The gluteal muscles, commonly known as the glutes, play a crucial role in our overall strength, posture, and aesthetics. Strong glutes contribute to improved athletic performance, reduced risk of injury, and enhanced appearance.

Whether you’re aiming for a stronger, more toned rear or striving to boost your athleticism, incorporating the right exercises into your gym routine is essential. 

Here are some of the best gym exercises for targeting and strengthening your glutes (some can also be done with dumbbells at home. Adding weights to all the exercises is recommended. However, if you’re older, for example over 60 you don’t need to.

1. Squats

Everyone knows about the squat; it’s a prevalent exercise, with weights or weightless, and you most likely did it when you were young. And even if you’re older, you still do an indirect version of the squat. For instance, bending over to pick up your groceries from the ground is a squat movement.

Squats are a foundational compound exercise that targets multiple muscle groups, with a primary focus on the glutes, quads, and hamstrings. 

They mimic natural movements like sitting and standing, making them functional and effective.

1. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart.

2. Lower your body by bending your knees and pushing your hips back as if sitting on a chair.

3. Keep your chest up and your back straight.

4. Descend until your thighs are parallel to the floor.

5. Push up to return to the starting position.

A variation is the goblet squats, where you hold a dumbbell close to your chest to help maintain an upright torso.

The effective calisthenics version of this version isn’t just the squat, but the jump squat. To make it even more effective, and closer to matching the effectiveness of a gym back squat, you can do weight jump squats, by holding dumbbells on each side of you and jumping.

2. Deadlifts

You may not have done deadlifts when you were a child, but you still make the movement in your everyday lives, which just shows how important it is, not just for your glutes, but also for your lower back. 

When you picked up those grocery bags from the floor, you performed a deadlift movement.

Deadlifts are a compound exercise that targets the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back. They are excellent for building overall strength and power.

1. Stand with feet hip-width apart, with a barbell over the middle of your feet.

2. Bend at the hips and knees to lower your body and grasp the bar with an overhand grip.

3. Push through your heels to lift the bar, straightening your hips, knees and core.

4. Lower the bar back to the ground with control and repeat.

One variation is sumo deadlifts, in which you must have a wider stance that targets the inner thighs and glutes more intensely.

If you’re at home, you could do deadlifts with your dumbbells, although you wouldn’t be able to increase the weight as much to target your glutes, hamstrings and lower back for strength if your dumbbells aren’t heavy enough. 

But fortunately, this isn’t the only effective glute exercise you can do at home, let alone at the gym.

3. Hip Thrusts

This is an uncommon exercise but can be wondrous for working your glutes.

Hip thrusts are specifically designed to target the gluteus maximus. This exercise isolates the glutes better than many other compound movements.

1. Have your back on an elevated surface, a loaded barbell (or any weight) on your hips and your feet planted close together on the ground with your hips dipped.

2. Drive through your heels to lift your hips until your thighs and torso are in line.

3. Squeeze your glutes at the top, then lower your hips back down.

You could also do single-leg hip thrusts, where you perform the exercise one leg at a time for added challenge and balance. Although it would be harder to balance the weight on one leg.

However, there are also banded hip thrusts. Add a resistance band around your thighs for increased glute activation.

These exercises can also be done at home if you’ve got dumbbells or any weight like water bottles to put on your hips.

4. Lunges

Lunges are another classic that can be done at nearly any age, and because you’re on one leg when doing them, it’s a stretch and challenge for your leg strength.

Lunges are great for unilateral (one-sided) leg work, which helps to correct muscle imbalances. They target the glutes, quads, and hamstrings effectively.

1. Stand with feet together.

2. Step forward with one leg, lowering your hips until both knees are bent at about 90 degrees (don’t let the lowering knee touch the ground).

3. Push through the heel of your front foot to return to the starting position.

Walking Lunges is a great variation that adds a dynamic component by stepping forward continuously.

