5 Best Ways To Exercise Your Glutes

Strong, firm glute muscles rank highly on many people’s fitness wish lists, and with good reason – not only do toned buttocks look great in jeans, but they boost athletic performance and prevent injury. Check out the top 5 exercises you can do to maximise your glutes.

Your glutes consist of three separate muscles, the gluteus minimus, gluteus medius and gluteus maximus. Together, these muscles form a central hinge for the muscles in your lower back, hips and thighs, and assist with stability, rotation and extension throughout the entire area.

PruHealth, experts in health insurance and providers of Vitality, invite you to find out how the following 5 exercises can help you to build up firm, effective glutes...

1. Squats

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The most basic of lower-body exercises, the humble squat is also one of the most effective when it comes to firming up your glutes. Place your feet shoulder-width apart and extend your arms straight in front of you for balance before slowly lowing your hips toward the floor, as if sitting back into a chair. Try to sink slightly below the point where your thighs are parallel to the floor – this way you'll really target your glutes as well as your quads.

Be careful to maintain proper form, though – don't allow your knees to extend beyond the tips of your toes. Keeping your abs firm and spine elongated, slowly return to standing position and repeat. For an extra challenge, hold dumbbells or other small weights and keep your arms by your sides while executing the move, or try adding a kickback to your squat.

2. Forward Lunges

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This is another great move for working your entire lower body, including the all-important glutes. Start with your hands on your hips and feet parallel, about shoulder-width apart. Take a wide step forward, and lower your hips until both knees are bent to 90 degrees. Do not allow the front knee to extend past your toes, or the back knee to rest on the floor. Return to standing, and then repeat on the other side. To make it more difficult, add hand weights and don't rest for long between reps.

3. Hip lifts

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Also known as bridge pose to those who practice yoga, hip lifts are a great way to tone the glutes and thighs and open the hips. Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet placed hip-width apart on the floor near your bottom. Keeping your abs firm and your knees parallel and pointing forward, slowly tighten your glutes and press into your feet as you lift your hips off the floor. Aim for a gradual, fluid motion – think of peeling each vertebra of your spine off the floor, one by one. Hold for five breaths, then slowly roll back down onto the floor and repeat. To increase the challenge, try extending one leg while in the bridge position, angling it so that the thighs are still parallel, or try doing hip lifts on a stability ball.

4. Step ups

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This deceptively simple exercise is a great way to burn calories while tightening up your glutes. Using a low bench or step, or even the bottom of a staircase, place one foot on top and push through that thigh and glute to lift the rest of your body up, so both legs are straight. Lower and repeat, making sure to work both legs equally, and keep your glutes firm throughout to make sure they're fully engaged. You can also do this exercise anytime you climb a flight of stairs by extending your legs fully between each step. Add hand weights to increase the difficulty level.

5. Reverse leg lifts

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Reverse leg lifts are an excellent way to target the glutes, and also help combat the forward-bending shape your body can acquire from sitting too much. Start by standing erect with abs firm and feet hip-distance apart. Lift one foot and slowly raise it up and back behind you – it's fine if you can only lift it a few inches to start with. Hold on to the back of a chair or the wall if you're struggling for balance, or try doing the move while lying face down on a stability ball. To increase the difficulty of a standing leg raise, use dumb bells and extend the pose into a single leg deadlift, in which you lower your torso until parallel with the floor while raising the leg behind you.