A focused glute workout for men does more than build muscle. Strong glutes support your lower back, protect your knees, and improve your speed and power in almost every sport. If you sit a lot, they are also the key to avoiding “dead butt” and the aches that come with it.
Below, you will find how to train your glutes for strength, size, and better performance, plus a sample workout plan you can start using this week.
Why men should prioritize glute training
Your glutes are not just about aesthetics. The gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus drive hip extension, stabilize your pelvis, and support your core with nearly every step, jump, or lift.
When you neglect glute training, other muscles start doing work they are not designed to handle. Over time, this can lead to lower back pain, knee discomfort, and poor posture. Long hours of sitting also contribute to gluteal amnesia, sometimes called “dead butt syndrome”, where your glutes stop activating properly and your body compensates with your lower back or hamstrings instead.
By building stronger glutes, you:
- Improve sprinting speed and jumping power
- Reduce strain on your spine and knees
- Gain more stability in heavy squats and deadlifts
- Feel more balanced and athletic in everyday movement
Experts like Bret Contreras, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., who founded the Glute Lab in San Diego, highlight strong glutes as essential for speed, strength, and lower back health, noting that they power hip extension and stabilize the pelvis, which supports the spine and helps alleviate back pain.
Common mistakes in glute workouts for men
Many men train legs hard yet still feel like their glutes lag behind. That usually comes down to a few fixable mistakes.
Picking the wrong exercises
If your lower body days revolve around leg extensions, machine curls, or endless abductor work, your glutes will not get the direct challenge they need. Fitness coach Jeremy Ethier points out that the primary job of the glutes is hip extension, so your program should feature movements that extend the hip under load.
He recommends making sure you include exercises such as:
- Back squats
- Leg presses
- Bulgarian split squats
- Deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts
- Hip thrusts
These compound lifts let you move heavier weight and create the kind of mechanical tension that drives muscle growth.
Letting other muscles take over
On paper you might have the right exercises, but poor form can shift the work away from your glutes and into your quads, hamstrings, or lower back.
Two common patterns:
- Quads doing most of the work in squats and leg presses because you let your knees shoot forward and do not sit back into your hips.
- Lower back and hamstrings taking over deadlifts or hinges because you round your spine or bounce through the rep instead of controlling the movement and squeezing the glutes at lockout.
Ethier notes that incorrect form and letting the lower back or hamstrings compensate are among the biggest reasons glute-focused programs fail to deliver.
Overusing booty bands in the wrong way
Bands around your knees can be helpful for light activation work, but coach Mark Carroll warns against putting a booty band on every single glute exercise. In his 2025 guidance, he explains that adding heavy lateral resistance during big hip extension movements such as hip thrusts and bridges can actually reduce your ability to load the glute max properly.
The band makes your stabilizers work harder in all directions, which often means you have to use less weight and get less direct tension on the main glute muscle.
Focusing on flashy moves instead of basics
Social media is full of complicated “glute finisher” clips, but Carroll emphasizes that professional-level glutes come from mastering basic, proven lifts and progressively getting stronger in them. That includes:
- Hip thrusts
- Squats
- Lunges and Bulgarian split squats
- Romanian deadlifts and other hinge variations
- Back extensions
Your time is better spent adding 20 to 50 pounds to these movements than memorizing new band or cable variations every week.
Eating like you are cutting while trying to grow
If you have been lifting for years and still want bigger glutes, nutrition will make or break your progress. Carroll identifies under-eating as the single biggest barrier to glute growth. To build muscle, you usually need at least maintenance calories and often a small surplus, plus adequate protein.
He also notes that building noticeable size in the glutes is slow, often taking 16 to 24 weeks of consistent training and sufficient calories. If you are always dieting, your body has very little reason to add muscle.
Key movement patterns for glute growth
A well-rounded glute workout for men hits the muscle from several angles and through different ranges of motion. Think in terms of patterns, not just individual exercises.
Heavy hip extension
This is your main strength builder and size driver. Movements where you extend the hip forcefully against resistance, especially with a bent knee, tend to hammer the glute max.
Strong options include:
- Barbell hip thrusts
- Smith or machine hip thrusts
- Glute bridges
- Romanian deadlifts and stiff-leg deadlifts
- Conventional or sumo deadlifts
The hip thrust is especially effective for isolating the glutes and can be trained more frequently, often 3 to 4 times per week, because it usually causes less overall fatigue than heavy squats.
Squats and squat-like patterns
Squats still matter for glute development, especially if you sit back and push through your heels rather than folding into your knees.
Useful variations:
- Back squats
- Front squats
- Goblet squats with a deep range of motion
- Pulse goblet squats that focus on the bottom half of the movement
Bret Contreras recommends pulse goblet squats for higher reps, around 20 per set, to keep constant tension on the glutes in the most challenging part of the movement.
