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In this 12 Week Glute Building Workout Plan, you’ll find a routine that concentrates on classic no BS exercises for developing a firm and shapely backside.
This program was developed after lots of experimentation and review of resistance exercise and biomechanics research. It will work.
Jump to the workout plan now!
Alternatively, you can download the free PDF using the link below:
Table Of Contents| Program style | Resistance training |
| Program duration | 12 weeks |
| Target Gender | Male and female |
| Target Muscles | Gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus |
| Workout duration | 1-2 hours |
| Scheduling | 3 day split |
| Goal | Build and shape glutes |
| Level | Beginners to advanced |
| Equipment | Dumbbells (DB), Barbell (BB), hex bar, resistance bands, cable machine |
While you might be familiar with exercises like squats and deadlifts that target your quads, hamstrings, and calves, it’s easy to overlook one of the most important muscles in your lower body: your glutes. Training your glutes can have a variety of benefits that go beyond just looking good in a pair of jeans or shorts. Here are 7 main benefits…
Strong glutes will help you crush other exercises like squats and deadlifts, which require a lot of lower body strength. By training your glutes, you’ll also be able to lift heavier weights in other exercises, which means more gains!
As I mentioned earlier, strong glutes will help you perform better in other exercises. Squats, deadlifts, and lunges all require a stable base, and your glutes play a major role in providing that stability. By training your glutes, you’ll be able to generate more power and explosiveness, which will help you crush those other exercises.
Weak glutes can contribute to a variety of injuries, including knee, hip, and lower back pain. By strengthening your glutes, you’ll be able to better support your joints and reduce your risk of injury. Plus, strong glutes can help prevent muscle imbalances, which can also contribute to injuries.
Your glutes play an important role in supporting your spine and pelvis. By strengthening your glutes, you’ll be able to maintain better posture, which can reduce the risk of developing poor posture habits. Plus, better posture will help you look more confident and self-assured.
Strong glutes can help you run faster, jump higher, and be more explosive. Your glutes are responsible for hip extension, which is a key movement in many athletic activities. By training your glutes, you’ll be able to generate more power and speed, which will help you perform better in sports and other physical activities.
Your glutes also play a role in maintaining balance and stability. By training your glutes, you’ll be able to better control your body during exercises, which can prevent falls and improve overall form. Plus, better balance can also help improve your performance in other exercises, like single-leg movements.
Your glutes are some of the largest muscles in your body and training them can help boost your metabolism and burn fat. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest, which means you’ll be able to lose weight and get shredded faster.
Getting right to it, you can expect to work your glutes like never before. You’ll see some familiar exercises, some new ones that will surprise you, and others will be conspicuous in their absence. You can trust that all the exercises here, the rep ranges and progressions, aren’t just pulled out of Wonder Woman’s patoot. Personal experimentation and review of the clinical research on muscle building and glutes specifically were brought to bear.
Women and men who want better developed–and healthier–hip muscles should do this program. No question that the ladies are caring a lot more about their glutes these days than the guys. However, the men should be caring more than they do. There’s the cosmetic benefit – how a dude looks in jeans–and then there’s the functional component too. One of the most cringeworthy moments in any commercial gym locker room is the old dude with the elephant ear backside. Let’s put it this way: if you can’t get out of a chair without using your arms, or you need a belt to keep your pants up, you need to be doing this program. You can add Glute Day 1 or Glute Day 2 to any leg day when you’re not already working glutes.
| Day | Glute Split |
|---|---|
| 1 | Glute 1 – Glute Max Focus |
| 2 | Rest |
| 3 | Rest |
| 4 | Glute 2 – Glute Medius Focus |
| 5 | Rest |
| 6 | Glute 3 – Light Day |
| 7 | Rest up for Glute 1 |
Glutes max, medius, and the gluteus minimus (invisible from the surface) get attention.
Yes. You can do other workouts if you like as long as you’re not working glutes or fatiguing the glute muscles on the other days.
The one exception is Day 7. Stay out of the gym on that day and take it easy on the physical activity. If you don’t, you won’t be recovered enough to blast it on Day 1, your heavy day.
