How to Build Big Glutes: The Best Exercises, Workout Plan, and Complete Guide

If you want bigger glutes, you need to train them hard and heavy and stop wasting time on random booty burner workouts.

Glutes are built with progressive overload and a few good exercises, plus enough food and consistency over months, not from 10-minute band circuits or 500 air squats.

Let’s get right to the bottom of how to add some size to yours.

Glute Anatomy: How Your Butt Works

To build a complete backside, you need an idea of what you’re training. I’m not going to bog you down with textbook minutiae, just give you the no-nonsense basics.

What Do Your Glutes Do?

Your glutes are responsible for three hip movements:

Together, their main function is to help you stay upright and to control and power movement at your hips and pelvis.

And that comes into play in most physical things you do, from walking and running to heavy squats. Your glutes are kind of a power hub for everything athletic, and if they are weak, you won’t be able to perform your best.

Your glutes aren’t just one giant muscle. They are a trio, surrounded by several little helpers:

Gluteus Maximus

Simply judging from the name, you know this is a big guy. The gluteus maximus is the single largest muscle in your body, and the one people mean when they talk about your butt.

Its main jobs are to extend the hip joint and to rotate the leg outward. It becomes extra active when you do something that requires a lot of power, like sprinting or squatting.

The gluteus maximus is also the “chief antigravity muscle” when you’re sitting, which sounds rather awesome.¹

Gluteus Medius

The gluteus medius is the middle child, located on the upper outer side of your hip, sitting right underneath the gluteus maximus.

Its main jobs are to move your leg out to the side away from your body and to stabilize your pelvis and keep it from dropping. It gives you a nice, rounded look from the side and back.

Gluteus Minimus

Being only 15% the size of the gluteus maximus, the gluteus minimus is the baby of the butt family. It sits directly beneath the gluteus medius.

It works hand in hand with the medius, doing the same jobs, but because of its specific angle, it also helps turn the leg inward slightly.

Training to Grow Your Glutes

Most lifters would agree that a 50 lb bench won’t build bigger pecs forever. I’m sure you would, too.

But for glutes, many people do the same weight, same reps, and same effort for months, then wonder why their glutes aren’t growing.

Your body, including your glutes, needs a reason to grow. That reason is progressive overload.

Progressive overload means gradually increasing the challenge. You can do that by lifting more weight, doing more reps with the same weight, increasing your range of motion, or adding sets.

For glute growth, you won’t get away with just “feeling the burn.” You have to train your glutes hard to make them grow bigger and stronger.

A set of 20 bodyweight kickbacks might give you a great burn. But a deep squat or heavy hip thrust close to failure will do a lot more for your butt than any amount of toning exercises ever will.

The Best Exercises to Build Big Glutes

If you want your glutes to grow, you need to train them with fairly heavy loads and work them through a long range of motion.

They are some of the strongest muscles you have, and they can handle a lot of weight.

You don’t need 25 different cable variations to build your butt, just a handful of basic heavy-hitters and a few accessories to polish things off.

1. Squat

The king of all exercises, the squat, is also superb for glute growth. Plus, you build most of the rest of your lower body while you’re at it.

You want to do full squats rather than half-squats if you want to build big glutes. It doesn’t make that big a difference for the quads, but deep squats are clearly superior for the glutes.²

If you can’t go ass to grass for mobility reasons, go as deep as you can with good form, and you’ll be able to squat deeper soon enough. The best way to gain mobility in an exercise is not stretching but to train that exercise with as long a ROM as you can.

Squat variations like goblet squats and Smith machine squats are great, too.

How to Squat

1. Place the bar on your upper back. Inhale and brace your core slightly, and unrack the bar.
2. Take two steps back and adjust your foot position.
3. Squat as deep as possible with good technique.
4. With control, stop and reverse the movement, extending your hips and legs again.
5. Exhale on the way up or exchange air in the top position.
6. Inhale and repeat for reps.

2. Hip Thrust

If you only do one pure glute exercise, make it the hip thrust. It’s one of the best exercises to load them directly and allows you to use serious weight where it has the highest mechanical advantage.

This is one example where a machine beats free weights, at least for hypertrophy. You can hit your glutes hard without a bunch of setup or balancing getting in the way.

If your gym doesn’t have a hip thrust machine, you can use the Smith machine. But I’m not going to tell you that the good old barbell is a bad choice. It’ll do the trick, but stability is good for growth.

3. Romanian Deadlift

The Romanian deadlift (RDL) is a phenomenal exercise that’ll set both your glutes and hamstrings on fire.

When you lower the weight, your glutes lengthen under tension. Then you drive your hips forward to stand up, contracting your glutes. That combo is super effective for glute growth.

To maximize the effect on your glutes, stop lowering the weight when your hips stop moving backward, usually somewhere just below the kneecaps. Then drive your hips forward to meet the bar.

