Your three glute muscles
Your glutes are three muscles, and good glute training works all of them:
- Gluteus maximus: the biggest, making up most of the shape of your glutes. It straightens your hips, like at the top of a hip thrust.
- Gluteus medius: at the side of your hip. It moves your leg out to the side and keeps your pelvis level when you stand on one leg. It adds fullness at the sides and top.
- Gluteus minimus: the smallest, underneath the medius. It does a similar job.
The 15 best exercises for glutes
| Exercise | Group | What it's best for | Home version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hip thrust | Hip extension | Your main glute builder; easy to load heavy | Dumbbell hip thrust on a sofa |
| Glute bridge | Hip extension | Learning the movement; home workouts | Bodyweight or banded |
| Cable kickback | Hip extension | Isolating one side at a time | Banded kickback |
| 45° back extension | Hip extension | Glutes and hamstrings together | Floor reverse hyperextension |
| Romanian deadlift | Hinge | Glutes in a stretched position, plus hamstrings | Dumbbell Romanian deadlift |
| Single-leg Romanian deadlift | Hinge | Balance and one side at a time | Hold one dumbbell or nothing |
| Cable pull-through | Hinge | Learning to hinge; easy on the back | Banded pull-through |
| Bulgarian split squat | Single leg | Glutes and quads; lean forward slightly for more glutes | Back foot on a sofa |
| Reverse lunge | Single leg | Gentler on the knees than forward lunges | Bodyweight or dumbbells |
| Step-up | Single leg | Glutes when you drive up through the heel | A sturdy step or bench |
| Goblet squat | Squat | Beginners learning to squat | One dumbbell or kettlebell |
| Sumo squat | Squat | Glutes and inner thighs | One dumbbell |
| Hip abduction machine | Abduction | Side and upper glutes | Banded seated abduction |
| Banded lateral walk | Abduction | Side glutes; a good warm-up | Mini band above the knees |
| Side plank with leg raise | Abduction | Side glutes and core together | Bodyweight |
Full guides: Hip thrust (more exercise pages are on the way).
How to put them together
You don't need all 15. A strong glute session uses 4 or 5, one from most groups:
- A hip extension, done heavy first while you're fresh: hip thrust or glute bridge.
- A hinge: Romanian deadlift or cable pull-through.
- A single-leg move: Bulgarian split squat, reverse lunge or step-up.
- Abduction to finish: the abductor machine, banded walks or side plank leg raises.
On your next glute day, swap in different exercises from the same groups, so you cover the muscle from different angles across the week.
Best glute exercises at the gym
If you have a gym, these give you the most for your time: the barbell or machine hip thrust, Romanian deadlift, Bulgarian split squat (with dumbbells or on a Smith machine), cable kickback and the hip abduction machine. Machines are easy to load and to learn, which makes them a good choice for beginners too.
Best glute exercises at home
At home, the hip thrust (shoulders on a sofa, dumbbell on your hips), Bulgarian split squat, single-leg Romanian deadlift, banded lateral walk and side plank with leg raise cover every group. With no weights, make each set harder by pausing at the top, lowering slowly, or doing more reps. See glute exercises at home for full home workouts.
Bum exercises: the same thing
Bum exercises, butt exercises, booty exercises and glute exercises all mean the same thing: training the muscles of your bottom. In the UK people search "bum exercises" and in the US "butt" or "booty", but the best exercises are the ones above.
How many sets and reps
- Reps: 6 to 12 for heavy lifts like hip thrusts and Romanian deadlifts; 12 to 20 for abduction and kickbacks.
- Effort: finish each set with only 1 to 3 more reps in the tank.
- Weekly sets: about 10 or more hard sets for your glutes across the week. A review of the research found muscle growth increased with weekly sets up to at least that level (Schoenfeld et al., 2017).
- How often: at least twice a week. Training a muscle twice a week grew it more than once a week, for the same total work (Schoenfeld et al., 2016).