5 Exercises For a Strong Butt !
Is Direct Glute Training Dangerous?
There’s been some talk lately about how certain glute exercises are
dangerous for the lower back, but I’m calling BS. My clients have been doing
the barbell hip thrust and its variations with great success for almost 10
years. Those clients include elite athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and even
physical therapy patients.
Anything done with bad form or too much weight is risky. Which means that
hip thrusts, done properly, are no more dangerous than bicep curls, done
properly. Bottom line? If you want strong glutes, or just better looking
ones, you need to train them directly and intelligently. Here’s how to
target your glutes and build them up without trashing your lower back.
1 – Basic Banded Glute Bridge
Never underestimate the power of a seemingly simple movement like the basic
glute bridge. You can find this exercise in many half-assed therapy
programs, and my problem isn’t with the exercise, but rather the setup and
execution.
Many people set up the glute bridge haphazardly. And as a result, they
shift the tension away from the glutes and onto the hamstrings or lower
back, which defeats the purpose of a butt exercise.
It’s called the “glute bridge” for a reason. And it’s up to us to get our
bodies into the position that’ll allow for hard active contraction of the
gluteal complex first, with the hamstrings and lower back (to some extent)
kicking in as secondary extensors.
Take your unique hip and pelvic structure into account. By altering the
distance between your feet to place the ball and socket joint of the hip as
centrated as possible, you’ll create a stronger gluteal contraction.
Manipulate the position of your knees in relation to your hips. Most of the
time it’s far wider than people think. Get that position right and you can
recruit the glute muscles and get them to do their primary jobs.
Finally, if you’re having trouble positioning yourself and gaining torque
and tension through the hips and glutes as you bridge, add a band that acts
as a “reactive neuromuscular stabilizer.” This will cause the glutes to kick
in more.
Watch the video above to put these tips together and improve this staple
movement. Then use it for dynamic warm ups, activation drills, and
more.
2 – Banded Dumbbell Frog Pump + RKC Plank Finisher
The next step is to train this movement pattern with more intensity to
generate the greatest muscular training effect possible while sparing the
spine.
People forget they can load the bodyweight glute bridge by simply adding a
plate or dumbbell to the lap. This variation is written off since it’s not
super likely you’ll be pulling a 200-pound dumbbell onto your lap for max
effort glute bridges. But don’t write it off.
By positioning your hips further into an externally rotated and abducted
position, you can isolate the glutes more while minimizing recruitment of
the hams and lower back. This is called the “frog” position and is one hell
of a way to increase neural activation of the glutes while making smaller
loads placed on the front of the hips more effective for pain-free loading.
Like the glute bridge, you can also add a band around the knees to create a
greater activation.
Remember, the gluteal complex consists of the gluteus maximus, medius, and
minimus. They’re largely tonic postural stabilizing muscles that act on the
both hip and pelvis to create static and dynamic stability. That means this
group of muscles will respond best to hypertrophy-work, endurance, and
set/rep schemes that increase metabolic stress. It also means they may
respond less favorably to heavy power and pure strength-based schemes of
lower reps.
But as the load increases and relative intensity increases, the likelihood
for injury and form falling to shit is also increased, which is never a good
thing. So isolating the glutes should be more about time under tension with
moderate weight than it is about throwing your back out for one second of
glory using too much weight.
This is one reason I love the banded-frog pump exercise. You get a strong
mind-muscle connection with a relatively light dumbbell placed on the lap.
You increase the time under tension using a higher rep scheme (between 15-30
reps). It’s a metabolic stress based movement combined with an isolation
hold of the glutes.
Combined with a movement like the RKC plank it’ll create the perfect storm
of joint-friendly glute work. Try it as a finisher.
3 – Barbell Glute Bridge
Bodyweight glute training is useful but limited. The next progression is
the barbell glute bridge. This exercise looks and feels almost exactly the
same as its bodyweight counterpart. Don’t let the ego drive you to adding
more weight than necessary, especially if you want direct glute training to
stay in your future.
The addition of the bar makes it more challenging to keep the pelvis in a
neutral position. To minimize uncontrolled pelvic tilting, actively and
forcefully posteriorly rotate the pelvis and add tension to the glutes
before ever lifting the bar up off the ground.
While most people can achieve a slightly posterior pelvic tilt, it’s far
harder to maintain that position, especially at the top of this lift where
your hips are driving vertically. Your spine will want to get into an
extension position to extend the range of motion.
The fix is to move slower, more deliberately, and under control throughout
the concentric lifting and eccentric lowering portion. Cueing yourself to
flex hard at the top without bouncing at the top is a great place to
start.
4 – Explosive Barbell Glute Bridge With Flex
Now add a band around the knees. This may seem simplistic, but remember
that stability is largely dependent on your body getting into a
biomechanically sound position. You’re looking for the type of movement in
which your neuromuscular system takes over to create synergistic torque and
tension through the entire kinetic chain.
Once the band is on, you can play with the velocity of the concentric
portion, depending on the stability of the top position. By driving up hard
with some bar speed and flexing the top of the movement, then letting the
eccentric (negative) become a bit more passive as the bar comes back down to
the ground, you can work on strength-power which transfers extremely well
into sport, while also minimizing the more tolling eccentric load.
Increased velocity of a movement is always a progression that needs to be
earned in order to prevent training injuries. Challenge yourself
intelligently, and by no means is compensation and half-cocked technique an
excuse for getting hurt in the gym.
Check out the explosive barbell glute bridge with bands around the knees
above. Notice the volitional flex at the top of each rep, which aids in the
stabilization of the pelvis and limited hyperextension of the lower back.
And yes, you can absolutely train this movement with some bar speed well
into hypertrophy set/rep ranges.
5 – Barbell Glute Bridge With Banded Rest-Pause Finisher
Since the glutes respond well to metabolic stress and higher effort-based
intensities and volumes, one of the best ways to add a pain-free training
response is by using a rest-pause finisher set.
This will add intensity to the barbell glute bridge, especially if you’re
training without a partner. It’s not practical to do drop sets on hip
thrusts or barbell glute bridges because you’d have to unload the plates
from each side of the bar between each drop. But the addition of a
rest-pause will challenge you similarly without that problem. Here’s how to
do it:
- Ramp up in weight and get to a top end load that challenges you to get the last rep on a set (maintaining perfect form and technique).
- On that last working set, do your programmed number of reps, and then lay back and pause for 10 seconds, resting while the bar remains on your hips.
- After that short rest, start again and drive up as many reps as you can get without grinding out anything that looks ugly.
- Once you hit relative failure again, pause 10 seconds and do one more bout.
The simple addition of a few more reps under mechanical and metabolic
stress will create one hell of a training effect. If you push yourself, keep
your tension high, and choose the proper loads, this will leave you with
some serious butt hurt. But done properly, your lower back will feel like a
million bucks!
