BY EBENEZER SAMUEL, CSCS
From the top athletes in the Winter Olympics to bodybuilders to fitness influencers, the fittest bodies have one thing in common: They always have strong, powerful glutes.
Building your backside is about more than filling out a pair of jeans. Your glutes are one of your biggest, strongest muscles, and they’re the engine that propels you forward when you run and upward when you jump. They also take pressure off your lower back muscles, a key to alleviating back pain.
The best part: You can train them easily with just your SMRTFT dumbbells, and these four exercises. Mix them into your workouts at least twice a week, or do them as a once-a-week glute and leg slam.
SPLIT STANCE ROMANIAN DEADLIFT
The most basic way to blast your glutes is something called a “hinge,” which essentially has you bending at the waist and pushing your butt backwards. The split stance RDL forces you to do this while biasing your front-leg glute for a nasty glute pump. A bonus: You can train this move with heavy dumbbells, meaning total-body muscle stimulus. Think of doing 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps.
SINGLE-LEG HIP THRUST
This one challenges your glutes most at the top of the movement, giving you a chance to work on squeezing your glutes hard. And because it’s relatively light weight, you can do it often in your routines, as much as three or four times a week. Think high rep; aim for 3 sets of 12 to 15 per side.
DUMBBELL SWING
Your glutes are built for power and explosiveness, and the dumbbell swing gives you a chance to attack that, forcing you to contract your glutes quickly. Focus less on driving the bell upwards and more on two ideas: Squeezing your glutes and standing powerfully. I like this for time instead of reps: Aim to do reps for 3 30- to 40-second sets.
BULGARIAN SPLIT SQUAT WITH TWIST
Adding a twist to your Bulgarian will subtly place your glute max under extra stretch, setting you up for bigger glute gains. Do this as one of your final exercises on leg day, since you won’t be able to go heavy. Think of doing 3 sets of 10 to 12 sets.