For the interval Days 2, 3, and 5, you shouldn’t do compound leg exercises that require your glutes to work. And don’t work back on the day before Glute 1 when you’ll need your back muscles fresh for RDLs.
You’ll be getting some quad work with the Bulgarians and Reverse Lunges. Hope that makes sense.
Working arms, chest, shoulders on other days…no prob.
Do NOT do any ballistic exercises while doing this program. That means:
I’m sure there are others in that list; those are the ones that come to mind.
Doing leg isolators like Leg Extensions, Sissy Squats, Sissy Hack Squats, or Leg Curls is fine. They do not involve nor fatigue the glutes.
You’ll work glutes 3 days a week with this program. You get to pick which day is Day 1. It doesn’t have to be a Sunday or Monday. The important piece is the spacing of workout days.
| Exercise | MUSCLE | Warm up | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 |
| Warm-up with bodyweight RDLs | Glute max, medius, minimus | 30-50 | ||||
| Bulgarian Split Squats (Rear Foot Elevated ‘RFE’ Squats) | Glute max, med, min | 20 | 15-20 | 12-15 | 12-15 | 12-15 |
| Romanian Deadlift (RDL) (BB, Hex Bar, or DB) | Glute max | 20 | 15-20 | 12-15 | 12-15 | 12-15 |
| Cable Glute Hip Extensions (Single Leg High-Low) | Glute max | 20 | 15-20 | 12-15 | 12-15 | 12-15 |
| Cable Glute Hip External Rotations (Single leg High-Low) | Glute medius | 20 | 15-20 | 12-15 | 12-15 | 12-15 |
| Exercise | MUSCLE | Warm up | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 |
| Reverse Lunges | Glute max | 20 | 15-20 | 12-15 | 12-15 | 12-15 |
| Contra-lateral B-Stance DB RDLs | Glute max, med | 20 | 15-20 | 12-15 | 12-15 | 12-15 |
| Cable Hip Abductions (Standing Straight Single leg) | Glute max, med | 20 | 15-20 | 12-15 | 12-15 | 12-15 |
| Cable Hip Extensions (Standing Straight Single leg) | Glute med, min | 20 | 15-20 | 12-15 | 12-15 | 12-15 |
| Exercise | MUSCLE | Warm up | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 |
| Single Leg Glute Bridges (Bodyweight) | Glute max, med, min | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | |
| Banded Dual Leg Glute Bridges (Bodyweight) | Glute max, med, min | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | |
| Side-lying Straight Leg Raises (Bodyweight or ankle weight) | Glute med, min | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | |
| Hip Hikes (Bodyweight or ankle weight) | Glute med | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 |
| Exercise | MUSCLE | Warm up | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 |
| Warm-up with bodyweight RDLs | Glute max, med, min | 30-50 | ||||
| Bulgarian Split Squats (Rear Foot Elevated ‘RFE’ Squats) | Glute max, med, min | 20 | 12-15 | 10-12 | 10-12 | 10-12 |
| Romanian Deadlift (RDL) (BB, Hex Bar, or DB) | Glute max | 20 | 12-15 | 10-12 | 10-12 | 10-12 |
| Cable Glute Hip Extensions (Single Leg High-Low) | Glute max | 20 | 12-15 | 10-12 | 10-12 | 10-12 |
| Cable Glute Hip External Rotations (Single leg High-Low) | Glute med | 20 | 12-15 | 10-12 | 10-12 | 10-12 |
| Exercise | MUSCLE | Warm up | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 |
| Reverse Lunges | Glute max | 20 | 12-15 | 10-12 | 10-12 | 10-12 |
| Contra-lateral B-Stance DB RDLs | Glute max, med | 20 | 12-15 | 10-12 | 10-12 | 10-12 |
| Cable Hip Abductions (Standing Straight Single leg) | Glute max, med | 20 | 12-15 | 10-12 | 10-12 | 10-12 |
| Cable Hip Extensions (Standing Straight Single leg) | Glute med, min | 20 | 12-15 | 10-12 | 10-12 | 10-12 |
| Exercise | MUSCLE | Warm up | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 |