Single-leg and unilateral work
Single-leg exercises help correct imbalances and force each side to work hard on its own. They are also very efficient for hitting the glute medius and minimus, which are crucial for hip stability.
Good choices:
- Bulgarian split squats
- Walking lunges or reverse lunges
- Cossack squats
- Single-leg hip thrusts
- Curtsy lunges
If you dislike a specific exercise, such as Bulgarian split squats, you can still get great results with other unilateral moves as long as you push them close to fatigue.
Lateral stability and abduction
You do not need to live on the abductor machine, but some focused work for your side glutes keeps your hips healthy and your squat pattern strong.
You can use:
- Bench hip abductions
- Side-lying or standing band hip abductions
- Crab walks or lateral band walks
Contreras suggests bench hip abductions for 12 controlled reps per side, up to three times per week, as a glute finisher.
Sample glute workout for men
Use this as a template 2 times per week on non-consecutive days. If you already have a leg day, you can swap this in or split some of the work across the week.
Aim to warm up with 5 to 10 minutes of light cardio, then 1 to 2 easy sets of the first two exercises before loading heavy.
- Barbell hip thrust
- 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps
- Rest 2 to 3 minutes between heavy sets
- Focus on driving through your heels and squeezing hard at the top with a slight pause
- Back squat or front squat
- 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps
- Rest 2 to 3 minutes
- Sit into your hips, keep your chest up, and stand by pushing the floor away
- Romanian deadlift
- 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
- Rest 90 to 120 seconds
- Push your hips back, maintain a neutral spine, and bring the bar close to your legs
- Walking lunges or reverse lunges
- 3 sets of 10 to 12 steps per leg
- Rest 60 to 90 seconds
- Slightly lean your torso forward and push through the front heel to emphasize the glutes
- Single-leg hip thrust
- 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps per leg
- Rest 60 seconds between sets
- Keep your ribcage down and avoid arching your lower back at the top
- Bench hip abduction or band crab walk finisher
- 2 sets of 15 to 20 reps or steps per side
- Short rests, 30 to 45 seconds
- Think about pushing your knees out and keeping tension the whole time
If you prefer a lower volume session, remove one accessory, such as either the lunges or the single-leg hip thrust, and keep intensity high on the remaining lifts.
Training at home with bodyweight
If you do not have access to a gym, you can still run an effective glute workout for men using only your body weight, especially if you are a beginner.
A 2024 guide from Gymshark highlights that bodyweight glute training can build strength and size if you progress the difficulty over time. The guide notes that key muscles involved are the gluteus maximus for size and shape, and the gluteus medius and minimus for pelvis stability and leg rotation.
Helpful at-home exercises include:
- Air squats
- Split squats
- Curtsy lunges
- Single-leg Romanian deadlifts
- Glute bridges
- Crab walks
To keep progressing without weights, you can:
- Add reps or sets
- Slow down the lowering phase
- Add isometric holds at the bottom or top
- Reduce rest times
Gymshark also notes that training glutes twice a week and keeping your protein intake in check can lead to noticeable changes within about six weeks, as long as you stay consistent.
Glutes, performance, and pain reduction
Strong glutes are not just helpful in the gym. They also play a big role in how you move and feel day to day.
Research-based guidance shows that:
- Strengthening the glutes lets you cover more ground with each step and jump because they extend the hip to drive the leg forward, especially in movements like squats and deadlifts.
- Barbell jump squats, performed for 5 sets of 5 reps at about 70 percent of your back squat one-rep max, can enhance glute power and athletic performance.
- Glute-focused work like the glute bridge, typically 3 sets of 10 reps, can help reduce low back pain by improving hip alignment and preventing excessive tilt that stresses the spine.
- Quadruped hip extensions, done for 2 sets of 15 reps per leg, can help improve pelvic stability and reduce knee pain by limiting stress on the joint and reducing over-reliance on hamstrings for hip extension.
Well-developed glutes protect your knees, hips, and lower back by stabilizing the pelvis and controlling how your legs move under load. This is why top athletes, including Olympic sprinters and elite hockey players, often have powerful glutes that stand out even under their uniforms.
How to know your glute plan is working
You will not transform your glutes in a week, but you should look for steady progress over a few months.
You are on track if:
- Your working weights on hip thrusts, squats, and deadlifts are gradually going up
- You feel your glutes fatiguing before your lower back does
- Soreness moves away from your knees and low back and more toward your glutes and hamstrings
- Your posture feels more upright and stable during daily activities
Remember that, as Mark Carroll explains, building bigger glutes usually requires at least 16 to 24 weeks of consistent training plus enough calories to support muscle growth. Commit to that timeline, adjust your food intake toward maintenance or a small surplus if your goal is size, and stay patient.
If you start today by dialing in your exercise selection, form, and nutrition, your next 4 to 6 months of training can finally turn your glute workout for men into visible, functional results that carry over to every lift and every sport you do.
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