lower-body muscle group

Glute exercises

The glutes straighten and steady your hips. They are the strongest muscles you have, and they drive standing, climbing and jumping.

The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the body, and it is what straightens your hips when you stand up, climb, sprint or jump. It works in every squat and every hinge. It gets trained most directly when your hips travel through a big range against resistance, which is what hip thrusts, glute bridges, deep step-ups and Bulgarian split squats are for.

Two adjustments shift work from the quads into the glutes. Push through your heels and keep your shins closer to vertical. Then finish each rep by squeezing at the top with your hips fully straight, instead of stopping just short of it.

Glute and hamstring work go together, because most hinge exercises train both at once. The generator treats them as a pair when it balances a lower-body session.

Front

Back

Where the glutes sit

Exercises that target the glutes

Build a lower-body workout

Also works the glutes

These exercises train the glutes as a secondary muscle. It is useful work that adds up across a program.

Glute exercises

Exercises that target the glutes

Barbell back squat

Barbell deadlift

Bodyweight squat

Bulgarian split squat

Cossack squat

Dumbbell deadlift

Dumbbell front squat

Dumbbell Romanian deadlift

Glute bridge

Goblet squat

Hip thrust

Jump squat

Kettlebell clean

Kettlebell snatch

Kettlebell swing

Lateral lunge

Pistol squat

Reverse lunge

Single-leg glute bridge

Single-leg Romanian deadlift

Skater hop

Split squat

Step-up

Walking lunge

Also works the glutes

Train it with its neighbours