The #1 Workout That BLEW UP My Glutes (3 Exercises)

Today, I'm sharing the number one workout that grew my flat butt. Aside from keeping your knees and lower back healthy, my girlfriend Tawny gives me all the inside talk from her friends. And apparently a fit butt on a guy is a big turn on. So when she said my butt needed some work, I knew I had to find the best way to grow it. Now, we're not going to get them to Kim K level, but we are going to get them strong, fit and athletic. And to do so, you only really need three simple exercises that anyone can do. I'll show you guys a full detailed workout at the end of the video, but you need to do the exercises properly, so pay attention. So when it comes to growing the glutes, typically there's two exercises that people say are best, hip thrusts and back squats. But there was never a study that directly compared the two. Until now. One of our bill with science researchers and PhD student Daniel Plotkin recently published the first study of its kind. He had one group of subjects do only back squats per nine weeks, while another group did only hip thrusts. Now, before I share the result, pause the video and comment below what exercise you think came out on top? Now, don't be disappointed if you didn't get it right, because even I was surprised. You see, while squats grew the quads and inner thighs more, both exercises led to similar growth in the glutes, which means two things. One, if you want to grow your butt without growing your legs, then spam the heck out of hip thrusts. And two, since hip thrusts are usually less tired than heavy back squats, you can do them more often and with more sets. Now I'll show you the best way to also use squats for glute growth later on the video. But what I personally do is I start my workout with hip thrusts. This way I can isolate my glutes really well so that in my next two exercises, I actually feel them working. But proper form is key. I'll show you guys how to do this with a barbell first, and then I'll show you another version that's way easier to set up. I remember the first time I ever tried hip thrust, my hamstrings literally seized up, my lower back was on fire, and I barely felt my glutes working. This is why, first off, if your feet are placed too far away from you, you're going to feel it in your hamstrings. Whereas if your feet are positioned too close, you're going to feel it in your thighs to get the most glutes position your feet such that at the very top position, your shins make a straight line right on top of your foot. Once you got that nail down, you can grab a small plate to note your foot position and then you can start using a bar. Now, the movement is actually pretty simple. Just drive your hips towards the ceiling. But a big mistake people make is sticking their stomach out and arching their back. To fix this, brace your core as if someone was about to punch your stomach, then squeeze your glutes hard. Imagine if you had a hundred dollar bill between your butt cheeks and you really wanted to buy some new gym clothes, but I was trying to steal that money away from you. If you do this properly at the top position, your back should be completely flat and you should feel a strong burn in your glutes. And one last thing to keep in mind is that your glutes actually don't do very much in the bottom half of the movement. So if you want to really isolate your glutes, stick to doing just the top half of each rep with a one to two second pause at the top. Now, effective as a barbell hip thrust is, it's a pain in the butt to set up. It takes 10 minutes of cardio just to put everything together. And just when you think you're in the clear, the bench decides. I want the moonwalk away from you. So now you're on a scavenger hunt for some weights to build a contraption to stop the slipping. And let's not forget the golden rule. Avoid eye contact. Trust me, it's like the don't stare directly at the sun in the gym world. I've got my own gym. But even making eye contact with myself in the mirror still just feels plain wrong. So instead of the standard hip thrust, I've been doing an exercise that takes literally 30 seconds to set up and works just as well. Single leg dumbbell hip thrust. You just put the dumbbell across your working leg and thrust one leg at a time while keeping your other leg slightly lifted off the floor. The most common mistake here, however, is letting your hips drop to one side. So even your hips by keeping your core braced, just like I showed you with the barbell version, and focus on really squeezing the glute of your planted leg. Now, hip thrust shouldn't be the only glute exercise you do. You see, they challenge your glutes, mostly at the top position when they're fully contracted. But to maximize growth, plenty of research suggests that it's probably best to include an exercise that really Stretches the glutes and challenges them the most at the bottom. So let's now move on to one of the key exercises in our built with science programs that's helped grow even the flattest of butts, Bulgarian split squats. Now, before I show you the proper form, I gotta be honest, these are brutal. It'll feel like you're doing three exercises in one. And I personally have to tell myself all sorts of crazy things just to make it through each set. Come on, Jeremy. If you don't do eight reps, you. You