Lunges can be effective at home as long as you have any form of weight to hold while doing them for added resistance.

5. Bulgarian Split Squats

This gives a different vibe from lunges since your other foot is on an elevated surface.

This exercise isolates each leg, providing a deep stretch and strong contraction of the glutes. It also improves balance and stability.

1. Stand a few feet in front of a bench (elevated surface) with one foot resting on the bench behind you.

2. Lower your body until your front thigh is parallel to the floor.

3. Push through your front heel (back up) to return to the starting position.

You can do this exercise at home as well, and consider adding weight, like holding dumbbells to increase resistance.

6. Glute Bridges

Glute bridges are a friendly isolation exercise as you’re lying down to do it, but the burn it gives off is perfect for working your glutes.

Glute bridges are an excellent exercise for beginners and advanced lifters alike. They target the glutes directly and can be performed anywhere.

1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.

2. Lift your hips by squeezing your glutes until your body forms a straight line from shoulders to knees.

3. Hold at the top, then lower your hips back down.

Some variations are the single-leg glute bridges where you perform the exercise with one leg extended for added difficulty.

But my favourite one is the Glute bridge march. The march puts it on a whole other level. I recommend you try this variation in your glute workout. It’s great for doing at home too.

7. Step-Ups

We all do step-ups without even realising. When you’re climbing up the stairs, it’s a step up. But remember when you climbed up two stairs at once? That’s an even better step up. And the step exercise is done best with a suitable higher elevated surface.

Step-ups are a functional movement that targets the glutes, quads, and hamstrings. They also improve balance and coordination.

1. Stand in front and facing a bench or sturdy platform.

2. Step onto the platform with one foot, driving through your heel to lift your body and push yourself up.

3. Bring your trailing leg up to meet your leading leg.

4. Step back down and repeat with the other leg, or continue a full set with one leg before you move on to the other.

Weighted step-ups are great for increasing your glute activation by holding dumbbells for added resistance. Or you could do lateral step-ups where you step onto the platform from the side to target different muscle fibres.

Why are the glutes important?

The glutes, composed of the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus, are among the largest and most powerful muscle groups in the body. They play critical roles, contributing to overall health, performance, and aesthetics. Here’s why the glutes are so important:

• Functional Movement and Mobility – The glutes are essential for daily movements, such as standing, walking, running, and climbing stairs. 

• Posture and Spinal Alignment – Strong glutes help maintain proper posture by stabilizing the pelvis and supporting the lower back. 
• Athletic Performance – For athletes, the glutes are vital for explosive movements such as jumping, sprinting, and changing direction quickly

• Injury Prevention – The glutes play a crucial role in stabilizing the hips and knees. 

• Balance and Stability – Strong glutes contribute to better balance and stability, which is particularly important as we age.

• Energy Efficiency – During activities like walking and running, the glutes contribute to energy efficiency by enabling a more effective transfer of force.

• Reduction of Lower Back Pain – Since the glutes help stabilize the pelvis and lower back, strong glutes can alleviate lower back pain caused by muscle imbalances or weak support structures. 

Including these exercises in your gym routine will help you build strong, toned glutes. Focus on proper form to avoid injury and get the best results. Gradually increase the weight and intensity, and listen to your body to avoid overtraining. With consistency and dedication, you’ll achieve the glutes you want.

Note

However recommend not just solely targeting your glutes, because you must work out your whole body. However, incorporating a handful of this exercise, or just one or two can ensure you have a balance in your strength and muscle mass across the whole body, and not just your glutes.

For example, your glutes can be worked on your lower body workout day twice a week, and you could incorporate squats, deadlifts and glute bridges. And it is beneficial that you prioritise compound exercises, as your glutes will be worked as well as your quads and hamstrings. And then for the extra touch on your glutes, the glute bridges.

Here’s my workout plan that incorporates a full body workout, both upper and lower body, that targets all fundamental muscles: The Gym Expert Workout Plan