Best Barbell Moves to Build Your Glutes
The world of glute training has been thrown for a loop since the very public unraveling of one particular "Glute Guy" whose name rhymes with Cret Brontreras personal business. But do not let that debacle shake your confidence in glute training.
Much of the fitness space spent the better part of the last two to three years parroting the idea that the hip thrust is the single best movement in the world for training the glutes. Early on, I had my suspicions, although they were based entirely on anecdote (my glutes have always been well developed doing only squats and lunges).
That being said, I have implemented the hip thrusts with hundreds of clients in-person and online with great results. So, despite the recent discourse, I think they are still a great exercise. Proving what exercise is best for developing what muscle groups is an itch the sports science research world has been scratching for years. I think this research is great for giving us a lens with which to prioritize movements, but it begs the question: Who the hell picks just one movement to develop ANY muscle.
Whether your trying to develop your glutes, back, quads, chest, you name it, selecting only one exercise (regardless of its effectiveness) is foolish. Doing several movements that load muscles in unique positions, rep schemes, and tempos is a much better bet than simply picking one movement.
This is especially true of the glutes.
Given the glute’s extreme strength potential, and the fact that you almost always have to train them with the quads and or hamstrings (when using a barbell at least), glute training often requires some heavy lifting (literally and metaphorical).
This is why I have prioritized barbell training with all my clients who want to build their glutes. In the era of high rep band burnouts, the barbell is still king. There are several reasons for this:
Barbell training is usually quite stable, a stable body can create a lot of tension. Tension is a good thing when it comes to growing muscle tissue.
Barbell movements are very easy to load, and adding weight to the bar is a surefire way to achieve that oh-so-important progressive overload.
Barbells are easily accessible for almost all trainees as every gym worth its salt has several.
Note: this list is in no particular order. It is quite likely each reader will respond differently to each of these four and end up having their own favorites.
Movement One: Barbell Squat. Big shocker, the barbell squat made the list. I think all variations of squatting are probably interchangeable, to be honest. I even contemplated adding front squats because they tend to be better for most when it comes to increasing squat depth. As far as squats being a great glute exercise, much is up in the air regarding individual mechanics. The glutes do the bulk of their work in the squat to extend the hips. They also incur more loading the deeper someone squats. So, generally speaking, a deeper squat (so long as form remains intact and you don’t go full-blown #twerkmode with a buttwink), is probably better for glute growth than a shallower squat of equal load, volume, and or intensity.
Beyond the squats’ direct impact on growing the glutes, it has tremendous ability to strengthen the entire body. Increasing overall strength is one of the best long-term strategies for optimizing muscle growth. Even if you are someone who gets mostly quad development from squatting, the movement’s potential to increase overall strength and contribute to glute development cannot be understated.
Movement Two: Barbell Reverse Lunge. This list would not be complete without a lunge. And, as far as i’m concerned - almost all of them would be fantastic options. It was essentially a three-way tie between the walking lunge, Bulgarian split squat, and barbell reverse lunge. BBRL’s took the cake (no pun intended) because it’s the one I tend to load with a barbell, which is, of course, the theme of this article.
In the same way, the squat indirectly improves the performance of pretty much every lift you do, I feel one could make a similar claim about lunging. The demands unilateral training places on the body from a stability standpoint can be incredibly valuable for strength production, core recruitment, as well as ensuring symmetrical development.
Movement Three: Barbell Hip Thrust. Another not-so-shocking addition to the list. The barbell hip thrust is probably the king of creating sensation and mind-muscle connection. Few lifts can light up the primary muscle group they target the way hip thrusts hit the glutes. Additionally, the relatively short lever arm allows lifters, even novices, to move a metric “fuckton” of weight. This tandem of quality sensation and the ability to move heavy weight has drawn many lifters in and made the hip thrust quite popular. Banded versions of the movement and its regressed version, the glute bridge, are also quite popular.
You can find a great deal of scientific evidence to support that hip thrusts elicit the most EMG activity in the glutes (EMG stands for electromyography). EMG is the primary way in which muscles’ electrical activity is measured during rest or exercise. There are two primary types of EMG, indwelling (inside the muscle) and surface (usually electrodes on the muscles surface). The former of the two is more reliable, but much more invasive - so surface EMG is usually what is used. The problem with surface EMG, it’s not the most reliable metric as there are plenty of competitive impulses that can cause weird EMG readings (this is often referred to as “crosstalk”). So instead of going around in circles debating what the EMG data says about glutes, I prefer to look at the general consensus of coaches AND the evidence.
All of this to say, that while EMG data might be somewhat useful, it cannot singlehandedly crown a movement superior in my opinion. I think you need to look at the bulk of the evidence (EMG included), the biomechanics, and the consensus of coaches and trainers. The hip thrust passes the test on all three and has earned a spot on this list.
Movement Four: Barbell Romanian Deadlift.
The Romanian deadlift made this list by slightly edging out the traditional deadlift. No glute training regiment is complete without adding in some type of hinging movement. The term "hinge" refers to the mechanic occurring at the pelvis when doing movements like kettlebell swings, deadlifts, and barbell RDLs. A hinge is a hip dominant movement in which the hips usually travel backward whilst the knees stay relatively stable. Hinging does a fantastic job of loading the glutes and hamstrings as those are the primary muscles called upon to return to a neutral position after hinging.
Because the RDL is more of a hinge than the traditional deadlift, it takes the cake here - but not by much. The RDL does an amazing job of loading the glutes in their lengthened position, and the act of squeezing the glutes and cueing them to extend the hips can make the RDL a tremendous movement for perfecting the mind-muscle connection and creating a sensation in the desired muscle group, which in this case is, of course, the glutes.
To Wrap This Up…
There you have it, everyone. My not-so-bold list of what I believe to be the four most effective barbell movements you can add to your routine to increase the development of your glutes. I believe in these movements so much, that I put them front center in my female physique program.
Progressing basic movements like this, while perhaps less sexy than what you may see on social media, has been the bread and butter of quality aesthetics training FOREVER. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. In fact, I would argue that in the pursuit of novelty, likes, follows, and shares, proper training is slowly becoming a lost art. If you are serious about developing your glutes, male or female, you can grab one of my programs HERE.
Written By: Danny Matranga, CSCS
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