Exercises Tired of flat glutes like ironing boards? Want to add volume to your jeans? Are you tired of having sleepy buttocks (read our article on buttock amnesia)?

You are in the right place !

No glitz, no frills, you’re going to have to hit the weight bars and sweat the SIF!

But before revealing the only 7 exercises you will need in your quest, let’s do a quick anatomical point.essiers minimus

Buttock muscles, who are they, what do they do “for a living”?

“Gluteus Maximus”, “Gluteus Minus” and “Gluteus Medius”, these are the names for your gluteal muscles!

Well, in French, it gives rather large, medium and small glutes.

The glutes are responsible for hip extension (especially the gluteus maximus).

To imagine the hip extension, think of a sprinter on the starting block.

Hips bent, he waits… PAN, the glutes contract and send the potato to extend the hips and start the sprint.

Hip extension is also responsible for sending the leg back when running at full speed or exploding to jump as high as possible.

No wonder top athletes have powerful glutes.

1. squats

You are not surprised, but what did you expect?

Did you really think I was going to tell you that you’d get your dream muscled glutes from little pink weights, hours of stair climbing, ankle straps, or donkey kicking?

Sorry, but that kind of talk is for those who want to sell you things.

Here, we have nothing to sell my little lady, so we go to the squat cage and we work on our squat. Beyond a squat, what we want is a controlled squat!

Remember, good motor unit recruitment happens through an eccentric, slow, and controlled phase (you can write that down in your “Big Booty 2023” notebook, too).

It’s no coincidence that powerlifters (you know those big guys who lift half tons in squats) have big balls!

The squat increases the size and strength of the glutes, period.

2. Hip Thrust

This number 2 is in fact a number 1 bis, or just a number 1. But don’t choose between the squat and the hip thrust, do both.

It is an exercise that is “easy” to load while remaining safe. Women love it and thankfully more and more men are getting into it too (gents, read our guide to the only 3 good exercises for men who want glutes).

3. Straight Leg Deadlift

Hamstrings and glutes like to work together, and what better exercise to do than the deadlift, especially since you can really load the mule!

To learn how to master it, I refer you to our complete guide to the Romanian deadlift.

4. Bulgarian squat

We talked about it above in the squat variants that you can adopt and it turns out that the Bulgarian squat can be a “mass builder”, even if you can generally load less than on the classic squat.

This move isn’t an isolation exercise per se, but it will burn your glutes and hamstrings like ya-ja!

It is also very interesting for the stability of hips and pelvis.

For the load, you can opt either for a bar placed on the trapezius (as in the squat), or for a dumbbell in each hand, or a weighted vest or even a kettlebell positioned like a goblet squat.

To learn (a lot) more about performing this great movement, I refer you to our complete guide to the Bulgarian squat.

5. Back lunges

What would a buttock session be without a lunge? An excellent unilateral exercise that improves the stability of your knees, who would spit on it?
You can lean slightly forward to put the tension on your glutes. To go even further, do not hesitate to elevate the front foot to have a deficit.
6.Step-Up
Here is an excellent finisher, a unilateral movement that will also put a lot of tension in your glutes.

7. Glute ham raise

We end with an exercise that we see too little and that’s a shame. It must be said that not all gyms are equipped with these machines.

The glute ham raise works the abduction and extension of the hips. In this exercise, one must resist bending the knees and extending the hips.