The gluteal muscles, or glutes, are a collection of three muscles--the gluteus maximus, medius and minimus--that make up the musculature of the buttocks. The glutes act on the hip joints to move the body's trunk and legs through all planes of motion. Strengthening your gluteal muscles can reduce your risk for lower back, knee, hip and hamstring pain or injury, improve posture, improve sports performance and make you look fit in (and out of) your clothes.
Concentrate on Your Glute Muscles
The extra muscle tissue built through glute-strengthening exercises will fill out your jeans and boost your metabolism, contributing to the fat loss needed for a sculpted derrière. In glute exercises, such as squats and lunges, the deeper you go (the lower your butt goes below your knees), the more your glutes are engaged. When squatting below parallel (with your butt below your knees), maintain a neutral spine so that your bum doesn’t “wink” (tuck under), shifting the load away from your glutes to your hamstrings.
When performing motions that “thrust” or hyper-extend your hips, such as low back extensions, bridges, bent-leg back extensions and posterior leg lifts (moving as if you were pushing an imaginary skateboard), concentrate on "squeezing your butt cheeks together" rather than "lifting your torso, legs or hips" so that the movement originates in your glutes and not your hamstrings or lower back muscles.
Hip abduction exercises, such as the hip abduction machine, lying leg lifts, clams and fire hydrant leg lifts, build the muscles in the lateral (outside) portions of your butt. To maximize your gluteal engagement, tighten your abdominals in order to maintain a neutral spine and keep your knee angle the same throughout the exercise.
Perform Aerobic Activities
Incorporate drills that include sprinting, jumping, throwing, swinging and changing direction in your cardiovascular workouts to firm your glutes outside the weight room. Shuttle runs, stadium sprints, sled pushes, grapevines and wind sprints are all exercises you could incorporate into a dynamic warm-up to build a firm, tight posterior.
Aerobic activities, such as cycling and running uphill or on uneven surfaces (such as a trail) also use the gluteal muscles for extended periods of time, improving muscle tone and endurance.
Work on Flexibility
Develop your flexibility to make sure that your glutes aren't inhibited by tight muscles elsewhere in your hips, trunk or legs. Pay special attention to your flexibility in your hip flexors, hamstrings, calves and ankles. Hip flexor and hamstring tightness can lead to the “butt winking” described earlier, possibly triggering lower back pain. Poor hamstring and calf flexibility will inhibit you from squatting below parallel, causing you to miss out on the butt-lifting effects of deep squats.
Make sure that your lower back is strong enough to maintain proper lifting posture during advanced lifts, such as dead-lifts, squats and power cleans. When your lower back isn't engaged, glute involvement in these exercises suffers. You can strengthen both your lower back and glutes at once by doing low back extensions, good mornings and dead-lifts.
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