The 35 Best Butt Exercises for Workouts to Build Strong Glutes

Few exercises, when done correctly, isolate the glutes like the hip thrust. The movement is also that rare leg exercise that allows you to recover quickly for your next workout. Most leg exercises are multi-joint moves that can leave you sore for a day or two afterwards. But a properly done hip thrust isolates the glutes and can be done 3 to 4 times per week, depending on the rest of your training. The key to the hip thrust: Squeeze your glutes at the top of each rep actively, and keep your abs tight, too. Don’t arch your back.

There may not be a better move for pure, explosive hip extension than the kettlebell swing. Learn to do it right, and it has you pushing your hips (and butt) backwards every rep, then exploding forward and squeezing your glutes aggressively at the top of every rep. It’s a powerful, explosive, and sudden move that trains hip extension and glute power and translates to sports and on-field explosion.

The goblet squat is a great anterior loaded squat variation that nearly every lifter can tackle. For this reason, it’s a great movement for beginners that want to target their glutes with a squat variation that can be performed with minimal equipment.

The Cossack squat is a great unilateral lateral squat variation that tests your strength and mobility. This variation can be great for targeting the glutes because as you hit depth in this squat, the glutes are going to have to stabilize the pelvis then initiate extension to create a successful rep.

You’ll work your lower body muscles, including the glutes, while breaking out of the sagittal plane of movement (front-to-back). By moving in the frontal plane (side-to-side), you’ll introduce a new element to your training. This will pay off with everything from your performance in sports to the way you move in everyday life.

The basic Bulgarian split squat can be a great glute move. To focus it on the glutes, make sure your front shin is vertical to the ground and don’t let our knee travel over your foot. If your knee travels forward, this becomes a more quad-powered movement. Focus on squeezing your glutes actively when you stand.

The classic split squat is a strong starter move to unilateral leg training, and it’ll work your glutes in two ways. First off, your glutes will play a key role stabilizing your body when you’re in the bottom position. Your glutes will also power you back up to standing. Make sure to keep your hips and shoulders square at the top, an underrated glute challenge.

This simple exercise can be much more effective than you might expect. The key here is to make the wall sit a position of work, not one of rest—so instead of relaxing into the wall, squeeze your glutes continuously to create constant tension.

You can add weight to make the move more effective, but before you grab a dumbbell, kettlebell, or plate, focus on hammering that constant tension first.

Your glutes work to extend your hips and play critical roles in squats and lunges. But they do something else, too, teaming with your abs and lower back muscles to stabilize you when you’re doing rotational movements. Here, you’ll use your glutes in all those fashions in a vicious advanced movement that’ll wipe out your legs entirely.

By blending Bulgarian split squats and Bulgarian hip hinges, you assault your glutes in multiple ways. This hip hinge variation will challenge your glutes in particular in new ways, pushing you to attack a single glute with little relief.

The bottom of any split squat or lunge can be a position of rest, where your knee crashes to the ground. Or it can be a position of work, where you pause with your knee an inch from the ground. This latter option requires serious stabilization through your hamstrings, quads, and, yes, your glutes. You’ll challenge that low-position stabilization in this series.

Remember: A key function of your glutes is driving your hips into extension. Doing that with power requires an even more controlled and aggressive glute contraction, especially when you also need to stabilize your entire body just to maintain balance. That balance and power is challenged on this hover to drive lunge move.

Force your glutes to stabilize in multiple directions while still driving your hips into extension in multiple directions with this series of rotational Cossacks. You’re also going to need to calculate just the right amount of force in your glutes as you press back up fro each Cossack rep: Too much, and you’ll rotate past the proper angle, too little, and you won’t have enough power. All these changes will crush your glutes.

Yes, the initial move on here, the elevated, feet-close goblet squat, blasts your quads. But once you step off that elevation with quads already fatigued, it’s your glutes and hamstrings that must carry you to the end in a vicious series that piles up reps.

Spend extra time in the bottom of the Bulgarian split squat, and add a pulse that’ll get your glutes firing early in this Bulgarian variation. Your glutes will be burning after this one, especially if you’re extra-intentional with the ending portion of the movement and really squeeze when you stand up.

Get extra depth on your Bulgarian split squats to force a greater stretch for your glutes at the bottom. That’ll also leave you working that much harder to drive out from the bottom, a challenge for your entire legs. Squeeze hard at the top of every rep, to finish things off. You’ll do all of that, then also play with tempos and create more time-under-tension for glutes and legs, in this series.

Get ready for 24 reps of Bulgarian split squat glute soreness! You’ll play with a variety of tempos, pauses, and pulses in this split squat series, all increasing time-under-tension for your legs. And each pause and pulse makes things that much more challenging for you to stand up and get the aggressive hip extension that completes each rep. It means you’ll have to be extra-intentional about squeezing your glutes, while under a serious rep load (24 reps a set).

One of the toughest parts of the standard Bulgarian split squat (and many of the other variations listed here) is working with a heavy load, since it challenges your balance and grip strength. This variation allows you to work with even heavier weights—which will help you build strength and muscle—by adding a stop between each rep. Make sure to focus on resetting your position and driving up powerfully on each rep.

