way to simple, are you sure?”.
Yep, I am sure.
When it comes to a workout plan to grow your glutes it is much less about doing 15 different exercises and all of the crazy exercise variations and it is much more about sticking to the basics.
If you stick to the basics, apply this progressive overload principle week to week, and stick with it consistently, your glutes will have no choice but to grow grow grow.
Now that we have conquered the workout side of things, let’s talk about the diet aspect.
Glute Workout Routine : Your Diet
We talked earlier in the guide about how your diet is going to play a huge role in your glute workout routine.
To recall, in order for you to optimize building muscle, you need to be in a calorie surplus.
This means eating more than calories than your body burns.
I know this might very well be scary as sh*t to you.
Your entire life you have been focused on eating less calories and losing weight, now I am telling you to gain weight?!
WTF, man?!
First off just know that I have coached multiple ladies through this journey and yes, it can be very scary at first. You are validated in feeling that way.
Second, I will explain why you need to eat more in order to grow your glutes so you can understand.
You need to eat more calories to go back to this stress – adaptation process.
In order for your muscles to adapt to the stress they need to recover. The top two ways your muscles recover are getting adequate sleep and getting adequate nutrients to them.
There is this cliche saying “food is fuel” and while food is much more than fuel, this is right, in this instance food is fuel for your muscles to grow.
When you workout you tear your muscle fibers apart, as in you literally create micro tears in your muscles, kind of crazy huh?
Your muscles use these calories to recover and grow stronger, bigger muscles. Without them, you will just have broken down muscle tissue that cannot be repaired, leading to no change in your body.
Ideally you want to be eating in a 150-300 calorie surplus. This means you are eating 100-250 calories above your maintenance calories. If you do not know what your current maintenance calories are, I would take your current body weight (in lbs) x 14 and that will give you a good estimate.
Therefore you would eat 150-300 calories above your (bodyweight x 14) calculation.
In terms of what those calories should be made up of, the most important nutrient for muscle growth is protein.
Protein is the only macro nutrient that can build lean muscle mass therefore it is beyond important to have enough of it in your diet.
To find out how much protein you should be eating, simply take your current body weight (in lbs) x 1.
Therefore if you weigh 150lbs, eat 150g of protein.
Beyond that I will urge you to do what is right, not what is the most comfortable.
What is the most comfortable is probably sticking to your lower calories, not eating more, and not having to fight the mental battle of eating more calories.
Yet what is right is being able to be okay with eating a bit more, possibly seeing the scale go up a bit, and fighting that mental battle.
Now, I just mentioned the scale going up and you probably lost it, huh?
Don’t worry, I will give you some guidelines.
Tracking Progress
If you are in a calorie surplus I would aim for a range of 1-2 lbs per month on average of weight gain.
As long as you are in that rangethen it is likely you are gaining lean muscle mass. Once you start to go beyond that range, it is likely you are putting on too much excess body fat.
Now remember I said 1-2 per month on average. Your weight is going to fluctuate, that is normal, especially when you first start introducing more carbs and food to your body.
It is not uncommon to maybe gain 2-5 lbs of water weight when you first increase calories, and that is okay.
What I do with all of my online coaching clients is track their weight every single day and get the trends over the course of a months time.
If we saw at the beginning of the month they were around 140, then at the end of the month they are around 141.5, then we are golden.
Even if they had some days in between where their weight spiked up due to water weight and or their time of the month, the overall trend is what matters, not the day by day fluctuations.
Measurements
With all of my online coaching clients we track measurements every two weeks.
I would take them on the same day every 2 weeks and try to be as accurate as you can in where you measure.
I take measurements of their
- Waist
- Glutes
- Quads
We can use the waist measurement to accurately track fat loss or fat gain progress, since we store most of our fat in our waist.
The glute measurements are obviously to track progress on if your glutes are growing.
Finally the quad measurement is to track body fat gain / loss as well as overall growth of quad compared to glutes.
Progress Pics
WIth my clients we take progress pics every 4 weeks.
One from the front, one from the rear, and one from both sides.
Some examples are below.
Glute Workout Routine : Final Word
Well there you have it, hopefully one of the most comprehensive guides so you can create your own Glute Workout Routine.
I know there was a lot of information there so feel free to go back and re read some things a few times if need be.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop below.
If you are interested in working with me so I can take over all of this for you and take out the guess work, you can apply to coaching with me HERE.
Beyond that, I also have a YouTube video on this topic if you or someone you know is a visual learner as well.
Happy glute growing and look to talk soon,
-E
