Glute Training 101: Exercises, Anatomy, and Programming That Works
There’s a solid 80% chance that if you clicked on this article, you’re a woman looking to improve your glute gains, either for yourself or for your clients. And if you’re a guy? Props to you for being the exception. The rest of the bros missed out, which is unfortunate, because most women also appreciate a man with a proper ass.
But let’s be clear, strong glutes aren’t just about aesthetics and filling out some pants or leggings. They play a critical role in performance and injury prevention. A powerful set of glutes helps stabilize the spine during heavy lifts like squats and deadlifts, and they’re essential for maintaining proper posture and pelvic control.
Think of the glutes as a structural bridge, linking the lower and upper body. If that bridge is weak, your movement efficiency, strength potential, and even long-term joint health all take a hit.
By the end of this article, you’ll have a clearer understanding of how to properly program glute-focused training that keeps your clients pain-free and resilient, strong, and let’s be honest, adds a little sex appeal!
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Gluteal Anatomy Overview: The Deep Gluteal Muscles
If you’ve read any of our past articles, you probably know what’s coming next! It’s time to take a closer look at glute anatomy: including origins, insertions, functions, and primary actions.
We’ll start with the deep gluteal muscles, the ones you won’t be isolating for hypertrophy, but still matter. Understanding their role gives you a more complete picture of how the glutes function, and makes you a smarter coach in the process.
In regard to the function of these deep muscles (of which there are 6), they all share a general common function which is maintaining stability of the hip joint and overall posture.
1. Piriformis
- Action/Function:
- External rotation of the femur (with hips extended)
- Abduction of the femur (with hips flexed)
- Assists in hip stabilization
2. Obturator Internus
- Action/Function:
- External rotation of the femur (with hips extended)
- Assists in abduction of the femur (with hips flexed)
- Hip joint stabilization
3. Obturator Externus
- Action/Function:
- External rotation of femur
- Assists in hip joint stabilization
4. Gemellus Superior
- Action/Function:
- External rotation of the femur (hip extended)
- Assists in hip stabilization
5. Gemellus Inferior
- Action/Function:
- External rotation of the femur (hip extended)
- Assists in hip stabilization
6. Quadratus Femoris
- Action/Function:
- External rotation of the femur
- Assists in adduction of the femur
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Posterior_Hip_Muscles_1.svg
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Most of the time, whether you’re training your own glutes or programming for clients, you won’t be targeting the deep gluteal muscles directly.
The deep gluteal muscles primarily serve as stabilizers and assist the larger glute muscles during movement.
While there are certain rehab-specific scenarios where deep glute training becomes a priority, in most training contexts, the focus stays on the big three: gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus. That’s where we’ll shift our attention next.
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Gluteal Anatomy Overview: The Big 3
1. Gluteus Maximus
- Action/Function:
- Hip extension
- External rotation of the femur
- Abduction (upper fibers)
- Adduction (lower fibers, depending on hip position)
- Pelvic stability during gait/sprinting/lifting
- Helps maintain upright posture/trunk extension
2. Gluteus Medius
- Action/Function:
- Abduction of femur
- Anterior fibers: internal rotation
- Posterior fibers: external rotation
- Pelvic stabilization during gait
3. Gluteus Minimus
- Action/Function:
- Abduction of femur
- Anterior fibers: internal rotation
- Posterior fibers: assist in external rotation depending on hip position)
- Pelvic stabilization during gait
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Even among the Big 3, the gluteus minimus isn’t a muscle you’ll typically isolate. Similar to the deep gluteals, it plays more of a supportive role, assisting the glute med with hip abduction and helping stabilize the femoral head during movement. It’s trained indirectly through well-selected compound and unilateral exercises, and that’s more than enough for most people.
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One more muscle is worth mentioning, not because it’s a glute, but because it plays a similar role in hip movement and often gets involved in glute-dominant patterns: the TFL.
Tensor Fasciae Latae
- Function:
- Hip flexion
- Hip abduction
- Internal rotation of femur
- Pelvic stabilization
- Supportive role in tensioning IT band and influencing knee stability
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While the TFL isn’t part of the gluteal muscle group, it often shows up in movement patterns where the glutes should be the primary movers. Therefore, understanding its role and knowing when it’s overactive is key to helping your clients move better and with less pain.
Mai does an excellent job at discussing more about this in the following 3 articles:
Article 1: Clamshell Exercise: It Makes Lateral Hip Pain Worse
Article 2: Is Your Glute Med Really Shut Down
Article 3: Monster Walks to Fix Your Weak Glutes
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If you’re feeling overwhelmed with the anatomy section, let me ease your mind for a sec…
What actually matters in the real world is understanding how people move, not memorizing every origin and insertion. Anatomy indeed sharpens your coaching, but your clients will benefit way more from how you cue and program.
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The Glute Training Framework
Let’s simplify how you can use this knowledge to create highly effective workouts for your clients, by following this “Glute Trifecta Method”.