You can do RDLs with a barbell, dumbbells, kettlebells, or a Smith machine. It’s all good for the glutes.

How to Do Romanian Deadlifts

1. Get into the starting position by deadlifting a barbell off the floor or by unracking it from a barbell rack.
2. Inhale, brace your core slightly, and lean forward by hinging in your hips. Keep your knees almost completely extended.
3. Lean forward as far as possible without rounding your back. You don’t have to touch the barbell to the floor, although it is OK if you do.
4. Reverse the movement and return to the starting position. Exhale on the way up.
5. Take another breath, and repeat for reps.

4. Bulgarian Split Squat

If you want bigger glutes, learn to love Bulgarian split squats. Or at least love/hate. Bulgarians take a lot out of you, and when you’re done with one side, you have the other to go.

Getting into the right position is half the battle. Take a pretty long stance and lean your torso forward a bit. You’ll shift the focus away from your quads and more onto your glutes.

Also, make sure you’re not pushing off your back leg. You should use it as a kickstand, while your front glute does the work.

You can Bulgarians with a barbell, with dumbbells, or in a Smith machine.

How to Do Bulgarian Split Squats

1. Stand with your back turned against a bench, which should be at about knee height. Stand about one long step in front of the bench.
2. Place one foot on the bench behind you.
3. Inhale, look forward, and squat down with control until right before the knee of the back leg touches the floor.
4. Reverse the movement and extend your front leg again, while exhaling.
5. Inhale at the top and repeat for reps.

5. Accessories

The big compound exercises are where you can move a lot of weight and get a good growth stimulus for your entire booty.

Calling it a workout after the basics is fine, but it can be nice to finish your session with some gluteus medius isolation or pump work. Doing so doesn’t add much to your recovery debt, and you’ll get some more volume work in. Keep the reps higher (12–20) and focus on feeling the muscle working.

Example of great glute accessories:

• Kickbacks shouldn’t be your glute-building foundation, but they let you isolate your behind and add volume without as much fatigue as heavy compounds. You can do cable kickbacks or machine kickbacks, depending on what your gym has to offer.
• Hip abductions train your side glutes, especially the gluteus medius. You can use the seated abduction machine, or do cable abduction or banded walks.

Top Tips for Building Big Glutes

Building your behind isn’t rocket surgery, but it does take more than throwing heavy weights around.

And if you let them, your quads and lower back will happily hijack the movement and steal all your butt gains.

Here are my best tips for getting your glutes to grow.

1. Get a Full ROM

Back in the day, I remember hearing everyone say, you should “squeeze the glutes” as the secret to growth.

But the real secret to glute growth is loading them in a lengthened position, the nice stretch at the bottom of exercises like squats and lunges.

So, don’t cut your range short. Hang out in that stretched position for a second before powering up.

2. Control the Eccentric

Make sure you lower the weight with full control instead of bombing into the bottom.

A 2–3-second lowering phase on RDLs and split squats, where you focus on the glutes, helps you maintain the tension where you want it.

3. Knees Over Toes… Not

Letting your knees travel over your toes is great when you’re training quads, but for hitting your glutes more, try to set exercises like split squats up so that they stay stacked over your ankle as you drop down.

You’ll get a better stretch in your glutes and force them to drive the weight back up.

4. Progress Without Losing Butt Focus

Progression over time is essential for glute growth, so add weight and reps when you can, but only as long as it’s your glutes doing the job.

If going heavier forces you to shorten the movement or bounce the weight, or your quads take over, the extra weight won’t be glute progression.

5. The Right Foot Position

Depending on how you perform them, many compound lower-body lifts can focus more on your quads or glutes. And if you feel your quads taking over, a small adjustment in your stance or foot distance can shift it back to your booty.

When you squat (or leg press, for that matter), a wider stance with your toes a bit out helps you maximize glute activation. When you do hip thrusts, your shins should be close to vertical at the top.

The Best Workouts and Programs for Building Big Glutes

It’s time to get down to booty business.

Here, I’m going to present a stand-alone glute workout and a complete glute training program that will pack on the glute mass, as long as you put in the work.

StrengthLog’s Glute Workout

This is a 5-exercise workout designed to increase both your glute strength and muscle mass.

The exercises complement each other and cover all three glute muscles. You also get a decent overall quad and adductor workout.

You start with heavier exercises and lower reps and move to higher-rep work toward the end of the workout.

I suggest you do this workout 2 times per week for the best results. Log your workouts in the StrengthLog workout tracker app and try to increase the weight when you can.

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Squat	3	5
Hip Thrust	3	8
Romanian Deadlift	3	12
Bulgarian Split Squat	3	15
Banded Side Kick	3	20

Start the Glute Workout in the StrengthLog app.