| Single Leg Glute Bridges (Bodyweight) | Glute max, med, min | – | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 |
| Banded Dual Leg Glute Bridges (Bodyweight) | Glute max, med, min | – | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 |
| Side-lying Straight Leg Raises (Bodyweight or ankle weight) | Glute med, min | – | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 |
| Hip Hikes (Bodyweight or ankle weight) | Glute med | – | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 |
| Exercise | MUSCLE | Warm up | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 |
| Warm-up with bodyweight RDLs | Glute max, med, min | 30-50 | ||||
| Bulgarian Split Squats (Rear Foot Elevated ‘RFE’ Squats) | Glute max, med, min | 20 | 10-12 | 8-10 | 8-10 | 8-10 |
| Romanian Deadlift (RDL) (BB, Hex Bar, or DB) | Glute max | 20 | 10-12 | 8-10 | 8-10 | 8-10 |
| Cable Glute Hip Extensions (Single Leg High-Low) | Glute max | 20 | 10-12 | 8-10 | 8-10 | 8-10 |
| Cable Glute Hip External Rotations (Single leg High-Low) | Glute med | 20 | 10-12 | 8-10 | 8-10 | 8-10 |
| Exercise | MUSCLE | Warm up | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 |
| Reverse Lunges | Glute max | 20 | 10-12 | 8-10 | 8-10 | 8-10 |
| Contra-lateral B-Stance DB RDLs | Glute max, med | 20 | 10-12 | 8-10 | 8-10 | 8-10 |
| Cable Hip Abductions (Standing Straight Single leg) | Glute max, med | 20 | 10-12 | 8-10 | 8-10 | 8-10 |
| Cable Hip Extensions (Standing Straight Single leg) | Glute med, min | 20 | 10-12 | 8-10 | 8-10 | 8-10 |
| Exercise | MUSCLE | Warm up | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 |
| Single Leg Glute Bridges (Bodyweight) | Glute max, med, min | – | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 |
| Banded Dual Leg Glute Bridges (Bodyweight) | Glute max, med, min | – | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 |
| Side-lying Straight Leg Raises (Bodyweight or ankle weight) | Glute med, min | – | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 |
| Hip Hikes (Bodyweight or ankle weight) | Glute med | – | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 | 15-20 |
| Exercise | MUSCLE | Warm up | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 |
| Warm-up with bodyweight RDLs | Glute max, med, min | 30-50 | |||
| Bulgarian Split Squats (Rear Foot Elevated ‘RFE’ Squats) | Glute max, med, min | 20 | 8-10 | 6-8 | 6-8 |
| Romanian Deadlift (RDL) (BB, Hex Bar, or DB) | Glute max | 20 | 8-10 | 6-8 | 6-8 |
| Cable Glute Hip Extensions (Single Leg High-Low) | Glute max | 20 | 8-10 | 6-8 | 6-8 |
| Cable Glute Hip External Rotations (Single leg High-Low) | Glute med | 20 | 8-10 | 6-8 | 6-8 |
| Exercise | MUSCLE | Warm up | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 |
| Reverse Lunges | Glute max | 20 | 8-10 | 6-8 | 6-8 |
| Contra-lateral B-Stance DB RDLs | Glute max, med | 20 | 8-10 | 6-8 | 6-8 |
| Cable Hip Abductions (Standing Straight Single leg) | Glute max, med | 20 | 8-10 | 6-8 | 6-8 |
| Cable Hip Extensions (Standing Straight Single leg) | Glute med, min | 20 | 8-10 | 6-8 | 6-8 |
| Exercise | MUSCLE | Warm up | Set 1 | Set 2 |
| Single Leg Glute Bridges (Bodyweight) | Glute max, med, min | – | 15-20 | 15-20 |
| Banded Dual Leg Glute Bridges (Bodyweight) | Glute max, med, min | – | 15-20 | 15-20 |
| Side-lying Straight Leg Raises (Bodyweight or ankle weight) | Glute med, min | – | 15-20 | 15-20 |
| Hip Hikes (Bodyweight or ankle weight) | Glute med | – | 15-20 | 15-20 |
By now, you may be scratching your head and questioning why some of the popular glute exercises aren’t in this program?