1. Vertically-Stacked Hip Extension
These movements load the glutes through a vertical force vector, often in upright or hinged positions, with the torso aligned with the pelvis. They challenge the glutes through axial loading and hip extension against gravity. Typically with these exercises, the hips and glutes will experience the most tension toward the lengthened position, such as in the middle to bottom of a squat.
Example Exercises:
- Squats
- Romanian deadlifts
- Step-ups
- Split-squats
- Lunges
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2. Horizontally-Driven Hip Extension
In these movements, the load is applied perpendicular to the hips, usually with the torso parallel to the floor, such as with hip thrusts or glute bridges. Because of this setup, the greatest tension typically occurs at the top, where the glutes are in a shortened position, making these exercises ideal for overloading end-range hip extension.
Examples:
- Barbell hip thrusts
- Glute bridges
- Cable/Machine kickback
- Frog pumps
- Reverse hypers
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3. Rotational & Frontal Plane Control
This category includes movements that train hip abduction, external rotation, or anti-rotation.
These won’t typically be your go-to exercises for hypertrophy, but they’re essential for developing pelvic stability, single-leg control, and addressing weak points that can limit performance or lead to compensation.
Many exercises in this category are often performed unilaterally to improve focus and intent.
Click here to read all about how to think when it comes to programming unilateral training.
That’s not to say you can’t build muscle with these movements, but they’re better viewed as accessory work, used to support the main drivers of hypertrophy laid out in the previous two categories.
Examples:
- Seated hip abduction (machine)
- Lateral band walks
- Clamshells
- Side-lying leg raises
- Standing cable abductions
- Single leg RDL with reach
- Copenhagen planks
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The idea is simple: choose one exercise from each category and include it in your program.
If you’re training four or more days per week, it’s still smart to limit direct glute work to three sessions to give them enough time to recover and grow.
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Loading Parameters
When it comes to loading, vary the rep ranges based on the demands of the exercise:
- Heavy: 4–8 reps for more stable lifts
- Moderate: 9–14 reps
- Light: 15–30 reps for more isolated or stability-challenged movements
Some exercises, especially those in the third category don’t respond well to heavy loading and are better trained with lighter weight and higher reps to maintain form and avoid compensation. This is NOT a hard rule, and challenging your client where they’re at is what’s most important.
Expecting a 50 year old newcomer to perform heavy cable abductions would be nonsensical, and it would be more suitable to perform higher reps. On the other hand, someone with a few years of solid training experience may be able to challenge themselves with heavier loads without breaking down or compensating.
As we always say: Use your brain – the answer is usually obvious.
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Example Full Body Program with Glute Focus
Here’s an example of how you can include an exercise from each category, assuming a “Full Body” program.
Full Body Day 1
A) Box Squat 3 x 6-8
B1) Leg Curl 3 x 6-8
B2) Overhead Press 3 x 8-10
C1) Cable Row 3 x 10-12
C2) Lateral Raise 3 x 10-12
On this day, we place the box squat first and use relatively heavy weights. This way, the client is fresh with zero fatigue and can take full advantage of their focus and strength.
Below is an example of the box squat performed for a heavy set of 6.
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Full Body Day 2
A1) Split-Squat (quad-focused) 3 x 8-10
A2) Lat Pulldown 3 x 10-12
B1) Machine Hip Thrust 3 x 10-12
*Note: We have a training video going through how to master the hip thrust, just click here!
B2) Flat DB Press 3 x 8-10
C) Standing Calf Raise
For day 2, we place the hip thrusts as the B-series because the weight we will be using is moderate, and since we are using the machine variant, we naturally have more external stability which will allow us to maintain a relatively high level of performance, even though the exercise is placed in the B-series.
Below is an example of the machine hip thrust.
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Full Body Day 3
A1) Cable Hip Abduction 3 x 15-20
A2) Machine Row 3 x 6-8
B1) Cable Flyes 3 x 8-10
B2) Back Extension 2-3 x 8-10
C1) Triceps Push down 2 x 10-12
C2) Zottman Curl 2 x 8
For Day 3, I placed the cable hip abduction first to prioritize glute-building, since that’s the client’s main goal and it shouldn’t be left to the end of the session when fatigue is high.
I also consider the back extension as additional glute work, which is why it’s programmed for just 2–3 sets. If the effort per set is high, then 2 sets should be more than enough to provide a meaningful stimulus without overdoing it.
Below you’ll find an example of both the cable hip abduction and the back extension.
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When it comes to building stronger, bigger glutes, the best results come from spending most of your time on exercises that target the two main players: the glute max and glute med, using movements that create high levels of tension.
Be mindful of fancy exercises you may find on instagram, although they look good, many of them are more an expression of skill and stability versus specifically actually building new muscle tissue.
Focus on the big lifts and use those stability movements (category 3 mentioned above) to create a more stable pelvis that can further assist you in other lifts as well as in life.
Because the truth is simple…
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