Everyone wants better glutes, whether you’re a guy or gal, athlete or non-athlete. That’s because glutes that are awesomely developed not only make your body look better, but they can also drastically improve your performance. When the glutes are strengthened and built using the correct combinations of exercises, you’ll run faster, jump higher and improve the strength of all your lower-body lifts.
In order to quickly build muscle to the highest level of size and performance, all of its fibers should be recruited by the end of a workout. The glutes are a tri-planar muscle at the hip, which means it can function in all three planes of movement:
- Sagittal plane = hip extension
- Frontal plane = hip abduction
- Transverse plane = hip external rotation
The problem is that most people only train the sagittal plane function of the glutes: hip extension. I’m talking here about the typical squat, deadlift and lunge variations. This is why my course teaches you in-depth anatomy and biomechanics.
Last fall I spent four months working with Christopher Powers, Ph.D., at his Movement Performance Institute (a glute-focused sports medicine facility if there ever was one). I worked with athletes and non-athletes that needed to overcome pain and poor performance due to knee, low back or hip problems.
The early stages of Professor Powers’ system focuses heavily on strengthening the glutes in the frontal and transverse planes – hip abduction and hip external rotation, respectively. Pure hip extension isn’t usually trained until weeks into the system.
There were two key observations I made after training athletes primarily in hip abduction and external rotation for up to 6 weeks straight:
- Their glutes got substantially larger
- Their hip extension strength increased
Their glutes got bigger because they were recruiting muscle fibers that perform hip abduction and external rotation, which had been neglected in the gym from doing nothing but squats, lunges and deadlifts.
Prof. Powers has been a pioneer in research that demonstrates a link between frequent gluteal activation and a stronger mind-muscle connection, which is an essential component of strength and hypertrophy development. So even though pure hip extension wasn’t trained, that movement got stronger because the brain was better able to recruit the entire gluteal fibers in any future task.
My point here is that ultimate development of your glutes requires a strong emphasis on hip abduction and hip external rotation. Those two movement planes must be frequently trained in order to build the glutes to the highest level of size and performance.
Test Yourself
Before you watch the video where I outline my favorite 7-minute glute-building sequence, test yourself (or one of your clients).
- Stiff hamstrings? Do a standing toe touch assessment, then perform the glute sequence and immediately retest it.
- Knee or low back pain? Do a movement which causes you to feel the discomfort, then perform the glute sequence and immediately retest it.
- Need to improve your squat, lunge, deadlift, sprint or vertical jump? Do the following sequence twice each day for 2 weeks, then retest the exercise you’re trying to improve. Your performance will definitely go up!
The following Ultimate Gluteal Development sequence requires a mini-band. I use the bands made by Perform Better, which can be found at this Amazon link. Most females should start with a yellow mini-band; males can start with a green. The key is to progress the band tension as your strength improves.
- Goal for males: perform the entire Ultimate Gluteal Development sequence with a black Perform Better mini-band.
- Goal for females: perform the entire Ultimate Gluteal Development sequence with a blue Perform Better mini-band.
Here’s the Ultimate Gluteal Development sequence, a collection of my favorite glute-building exercises, all crammed into a 7-minute drill. Do this sequence at least once per day (preferably twice), at the beginning of your regular workouts or as a stand-alone drill.
I highly recommend you make this a foundational activation sequence for you and your clients, for years to come.
Use these drills in conjuction with full-body workouts to transform your physique and performance.
Stay Focused,
CW
