There are two big challenges associated with working out at home. The first challenge is not having different kinds of gym equipment, and the second challenge is not having enough resistance. Both of these can limit your fitness progress.
However, recently researchers had discovered 10 home exercises with minimal equipment that are more effective at activating glute muscles than squatting with a barbell in a squat rack at the gym.
Read on to learn which glute exercises will give you the best results ranked from the least to the most effective at activating glutes.
10. Parallel Squat
There are three main ways you can do a squat. One way is to do a full, deep squat. Another way is to do a partial squat, and the third way is to squat down until your thighs are parallel with the floor. So which one provides the most burn to your bum muscles? Well, actually research shows that the parallel squat is the most effective out of the three.
9. Deadlift
When we think of a deadlift, we immediately think of hamstrings. However, a proper technique will allow you to work your glute muscles slightly better than a squat. Just make sure to focus on activating your glutes right at the beginning of the lifting motion. This is the part of the exercise where glute muscles are most active.
8. Lunges Exercise
Lunges are an excellent and highly effective exercise that can be done at home. According to research, it leads to very high activation levels of the gluteus maximus muscles. It can be easily made more challenging by adding dumbbells.
7. In-Line Lunge
The in-line lunge is a more challenging variation of the traditional lunges exercise that can help you get a bigger butt through better muscle activation.
6. Split Squats
Split squats exercise is another great home exercise that can be done either with body weight or with dumbbells. If you are looking to get an even better workout for your glutes then place your back leg onto an elevated surface to do bulgarian split squat. This will fire up your hip stabilizer muscles by challenging your balance.
5. Barbell or Dumbbell Hip Thrust
This exercise has been very popular on social media and it is excellent for getting a bigger butt. In fact, it is almost 25% better at activating glute muscles versus the parallel squat. However, keep in mind that it mostly works the upper gluteus maximus muscle.
Also, if you wish to make it even more effective then you can try doing a rotation hip thrust variation. This variation involves adding an outward clamshell rotation of the thighs during the hip thrust. It can improve the gluteus maximus activation by another 4%.
4. Crossover Step Up
We have now reached the most effective home exercises for growing a bigger butt. According to the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, crossover step up is 45% more effective at activating gluteus maximus muscle than the parallel squat exercise. It is a bit more challenging to perform at home and that’s why we recommend that you begin with the simpler step up exercises we will show you further in our list.
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3. Diagonal Step Up Exercise
The diagonal step up exercise is a simpler step up variation that has been shown to be more effective at activating glute muscles than many types of squats. It is almost 10% more effective than the crossover step up and a lot easier to do.
2. Lateral Step Up
Also known as the lateral box step up, the lateral step up proves to be more effective at glute muscle growth than squats and is on par with the diagonal step up exercise.
1. Step Ups
According to the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, step ups is the most effective exercise for activating gluteus maximus. Step ups exercise can activate gluteus maximus muscles 110% more than the parallel squat and 140% more than a full squat.
It is believed that the step ups’ effectiveness comes from the extra activation of the hip stabilizers that help balance the trunk during the up and down motion on one leg.
How to get a bigger butt at home quicker?
One way to get a bigger butt at home quicker is to make sure you have a specific workout plan and you are not just doing random exercises. Random exercises can produce unpredictable results. That’s why Fit.Well.Thrive. has created a free fitness program for women with daily and weekly at home workout routines to make sure you get the most out of your fitness journey. Join for free and get started today.
Sources
Fit.Well.Thrive. articles are written by credentialed fitness, health, and wellness experts, who were professionally trained as part of their education to assess the quality and relevance of medical literature. Our authors only use credible, up-to-date, and evidence-based sources to ensure accuracy of our content.
- Neto, W. K., et al (2020). Gluteus Maximus Activation during Common Strength and Hypertrophy Exercises: A Systematic Review. Journal of sports science & medicine, 19(1), 195–203. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7039033/
