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The Best Glute Exercises, Ranked

Seven glute exercises in the order worth trying them, from hip thrusts to hinges, squats and isolation work, plus every other glute exercise in the library.

7 ranked picks68 exercises

By Jobri Fitness

The short answer

Pair a hip thrust or glute bridge with a squat or lunge pattern and a hip hinge like the Romanian deadlift. Add hip abduction if you want to train the side of your glutes directly.

The 7 best glute exercises

  1. Hip Thrust

    Barbell

    Back against a bench, you drive your hips up against a barbell. Easy to load heavy and hardest at the top, where your glutes are fully contracted.

    How to do it: Hip Thrust

    Also with: Dumbbell, Machine, Smith machine, Bodyweight

  2. Romanian Deadlift

    Barbell

    Works your glutes and hamstrings from a stretched position at the bottom of the hinge.

    How to do it: Romanian Deadlift

    Also with: Dumbbell, Smith machine, Kettlebell

  3. Bulgarian Split Squat

    Dumbbell

    Leaning your torso slightly forward shifts the work toward the glutes of your front leg.

    How to do it: Bulgarian Split Squat

    Also with: Barbell, Smith machine, Bodyweight

  4. Squat

    Barbell

    Deep squats train the glutes along with the quads, and they're easy to load heavy.

    How to do it: Squat

    Also with: Dumbbell, Smith machine, Bodyweight

  5. Glute Kickback

    Cable

    Isolates one glute at a time with a cable ankle strap, useful as a lighter finisher.

    How to do it: Glute Kickback

    Also with: Machine

  6. Hip Abduction

    Machine

    Trains the side of your glutes, which hip thrusts and squats reach less.

    How to do it: Hip Abduction

    Also with: Cable

  7. Glute Bridge

    Barbell

    A hip thrust from the floor: shorter range, but easier to set up when no bench is free.

    How to do it: Glute Bridge

    Also with: Bodyweight

How these are ranked

The order favors exercises that load the glutes heavily and are easy to progress, and it mixes thrusts, hinges and squats so the top picks train the glutes in different positions. Isolation exercises like kickbacks and abduction come later as finishers. If a lower pick suits your gym or your knees better, use it.

How much glute work you need

The number of hard sets you do each week matters more than which exercise you pick. How many sets per week to build muscle covers the numbers, and how to grow your glutes puts them into a plan. The training volume calculator counts your weekly sets per muscle, and the workout plan generator builds a week around them.

All 68 glute exercises

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Log every set, see what you lifted last time, and follow your estimated one-rep max on the free progress chart.

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