8 Exercises to Build Firmer, Stronger Glutes

Strong glutes go well beyond looking good. Glutes are the primary muscles that extend, abduct, and externally rotate your hip joint, which is a vital component of your mobility. Having weak glutes can contribute to various orthopedic conditions, such as lower back and knee pain.

The glutes are comprised of three muscle groups: the gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, and gluteus maximus. The gluteus maximus, the largest of the three, serves as the main extensor and lateral rotator of the hip joint. It’s involved when you walk, run, or even stand up out of a chair from a seated position.

The glute minimus, the smallest of the glute muscles, abducts and internally rotates the thigh, plus contributes to stabilizing the hip and pelvis. It helps maintain the alignment of your pelvis and thigh bone during various activities such as walking, standing, and shifting weight from one leg to another.

The glute medius lifts the thigh away from the body’s midline of your body and assists in rotating the thigh inward and outward. It prevents excessive pelvic tilting when standing on one leg and supports your hips when walking or running.

Having strong glutes is key in supporting your posture, your propulsion when you’re walking and running, and preventing knee injury and back pain.

Here are 8 of the best glute exercises to build stronger glutes.

This single-legged move is a great way to target your glutes and build stability while you’re at it. It’s been dubbed by many fitness enthusiasts as one of the hardest glute exercises you can do, specially when done with weights, since your glutes are at their biggest stretch at the bottom of the exercise.

Hold the weights firmly in your hand and gently balance your back leg on a bench behind you.Keep your core tight and press your front foot into the ground as you drop the knee on the back leg directly straight down toward the floor. Let your knee bent to about 90 degrees, or slightly below, until you feel your hip muscles engage.Keep your knee stable as you return back to the starting position with a tall posture.

This dynamic exercise will challenge your glutes and work your entire leg as you walk forward. You might also feel your heart thumping, since it also challenges your aerobic system. 

Begin with feet together, holding two dumbbells in your hands. Carefully step the front leg forward into a lunge and bring the back leg’s knee toward the ground, hovering just above.Press your front foot into the floor and take a big step as the back leg now comes forward into a lunge.Keep alternating as you walk forward, lunging one leg at a time.

This exercise hits your gluteus maximus and is known as the “king of glute exercises.” The glute bridge exercise engages your glutes, thighs, and core muscles.

Lay on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, about hip-width apart.Squeeze your core tight and press both feet into the ground, bridging your hips into extension without extending your lower back. It helps to think about keeping your core contracted throughout the move.Hold at the top for a couple of seconds and then slowly lower back down to complete another rep.

Step-ups are a safe and effective way to practice hip extension and fire the glutes. During a step-up, you are activating your hamstrings, glutes, core, and stabilizers, which can even increase your functional range of motion (mobility) when performed correctly.

Stand in front of a bench or large step (with or without weights, depending on your fitness level).Step onto the bench, shifting your weight into the front leg and driving your weight through the foot.Slowly lower yourself back down toward the floor, making sure you keep 90 percent of your weight in the front leg.Repeat successive reps on the same side before switching. 

This exercise gets its name because it mimics a donkey’s hind leg action when it kicks backward. The exercise targets your gluteus maximus and medius. This move can be completed without equipment and modified for all fitness levels. For example, you can use bands to make it harder, or even a weight behind your knee as you kick up.

Start from a tabletop position with your spine neutral and core engaged.Keeping your knee bent, lift one leg towards the ceiling with your foot flexed.Squeeze your glute on that side as your hip extends. Lower back down with control and repeat on the same leg for several reps before switching to the other side.

The deadlift is a movement in which your hips hinge backward to lower down and pick up a weight from the floor. Deadlifting practices hip extension and fires your glute max big-time. 

Begin with the kettlebell, dumbbell or barbell between your legs and your feet positioned slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.Stand up tall and keep your core engaged.Bend your knees slightly while you hinge your hips back to approach the weight between your legs.Push your hips forward to raise the weight between your legs and ensure it doesn’t drift forward.Slowly lower down and complete successive reps.

Clamshells isolate the hip external rotators and are important for hip stability and overall lower body strength.

Wrap a resistance band around both legs, just above the knees, and lay on your side with your hips and knees bent at around 45-degrees. Keep your feet together, separate your knees, and lift the top knee toward the ceiling while keeping your hips stacked and maintaining tension on the band. Open as far as possible without separating your feet. Pause briefly at the top of the exercise to feel your glutes and slowly return to the starting position, completing successive repetitions. 

Though this exercise also targets the quads, the box makes it more hip-dominant and thus targets your glutes more directly. If you don’t have a box, you can still do this move without one, but having the box helps as a tactical cue as to how far down, and back, to squat.

Set up in front of a box or bench with your feet shoulder-width apart, core engaged, and the weight held by your chest.Slowly squat back onto the box with control, pause briefly at the bottom, then drive through your feet and extend your knees and hips to stand back up.Repeat for several reps.

Overall, you should remember that your glutes’ primarily function to extend and externally rotate the hip. Thus, if you load any movement through these anatomical positions, you’ll invariably target your glute muscles.

A few points to keep in mind as you train your glutes:

Concentrate on squeezing your glute muscles during each rep of an exercise. The intentional focus will help maximize muscle activation and prevent injuries.
Gradually increase the intensity of your glute workouts over time (also known as progressive overload). You can do this by adding more weight, increasing resistance with bands, or increasing the number of repetitions/sets. 
Pay attention to how your body feels when doing each exercise. If you have pain or discomfort, change the exercise to avoid injury. 
Incorporate a variety of exercises that target different parts of your glutes. Variety will help balance the development of your glute muscles and prevent progress from plateauing as well.

Strong glutes are an important facet of a functional body, and training them directly will set you up for high performance, injury prevention, and, of course, an aesthetic physique.

If you feel uncomfortable training on your own, get in contact with a certified personal trainer who can help you build a great workout routine to specifically target your lower body.