Any true meathead quietly understands that glute training in the fitness industry is a total disaster.

This is still the case, despite the 1,000 “glute experts“ who claim to have “the answer” to the pancake-butt problem.

The following text will serve as your no-BS guide to glute training.

Myth-Busting

Before we dive into glute anatomy and training application, I want to begin by busting the commonly believed myths about glute-specific training.

If you’re a normal person walking around planet Earth, your glutes cannot be “inactive” and therefore cannot be “activated”.

Walk into any commercial gym and inevitably someone is lying on the floor with 5 bands wrapped around their legs, performing some pilates motion for thousands of repetitions before they start lifting weights.

While nothing is inherently "wrong” with these activities, the rationale behind doing them makes no sense: people believe that their glutes are somehow asleep, and by waving a magic resistance-banded wand, they can wake their glutes up to prepare for contraction.

This is not how muscular contraction works.

Your muscles do not lie dormant waiting to be called upon for activation.

Unless you’ve got a neurological defect or some traumatic injury that disrupts your brain and spine’s direct connection to your glutes, your glutes will respond to any force that requires them to contract.

This is documented in research - participants who utilize “glute activation” drills before training are no more likely to see improved force production or activation compared to participants who do not.

Using bands during lower body presses will likely not improve outcomes.

The “bands around the knees” trend began based on the notion that one’s glutes can be activated before training - which we’ve already debunked.

But the trend has continued to scale to such a degree that most of the popular glute-building exercises now involve using a band around the knees, regardless of whether it makes sense relative to the goal of the lift.

The most common examples include banding the knees during hip thrusts, squats, and deadlifts

As we’ll soon discuss, these 3 exercises (non-banded) have a high potential to stimulate and grow the glute max.

However, using a band around the knees leads to an inability to create maximal force through the glute max and instead creates higher activation in the lateral hip muscles involved in stabilizing the outside of the hips.

Think about it this way: if the challenge of the resistance is vertical relative to gravity, using another resistance that challenges us 90º from that direction makes little sense.

Pushing the legs outward does not contribute to moving a weight upward-downward in the direction of gravity.

And if that wasn’t enough to convince you, this study found that using a band during barbell squats increased the risk of a knee injury.

Anatomy

This article is specific to the glute max (GMax). So although the glute medius and minimus are important to consider in building a complete booty, today we’re just going to cover the biggest section of the glutes.

The GMax attaches from the back of the hip and tailbone to the IT band and upper leg.

The upper portions (that attach to the hip bone) connect to the IT band and the lower portions connect to the femur directly. The upper portion sits directly on top of the lower portion:

The functions of upper and lower GMax differ in ways that are important to understand in the context of training.

Both portions of GMax pull the leg backward - behind the body - and rotate the leg outward (like you're twisting your whole leg outward).

The upper GMax can pull the leg outward from multiple joint positions, while the lower GMax can pull the leg outward or inward depending on the joint position.

Training Application

Both the upper and lower portions of GMax primarily contribute to motions where we’re pressing the leg downward against resistance, as in a squat, deadlift, hip thrust, or leg press.

While the lower portion likely contributes more to these pressing motions, the upper portion still plays a substantial role.

The upper portion, because of its distinct anatomy, can pull the leg slightly outward, but it does this as it pulls the leg backward.

The lower portion, because of its distinction from the upper GMax, can pull the leg slightly inward, but it also does this as it pulls the leg backward.

So, regardless of which portion you’re attempting to train, choosing exercises that primarily load lower body pressing motions will provide the biggest return on investment per unit volume.

In other words, the motions that involve both portions of the GMax to the highest combined degree involve pressing against a resistance that attempts to shove the leg toward the belly.

Your leg presses, squats, and lunges are all fantastic options.

Mistakes to Avoid

We’ve already covered why using a band around the knees is likely not a good idea to train lower body presses.

But another common mistake is using a stance that is substantially outside hip-width.

Using ultra-wide stances (as in a sumo deadlift or squat) takes leverage away from the glute max and shifts leverage toward the adductor magnus and quads.

While wide stances still require contribution from the lower glute max, the proportion of recruitment dedicated to the glutes will decrease relative to narrower stance options.

So, use a stance wide enough for comfort but not so wide that it looks like you’re preparing to sumo wrestle someone.

Another common mistake is assuming that more depth and range of motion in any lower body press = more glute gains.

The GMax controls the relationship between the pelvis and the femur. If you’ve folded your torso and legs together, the GMax is close to maximal length.

This may look like a “limited range of motion” to some of you, but don’t be fooled. Range of motion is not about how much you move an implement you’re lifting, but rather what you move to accomplish a lift.

Squatting or leg pressing “deeper” will only increase tension in the glutes if it means that the additional range of motion comes from motion of the femur and not the lower back or knees.

So remember: more depth ≠ more gains. Maximizing hip range of motion under load is what the focus should be.

Exercise Tutorials

Below are 4 in-depth exercise tutorials on how to perform smith squats, leg presses, hack squats, and hyperextensions to train the glutes. To view the tutorials, subscribe to the Daily Meathead for $5/month. You can also view these tutorials for free by starting your 1-week free trial of the online community.

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