Round Butt, Rockin’ Body: Glute Training For Women

No ifs, ands, or buts: If you want a nice butt, you must train for it. If an Olympian wants to be the fastest swimmer, longest jumper, or most precise marksman, she has to train for it. The swimmer isn’t going to swim twice per week, then head over to the archery range a couple times, and follow it up with a few hours of sprint drills. She’s going to swim until mastery is achieved.

The rules are no different when it comes to building a strong, round pair of cheeks. But there’s an additional upside here: Prioritize butt-building—namely getting your glutes beastly strong—and your entire body will look incredible.

For that reason alone, it’s almost your duty to train that booty, and train it well. Here’s how to build stronger glutes and get that desired physique:

PICK WELL FOR YOUR POSTERIOR

Set up your workout regimen to directly correlate with the outcome you want. If you want a better booty—and more important—a better body, you need a program that matches that goal. Sounds simple, but so many workouts performed by women are way off the mark, even when they are designed specifically for women. Don’t even get me started on the typical “bro-gram” that many women do in the gym.

No lifter in her right mind can perform every lift under the sun. Just like powerlifters need specific exercises to gear up for competition, you must carefully select the right exercises to achieve your desired results.

Above all else, choose exercises that heavily work the glutes. That immediately eliminates leg extensions, hack squats, or leg presses, which mostly target the quads. You can also get rid of machine leg curls, because the movements we’ll be doing will definitely work those hammies.

Inferior (below hip joint) Hip Movements: Squat, split squat, step-up, kettlebell swings, hip thrust, glute bridge
Superior (above hip joint) Hip Movements: Deadlift, good morning, back extension, Romanian deadlift, stiff-legged deadlift
Glute Isolation Movements: Cable kickbacks, cable pull-through

The muscle fibers in your glutes are half fast twitch, half slow twitch. The glutes have multiple subdivisions and perform multiple roles. They play an integral role in basic movements including hip extension, abduction, external rotation, and posterior and anterior pelvic tilting. Your glutes are also responsible for hip and spine stabilization, posture improvement, and injury reduction in the hamstrings and hip joints. No wonder you can’t simply add a single glute exercise to your weekly workout routine and expect results.