have to chop your dick off. But they have done wonders for growing my glutes. So just remind yourself we're all suffering here, and you just gotta push through the pain to build your buttons. Oh, man, that's not fun. All right, guys, so just like with the hip thrust proper form, with the Bulgarian split squat, it starts with your foot position. And Tanya's gonna help us out here. So you just sit down on the bench like she's doing. Extend your leg forward so where your front foot ends up, that's roughly how far away you want that front foot to be from the bench. But you do want to double check this. And to do that, tawny, just stand up and then come down to the bottom position of the bull legs for squat. Now, what you can see here is her shin is angled forwards, right? That's great for the quads, but for more glutes involvement, you actually want to bring your foot further away from the bench so that your shin is now directly over her foot. That's going to target the glutes a lot more. So once you find that, you can actually put a small weight plate or a marker just so you know how far away your foot should be. And then just try to do a few reps next. Now, at first, if you're not used to movement, you're going to be wobbling around and you're going to have a hard time balancing. That's perfectly normal. Don't be afraid to grab onto someone or something for balance until you get the hang of it. And then once you do get the hang of it, there's one more tip you want to apply for even more glutes. So typically, if you want to hit the quads, you want to think about going straight down and straight up. But for your glutes, we actually want to think about is driving your hips backwards and down nice. And then driving it forwards. Right. And on the way down, you can see how she's leaning her torso forwards. That helps stretch the glutes a lot more at the bottom, and I help you work them a lot more. Now, if you're still really struggling with the movement, try placing your back leg onto something lower, like one or two weight plates. Or start out with a simple reverse lunge. Just remember to apply the same fortress we talked about earlier with foot position and leaning over your torso. Okay, so far we've activated the glutes and we've worked them in a really deep stretch. But there's one more exercise I've been throwing into the end of my workout that's been making all the difference. Squats. Now, I know, as some of you might be thinking, squats at the end of the workout. Well, like many others, I would always do heavy back squats in the beginning of my leg days, but I usually end up feeling them more in my lower back or other muscles instead of my glutes. Also, after just a few heavy sets, I'd be gassed for the rest of the workout. Hip thrusts were far better at isolating my glutes without taxing other parts of my body. Then by moving squats to last, I don't need to go nearly as heavy yet. My glutes are still working just as hard, if not harder. However, and this is very important. This only works if you nail down your forearm. Now, you can do these with either a barbell or even a dumbbell, since you're not going that heavy. But the key to targeting the glutes is using a fairly wider stance, pointing your toes out and then taking it slow on the way down. Sit your hips back and lean your your torso forward, just like we did in the Bulgarian split squat. And for the most glute growth, how deep you go is important. A study from back in 2019 compared the glute growth you get from doing half squats versus full squats. The full squat group experienced over three times the growth, so try to get low enough such that at the bottom position, your upper thigh is parallel with the ground. So now let's break down the full workout. For hip thrusts, I recommend doing at least one set to failure just to really get your glutes activated. I'll personally do anywhere from one to four sets, depending on how much booty I'm looking to gain, but always with relatively lighter weight for about 10 to 20 reps to really focus on that mind to muscle connection. Then for Bulgarian split squats, since you're working one leg at a time, it'll feel like double the work. So here I'm usually just doing 2 to 3 sets per side with around 8 to 12 reps per set. And lastly, I'll finish it off with three sets of light back squats but performed really slow and controlled for about 6 to 10 reps per set. And if you're wondering why there's a fourth exercise, it's because to fully round out your leg development, I'd highly recommend adding in some kind of hamstring exercise like leg curls since none of the other exercises in this workout really work this area. But guys, while we've looked at effective ways to build your glutes, you can develop a really nice physique by pairing them with well developed shoulders. I recently have been using a size based workout that's been growing my shoulders like nothing else before. So give this video Watch next where I'll show you exactly how to use this workout to blow up your shoulders. But if you're looking for more personalization and a step by step plan that shows you exactly what workouts to do every week to get into the best shape of your life, just head on over to built with science.com and take our quiz to find the best plan for you and your body. Thank you so much for watching and see you next time.