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Glute workouts are in — but there’s more to it than a sculpted derriere

Everything from walking to heavy lifting involves your gluteal muscles.

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A shirtless man doing split squats using a dumbbell
DjordjeM / Shutterstock

The importance of strong glutes goes much further than aesthetics. Powerful glutes play a big role in your overall fitness level, injury prevention, stabilizing your hips and pelvis, and more. Everything from walking to heavy lifting involves your glutes. If you aren’t properly training your gluteal muscles, you might be on the road to muscular imbalances, decreased strength, and even an increased risk of lower back pain. From Hollywood stars to fitness trainers and influencers, glute exercises are on the training list. Let’s look at the benefits of training your glutes and the best glute-focused exercises to try.

What are the benefits of training your glutes?

A man doing a box jump in a gym.
Mirage Studio / Adobe Stock

Below are some of the many benefits of training your glutes:

  • Improve your overall fitness and athletic performance.
  • Lower your risk of injury.
  • Stabilize your pelvis and hips.
  • Improve your ability to perform heavy lifting and explosive movements like sprinting and jumping.
  • Improve your posture and alignment.
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Your glutes are a large, powerful muscle group that helps you generate speed.

The muscles of your gluteal region

peach tree bum fruit hanging from branch
Chelsey Marques / Unsplash

Certain exercises effectively target your gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. These three muscles comprise the gluteal region and they originate from the sacrum and ilium and insert on the femur bone. You can use various equipment or your own body weight to engage, strengthen, and grow these muscles over time.

The best glute exercises for a sculpted derriere

Man doing a glute bridge at home
Stock-Asso / Shutterstock

We’ve compiled some of the best glute exercises for a more toned and sculpted derriere:

  1. The glute bridge — As the name indicates, the glute bridge targets your glute muscles, and you can perform this exercise with or without a weight.
  2. Barbell hip thrust — With this exercise, you rest a barbell across your hips, engage your glutes to stabilize yourself, and thrust your hips and the barbell up toward the ceiling.
  3. Sumo deadlift — During this deadlift variation, you’re standing with your feet wider than shoulders-distance apart and your toes pointing out. Sumo deadlifts are a killer workout for your glutes and inner quads.
  4. Bulgarian split squat — With this split squat variation, your rear foot is elevated, which is a superior workout for your glutes, hamstrings, and quads.
greek statue picture columns statuesque muscles
Rachel Claire / Pexels

Carve statuesque glutes with the following exercises, too:

  • Barbell Romanian deadlift
  • Resistance band glute kickbacks
  • Resistance band side steps
  • Resistance band squats
  • Dumbbell step-ups
  • Dumbbell lateral lunges
  • Box jumps
  • The kettlebell swing
Steph Green
Steph Green
Steph Green (Steph Zee) is a singer-songwriter and professional writer with over 12 years of experience in healthcare and…
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