Your Glutes Deserve More Than Squats—Here’s How to Train Right

The Importance of Glute Training

Glutes play a major role in both aesthetics and functionality. While many women aim to build glutes for a more sculpted look—and as a women’s physique trainer, I support that goal—increasing glute size also has powerful functional benefits. Strong glutes enhance performance in lifts like squats and deadlifts, improve hip stability, and support the lower back. A well-developed glute region can also create the visual effect of a smaller waist, contributing to the hourglass silhouette many women desire.

Anatomically, the glutes are made up of three primary muscles: the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. These muscles work together to perform key movements such as hip extension, abduction, external rotation, and internal rotation of the femur. They also play a critical role in stabilizing the pelvis, maintaining upright posture, and facilitating everyday activities like walking, climbing stairs, and running.

When the glutes are weak or underdeveloped, other muscles—especially in the lower back—often compensate, which can lead to chronic lower back pain, pelvic instability, and poor movement mechanics. This imbalance can also affect gait, increase the risk of injury, and reduce overall mobility. As we age, maintaining strong glutes becomes even more important for preserving independence, balance, and joint health.

So, while glute training can absolutely enhance your physique, its benefits go far beyond aesthetics. Prioritizing glute strength is essential for long-term functionality, mobility, and overall health.

Glute Training Frequency

For aesthetic purposes making sure that all three muscles are properly trained, and balanced is the goal. Well-developed gluteus minimus, and medius account for the “shelf”, this is the portion of the glutes that emerges below the lower back. Training them for size will build up a prominent transition from a profile view from the lower back to the legs. The gluteus maximus accounts for the largest portion of glute development and is measured by how far your glutes reach outwards, and transition into the upper part of the hamstrings.

Like any muscle glutes need 10 - 20 working sets per week to stimulate growth. This means that while some exercises target or bias the maximus you will need a workout program that fatigues and stimulates the upper parts of the glutes as well. Prioritizing compound movements first and then proceeding to isolated movements to target each muscle is best. A typical leg day routine will not include this amount of volume or give the glutes enough stimulus to grow. This is why having a dedicated day for glute training is optimal. You do not need to train glutes five times a week to see progress. Going beyond 20 working sets per week is associated with negative muscle growth. You just need a program that isolates the glutes giving you 10 -20 working sets per week, in an equally balanced fashion.

Exercise Selection

As mentioned before, compound movements do more than just stimulate glute development. They also are essential for pelvic stability. This means the ability to keep your hips aligned with your ribcage. These compound movements are important because they engage other areas of your body allowing for strength and functionality beyond glute growth. Compound movements although great, engage various muscle groups and are strenuous on the body. Only doing compound movements is very taxing, that’s why having isolated movements post compound exercises are the key for driving muscle growth.

Isolation exercises can be biased to target individual muscles in the glutes. These exercises are best placed after a compound movement. After a compound movement your muscles are primed and can then be further fatigued without excessive strain on your body.

Compound movements for glute activation are hip thrusts, bulgarian split squats, lunges, romanian deadlifts and heel elevated squats.

Isolation movements are essential for further fatigue and hitting the 10 - 20 sets. I doubt many of us want to do twenty sets of hip thrusts. Usually after several rounds of compound movements your ability to maintain proper form without stressing the body becomes impaired. This is called technical failure. When your body can no longer support the movement. Muscular failure goes beyond technical when the muscle can no longer perform the movement. Muscular failure is best achieved for targeted muscle growth when preforming isolation exercises.

Isolation exercises for glute development include abduction variations, cable kickbacks, and step ups.

Rep Range For Growth

An ideal set for muscular growth will achieve muscular failure or close to it. Your working sets should be hard. This means choosing a weight that you can do with proper form but will cause you to become fatigued within the rep range. Rep ranges that are too low will not allow for proper fatigue and will leave gains on the table. While a high rep range can cause you to exert too much energy. Both high and low rep ranges can be effective as long as muscular fatigue takes place. However, a happy medium between the two can preserve strength, energy, and efficiency.

Train With Intension

When preforming exercises, it is very important to be able to feel the targeted muscle working. Meaning that you can feel the stretch and the contraction. Taking advantage of the gains that come with the eccentric (the part of the movement when the muscle is stretching) is one of the best ways that maximize gains. For example, if you are doing a hip thrust, controlling the weight on the way back down to the starting position making your muscles work is getting the most out of the movement. Many people will perform exercises with only focusing on the concentric (movement up to contraction). But if you can work your muscle for the entire duration of the movement you are placing almost double the amount of work on your muscles. This is an easy way to get the most out of your workouts and will maximize the effectiveness of each of your sets. When performing an exercise, use muscular effort up to contraction all the way back until the starting point.

Tracking your Progress

The last thing you want to be doing is guessing if you are making progress. If you have the right workouts in place with the correct frequency, the right rep range, and the right intention there is no reason you wouldn’t be making progress. Except…

You aren’t tracking your weight or reps. Going into the gym guessing which weight is right without a proper method in place to apply progressive overload, and ensure progress is halting your progress. You need to be able to either increase your reps or weight as the weeks continue. It takes about twelve weeks of doing a training program to see real changes, that’s a lot of room for error. If you start tracking your weight and reps with a correct system in place to increase the demands of your muscles as they adapt overtime, you will have a solid program and are guaranteed results.

This is why I built the STEEL Legs program. I created a workout program that incorporates all the fundamentals needed for success. This program not only includes glutes, but quads, hamstrings, and calves. The complete lower body training split that I have used and seen results from for years. I selected and prioritized specific compound movements followed by intentional isolation exercises to target each muscle. And it’s more than just glutes. I made sure that each lower body muscle had enough sets and fell within the proper rep range for optimal growth.

When you buy the STEEL Legs program you get clarity, and a system that works. Furthermore, you get access to twelve weeks of workouts that are split into three phases for maximum growth and strength. STEEL Legs works with you, for you, allowing you to input your weight, reps, track your rest periods, and add in any additional notes for reference, your own guided template you can take with you to the gym. It has all the workouts laid out for you and includes rest days. It comes with clear and complete instructions, a nutritional guide, and tips for the best results. STEEL Legs workout program HERE.