Your glutes aren’t just there to fill out your jeans or make into a rap song—they’re the engine room for your entire body. From sprinting and jumping to squatting and deadlifting, strong glutes enhance performance and give you a balanced physique. The problem is that many lifters don’t train their glutes through the full range of motion, across all their functions, or with enough variety to keep making progress.
If your glute training only includes squats and hip thrusts, you’re leaving muscle on the table, and that’s where this list comes in. These 10 glute exercises target all three glute muscles, using different tools, loading patterns, and angles. You’ll hit them with heavy hip hinges, unilateral work, explosive power moves, and deep stretch positions to build muscle, boost performance, and bulletproof your most vital asset.
Whether your goal is to run faster, lift heavier, move better, or command attention when you walk into a room, these 10 exercises will do the job.
Why These 10 Glute Exercises Work
There are TONS of exercises to train your glutes, but these 10 made the cut because they do more than build muscle—they improve how you move and perform. I chose these ten for several additional reasons.
Glute Development: You’ll train the three glute muscles, maximus, medius, and minimus, through hip extension, abduction, and rotation to build strength and size.
Posterior Chain Dominance: Strong glutes mean less strain on your knees, hips, and lower back, allowing you to lift for longer and with greater strength.
Variety of Tools: Including barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, cables, and machines, keeps your training engaging and progressing.
Performance and Aesthetics: These 10 exercises will build a posterior that’s both show and go, powerful on the field, strong under the bar, and attention-grabbing everywhere else.
10 Glute Building Exercises for Gains
The more juice in your caboose, the better you’ll perform in and out of the gym, and these 10 exercises will deliver results.
Hand-Supported Single-Leg Deadlift
The hand-supported single leg deadlift involves gripping a stable surface, such as a squat rack, with one hand, while holding a dumbbell in the other. The hand support
reduces the wobble factor, which is often a stumbling block for performing this exercise well. The increased stability maximizes glute and hamstring activation, making it an excellent way to build unilateral strength. Keep a slight bend in your working knee, push your hips back until you feel a deep stretch in your hamstring, and then drive your foot through the floor to return to a standing position.
Sets & Reps: 3 sets of 6–12 reps per leg.
Cable Pull-Through
The cable pull-through is a hip hinge exercise performed when you face away from the machine, grip the rope between your legs, and hinge at the hips to stretch the glutes and hamstrings before driving your hips forward. The cable provides constant tension throughout the range of motion, especially at lockout. What does that mean? Sweet glute gains for you. Maintain a neutral spine, keep your shoulders down, and brace your core throughout the entire exercise.
Sets & Reps: 2–4 sets of 12–15 reps
Landmine Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift
With the landmine single-leg Romanian deadlift, you stand side-on to the bar, grip the sleeve with one hand, and hinge on one leg. The landmine’s fixed arc provides a guided path and enhanced stability, making it easier to perform than the regular variation. The increased stability allows you to load up, and the angled resistance keeps the bar closer to your body for a more glute-focused pull. Soften your working knee, keep your chest square, and hinge until the bar is below your knee. Then drive through your working foot to return to the starting position.
Sets & Reps: 3–4 sets of 8–12 reps per leg
Barbell Romanian Deadlift
The barbell Romanian deadlift is a hip-hinge exercise where you lower the barbell below the knees or mid-shin while maintaining a slight bend in the knees. The RDL emphasizes the eccentric contraction of the hamstrings and glutes, which increases time under tension, helping the lifter build strength and size where it counts. Keep the bar close to your legs, maintain a neutral spine, and push your hips back until you feel a deep stretch in your hamstrings.
Sets & Reps: 3–4 sets of 6–12 reps
Bulgarian Split Squat (Forward Lean Focus)
This squat variation elevates your back foot on a bench or platform while leaning forward with your torso. This position emphasizes the glutes and hamstrings because it adjusts the hip flexion angle, making the glutes work harder to extend the hip from the bottom position. Control your descent until your back knee is just above the ground. Push up by driving through your front foot, keeping the forward torso angle constant.
Sets & Reps: 3–4 sets of 10–15 per side for hypertrophy
Heavy Kettlebell Swings
The kettlebell swing is an effective exercise for glute hypertrophy because it is a ballistic hip hinge movement that activates the glute fast-twitch muscle fibers, setting the table for muscle growth. Multiple EMG studies have demonstrated that the kettlebell swing elicits high muscle activation in the glute max. The biggest drawback is that it doesn’t train your glutes throughout a full range of motion, making it essential to incorporate the other exercises on this list. Hinge at the hips, keep your back flat, and drive through your heels to snap your hips forward.
Sets & Reps: 4–6 sets of 12 reps with a heavy load, resting 90 seconds between sets
Weighted Step-Up
The weighted step-up involves stepping onto a bench or box while holding an additional load. The elevated platform requires the glutes and quads to work through a larger range of motion, thereby enhancing their muscle-building potential. Compared to split squat variations, the step-up minimizes eccentric stress on the knees, making it an excellent option for those with knee pain. Push through your entire foot on the working leg, avoiding momentum from the trailing leg, and fully extend your hip at lockout.
Sets & Reps: 3–4 sets of 6–12 reps per leg
Barbell Hip Thrust
The hip thrust is considered the gold standard for building glute strength and size. The hip thrust targets and overloads the shortened position where your glutes are fully contracted, which is ideal for building size and lockout strength. The horizontal loading pattern places the greatest tension on the glutes at the point of lockout. Tuck your chin,
keep your ribs down, and drive through your heels while keeping your knees bent at a 90-degree angle.
Sets & Reps: 3–5 sets of 6–12 reps for hypertrophy
Dumbbell Side Lunge
The dumbbell side lunge is an exercise where you step out to the side while holding dumbbells. The working leg bends, and the other stays straight, targeting the glutes, quads, and adductors through a side-to-side motion. This move challenges your glutes—especially the glute medius—while improving hip strength, mobility, and agility. Step wide, keep your toes pointed forward, and sit your hips back over the working leg while keeping the non-working leg straight. Push through the heel of your working leg to return to the starting position.
Sets & Reps: 3–4 sets of 8–12 reps per side
Front Foot Elevated Smith Machine Reverse Lunge
You perform this reverse lunge on the Smith machine with your front foot elevated. Elevating the front foot increases the stretch under load and boosts glute activation. The Smith machine’s fixed bar path reduces the balance challenge, allowing you to focus on your glutes and quads. Keep your front shin vertical and lower until your back knee is just above the ground. Drive through your front foot while maintaining a slight forward lean of your torso.
Sets & Reps: 3–4 sets of 8–15 reps per side
