So, you want to build your glutes. That is my FAVORITE muscle to help people build, and not just for the “physique” or surface-level reasons! I absolutely LOVE building glutes, because of how much balance, power, speed, and confidence you build along with the larger muscle gains.

In this post I’m going to be talking all about what you need right NOW to start building your glutes in the most efficient way possible. I will be sharing what has worked for me (someone who does NOT naturally have large or strong glutes, and who is [was] quad dominant) AND what has worked for my clients over the years. 

This will be written in a question/answer-type format, using questions my clients have all asked, the most common questions I see online, misconceptions around glute building, and some things I feel would be helpful to you to add! Just in case you don’t have time (or simply don’t want to, which is valid!) to read the entire article, I bolded the straight-to-the-point answers to each question; although I do highly recommend reading the details surrounding my answers, so that way you can make an educated decision on what pieces would be best to implement into your booty-building routine! 

As always, I am very open to helping you out through DMs on Instagram or Tik Tok (all the content I post on there is educational and geared towards helping my clients and as many people as possible as well!), so feel free to reach out if you have any questions I don’t answer on here! 

Without further adieu… let’s build some GLUTES! 

Q: How often do I need to train my glutes? 

To build your glutes the most efficient way possible, training them 2-3 days/week has been shown to be the most beneficial!

I highly recommend first figuring out how many days/week you can train while staying consistent, and start there. As with any muscle, in order to build your glutes you need to be consistent first and foremost. Once you find consistency in your desired # of training days, making 2-3 of those days glute-heavy workout days will help you build your booty the fastest way possible. 

I also recommend listening to your body (listening to your soreness as well) and lowering the amount of training days if needed to allow your glutes to recover. If we continue training them before they get the chance to recover we end up doing a whole lotta work for a whole lotta nothing. And that sucks. So… don’t do that! Make sure to allow your glutes to recover before putting them through an intense workout again! (a good rule of thumb is to give each muscle 2 days of rest before working it again, but this does change depending on the person; if you want to play it safe, I’d take 2 days in between each glute-heavy day and do something like upper body or any other muscle group instead). 

Q: What exercises should I do to build my glutes?

I have 6 main exercises I recommend absolutely, definitely, 100% including in your routine, and those are: squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, single leg step ups/downs, banded monster walks/side steps, and cable kickbacks. 

Here is my reason behind including each of these (this can help you decide on which ones would work best for YOUR specific routine, and which areas may be weaker or stronger for you!): 

1. Squats: Your gluteus maximus is put in a position where it is stretched fully (allowing you to use the entirety of the muscle), which is where you can get the greatest amount of muscle growth through tearing (and then repairing) the muscle. Since you push your knees out over the ankles for stability and support your side-butt muscles are also worked (which builds the roundness of the glutes). As you get better and better at activating your glutes “on command” (this is called building the “mind-muscle connection”) you’ll start to use your glutes more and more. A great way to start with these if you don’t fully feel them in your glutes just yet is by doing box squats by placing a box slightly below knee height so you get to put more weight on the heels (activating your glutes) during the movement. 
2. Deadlifts: Your gluteus maximus is stretched “maximally” (get it? Gluteus maximus…stretched maximally? Ha!) during this movement. This is also a great way to build your hamstrings, which plays a role in how your glutes look along with the rest of your lower body. And as I said before on the “Squat” section, the stretch portion of an exercise is where we get to see the most muscle growth because of the increased ability to tear the muscle in that position; deadlifts are a GREAT way to stretch your glutes. 
3. Hip Thrusts: This is a perfect movement for those who are generally quad-dominant (you feel a lot of exercises in your quads, even when you don’t want to), because as long as you put yourself in the right position and perform this movement correctly, you HAVE to use the glutes. This is also a great way to start “feeling” and activating your glutes to the point where you can then start feeling them more in the other movements I’ll be talking about! If you ever feel these in your hamstrings move your feet closer to your body, and if you feel these in your quads move your feet further away. 
4. Single Leg Step-Ups/Downs: This movement is a wonderful single leg glute-heavy movement, because you are able to get a great glute stretch at the beginning portion of this when your chest is over your knee and your other foot is on the ground. Then from there you keep the chest over the knee and push through your heel while squeezing the glute to bring yourself up to the top. Since there is a balance aspect to this you are able to work the glute muscles on the side of your butt too, helping to make your glutes rounder. This exercise ensures BOTH glutes are equally strong (and generally the same size). 
5. Banded Monster Walks: Banded monster walks are one of my all-time favorites for building the roundness of the glutes because we get to move our legs at an angle to activate the muscles on the side of our butt we generally don’t ever use. HIGHLY recommend it! 
6. Cable Kickbacks: These ones are not by any means the most important ones in building your glutes, but they are a great option for anyone who is quad-dominant! This also allows you to focus on one glute at a time to make sure they are equally strong. The best part is that while you’re using one leg, the supporting leg gets to work the side of the butt as well (isometrically) so if you feel these on the supporting glute’s leg along with the glute being used, that is good! 

