Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKEDWhen it comes to working out at home, there are a few muscle groups that are much easier to activate without barbells and gym machines. Take the chest, for example. Thanks to an endless assortment of push-up variations, planning and executing an at-home chest workout is relatively easy to achieve.
Fortunately, the glutes are a great example of a lower body muscle group that can easily be done in the comfort of your living room.
With bodyweight exercises like lunges and hip thrusts, to those that incorporate dumbbells, such as deadlifts and split squats, there is no shortage of glute-burning options available, even when you don’t have access to a gym.
We've taken the best bodyweight and dumbbell glute exercises and turned them into awesome at home glute workouts. Prepare to feel that booty burn!
Table of Contents:
Before we get into our best glute workout at home, it's important to understand glute muscle anatomy. Here's an overview of the glute muscles and their functions.
The largest of the glute muscles, its primary function is extending the hips and hyperextension. The glute max’s size allows it to generate large amounts of force as it works during movements like climbing steps or running.
Unfortunately, constant sitting can cause a condition called glute amnesia, which means your brain has difficulty connecting to your glutes and activating them.
Training them is helpful for counteracting too much sitting. Movements like hip thrusts, Romanian deadlifts, back and front lunges, and split squats are great for activating the gluteus maximus.
The glute medius is smaller, lies beneath the gluteus maximus, and is responsible for hip abduction and stabilizing the hip joint.
Movements like clamshells, curtsy lunges, and lateral band walks are great for targeting this muscle.
The smallest of the three, the glute minimus' functions are similar to the glute medius, stabilizing the hip and pelvis and abducting and internally rotating the thigh.
Exercises like a side lying leg lift, clamshell, or lateral band walk work great for targeting the glute minimus.
Now that you understand which muscles we're working, let's get right into the best glutes workouts at home!
We've included one bodyweight workout, in addition to one that prioritizes dumbbell exercises.
If you have dumbbells, use the dumbbell workout as it will enable you to continue with progressive overload. If you don't have any weights, the bodyweight version will certainly do the trick.
The bodyweight workouts will use RPE, and if you don't have a wide range of dumbbells, you'll likely need to use RPE for the weighted routine as well. Don't worry; we'll explain exactly what RPE is after going over the workouts.
For the bodyweight exercises, perform 2-4 sets of each exercise using an RPE of 8. For the superset exercises in the dumbbell workout, perform the exercises back-to-back, for a total of 2 times.
Exercise |
Sets |
RPI |
Glute Bridge |
3 |
8 |
Glute Kickback |
2 |
8 |
Single Leg Deadlift |
3 |
8 |
Back Lunge to High Knee |
2 |
8 |
Curtsy Lunge |
2 |
8 |
Plie Squat |
3 |
8 |
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
Superset: Glute Bridge Donkey Kicks |
2 2 |
10 10 |
DB Hip Thrust |
3 |
8 |
DB Romanian Deadlifts |
3 |
12 |
DB Offset Back Lunge |
2 |
12 |
DB Side Lunge |
2 |
10 |
DB Split Squats |
2 |
12 |
Superset: Plie Squats Walking Lunges |
2 2 |
20 10 |
For another great at-home glute workout, check out our article on the 8 Best Gluteus Maximus Exercises!
No matter how you train and what exercises you do, progressive overload is key for building and toning muscle. You can make your workouts harder by slowing your tempo, adding reps, and increasing your weight.
However, we understand that most people don’t have access to a whole stack of dumbbells. Even after a short time, weights that were once challenging will become too easy for these workouts.
Enter the rate of perceived exertion. RPE is a method that uses a scale to help you understand how hard an exercise should be when you don’t have heavier weights available.
Use a scale of 1-10 and aim for an RPE of 8. This means you’ll be at about 80% of failure, which is tough enough to be challenging and help you grow but enables you to leave a few reps in the tank.
This means that the number of reps that once felt like an 8 will eventually feel more like a 6. When this happens, it means you're improving, and now need to pump out a few more reps.
You can track this weekly to see your progress even if you don’t have the option to use heavier weights.
Another strategy, if you are achieving your reps easily, is to slow down the tempo during each portion of the movement and focus on maximum activation of the glutes. You want to feel your glutes burning and working as much as possible.
You've got your workouts, and now all you need is step-by-step directions for each of the exercises! We'll start by going over the best bodyweight glute exercises.
One thing to keep in mind with bodyweight exercises is that you will be training as if you are working on muscular endurance, meaning the reps are much higher than when training for hypertrophy or strength.
Even though the reps are high, don’t go so fast that you cannot connect to the muscle.
