The gluteal muscles, or "glutes," are the buttocks. The glutes are the largest muscles in the human body and they have three parts--the gluteus maximus, medius and minimus. To build the gluteal muscles, you need to perform hip extension and hip abduction. When your hip goes from a bent to straight position, it is extending. When your thigh moves from the midline of your body out to your side you are abducting. When you build gluteal muscles, you also build other muscles, such as the quadriceps and hamstrings. These are the muscles on the front and back of the thighs.
Step 1
Begin your workouts with dynamic stretches. Unlike static stretches, dynamic stretches are performed in motion. This gives your body a warm-up conducive to exercise motions and reduces the chances of injury. Perform dynamic stretches like leg swings, knee highs, lateral lunges, alternating toe touches, deep knee bends, reverse angled lunges and forward bends.
Step 2
Perform compound exercises to work your gluteals. Compound exercises work more than one muscle at a time and they should be the foundation of your workouts. Squats, lunges, step-ups, leg presses and stiff leg deadlifts are examples of compound exercises that work your glutes, quads and hamstrings all at once. Use the heaviest weights you can lift with these exercises.
Step 3
Execute isolation exercises after doing compound exercises. Isolation exercises single out the glutes. If you were to do these first, you would not have enough energy to do compound exercises efficiently. Lying butt lifts on your back, standing cable kickbacks, prone leg lifts on your stomach and glute kickbacks on all fours are examples of these.
Step 4
Perform abduction exercises to target your outer glutes. The gluteus medius and minimus are the smaller gluteal muscles found on the outer part of the butt and they are responsible for abduction. Do exercises like side lying leg lifts, resistance band abduction and seated abduction on an abduction machine to work these muscles.
Step 5
Execute proper form. Use a full range of motion with all of your exercises, lower yourself slowly into a rep and lift up in a steady motion. Squeeze your glutes forcefully and hold for a full second at the mid point of your exercises and never use momentum.
Step 6
Exercise often enough to get a desired result. Perform three or four sets of your exercises and do eight to 12 repetitions. Take two days off in between your workouts to fully recover. Increase the weight with your exercises on a weekly basis to incrementally gain size and strength. Aim for a 5 to 10 percent increase each week. With body weight exercises like glute kickbacks and prone leg lifts, strap ankle weights on to increase your resistance.
Step 7
Perform cardio that emphasizes the gluteals. Biking, stair climbing, rowing, versa climbing and running up hills all cause you to forcefully contract your glutes. Use these forms of cardio to lose weight and tone your gluteals at the same time.
Member Comments