Let's face it, targeting your glutes can be hard! Here are my top 6 glute-focused exercises that will help tone your glutes. I've included the timestamps below if you want to jump around the video.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Introduction
2:09 Romanian Deadlift
2:50 Weighted Back Extension
3:41 Front Elevated Reverse Lunge
4:41 Barbell Hip Thrusts
5:45 Foot Elevated Glute Bridge
6:29 Cable Kickbacks
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Introduction
2:09 Romanian Deadlift
2:50 Weighted Back Extension
3:41 Front Elevated Reverse Lunge
4:41 Barbell Hip Thrusts
5:45 Foot Elevated Glute Bridge
6:29 Cable Kickbacks
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Hey guys and welcome back to my channel.
00:02 Today I thought I'd do like a more casual vlog style intro
00:05 because why not?
00:06 So I'm sharing today my five to six,
00:10 I forget how many exactly it is, top booty exercises.
00:14 So these are like my go-to like glute focused leg workouts
00:19 that I will do at the gym.
00:20 So I'm really focusing on exercises
00:23 that put the glutes under max tension,
00:25 either at their maximum stretch or maximum contraction.
00:28 And that's really what you want to focus on
00:30 in a glute exercise,
00:31 something that's going to very much
00:33 keep the glute under high tension.
00:35 Also, we want these exercises to be glute dominant,
00:38 not quad dominant, which is very common with people.
00:41 Some people are glute dominant, some are quad dominant.
00:43 So if you do struggle to build your glutes,
00:45 I'm going to be showing you and giving you little tips
00:48 as to how to make these exercises,
00:50 target your glutes over like the rest of your leg
00:52 because the rest of your leg will probably grow anyway.
00:55 So if you really want to target the glutes,
00:57 you need to have like a few specific things that you do.
00:59 So I'll be going through how to make sure
01:02 each of these movements targets the booty
01:04 for a nice little peachy bum.
01:05 So I might do all of these exercises in one day
01:08 as a full workout,
01:09 or usually I will like pick a few of them
01:11 to incorporate into a daily workout
01:13 with like some other leg movements
01:15 or maybe other glute movements.
01:17 But these are like my top ones.
01:18 And if you want to see like what a regular daily workout
01:22 looks like for me,
01:23 you can follow me on my fitness account,
01:24 @KathrynM_Fit.
01:26 I post a lot of glute workouts and leg workouts
01:30 and workouts in general, honestly, on that account.
01:33 So if you would like to see that,
01:34 the link to that is down below.
01:35 Also, if you're thinking,
01:36 oh, she's going to include squats.
01:38 No, no, no, no.
01:40 Squats are a great compound lift
01:42 that you should be doing in your workout regimen
01:46 if you're trying to really strengthen your whole body
01:48 and your whole legs.
01:49 But a squat is very much a knee dominant movement.
01:52 So you're bending your knee more.
01:54 And if you're looking for a glute exercise,
01:56 you really want to be like hinging at the hips
01:58 more than the knees.
01:59 So the squats are actually not the best
02:02 for building the glutes.
02:03 I know, it's crazy.
02:04 So without any further ado,
02:06 let's go into all the exercises.
02:09 So the first exercise is a Romanian deadlift,
02:11 which is similar to a barbell deadlift,
02:13 but it targets your glutes and hamstrings
02:16 more than your back.
02:17 So what you want to do is keep your feet
02:19 about shoulder width apart, not too wide,
02:21 or else it'll compromise your knees
02:22 and hinge at the hips and contract your glutes
02:26 and your hamstrings to bring the weight back up.
02:28 I really recommend thinking a lot
02:30 about contracting your glutes
02:32 to keep more of the tension there.
02:34 And you also want to keep the weight in your heels,
02:36 like any glute exercise,
02:38 but still keep your feet flat on the ground.
02:40 And also it's important to keep your spine neutral.
02:43 So don't look forward, look down,
02:45 or else you'll interrupt the line of your back.
02:48 Next is a weighted back extension.
02:52 You can also do this without the weight if you prefer,
02:55 but I like to add just about a 10 to 15 pound plate.
02:59 So as you can see,
03:00 this is kind of the opposite of a hip thrust,
03:02 but still is a very hip hinge dominated movement.
03:06 There's no knee movement,
03:07 so you're not targeting the quads.
03:09 You're very much targeting the posterior chain,
03:11 which is all of the back muscles,
03:13 plus the glutes, the hamstrings.
03:14 While this may look like a back exercise,
03:17 you can make it a glute exercise by rounding your back.
03:21 So rounding your back stops the erector muscles
03:23 around the spine from activating.