The glute bridge is often used as a warm-up to activate the glutes during a gym session, but it can also be used in a bodyweight home workout.
This exercise is extremely versatile and has many variations that can be done with or without a load.
It will get the glutes firing immediately and help combat too much sitting.
How to do the Glute Bridge:
Any lunge variation is a unilateral exercise that trains one leg at a time. This is great for fixing imbalances in your lower body muscles and ensuring each hip works correctly to protect your body.
This lunge exercise adds some core work and increases your heart rate as you bring your working leg back and then to the front into a high knee position.
How to do the Back Lunge to High Knee:
This squat variation leverages putting your lower body in a different position to target the glutes and the inner thighs.
Instead of your normal squat stance, you will be wider with your toes pointed to a 45-degree angle.
How to do the Plie Squat:
This hip hinge exercise is fantastic for simultaneously strengthening your back, core, and legs.
The single leg deadlift is another unilateral exercise that will help fix imbalances in the hip while improving your balance by strengthening the hip complex.
How to the Single Leg Deadlift:
This movement is excellent for hitting the gluteus maximus. It is often paired in supersets with fire hydrants but is just as effective in bodyweight form if you focus on feeling your glutes contract.
How to do the Glute Donkey Kick:
This lunge variation is great for hip stability. Regular lunges are also excellent for the glutes, but the lateral movement of this exercise helps train important underworking muscles like the glute medius, which stabilize the hip.
How to do the Curtsy Lunge:
When it comes to building muscle and improving body composition, resistance training is always king.
If you are fortunate enough to have access to dumbbells at home, it will open up many doors for more glute-building exercises when putting together your own butt workout.
Even if you don’t have an entire rack of every choice of weight, you can still utilize what you have at home effectively. And if you don't have any dumbbells but are interested in getting some, check out our article on the best dumbbells to add to your home gym!
To the untrained eye, this looks the same as a glute bridge. Although they are similar exercises, the hip thrust is generally performed with shoulders elevated on a bench (or something similar) and requires weight. It also happens to be one of the best glute exercises of all time.
In the gym, the most common variation is the barbell hip thrust, but at home, the dumbbell variation works just as well.
The elevation of your back also gives you a bigger range of motion throughout the movement. You can use one dumbbell, holding it with both hands, or two dumbbells, one in each hand.
How to do Hip Thrusts:
This back-stepping lunge variation is fantastic for targeting the glute medius. It will work almost every lower body muscle, and on top of this, only having weight on one side challenges your hips to balance your body.
It also will work the core muscles as they support your upper body in resisting the weight on one side.
How to do the Offset Dumbbell Back Lunge:
Romanian deadlifts are a deadlift variation that works your entire posterior chain at once. The glutes get excellent activation during the hip extension portion of the movement as you return to the starting position.
Pro Tip: At the top of the move, make an active effort to contract your glutes to ensure they're fully activated.
How to do the Romanian Deadlift:
This lateral lunge provides all of the benefits that regular front and back lunges do, while also adding a stability aspect as it improves hip, groin, and ankle mobility.
It can be a bit challenging to master, but that makes it all the more important to practice as most of us don’t get enough side-to-side movement in our daily lives.
How to do the Side Lunge:
The split squat is another unilateral exercise that will even out your lower body muscle imbalances.
This stationary lunge takes some of the stability and balance out of the equation and allows you to increase the weight used if you have heavier weights available.
How to do the Split Squat:
Here are some more great glute exercises you can swap in from time to time. They're all effective and can help you avoid monotony in your workouts.
Thanks to these programs, there truly is no excuse for not getting a fantastic glute workout in. Whether you have no weights, one dumbbell, or a whole collection, the glutes are incredibly easy to train at home.
What are you waiting for? Grab this workout, find a good spot, and get to work!
In search of an entire lower body workout to do at home? Check out these at home leg workouts, no weights required! Looking for tips on how to build your glutes? Check out The Ultimate Guide To How To Grow Your Glutes.
Prepare to maximize your gains with our exclusive 12-week hypertrophy training program. Choose between a 4 or 5 day training split and gain 2-12 pounds of muscle over 90 days...
At SET FOR SET, we strive to equip you with the tools and knowledge needed for your fitness journey. Our team of experts, including certified trainers, dietitians, and athletes, brings over a decade of industry expertise. Our goal is to be your primary resource for all fitness inquiries, guiding you toward a stronger and healthier life. Sign up to stay up-to-date!
Sign up to get the latest on sales, new releases and more…
© 2024
SET FOR SET.
Powered by Shopify
Travis Halena
Author