TOP SIX BOOTY BUILDERS
booty booty booty… or ‘glutes’ if we want to be a little more technical.
In day to day life, a nice butt looks great in jeans or on the beach and in the competition setting glutes are often the stand out body part that can really make a physique shine.
I'm an advocate for hard heavy training. Squats, deads, the big bad basics with as little fluff as possible. To build muscle you need to be able to over load it and make it stronger, the booty is no different. The fluff is awesome for a burn but long term will not build a good booty.
here are my top 6 exercises and why:
1. Barbell Glute Bridges:
The name says it all. Not only will it dramatically improve your deadlift and squat it will build a perfect butt. I like to do these heavy and for high reps 15-20+. Slow on the eccentric part of the movement, explosive on the way up. Drive through the heels, hold at the top and squeeze your butt as hard as you can for a second or two. I like to do them off the floor, or bench supported, both work great. Single leg glute bridges are awesome too. If you aren't already doing them, add them into your next leg day.
2. Stiff Leg Dead Lift:
These are the master of development for hamstring and glutes, once you have set aside the notion to lift heavy heavy weights. I like to do this with a barbell (although single leg dumbbell SLDLs also feature in some leg sessions) and place my toes on 5kg plates to accentuate the stretch in the hamstring. Lower the weight with a 4 second eccentric, fully stretch and then contract the glutes to pull the bar back up through the concentric phase. You can either really squeeze the glutes hard at the tip of the rep or with my lighter sets I like to keep the tension on the hamstring/glute and not fully extend to the top of the rep. Straight sets on these I find are best as drop sets tend to leave you failing in either your grip or lower back which isn’t the aim of the game.
3. Sumo Box Squat:
By using the sumo set up you’re able to deactivate quads in the squat and recruit the glutes instead. I like a slow eccentric, a pause on the box (which should be just below parallel) and then a contraction of the glutes alone to activate the concentric phase. When you feel your legs starting to take over the exercise then stop, as this is not the primary focus here. I like to do 3 sets of a max load weight for 8-10 reps.
4. Glute kickback/extension machine:
This machine is often found in gyms, it’s the one that everyone walks around and is rarely used. I ignored it for years. But after jumping on and having a play about I realised that it should be a glute staple! Again it's best when using a slow eccentric phase, fully squeezing the gluten at the top of the rep whilst keeping the hips forward and tucked under. Straight sets are great but I do also favour a good drop set or partial reps set on this machine as it really burns.
5. Reverse Hypers (glute/hammy focus):
This can be a little taxing on your lower back, so I advise doing this as a finisher exercise. I like to do them weighted, so holding a dumbbell or kettlebell on my chest. Ensure you keep your abs on and back slightly rounded. Come down slowly, have a full stretch across the glutes/hamstrings before coming back up, pausing at the top and contracting as hard as you can. I like to do these in the higher rep ranges, so 15-20 reps.
6. Abductor machine (outwards):
It is a great machine when used correctly. I like to do 2-3 heavy sets on this with a 4010 tempo, really recruiting the glutes the whole way through and squeezing at peak contraction. Finishing on a lighter higher rep set is great to feel that burn. Starting your leg session with this exercise really fires the muscle and enable better recruitment of the glutes throughout the entire session.