Tig Hodson and Sam Prynn know better than most what works when it comes to training women. They’re the co-founders of StrongHer, which was first a fitness community built around women weight training, and is now a female-only training space in east London as well as a digital gym offering programmes, virtual classes and on-demand workouts. With that direct experience of working with women of all levels and sizes, who better to pick the glute exercises that really do the job? And thankfully, given the times we’re living in, they can all be performed at home – you’ll just need a mini loop resistance band for one move (if you need to buy one, our round-up of the best resistance bands will help).
Here’s Prynn with the details.
StrongHer’s Best Glute Exercises For Women
It’s a fact – the majority of us don’t know how to activate our glutes and so those of us who want to grow our booty do squats. It’s a great exercise, but it predominantly uses our quads and hamstrings – nothing’s really going on in that butt. So we are here to give you our top three exercises to get those glutes fired up and working!
Step-up
All the single-leg work ladies! Choose the height of the step according to your level, and take the step higher as you get more advanced – if it’s too hard, make it lower. Keep one foot on the step and drive through the heel of your front leg, making sure your knee drives outwards and doesn’t knock in. Essentially, an activated butt causes the knee to not knock in so always think of this for all glute exercises. Try not to launch off your back foot. Really focus on using the foot on the step to push yourself up.
Bulgarian split squat
Made by the devil himself. Most people hate this exercise, but we’re sorry – you’ve got to do the things you hate too! Get into a lunge position, but elevate your back foot on a bench, sofa or stack of books. Lean your upper body forwards slightly and drop your back knee towards the floor. (GET LOW, LADIES!) Think about driving your front knee outwards as you push through your front heel back to your standing lunge position. Make sure you keep the weight in your back leg and don’t push too far forwards on to your front leg.
Banded hip thrust
You can do this without a band, but using one reminds you to keep the tension on it by driving your knees outwards, so you’re ultimately using your butt more than your hamstrings. Pop a resistance band just above your knees. Then rest the top part of your back against a bench, bed or sofa and have some sort of weight across or on your hips. Keep your knees pushing against the band and drive through your heels to a tabletop position, tucking your pelvis under. Then drop your bum back to the floor, making sure to not knock your knees together.
More Great Glutes Sessions
- Great Glute Workouts For Women Of All Levels – From Beginner To Gym Pro
- Krissy Cela’s Bum Workout Will Have Feeling Your Best
- The Best Glute Exercises For All Levels Of Gym-Goer
