Glutes are one of those muscles I don’t want to skip— even if I’m short on time or don’t get to work out much that week. They are important to so many of the things we do in keeping our bodies healthy and safe. They are also largest muscles in the body, which means by working them you’ll be burning a lot of calories!
There are so many reasons I want to keep my glutes firing and strong, so even if I don’t make it to the gym to train them, here are four great glute exercises that are effective in or out of the gym!
1. Hip Thrust
Lie on your back on the floor with feet lined up with your knees. Squeeze your glutes up and pause for a second at the top. Slowly release and repeat for three sets of 10.
2. Good Mornings (non-weighted)
Standing with your legs shoulder-width apart, keeping weight in your heels, hinge at your hip, slowly lowering your upper body toward the floor, keeping your back straight. When you’re about 90 degrees, squeeze your upper body back up with your glutes to return to a standing position. Repeat for three sets of 10.
3. Stationary Lunge
Get into a lunge position and lower back knee toward the ground. Then squeeze up with your glute and repeat for three sets of 10 each leg.
4. Clamshell
Lying on your side with your knees at about 90 degrees, open your top leg while keeping your feet connected. Return and repeat for three sets of 10 each side.
On all of these movements, you’ll really want to think about activating the mind-muscle connection. I’m sure you’ve heard people talk about it. You may not have felt it yet, but it doesn’t mean it can’t happen! You must be consistent and keeping working at it.
You’ll really want to think about the muscle that should be working. When I still couldn’t feel my muscles working, I would use a key word. I would think about whatever muscle I was working and say it every rep. For example, on a hip thrust, I would say in my head “1. Glutes 2. Glutes 3. Glutes” while I counted my reps. It helped me keep focused on what I was working on. Then one day, while I was training, I FELT it— the mind-muscle connection. I thought “Ouch! Oh boy…GLUTES!” It may not work for you, but it may be worth a try.
Happy training!