The exercises that made it into this program share these things in common:
At some point it’s good to realize that a person doesn’t need dozens of exercises for a muscle group. Either an exercise works the muscle efficiently or it doesn’t. And if it does, why add one that doesn’t?
Apply progressive overload to keep the muscle challenge and subsequent adaptations. There is no such thing as “surprising a muscle” with a new movement, unless you go from a subpar exercise to one that really does the job.
Warm up before your workout to prevent injury and practice the movements. Warm-ups are important for anyone and even more crucial for older adults. If you’re a newcomer to the gym but a veteran in another sport, you’ll already understand the value of a good warm-up.
The warm-ups included in this workout program are composed of very light sets of the movements you’ll be doing during the workout, an application of the SAID Principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands).
You should also get in the habit of stretching the target muscles before actually targeting them. This program will target basically every single muscle you have in your body, so getting those muscle loose is crucial.
There’s nothing worse than getting started on a heavy set of RDLs and pulling your glutes, which could have easily been prevented with some simple stretches.
Apply progressive overload as you move through the program.
Do the specified number of reps with a weight you can move with excellent form until you can do more reps than written, and then increase the load. Simple yet effective.
Tons of data support progressive overload. No need to go looking for another exercise to break a plateau.
Do more reps, then do more weight. Get rest between so your muscles and central nervous system can recover and adapt. Again… simple.
The last few reps of any working set (not including your warm-up) should be hard without your form going to crap.
The program is written intentionally with the target reps decreasing over its course. Total rep quantity goes down, but the same principle holds: the last few reps should be grinders.
So for sets of 10 to 12, reps 8 through 12 should be hard. And for sets of 6 to 8, reps 3 through 8 should also be hard.
Work with perfect form. When your form’s not perfect, practice it with light weight or body weight until you master the exercise.
I regularly quote a 2021 study (Sports, Schoenfeld et al) that looked into the assumptions about rep ranges for strength, size, and endurance. It tested the notion of low reps for strength and higher reps for size and endurance.
Turns out that there’s not a sweet spot rep range for any of those training objectives.
Perform all your reps in a rhythmic, controlled fashion to maximize time under tension. That means no explosive concentric moves and no AMRAP or anything that smells like it.
Mechanical tension and its duration is one of the cornerstones of resistance exercise.
Don’t rob yourself of muscle-building benefit by rushing your reps.
Weights should be sufficiently heavy to require relatively slow, rhythmic reps. You should be pushing (or pulling) like crazy even though the weights won’t be moving fast.
Recovery is as important to physique development as your actual lifting is.
This is the period when your glutes grow in response to the stimulus. Ratio imbalances between stimulus (training) and recovery leads to overtraining and chronic overuse injuries.
For this routine, Days 2, 3, and 5 are “off” days from glute work. Work other unrelated muscle groups–shoulders, arms, chest–if you like. Just stay away from leg or back work that involves the hips. Examples would be lunges, squats, deadlifts.
Leg or back work you could do without overtraining would be leg extensions, sissy squats, calf raises, cable pulldowns, Kelso shrug – any exercise that doesn’t load or move the hips.
How long should you wait before doing your next set, or your next exercise? It may be longer than you think.
Research says that longer rest periods between sets beats shorter rest times when it comes to hypertrophic effect.
Personally, I’m not a fan of watching a clock. I tell my clients to do the next set once they can do it with intensity that meets or beats the previous sets’ intensity. Turns out that’s usually 2 to three minutes.
If you are a clock-watcher, 3 minutes between intense sets is a good rule of thumb. It’s much better to condition yourself not to rely on external cues like apps or clocks. The best learn to read their internal cues to know when it’s time to get after it again.
Reps “left in the tank” is RIR, Reps In Reserve.
Knowing exactly how many more reps you really could do takes a long time. Not something newbies are good at. They either pull up way short, or do a bunch of shitty reps at the end of a set in the name of doing more.
The only rep worth doing is a perfect rep.
