How to Get a Rounder Butt FAST (ft. Bret Contreras)

Do you have a weak, flat butt and want to turn it into a strong, rounded set of glutes? Today, I'm bringing in Brett Contreras. The man has dedicated his life to studying and transforming people's glutes. And five easy steps will help you build a 12 week workout plan designed to grow your glutes as fast as scientifically possible. The first step is to figure out how often to train your glutes and with how much volume.

The glutes are a huge muscle. They have multiple subdivisions, they carry out several distinct muscle actions, and they can handle a lot of volume and frequency as long as you incorporate variety. Now, the most common training split we use to accomplish this is a lower upper, lower, upper, lower. So we're going to train them three times per week to maximize our rate of glute growth. So that's three lower body days with two upper body days sandwiched between them. But you can tweak this depending on how many days you have available to work out.

As for how many sets to do.

Brett recommends 36 sets of glutes per week.

At first, I was pretty shocked.

36 sets per week, you can recover from it. It's not too much. And most males in the industry would say, oh, that's overkill. According to the published research, we should only be doing 20. Or, you know, you should be doing 36 sets. But I'm telling you, the glutes can handle it. I'm telling you, all my top responders, they're all doing it. All the top bikini pros, they're all training glutes three times a week. They wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't effective. They figure out the best way. They're obsessed with. They care more about glute training than we do about pecs or biceps, you.

Know, but you can't just do 36 sets of really exhausting exercises like squats and deadlifts. Brett explained the key is to Split up the 36 sets a week into three different types of exercises. Twelve sets should come from what's known as vertical hip extension exercises, where the body is positioned vertically in relation to the resistance, although we don't really know why. Both Brett and I have tested this with emg, but and found the activate more of the lower glutes. It's also the most taxing category of exercises since they heavily involve the quads and hamstrings. This is why 12 sets should also come from horizontal hip extension exercises where the body is positioned horizontally relative to the resistance. These are a bit less fatiguing and will target both the upper and lower glutes. And the remaining 12 sets should come from abduction exercises where the legs move out to the side. These are the least taxing, but they help build up the upper glutes and the glute medius. As for the best exercises to use for each of these categories and how to perform them for the most glute growth, let's start with vertical hip extension.

So the first exercise is the back squat. Use whatever stance, width and foot angle is most comfortable for you, and try to descend as low as possible without too much butt weight. For max glute growth, you want to try to get down to at least parallel slightly below and focus on pushing through the heels on the way up. Dumbbell Bulgarian split squats will complement squats very well, but to better target the glutes, you'll want to lean your torso forward and descend diagonally at a slight angle backwards on the way down. Once your back knee almost touches the ground, push up through the heel of your front foot and drive your hips forward. Another great exercise my clients have had success with is the Smith Machine reverse lunge. The added stability helps them really focus on their glutes. Here we position the feet so that at the bottom, the knee is in line with the foot. We also use a slight lean at the torso to better target the glutes. And don't be afraid to go heavy. My top girls, they're using two plates per side. Last but not least, we have the Romanian deadlift. So you can do these with dumbbells or with the barbell. But the key to targeting the glutes is to keep your shins vertical. Sit back as far as possible and let your knees bend. Come down to just below your kneecaps and then use your glutes to thrust your hips forward. For this category, I'd use a lower rep range of around 6 to 12 reps per set. That usually works best.

So you want to add two to three of these exercises into your weekly glute routine. We'll do this for you at the end of the video. But to grow your upper glutes and also challenge your glutes in a different way, you'll want to do some of the exercises from the next category as well. Horizontal hip extension.

One of my favorite exercises for this category is hip thrust. They do a great job of activating all the glutes, especially the upper area, but it's important that you do them right. Keep your mid back on a bench or pad, push up through your heels to drive your hips as high as possible. Now, at this point, your shins should be vertical. If they're not, shift your feet further in or out and hold that top position for three seconds before coming back down. Now, I also like exercises that work the glutes one at a time, and this next one is a great option, especially if you don't have access to weights. You can do these off of a couch. Here, you spread your arms across the bench in a T formation and center both feet so that they're touching. Then come up to the top of the hip thrust and lift one leg off the ground while keeping the knee bent. Lower yourself down and push through the heel of the grounded leg to push your hips as high as possible. But also with single leg hip thrust. The 3 by 20 protocol became popular, and it's hard for everyone. Like, I don't care who you are. Three sets of 20 with really smooth form is brutal. And, you know, especially as you get good, you can reduce the rest time. So if you do 3 by 20 with a minute rest between sets. Ugh. The third set, at 20 reps, your glutes are burning real good. This next one works the glutes a little differently than hip thrusts. Here you'll need a back extension machine. Set it up so that the pad is just on your hips. Now, to better target the glutes, flare your feet out to 45 degrees and round your upper back. Keep your upper back rounded and raise your body up by pushing your hips into the pad using your glutes. If you don't have access to this one, you can do the reverse hip extension exercise that Jeremy and I covered in our past video together. So we're going to go a little bit higher reps for this category, usually a moderate rep. Range of around 8 to 20 reps per set works best.

All right, so before we get to building your glute workouts, we need to cover the last category of exercises, hip abduction. Brett explained how most people overlook the effectiveness of these exercises because they aren't big and heavy movements. Yet he's found that when his clients do this properly and consistently and really push hard during them, they see massive growth, especially in the glute medius, an important muscle not just for looks, but for function and knee and hip health as well. Here are his top picks.

Most girls love this machine, but guys, don't be embarrassed to hop on here. It's extremely effective for glute growth. Now, I like to recommend leaning forward and holding Onto the support. Drive your knees out as far as you can, then control the weight back until your knees almost touch together. If you don't have a machine, you can replace these with band seated hip abductions or the next exercise, which is body weight. Now for an exercise that doesn't involve any equipment, this one is a great option. Get into a side plank position with your knees bent at around a 90 degree angle. Drive up through the grounded knee while driving your hips forward and separating your knees as much as you can. Let the hips move back on the way down. You should feel both sides of your glutes working. This is actually an advanced exercise though, so take your time and only do as many reps as you can with good form. Even for someone like myself who's been training glutes for many, many years, I only do 3 sets of 12 with body weight and it's very challenging still. Last but not least, if you have cables, make sure you include this one. Still, stand sideways to a cable machine and use a strap to attach the foot of your far leg to the cable. Hold onto the column with your opposite arm, take a few steps sideways until there's tension in the cable, and then move your planted leg in front of your working leg with your foot slightly turned in. From here, swing the leg outward as far as you can to your side without rotating your foot outward. Don't lean forward as you do this and keep your core braced strongly. You can also try swinging your foot in front of your planted leg instead of behind of your planted leg and see if that feels better. I say 50% of my clients like their leg out in front, 50% like it behind. Now for this category, I recommend a higher rep range of around 12 to 30 reps per set. That's what works best.

So you've got the workout split, you've got the exercises, but now you need the actual workouts. This step is the most important. You need to build your glute workouts in a way that doesn't create excessive soreness throughout your week, yet also challenges your glutes in different ways. Here are three sample glute workouts. You can get started with that. Do just that. But Brett and I have also created a free 12 week glute workout routine that will guide you week by week with all of your workouts. You can download this over@builtwithscience.com gluteplant give this video a watch. Next, if you need some help activating your glutes. Big thanks to Brett for his help with this video. The man is truly a master of his craft. And I'll leave links below to his website and social media. And I'll see you next time.