Don’t Do These Glutes Exercises. Hit These Alternatives Instead to Build Your Butt. | The Don't List | Men’s Health Muscle
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00:00The new frontier of lower body training these days is all about your glutes.
00:04That means a host of Instagram influencer types who are going to deliver new and innovative
00:08ways to train your glutes and plump your peach.
00:11Naturally, a bunch of these moves don't actually grow your glutes and mostly they're just a
00:15waste of time.
00:16So here are five moves you're better off skipping in your quest for stronger glutes and a couple
00:20better moves that you can do instead.
00:22When it comes to bodyweight glute exercises, you're going to see a variation of the bird
00:26dog known as the heel press very often and you're going to see plenty of trainers having
00:29women do this exercise.
00:31The truth is though, it is not a great move for your glutes.
00:34Now don't get me wrong, the heel press and the bird dog are both really good beginner
00:38moves and they're both good activation moves that you can think of for warmups.
00:41And the upside of both ideas is that they do challenge your glutes in a stretch position,
00:46which we know can be a mechanic for growth when used properly.
00:49The problem with both of these moves is that point blank, you're just not loading your
00:53glutes and you don't have enough potential to really aggressively load your glutes and
00:57you need to do that in order to stimulate deep strength and muscle gains in one of these
01:01strongest muscles that you have.
01:03The fix for that, we're going to go to the hip thrust instead.
01:07This is a similar idea.
01:08We're still going to get to challenge our glutes in the stretch position under load,
01:11but now we can actually add load.
01:13So that makes the hip thrust a superior option to those other exercises.
01:17Another move that isn't bad, but again, you wind up training something other than your
01:20glutes and you're just not going to be able to load it aggressively enough to really grow
01:24your glutes is the single leg deadlift.
01:26Now the single leg deadlift is a spectacular move if we're trying to train balance, if
01:30we want to build a little bit of coordination, and if we just want to work a single leg hinge,
01:34there's nothing wrong with doing a single leg deadlift.
01:36But if we actually want to build our glutes and really focus on our glutes, let's turn
01:40our attention to a different unilateral exercise.
01:42Let's look at the dumbbell step up.
01:44Now the great thing with this is again, one, we can add weight, two, we still get that
01:48really strong vertical hip extension as we stand onto the top of a boxer bench.
01:53And the other thing that is really awesome about this is we're going to get a much better
01:56stretch on our glutes with a larger step.
01:59We get to start from that stretch position and really push our glutes to the edge.
02:02The glute bridge is another great bodyweight move, but a lot like the heel press, it has
02:06a significant problem in that we just can't load it.
02:09Even worse, we're not going to get much work in the stretch position at the bottom of this
02:13move because you're essentially fully on the ground.
02:15So you're not really having to use your glutes at all.
02:17And then on top of that, we've got that serious limitation for load.
02:20It's just not an exercise worth doing.
02:22You can keep glute bridges as an activation or use them if you're in a hotel room and
02:25you really just want to get a little bit of glute work.
02:27But if you actually want to train your glutes and grow your glutes, let's go back to the
02:31hip thrust.
02:32That way we get that good stretch at the bottom of the motion and we can load up at the top
02:36so we can really contract our glutes and drive into aggressive hip extension.
02:40An ultra popular Instagram move, especially among that influencer crowd for your glutes
02:44is something called the cable deadlift.
02:46And in this move, essentially we're using a cable as the load and that's going to theoretically
02:51pull you forward.
02:52That way you can get more stretch on your glute.
02:54Except here's the thing.
02:56When we do that cable deadlift, because of the position and direction of the load, we're
03:01actually not getting that much more stretch on our glutes.
03:04If anything, we wind up tractioning at our spine a little bit and maybe we create a little
03:08bit of stretch at the shoulder joint.
03:10None of that is going to make this any good to really aggressively target your glutes
03:14anymore.
03:15And you're definitely not going to get a better glute contraction as you stand up.
03:18So instead of doing an exercise like the cable deadlift, let's just go old school and
03:23let's do a simple dumbbell Romanian deadlift.
03:26But take this exercise heavy, you're going to get a much better stretch on your glutes
03:30and more than that, as you stand up, you get a much better contraction on your glutes.
03:34And the best part of the Romanian deadlift compared to that cable deadlift is we can
03:38just really, really load this move up.
03:40And that load is really what's going to drive your glutes towards the strength and muscle
03:44that you really want.
03:45So get those other moves out of your workouts and focus on our moves instead and you will
03:49actually see the glute gains.