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A 5-Move Beginner-Friendly Glutes Workout To Try At Home
Including a dedicated glutes workout in your weekly routine can be so beneficial to your body's overall strength and function. Strong glutes help ensure sound pelvic alignment during everyday tasks, like walking and squatting down. Assuming you don't have any alignment issues, strong glutes can also help ward off lower back pain—just to name a couple of perks.
Now, there are some important things to understand about targeting this area of your body. The three main muscles that make up your glutes are the gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus, and gluteus medius. When developing strong glutes, it's important to pay attention to all the different movement patterns the glutes are responsible for: flexing and extending the hip, and abducting and rotating the thigh.
That's why I created this five-move glutes strength workout you can do at home—which employs different exercises to target every angle of your glutes. All you need is a single heavier dumbbell, a chair (or another elevated surface), and a yoga mat to get started.
Workout Summary
- Time: 20 minutes
- Equipment: Single heavier dumbbell, chair (or elevated surface), yoga mat
- Instructions: Complete three sets of 8 to 12 reps of each exercise. Move from one exercise to the next with some rest in between.
Reverse Lunge
- With feet shoulder-width apart and a weight in one hand, hinge at the hips slightly as your step your foot backward (same side as the weight).
- Return to standing but drive the front heel through the floor and backward like you're trying to propel yourself forward.
- That's one rep. Complete all reps on one side before repeating on the other.
- Note: To emphasize your glutes, think of the movement pattern as forward and backward instead of up and down.
Constant Tension Hip Thrust
- Seated in front of your chair, place the dumbbell on your hips. Hook your shoulder blades on the edge of your chair and separate your feet about shoulder-width.
- Keeping your core braced, lift your hips up toward the ceiling until your hips are fully extended at the top. Your shins should be perpendicular to the floor.
- Lower your hips only one-third of the way down. Then rise back to the top. That's one rep.
- Note: You're aiming to feel this where your buttocks end and your hamstrings meet. If you feel it mostly in your hamstrings, position your feet closer to your buttocks. If you feel it mostly in your quads, position your feet a little farther away from your buttocks.
Double Hip Abduction
- Sit on the floor propped up on one elbow, with knees bent in front of you. Make sure your elbow is underneath your armpit for stable support.
- Keeping your bottom knee on the floor, drive your hips up and forward into extension—your top leg will rotate toward the ceiling.
- Lower your hip back down to tap the floor.
- That's one rep. Complete all reps on one side before repeating on the other.
- Note: The hip you will feel the most sensation in is the one close to the floor.
Single-Leg RDL
- Stand on one leg with your weight in the opposite hand.
- Keeping your standing leg soft and core braced, allow your back leg to rise up into the air. Keep upper body tight for increased stability.
- With your hips square, drive your hips backward. Return to standing to complete the repetition.
- That's one rep. Complete all reps on one side before repeating on the other side.
- Note: Remember to focus on the hinge of the hips instead of how low you can get the weight to the floor—let your hinge determine the depth of the exercise.
Bulgarian Split Squat
- Stand on one leg and hook your opposite foot on a chair behind your "shoelaces down," with your weight in the same side hand as your lifted foot.
- Hinge your hips back and down as if you are trying to sit underneath the chair. Keep your front shin perpendicular to the floor to emphasize your glute. Return to standing to complete the repetition.
- That's one rep. Complete all reps on one side before doing the other side.
- Note: Get low on this exercise, and be sure not to bounce out of the bottom position. Instead, drive through the floor to return to standing
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