The classic deadlift is a full-body move, but it also pummels the glutes as well. It’s your glutes that serve as a key driving force in the movement, and if you don’t squeeze your glutes hard at the top, you won’t truly stand all the way up. Novice lifters sometimes substitute arching their back at the top of each rep, but make an effort to squeeze your glutes to get the most out of the movement.

This deadlift variation is great for taller lifters who might struggle with the standard version of the exercise because of their long legs. It also offers your glutes a challenge—in order to get into the sumo stance (legs wide, feet pointing out), you’ll need to contract your glutes. Bonus: since you’ll be working within a shorter range of motion, you might be able to pull heavier weights than with a conventional stance (once you master the form, of course).

The Romanian deadlift will hammer both your glutes and your hamstrings. Again, the key here is how you use the deadlift to drive into true hip extension. As you lower down, you should “feel” your hamstrings and glutes stretch. When you stand up, you must actively squeeze your glutes, driving your hips slightly forward. The eccentric portion of the movement should help you “feel” hamstrings and glutes, then you get to activate them during the concentric portion of the lift.

Standard RDLs with a barbell is a great way to work your glutes and hamstrings with as much load as possible, but you can focus in on the muscle and add a new element by grabbing a set of dumbbells and pausing. This will help to alleviate a common form issue too; sometimes, overeager lifters allow their hips to rise too fast, which can put stress on the lower back. Home in on your tempo and add a pause halfway through the lift to keep your hips in the right place.

The box variation of the squat is underrated for both leg and glute development. Lowering slowly to the box is key here, asking quads, glutes, and hamstrings to fire up eccentrically and maintain control the whole way down. This is also a great chance to work on opening your knees as you squat, and doing so occurs only when you squeeze your glutes, driving your hips into external rotation.

The classic back squat will help blast your quads, glutes, and hamstrings altogether. It’s going to fire up your glutes more than you think, too, and it requires strong glutes. Additionally, the back squat forces you to lean your torso forward just slightly, a challenge that requires your glutes to come into play more than you may expect.

The single-leg deadlift works your glutes in two ways. First off, you’re training your glutes much as you do when you do traditional deadlifts: You’ll be squeezing them actively at the top of each rep on the side with your foot on the ground. You’ll also be doing something else: Your glutes on both sides must stabilize in the “frontal” plane, keeping you from tipping from side to side. It’s glute mayhem when done right.

Like the Romanian deadlift, the good morning targets your glutes and hamstrings by using your hip hinge. Here, however, the load is moved to the top of your shoulders—and that’s where things get a little tricky. You need to make sure that the bar rests on your shoulders, not your neck; you could put your low back in a compromised position and open yourself up to injury if the bar is in the wrong spot. Also, it’s important to avoid rounding your low back under load. When you do this move, start with low weight (even just the bar), and progress from there.

Like all squats, front squats will challenge your glutes, quads, and hamstrings. The front squat requires you to stay more upright through your torso, but it’ll still require a ton of control through your glutes and core to do this. Make sure to battle to open your knees as you lower, and squeeze your glutes when you stand all the way up.

You’ve undoubtedly seen this move on Instagram, in part because it shows off a great shot of the backside. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work, too—the quad hip extension is all about the big glute squeeze at the top of the movement, according to Contreras.

You can do the move just about anywhere, too, making it an easy addition to any routine.

Get on all fours, with your spine aligned and back flat. Keep one leg firmly on the ground as you raise the other, turning your foot out slightly for an external hip rotation. Maintain your spine’s alignment and squeeze your glutes at the top of the movement. After a moment, return your knee to the ground.

To add an extra element of difficulty to quadruped hip extensions, add a miniband for more resistance, or longer pauses to accentuate the squeeze at the top of the movement.

Another Instagram favorite, the Extended-Range, Side Lying Hip Extension gives the glutes even more range to work.

“This extended range of motion off of a bench allows for a greater stretch on the hips at the bottom of the movement,” says Contreras. “The more a muscle is stretched under load the greater the potential hypertrophy (or muscle gain) stimulus.”

Lie on a bench on your side with your knee bent, leaning on your elbow. Extend your other leg out beyond the bench. Contreras says to turn your extended foot inward for a hip internal rotation.

Raise your leg into abduction as high as you can, keeping the movement smooth and steady throughout.

Once you’re comfortable with the move, Contreras suggests adding an ankle weight to up the challenge and kickstart even more muscle growth.

Patience is the name of the game with this sumo squat variation.

You’re going to depend on tempo to maximize your work, which will ultimately allow your glutes to work even harder.

Hold a dumbbell at waist height. Stand with your feet slightly further than shoulder width and flare them out. Plant your weight firmly on your heels and lean your torso about 30 degrees forward, which Contreras suggests should be maintained throughout the set.

Bend your knees and squat down on a four count, keeping the slight torso lean constant as you hold the weight. You should reach the bottom of the movement on four, where you’ll hold the squat position. Pause for a three count, squeezing your glutes, before standing back up to your starting point.