How to Train Your Glutes: Best Exercises, Weekly Sets and Sample Workouts

Glute anatomy in plain language

The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle of the hip. Its main job is hip extension — driving your hips forward as you stand up from a squat, climb stairs or sprint — and it also helps rotate the thigh outward; its upper fibres assist in moving the leg out to the side.

The gluteus medius and the smaller gluteus minimus sit on the side of the hip. They lift the leg out to the side (abduction) and keep your pelvis level when you stand on one leg, walk or run. A complete glute program therefore includes hip extension at different hip angles plus some abduction work.

The best exercise types for your glutes

There's no single mandatory glute exercise. Instead, cover the main movement patterns and choose the variations that suit your body, equipment and joints.

• Hip thrusts and glute bridges: heavy hip extension with the hips close to straight; easy to load and progress.
• Squats: deep squats, goblet squats and leg press with a full range train glutes, quads and adductors together.
• Hip hinges: Romanian deadlifts, deadlifts, good mornings and 45° back extensions load the glutes and hamstrings in a stretched position.
• Lunges, split squats and step-ups: single-leg work with a big range of motion and balance demands.
• Hip abduction: cable, band, machine or side-lying abduction for the gluteus medius and upper glute fibres.

What EMG studies can and can't tell you

Electromyography (EMG) measures electrical activity in a muscle during an exercise. A 2020 systematic review by Neto and colleagues found high gluteus maximus activation in exercises such as step-ups, hip thrust variations, deadlift variations and lunges. That's useful for understanding which exercises involve the glutes, but it's a short-term snapshot.

Growth is what counts, and a 2022 review by Vigotsky and colleagues concluded that acute EMG amplitude is not a validated predictor of hypertrophy. Longitudinal studies tell a clearer story: in a 9-week study, hip thrusts and back squats produced similar glute growth measured by MRI, even though hip thrusts showed higher EMG; squats also grew the quads and adductors more. In a 10-week study, full squats increased glute volume more than half squats.

How many sets per week for glutes?

Research on training volume shows that about 10 or more hard sets per muscle per week tends to produce more growth than lower volumes. For the glutes, count squats, lunges, hinges and thrusts as glute sets, since they all train hip extension. A practical range for most people is 10–20 hard sets per week, split across 2–3 sessions.

Use a mix of rep ranges: about 6–10 reps for squats, hinges and heavy thrusts, 8–15 for lunges and bridges, and 12–20 for abduction. End most sets with about 1–3 reps in reserve and add reps or load week by week.

Sample glute workouts

These two sessions can be added to a full-body or upper/lower program, or done on their own twice a week with at least one rest day between them. Together they give roughly 14–18 hard sets for the glutes. Beginners can start with two sets per exercise.

• Session A: back squat or goblet squat 3×6–10; barbell hip thrust 3×8–12; walking lunges 2×10–12 per leg; cable or band hip abduction 2×12–20.
• Session B: Romanian deadlift 3×6–10; Bulgarian split squat 3×8–12 per leg; 45° back extension 2×10–15; seated or side-lying abduction 2×15–20.
• Home version: goblet squat, single-leg hip thrust on a sofa, backpack Romanian deadlift, step-ups and band abduction.
• Progress: add a rep or two each week, then increase the load by about 2–5% when you reach the top of the range.

Common glute training mistakes

Glute size and shape are strongly influenced by genetics and where your body stores fat, so compare yourself only with your own starting point. The mistakes below are the ones that most often slow progress.

• Doing endless light band work for a 'burn' without ever adding load or reps.
• Relying on one exercise, such as only hip thrusts, instead of covering squats, hinges and lunges too.
• Cutting squat depth short when you could safely go deeper.
• Arching the lower back at the top of a hip thrust instead of finishing with the hips: keep ribs down and chin tucked.
• Jumping to very high volume overnight instead of adding sets gradually.