The glutes—often underrated—are among the largest and most powerful muscles in the human body. They play a critical role in stabilising and protecting the lower back, hips, and pelvis, while powering key movements such as squatting, deadlifting, jumping, and sprinting. Despite their importance, modern lifestyles often lead to underdeveloped glutes, which can result in weakness, reduced muscle tone, and compensatory overuse of surrounding areas. This, in turn, can cause imbalances, overload other muscle groups, increase injury risk, and limit athletic performance.
Prioritising glute strength can help mitigate these risks, improve core stability, and boost overall power and athleticism. In this post, we’ll explore why strong glutes matter and share effective training strategies to help you develop glutes that not only look great but also function at their best.
Glute Function in Movement
The contribution of the glutes increases during movements involving hip extension, particularly as the hip moves toward and beyond neutral (hip hyperextension). You engage your glutes in a wide range of activities—lifting, jumping, walking, running, squatting, lunging, changing direction quickly, throwing, and decelerating during rotational movements.
When the glutes are weak, the load on the lower back and hamstrings increases. In many cases, strength-related lower back pain can be improved with targeted strengthening of the glutes, hamstrings, and core muscles.
Why Glutes Go to Sleep
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Pain (e.g., lower back or hip pain) can cause inhibition of glute activation.
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Prolonged sitting—something most of us do far too often.
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Low activity levels, and when activity does occur, the use of poor movement patterns.
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Muscle imbalances and reciprocal inhibition, such as tight hip flexors restricting proper glute activation.
How I Train the Glutes
Below are some of my preferred glute exercises. Many are advanced and geared toward athletic performance. If you’re new to strength training, work with a qualified fitness professional to learn proper technique and start with regressed variations before progressing to these movements.
Glute Strength and Conditioning
1. Barbell Hip Thrusts
Position your back on a bench, rolling a padded barbell back into your hip crease. Extend the hips up to about 10 degrees hip hyperextension, avoiding hyperextension of the lower back or anterior tilt of your pelvis. You should feel this primarily in your glutes, not your lower back. Control the weight up instead of using momentum to swing a weight up which may be too heavy. It is key to maintain a posterior pelvic tilt at the top of the lift.
2. Barbell Glute Bridge
Perform the same movement as described above, but position your back and feet on the ground. Extend the weight up from the hips while ensuring you securely hold the barbell to prevent it from rolling back onto your face.
3. Single Leg Hip Thrust
Perform the exercise with your back on a bench and the working leg on the floor, or alternatively, with the working leg on another bench to increase the range of motion. Aim to maintain a level pelvis and extend to about 10 degrees of hyperextension, as described earlier.
4. Skater to Curtsy Squat
Squat on one leg with your opposite leg moving out to the side (skater), then to the back, and finally crossed behind your body (curtsy). While the video below is shown in double time, perform this exercise at half the speed for optimal results. Aim for 5 reps per side per set.
5. High Step Up
Find a step that is elevated above knee height. Focus on explosive power, lifting your body up as quickly as possible. Tap the ground between each rep and immediately lift yourself back up. If doing 10 reps feels easy, consider increasing the step height or adding weight such as a dumbbell or weight vest.
6. Low Box Squat
When squatting, focus on sitting back, not just down, to maximize the stretch on the squatting muscles. Lower yourself, relax, then contract dynamically by forcefully pushing your hips forward and flexing your glutes to stand up again. With box squats, allowing your shins to go past perpendicular to the floor places stress on major squatting muscles like the hips, glutes, lower back, and hamstrings.
7. Nomad Glute Burner
Perform this routine anywhere using only a chair, bench, sofa, bed, or table. Start with 20-30 single-leg hip extensions (foot elevated), then do 10 hip external and internal rotations. Maintaining a posterior pelvic tilt is key. This is guaranteed to make you feel the burn.
Strong glutes are the key to better performance, fewer injuries, and all-round functional fitness. Mix up your training—don’t just stick to your favourites—and focus on form for the best results. Work with a coach (or reach out to me) to ensure you’re moving well. Whether you’re chasing peak athletic performance or simply better health, commit to building rock-solid glutes and enjoy the gains in strength, power, mobility, and aesthetics.
Check out my full exercise library with exercises for every ability level at michelledrielsma.com