Q: How many reps and sets should I do to grow my glutes?

Research suggests that in order to build the size of a muscle you should aim for 6-12 reps each set, and do 3-6 sets per exercise. It is also important to continue to progressively overload each muscle on a consistent basis, to keep challenging that muscle. 

What I would recommend to do with this information is to consistently aim for 12 reps per set at a certain weight, and anytime you’re able to do the full 12 reps with good form, use that as a cue to move up in weight for the next set. This is an example of progressive overload; every time you hit 12 reps during a set for an exercise you move up in weight for the next set, and you keep doing that every time you do that exercise. 

For example: I’m doing hip thrusts at 135 LBs. I hit 12 reps on my first set at 135 LBs, for the next set I’m going to do 155 LBs and shoot for 12 reps. If I am able to do that with good form, then I’ll aim for 12 reps at 175 LBs on my last set. That means that the next time I do hip thrusts, I’ll start with 175 LBs and make that my first working set. 

What I have seen to be the most useful for my clients is to aim for 3-4 sets at 8-12 reps for each exercise when working on growing a muscle, including the glutes. These goals and numbers of reps and sets allow you to not have to have a 3 hour-long workout, and help to decrease unnecessary intensity as well. 

Q: How many days a week can I work out my glutes?

According to the research, the best way to grow a muscle is to work it out 2-3 times a week. There are other factors that could affect this that would be important to pay attention to, such as soreness level, what you are mentally and physically able to stay consistent with, and format. What I would recommend is when planning your glute-building program, make 2-3 of your workouts more glute heavy. Giving yourself about 2 days of rest for each muscle before working it out again is also a good rule of thumb; this way you make sure you are letting your glutes heal (and grow) before tearing that muscle again. 

Quick programming/formatting suggestion: When it comes to programming and formatting your workouts, first determine how many days you can manage exercising per week while being consistent with that amount of days. From there, figure out how long each workout should be (that would work with your schedule; as you can see, consistency is key, that is priority when first starting). After that make most of the workouts glute-heavy (around ⅓ or ¾ of them), and make the other ones anything else! And make sure to give your glutes at least 2 days of rest before working them out again. 

Here’s an example: 

Monday: Glutes 

Tuesday: Upper Body 

Wednesday: Rest Day

Thursday: Glutes

Friday: Lower Body (everything except for glutes)

Saturday: Upper Body

Sunday: Rest Day

Q: Do I need to be in a caloric surplus to grow my glutes?

No you do not! You technically do not need to be in a caloric surplus to grow your glutes, although it would very likely help you grow that muscle faster. It is definitely possible to grow your glutes while maintaining, AND even when in a deficit (although there are more factors and more necessity to be hitting protein requirements at least 98% of the time). 

Q: How much protein do I need to build my glutes? 

Depending on the person, anywhere between 0.8g-2.0g/kg of bodyweight. To be even more specific, you would be consuming between 0.8g-2.0g/kg of LEAN body mass (you can figure this out using a body composition machine). To find your weight in kg, divide your weight in pounds by 2.205. 

For example: A 150 LB person would be 68.03 kg (150/2.205 = 68.03), so their protein intake would be between 54-136g (68.03 x 0.8 = 54g and 68.03 x 2 = 136g). 

The questions I just answered above are some of the most common ones I’ve been asked by my clients. I hope this information is helpful for you! If you do need help implementing any of this information, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me in my DM’s! I am always more than happy to help! 

Overall some key takeaways here are that in order to grow your glutes as efficiently as possible you should first and foremost be consistent (and choose a schedule and exercise format that allows consistency for you), have proper form, prioritize protein, aim for 2-3 glute-heavy days, shoot for 3-6 sets/exercise and 6-12 reps/set, and give your glutes at least 2 days of rest before working them again. 

This is everything I followed (not as concisely, sadly as I did not have all this information at once while on my glute-building journey) to grow my glutes. And now you have all of this information in one place! AND you have access to me as well if you need any help or have any questions (like how to make a good glute-building workout program; I can and would love to help you with that!). 

Let’s grow those glutes!!! 

Thank you for reading! 🙂 

-Taylor