Strengthen your legs, glutes and lower body with these 6 BEST glute exercises at home! The ultimate butt workout for women, targeting the glute muscles with squats, lunges, step-ups and glute bridges.
You’ve asked, “How do you build your glutes?” So we created THIS BOOTY BUILDING WORKOUT AT HOME.
These six glute exercises left my booty sore for three days after filming this butt workout for women.
Most of my lower body workouts combine leg exercises that target the quads, hamstrings AND glutes. But you’ve been asking for more “targeted” workouts so this is a glute-specific workout — AKA a BOOTY BURNOUT!
These six booty building, glute exercises prioritize glute activation, because the gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the body!
That means that this butt workout not only builds your booty, but is an effective calorie-burning workout as well. The larger the muscle group, the higher the calorie burn.
YES! When you think about strengthening your glutes, you probably think about deadlifts and hip thrusts with a heavy barbell. You can achieve strong glutes at home with just a set of dumbbells using the compound exercises in this workout. We’re combining strength exercises with powerful “burnout” exercises in this leg and butt workout routine.
The best glute exercises activate all three parts of the butt — the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus (the lower, upper and side glutes). Some of my favorite glute exercises include: weighted step-ups, glute bridges, and single leg exercises (like single leg squats and lunges). This booty workout incorporates all, as well as plyometric movements (a movement that involves explosive intensity). These movements generate POWER, which increases calorie burn and leads to quicker strength gains (International Sports Sciences Association).
This classic glute workout pairs dumbbell strength exercises with powerful plyometrics — hello metabolic training.
This workout works the largest muscle groups in your body, the legs and glutes; building strength while also raising your heart rate.
Medium-to-heavy set of dumbbells and a bench or chair for single leg exercises.
I recommend anything between 10 and 25 lbs. I’m using 10 lbs and 12 lb dumbbells in this workout video.
Follow along with the guided Butt Workout on YouTube, led by certified personal trainer, Lindsey Bomgren.
Your Workout Looks Like This:
Butt Workout
Targets: Glutes, quads, hips, hamstrings and core. Also a great way to strengthen weak knees.
Modification: Kickstand your back leg rather than floating it. Try to keep 80% of your weight in your front right foot, 20% in your back left toe.
Targets: Quads, calves and glutes.
Modification: Make this low impact by stepping back into a reverse lunge, then drive your knee up towards your chest. Keep your front foot planted on the ground through the entire movement.
Targets: Glutes, butt, quads, hamstring and core.
Trainer Tip: Choose a a chair or bench that will allow you to perform the step up while tracking your knee on top of your foot throughout the step-up portion of the exercise.
Modification: Decrease the level change using a platform lower to the ground (ex: the bottom stair of a staircase). If you don’t have access to a chair or bench, perform a front lunge.
Targets: Legs, glutes, quads, hamstring, calves and core.
Modification: Take out the jump to make this a low impact glute exercise. Alternate stepping back to lunge and then performing a bodyweight air squat.
Targets: Legs, glutes, quads, hamstrings hips and core.
This single leg exercise will challenge your balance and has been named one of the best exercises to build glute strength.
Trainer Tip: I’ve made improvements to my own Bulgarian Lunge form since we first shot this Booty Building Workout (hence the quick outfit change in the below GIF). We are ALL a work in progress and I’m constantly learning and trying to improve my form so I can share that with you as well. Important changes: set up from the ground up so your front foot isn’t too far away from the chair and keep your shoelaces down on the chair.
Modification: Perform a standard reverse lunge or split squat, keeping your back foot on the ground rather than elevating it on a chair.
Targets: Glutes, hips and hamstrings.
Modification: Perform glute bridges flat on the floor, without elevating your feet on a chair.
This post includes affiliate links. I do make a small commission for products purchased using these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Nourish Move Love, making the content you see on this blog possible.
Nourish Move Love is a health + fitness blog that helps women create a lifestyle and body they love.
LEARN MORE
Are the reps per side or total?
So – 20 per leg, or 10 each leg?
Hi Kristen! Great question, sorry I should have been more clear — it’s reps per side; so 20 per leg. Thanks for checking out the workout and I hope you enjoy this booty burner! xo-Lindsey