The recipe for training strong glutes
Q Embarrassing question, but despite strength training religiously for more than two years, my posterior remains as uninspiring as a dial-up connection and as flat as a pancake. How can I boost my bandwidth and upgrade to a more generous derrière?
A At least we know you make the effort to get off your backside and go to the gym. Being a bum just contributes to poor wellness overall.
You probably feel that it is an embarrassing question because we are conditioned to believe that any aesthetic pursuit is inherently bad. The Water Cooler itself is to blame — we are forever bleating on about training for function, and form will follow.
That’s because it is true, but the pursuit of lower-body athleticism will most likely also include a side serving of extra rump.
Many years ago during orientation, we were invited to the Great Hall at Rhodes University to join one or more of a number of societies. There was a society for every taste. Of course, as boring as I was (perhaps still am), I joined the gym society. A few friends joined the drinking society — yes, that existed because it was a pre-woke world, and while many escaped a life of misery a few still battle with the bottle.
One society had a provocative flyer with words along the lines of: “My backside is a muscle, not a cushion.” That society had something to do with a counterculture belief in getting up, and out, and doing things on your own terms. I didn’t investigate more or join but I’ve never forgotten those words because they are true.
Your posterior is made up of three muscles. The worldfamous gluteus maximus and its less famous but equally important siblings, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus.
Maximus, who sounds like a gladiator from the Colosseum, is responsible for much of the perceived size and shape of the peach. It is responsible for much of your hip extension power and outward rotation of the hips. This muscle is often one of the largest in the body and is intricately tied to the athletic power you can produce in your lower body. Ever noticed an elite sprinter’s muscle distribution?
Without going into too much detail, the other two smaller muscles are involved in abduction — opening your legs outwards — medial rotation and, of course, stabilisation. The three muscles work in concert like a magnificent orchestra.
If you’d like your flute, tin whistle and tambourine to harmonise like a full derrière orchestra, then you need to know how to train your glutes. Remember, this isn’t just about aesthetics. Weak or underdeveloped glutes can result in lower back pain, knee pain, hip pain, poor posture, inferior athletic performance, a higher risk of injury due to less stabilisation, and other imbalances and misalignments in the lower body. You need strong glutes.
To develop strong, and possibly bigger glutes (depending on your progressive overload and protein-rich diet), you need to do enough of the following:
Do variations of squats, including barbell squats, goblet squats, sumo or wide stance squats and split squats with your rear leg raised.
Incorporate walking lunges and rear lunges — be prepared for stiffness in the rear you’re not used to. Dead lift variations all work but my personal favourite is the Romanian dead lift with dumbbells or a barbell and squeezing your target muscle at the top. Don’t forget proper kettlebell swings where the weight is thrust using power generated in the hamstrings and glutes.
If you haven’t had enough, include hip thrusts and glute bridges, and a variety of banded exercises such as clamshells.
According to a study published in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine in 2020, the mother of all gluteus maximus exercises, as measured by percentage of muscle activation, is the step-up and its variations. According to this study the stabilisation required while performing the move is the secret sauce that marinates the peach. The authors give an honourable nod to most of the exercises mentioned above as also being responsible for significant activation.
There’s your recipe to a more generous derrière but please remember to train your whole body. Don’t develop potentially harmful imbalances in the pursuit of defying gravity.