Exercises To Sculpt A Better Backside

Squats, lunges and leg presses are the lower body exercises that usually steal the show, and while everyone is aware of the importance of core training, and probably does three thousand sit-ups a day, the muscles around your backside don’t tend to get much of a look in.

This is a big mistake.

Your glutes are actually several different muscles that form together to make the bulk of your backside. Stronger glutes are absolutely vital to almost every action in day to day life. Your glutes are involved in all the movements of your hips, and play a massive role in athletic movements, such as sprinting, running, jumping, leaping and stepping side to side.

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Not only that, but strong glutes can help to prevent and alleviate lower back pain. Back pain is often not a result of a weak lower back, rather weak glutes, meaning your back muscles have to do extra work, become misaligned and fatigued and present symptoms of pain.

Finally, and possibly most crucially, training your glutes makes your backside look a whole lot better. There’s no point losing fat and getting lean if your butt is still saggy, with no muscle mass.

Working your backside doesn’t have to be overly complicated though. In this article we’ll look at a huge variety of glute exercises, right up from some simple beginner moves, through to advanced exercises that will take your glute training to the next level.

At-Home Backside Exercises

You don’t even need a gym to work your glutes.

Start with the glute bridge.

• Glute Bridge Raises

Lie on the floor with your hands by your sides and your knees bent to 90 degrees. Dig your heels into the floor and lift your toes up. Hold your stomach tight, then push your hips up as high as you can. Squeeze your glutes in the top position, pause for a count of two, then lower your hips down again slowly until your butt lightly touches the floor, then go again. Aim to keep tension on your butt muscles throughout and keep practicing until you can do 15 reps.

The next stage is to progress the basic glute bridge.

• Elevated Glute Bridge Raises

Lie in the same position, but this time at the bottom of a set of stairs, or with a kitchen chair in front of you. Place your heels on the step or chair and perform the movement in exactly the same way. Having your feet elevated makes this much tougher. It’s the same deal here – work your way up to 15 reps before progressing.

• Single-Leg Glute Bridges

You can probably guess how to perform these from the name. They’re very similar to the above exercises, but performed with just one leg on the floor. Your other leg can just hover next to it. You can do your single leg glute bridges on the flat or in an elevated position. Make sure you do the same number of reps both sides. Do all your reps on one leg, then switch immediately to the other with no rest in between.

• Step Ups

Your stairs can be a great piece of home workout equipment. Stand at the bottom and place your right foot on the highest stair you can reach without straining. Push up forcefully and bring your left leg up to join it. Pause briefly, then take your left leg back to the floor. Perform eight reps like this, then eight with your left leg on the stair. Keep building up the number of repetitions, hold some weights in your hand or wear a backpack with weights in it to increase the challenge.

Glute Exercises At The Gym

Fancy a change of scenery or just train better with other people around? Then head to the gym.

The great news is that all of your home-based backside exercises work just as well here, though you’ll need to sub in a weights bench for your set of stairs or kitchen chair.

Split Squats

While squats are generally considered a more quadriceps focused exercise, single leg squats will torch your glutes due to the extra stabilization and balance needed.

Stand two to three foot in front of a weights bench and place your left foot on it. Just your toes or laces should be in contact with the bench. With your right foot planted firmly on the floor, squat down by bending both knees until your left knee is an inch or two from the floor, then push back up to your starting position. Aim to keep your right shin vertical the whole time and use a steady, controlled tempo. Once you can do three sets of 10 reps either side, hold a dumbbell in either hand.

Gym Ball Leg Curls

This big blow up balls aren’t just for doing crunches on you know.

Lie on your back in a similar position to the start of the glute bridge raise. Lift your legs up and put your heels on the Swiss ball, raise your hips off the floor then pull the ball in towards your butt by bending your knees and squeezing your glutes. Bring it in as far as you can, then straighten your legs slowly.

Reverse Lunges

You can do reverse lunges at home using just your own body-weight, but to really make them challenging and fry your backside, you’ll probably need weights.

Stand with your feet together and either a dumbbell in either hand, or a barbell across your back. Step backwards with your left leg as far as you can and bend both knees until the left one is just above the floor. This should look similar to the bottom position of the split squat, only without a bench. Push back up forcefully. You can either alternate legs or do all your reps on one side first, then complete the other side. Once you can do 10 reps with one set of dumbbells or a certain amount of weight on the bar, it’s time to go heavier.

Glute Machines

If you’re lucky, your gym may have specialized glute training machines to isolate the muscles. The instructions for these should be on the machine itself, or you can ask an instructor or trainer if you need extra assistance.

The only downsides to machines is they’re very much “one size fits all” so may not work with your body shape. One of the main roles of your glute muscles is also to stabilize and provide support, which means that free-weight and body-weight moves are generally superior to machines.