StrengthLog’s BootyBuilding Program

The Bootybuilding program is a 2-day-a-week plan with alternating workouts and features a mix of heavy compound lifts and lighter isolation work.

The program is 9 weeks long, simple but effective.

It’s ideal for beginners to intermediates, and if you follow it in our workout log app, you get built-in progression that increases your training volume over time to keep your gains coming without burnout.

Here’s what the first week of Bootybuilding looks like:

Workout 1

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Squat	3	6
Hip Thrust	3	8–10
Romanian Deadlift	3	10
Banded Hip Abduction	3	20

Workout 2

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Deadlift	3	6
Bulgarian Split Squat	3	10
Banded Hip Thrust *	3	12
Lateral Walk With Band	3	15

* Banded hip thrusts increase muscle activation in the upper parts of the glutes compared to regular hip thrusts.³

Read more about the BootyBuilding program.

Or go directly to the program in our app.

Thicc: Lower Body Specialization

I’d also like to mention our Thicc program if you’re looking to build your entire lower body. It includes equal amounts of quad and hamstring exercises in addition to the glute work, and even sprinkles in some upper-body work to keep things balanced.

If the glute workout and the BootyBuilding program are for specializing in your behind, Thicc is a full-body program with a focus on the lower parts, including your glutes.

Read more about Thicc.

Or jump straight into the program in the StrengthLog app.

Follow These Glute Workouts and Programs in StrengthLog

These are three of the many free workouts and programs in our workout log app, StrengthLog.

The app makes it super easy to keep track of your weights and reps and makes sure you’re on the right path.

It remembers what weights you used in your last session, and automatically loads them into your next one. And trying to improve on your last workout is the number one factor for improving, building muscle, and getting stronger.

Track Your Training. See Real Progress.

Log your workouts in one place and watch your numbers climb, week after week.

• Free to get started
• Fast workout logging
• Cardio and strength training
• Big bodybuilding and powerlifting focus
• Free weights and machines
• Progress over time, personal bests
• Free and premium training programs and workouts for every fitness goal

Download StrengthLog free:

Eating to Build Big Glutes

You can’t build big glutes out of thin air.

If you’re not eating enough, your progress will slow down or stall. Building any muscle requires energy and protein, and your derrière is no exception.

If your goal is maximum glute growth, a small calorie surplus is a good idea. That means eating a little more than your body burns, so you give it the raw materials to build muscle.

You don’t need an aggressive bulk. Your butt might get bigger, but it won’t be your glute muscles growing.

Protein is also important. Try to eat some protein with every meal. Good sources include chicken, turkey, beef, eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, fish, tofu, tempeh, protein powder, lentils, and beans.

+200–300

Calories over maintenance. Enough for great muscle growth without gaining a lot of fat.

0.7–1g

Grams of protein per pound of bodyweight (1.6–2.2 g/kg), every day. The number one nutrient for building muscle.

Carbs are training fuel, and fats are important for hormones and health.

If you’re in a fat-loss phase, building muscle is still possible, but it happens more slowly. Stick to the top end of the protein range, don’t go too low on your calories, and keep your training intensity high.

Our calculators can help:

• Calorie calculator: how many calories should you eat to pack on the mass?
• Protein calculator: find out how much protein you need to grow.

And for more in-depth info about everything nutrition for lifting, check out Nutrition for Strength Training – the Fun and Easy Way.

How Long Does It Take to Build Big Glutes?

You can start getting stronger within a few weeks. And you can often see early changes within 8–12 weeks if you train hard and eat right.

But building a noticeably bigger butt takes several months to a year or more.

Don’t think of those timelines as bad news. They are the reality for the vast majority of people.

Those who have impressive glutes didn’t get them from doing booty burner circuits for a month or two. They trained hard and ate enough for a pretty long time, so don’t get discouraged if you’re not seeing immediate gains after 3 weeks of hip thrusts.

Final Rep

If you want bigger glutes, stop looking for hacks and start with the basics that work.

That means a few good exercises and training hard. Because you can’t half-ass your workouts and expect whole-ass results.

Feel free to download the StrengthLog workout app and try one of our free glute programs, and go get after those booty gains.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with your training!

Want more?

Listen to episode 34 of The Strength Log podcast, where Daniel and Philip compare the barbell squat and the hip thrust for glute gains.

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Last reviewed: 2026-06-09

References

1. StatPearls. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2026 Jan. Anatomy, Bony Pelvis and Lower Limb, Gluteus Maximus Muscle.
2. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2019 Sep;119(9):1933-1942. Effects of squat training with different depths on lower limb muscle volumes.
3. International Journal of Strength and Conditioning 3(1):1-11, September 2023. Effects of Band-Resisted Abduction on Muscle Activity between the Barbell Hip Thrust and Barbell Glute Bridge.