Health Benefits of Growing a Strong Booty
Growing a strong and nicely shaped rear end is one of the most popular fitness trends of the past few years. I have the feeling this one is here to stay - and for once, it’s a good thing.
Stronger and more developed glutes do more for you than just grabbing attention and adding to a nice aesthetic. They actually do many things that improve your day to day health.
In this article you’ll learn how to grow a stronger and bigger booty along with learning the benefits of a well developed back side.
BTW if you wanna watch a video instead of read it, watch here:
Health Benefits of Increasing Glute Strength/Size
Decrease Risk of Injury
The glutes do a handful of actions in terms of human movement. They are hip extenders, hip external rotators, lateral abductors and hip stabilizers.
If you don’t have a proper functioning booty you risk injury in many ways. Poor gluteal recruitment is linked with chronic and acute low back pain, knee injuries and poor gait (walking stride).
Improve Performance
Bigger and stronger glutes directly improve performance in many parameters. Studies have shown that doing direct glute work (vs. no direct glute work) had better sprint performance.
Another group of studies compared elite level athletes to amateur athletes and they noticed that glute muscle development was much higher in the elite athlete group. There’s a correlation between glute size/strength and high performance settings.
King of modern glute exercises and booty building “Bret Contreras” famously popularized the “Hip Thrust” exercise which is a great booty building exercise. He was influenced by training UFC fighters and wanted to come up with an exercise that could help thrust an opponent off of you while you were pinned underneath them. Thus, the hip thrust was born. Glute bridges on the other hand are a very similar exercise with a smaller range of motion that’s been around since the beginning on human movement. But the hip thrust takes this to another level.
Exercises to Strengthen and Grow Your Glutes
Hip Thrusts - These are the top dog of glute exercises. Studies have shown that gluteal recruitment is highest compared to squats and deadlifts with relative loading. These can be done with a barbell, dumbbell or bands. Prop your back onto a bench, a hip thruster, or anything that will elevate your back a few inches off the ground.
Glute Bridges - A basic glute exercise that is similar to the Hip Thrust but with a smaller range of motion (ROM). Can be done using the same equipment laying on your back.
Glute Clams - Great exercise not only for gluteal activation but also to grow and strengthen the glute stabilizer muscles and working the lateral part of the glutes more. They target one side at a time which is good for the mind-muscle connection.
Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats (Bulgarian Split Squats) - Amazing exercise that targets the glutes IF YOU GO LOW ENOUGH. The lower you go, the more glute recruitment you get. Can also be done with a barbell, dumbbells and bands.
Romanian Deadlifts - This is a classic hamstring builder however it also works the glutes. Especially if you choose a variation that allows you to sit back and load the glutes. The barbell for example, is a great exercise for overall strength but it doesn’t load the glutes as much as kettlebell or dumbbell RDL. This is because the KB and DB allow you to have the weight further back which changes the center of gravity. The KB is in-between the legs whereas a barbell is in front of your legs.
Back Extensions/Reverse Hypers - Despite many people thinking that these are low back exercises, Back Extensions are actually a glute exercise if done correctly. A great thing about this is that it targets the upper glute fibers which don’t get stressed as much with other glute exercises.
Walking Lunges - This exercise is a double whammy. It not only works the glutes as a hip extender, but your smaller stabilizer glute muscles are working hard to stabilize and decelerate the forward motion.
Deep Squats - The variation of squat doesn’t matter too much. Some research has shown that different squat variations target the glutes more in different parts of the ROM. However what they all had in common was the deeper the squat the more the glutes were working. However, you should only go as low as you can safely. I have a video of how to determine your optimal squat depth here.
Glute Kickbacks - You can do these with a cable machine or a resistance band. These are great for the glutes because they isolate one at a time and it focuses most of the tension on the end range of motion. This is rare because most heavy glute exercises with free-weights overload the glutes when they’re in the stretched position.
Single Leg Hip Thrusts - This may be the hardest exercise to perform with proper technique. This is because you not only have to have the strength to lift your hips (with or without weights), you also need the balance and coordination to remain stable on one foot and not twist your hips or your low back may take over the exercise which is not what we want.
You should incorporate a variety of these exercises in order to strengthen and grow your glutes. There are also not the ONLY exercises that work your glutes. Most of these are considered proven glute growers in scientific studies. However, we know that there are other exercise that work the glutes too! this includes variations of each listed exercise as well.
Sets and Reps
To maximize strength and size you want to train in a variety of rep ranges. Anywhere from 5-25 reps per set. This is because different muscle fiber types respond better to different rep ranges. Type 2 Strength fibers respond better to lower reps with higher load. Type 1 fibers respond better to higher reps and “feeling the burn”. You want to work them all to get the best results.
Also, focusing on strength training with higher loads and lower reps (think ~5 reps) for a certain period of time (usually 4-8 weeks) will increase the amount of weight that you can do for higher reps.
Example #1:
You can do 100lbs hip thrusts for 10 reps. Then you do a strength cycle where you do 125lbs for 5 reps. Then when your strength cycle is done and you go back to 100lbs you'll be able to do MORE than 10 reps with the 100lbs.
Example #2:
You could have 2 lower body days per week. 1 day you’d focus on heavier weight with lower reps. Think 5 sets of 5 reps. Then the second day could be lower weight and higher reps. Think 3 sets of 20.
The amount of sets you do should differ depending on your fitness level and how many days a week you’re working out your glutes.
Every exercise should include at least 1 warm up set and at least 2 working sets (for a total of 3 sets). However if you’re lifting heavier (6 reps and under) per set, your body can handle more than 2 working sets. In that case maybe you perform 1 exercise for strength with 4 sets of 5 reps. Then another lighter exercise for 2 sets of 15 reps.
Frequency
The glutes can handle a decent amount of volume which means that you should train them more than once a week! Many great glute programs have glutes being trained 2-4 times a week. Some people get results training them lightly almost every day. You can also see gains doing them twice a week with lower body days. If you plan on incorporating heavy compound movements like squats and deadlifts, you should give 1-2 days rest between workouts. This will allow your glutes to build and recover. Otherwise you may be doing yourself more harm than good.\
Don’t get overwhelmed with this information. We purposefully didn’t build out a random generalized glute program because we’re all about individualized fitness. We provided you with the information to build your own program that suits your current fitness level and you can ease into your glute training oine workout or one exercise at a time.
If you want more help feel free to reach out to us! We offer in person training, online training as well as custom built programs!