03:25 So it becomes a perfect hip extensor exercise,
03:28 which is perfect for targeting the glutes.
03:30 You also can hit the outer glutes more
03:33 by turning out the feet a little bit.
03:35 This is how I prefer to do it,
03:36 but you can totally still target the glutes
03:38 by keeping your feet parallel.
03:40 So the next exercise is a front elevated reverse lunge.
03:45 And here I stacked up some plates
03:47 to give my front foot a little bit of height,
03:49 but you can also use a step
03:50 if you have that available to you.
03:52 But in this exercise,
03:53 you're going to be stepping back as deep as you can,
03:56 and then using the glutes to kind of thrust forward.
04:00 And just, if you really feel the glutes contract,
04:02 to bring you back up to the starting position.
04:06 Here, the elevated foot causes more of a stretch
04:08 in the glutes.
04:09 And when you're building a muscle,
04:10 you either want maximum tension
04:12 through contraction or stretching.
04:14 So you're getting that stretch here
04:15 that really helps engage the muscle.
04:17 The step also allows you to have a greater range of motion
04:20 than without the step,
04:21 which I'm always looking for in an exercise
04:23 to increase range of motion,
04:25 because more range of motion means more time under tension,
04:28 which means more booty gains.
04:29 So that's what we need.
04:31 And I lost my balance a few times here,
04:33 but honestly, the plate wasn't very even.
04:36 So I definitely recommend using a step
04:38 because this was kind of a struggle.
04:40 Next is the number one glute exercise in my opinion.
04:44 I'm sure you've seen it
04:45 if you are at all following fitness people on Instagram,
04:49 but this is the barbell hip thrust.
04:51 But essentially with your feet flat on the ground,
04:54 you also want to keep more of the weight in your heels.
04:56 Again, you basically just bring your hips upward
04:59 and thrust towards the ceiling.
05:02 Again, driving through your heels
05:03 will allow you to target the glutes more.
05:05 You also want to keep your chin tucked.
05:07 I know this looks kind of funny.
05:09 It allows your spine to stay neutral
05:11 so you can protect your spine,
05:12 which is very important in weightlifting.
05:14 And you also don't want to thrust so much
05:16 that you're overarching your back.
05:17 That's also bad.
05:18 You just want to get to a neutral spine and then return down.
05:22 One of my favorite variations of this
05:23 is to do five full reps, then five one and a half reps.
05:27 And on the half reps, you go up to a full rep,
05:30 then down halfway and then back up.
05:32 And this allows you to increase your time under tension
05:36 and also helps you kind of increase your rep range
05:38 without doing full reps.
05:40 But either way, you will definitely feel a burn.
05:45 Next, we have a foot elevated glute bridge.
05:48 So glute bridge, obviously by the name,
05:51 definitely are great muscles to target your glutes.
05:53 I just find that keeping my feet on the ground,
05:56 I don't get a very good range of motion.
05:58 So as we talked about earlier,
05:59 more range of motion equals more time under tension.
06:02 And having the feet elevated here
06:04 really allows you to increase your range of motion
06:06 and burn out the glutes even more.
06:09 I also will sometimes add a band
06:10 like I did here around my knees.
06:12 That just allows you to keep some tension
06:15 on the glutes again,
06:17 and also make sure to drive through your heels.
06:20 Sometimes I elevate my toes completely,
06:23 so all the weight is on my heels.
06:25 So this last exercise are cable kickbacks.
06:32 So what you're going to do here is bend over.
06:35 So you want to keep your spine neutral again.
06:38 And keeping the spine neutral here means leaning forward
06:41 so you don't have an arched back,
06:43 and your head and neck are flat with your spine
06:45 and looking at the ground.
06:46 And this takes all of the work out of the lower back,
06:49 so you're only working the glutes here.
06:51 You also want to keep the supporting
06:53 and working legs slightly bent,
06:55 and this helps target the glutes over the hamstrings.
06:58 So you have your foot in the attachment,
07:01 and you want to drive and kind of swing upwards.
07:04 So again, keeping your leg bent,
07:06 swinging your whole leg back and upwards
07:09 in kind of an arched motion.
07:12 So I hope this was helpful and informative.
07:14 I really tried to include as much evidence
07:17 and reasoning and tips as I could to help you guys
07:20 if you are new to working out,
07:21 or if you just wanted some more glute workouts.
07:24 I know some of you requested that I do more fitness videos,
07:28 since I do a lot of that on my Instagram.
07:29 So yeah, thank you guys so much for watching,
07:31 and if you have any requests,
07:32 please let me know in the comments below,
07:34 and I'll see you next time.
07:35 Bye!
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