For this glute program, try weeks 1 through 3 with 2 RIR, weeks 4 through 9 with 1 RIR, and weeks 9 through 12 with no RIR.
If you’ve got a few years in the gym under your belt, go ahead and lift to mechanical failure for the last two sets of every exercise throughout the program. This assumes you’re getting the rest you need between workouts.
Glute development may be the hottest topic in physical fitness right now. Strong opinions abound.
Because of the emotional attachment many have to their glute routines and what they believe works, we tried to follow the simple rules described above:
Finally, a pro tip. Sit less, stand more, and walk more . Sitting lengthens and deconditions the glutes. Standing and walking require low degrees of work for the glutes.
Download our 12-week Glute Glory Program PDF here.
Share your lovePerry started lifting weights in 1974. He is an ACE-certified personal trainer and holds the ACE Orthopedic Exercise certification.
He holds a journalism degree from the University of North Texas, where he competed in powerlifting. His final competition was the Texas State Open in December of 1982, but has continued to study and practice muscle strength and hypertrophy. He is a four-decade veteran of the medical device industry.
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you mentioned that you have had two hip surgeries, and I am interested in building up my glutes without dislocating my hip. I have had a call hip replacement (anterior, so no muscles were cut). Oh, are there any exercises here that Would be contraindicated if I have had a full anterior hip replacement. I’m not sure whether you were familiar with anterior hip replacements, but they essentially go in from the front rather than the posterior and pull the muscles apart rather than cutting them. This enables faster, recovery and a greater range of motion than his available post surgery with traditional Hip replacement. Again, I just need to know if any of these exercises would be contraindicated
Hi Mike, and thanks for writing. That’s a very insightful question and it deserves a thorough answer. My hip surgeries were also total hip joint arthroplasties and both were performed with the anterior approach. I found a surgeon with lots of experience (>14,000) with the anterior method specifically so I could return to normal activity…which for me was the gym and leg work. My second hip surgery was a revision due to an implant failure. The implant catastrophically failed during Bulgarian Split Squats. So your question is a really good one. While there are no specifically “contraindicated” glute exercises of which I’m aware, I would caution on Bulgarian Split Squats (for reasons detailed above) and also be very careful with leg press. I had the femoral head of the implant slip out of the acetabular cup on several occasions (subluxation) before I abandoned leg sled for good. Some folks like the leg sled for glute work. I don’t particularly care for it…too many other effective moves and the risk-reward ratio is way out of balance for me. Because of those leg press-induced subluxations, my surgeon put me on 90 days of posterior hip precautions, which set me back for no good reason. So yeah, not doing leg press anymore. By now you might be wondering why I wrote in the RFE (Bulgarian) Splits into the routine. Salient question. For the general population, Bulgarians are a fine choice and I did them for years with good results. Now that my anatomy is altered (hip implant, no more labrum, etc.), they no longer make sense. The additional nuance is the individual orientation of the acetabular cup relative to the femoral head, which is individual pelvis-to-pelvis. Mine is oriented in such a way that makes it prone to subluxations in moves like Bulgarians. I personally have performed all the other exercises in the glute routine and rotate them in and out of my glute days depending on my objectives. And yes, I have really nice glutes 😉 My personal faves are the “B” stance RDLs and the straight leg cable hip extensions. In my personal application, those two movements allow a great combination of isolation and targeted load. If you were to ask for a recommendation, I’d suggest any of the RDL variations and any of the cable extension or abductions. They’re safe, they let the hip move freely, and they’re also often part of post-surgical rehab programs prescribed by physical therapists. (They were for me.) I would suggest those for anyone…you won’t sacrifice development. Summary: good on you for electing the anterior approach. Smart choice. I personally would avoid movements that pinion your leg and hip in a way that challenges the security of the femoral head-acetabular cup mating. The usual disclaimer: I’m a certified personal trainer with 43 years in the weight room, some of it competitively. I’m skilled and experienced but I’m not a healthcare professional. Please consult your licensed orthopaedic surgeon or physical therapist for their perspectives.
Hi Catherine! Unfortunately, I don’t have any videos myself. Something I’ve been trying to work towards in the future. In the meantime, google is your friend! Good luck!
