Find out more about Gluteus Maximus Training. In today’s blog post we’ll show you why you only need 3 exercises to train your butt muscles.
Due to too much sitting and little movement in everyday life, the glutes are very weak in most people.
Targeted gluteus maximus training is important to ensure that these don’t completely cause atrophy.
But before you start training your butt muscles, you should first deal with the anatomy.
Train Butt Muscles
Gluteus Maximus - The Large Buttock Muscle
It is one of the largest muscles in the human body, attaches to the femur, and develops after half of the ilium, the sacrum, and the coccyx.
Its most important function is to stretch the hip joint. It stabilizes the pelvis and thus keeps the upper body upright both when standing and when walking.
It also enables abduction (= away from the body) and adduction (= towards the body) of the thigh in the hip joint.
Gluteus Medius - The Middle Gluteus Muscle
The gluteus medius fan out from the outside of the iliac wing and attaches to the bony prominence of the femur.
It is primarily responsible for the abduction of the hip joint. Its front fibers ensure flexion (= bending) and internal rotation and the rear fibers for extension (= stretching) and external rotation of the hip joint.
If you want to specifically train the gluteus medius, it is best to choose the abduction machine described under Exercise 2.
Gluteus Minimus - The Small Buttock Muscle
This is the same as the gluteus medius in its formation and function.
So straight to the most interesting part – the training:
Gluteus Maximus Exercises
With these 3 exercises you can create an optimal gluteus maximus training:
1. Squats
Squats are the supreme discipline in weight training and optimally train your gluteus maximus.
However, this exercise primarily works on your legs – hip thrusts are a great alternative to better isolate the buttocks because they cover roughly the same range of motion.
To do this, lean against a bench with your back shoulders and your legs bent at 90 degrees. There is a weight on your hips, which you slowly lower and explosively move back up by lowering your hips.
2. Abduction Machine
To cover the function of raising the leg to the side, there are special abduction machines.
If you lean your upper body slightly forward and push the resistance to the side with your butt, you can hit the gluteus medius and Maximus perfectly.
3. Kickbacks On Cable Pull
Now we should look for an exercise in which the leg is stretched backward.
Kickbacks on the cable pull are perfect for this: A permanent tension can be built up since you have to control the weight even in the negative.
In addition, you can create a slight external rotation when pulling backward and thus better hit the course of the muscle, which leads slightly outwards.
And this is how it works:
Hold on tight and lean your upper body forward so that your buttocks are stretched out nicely.
The traction leg is slightly bent, the other stands stable by pressing the heel into the ground.
Now we move the rope backward and back again with our legs almost stretched out – nice and slowly!
You can’t move a lot of weight, it’s more important to tighten your bottom and feel it well.
In general, choose a weight with which you can perform 8 – 12 repetitions cleanly.
This is how you move in the hypertrophied area and build muscles. 4 sets per exercise are ideal.
Take enough breaks in between and don’t forget to warm up and mobilize yourself beforehand. Mobility training is particularly well suited for this.
Even if more attention is usually paid to the gluteus maximus, the “little glutes” should not be neglected.
Training the gluteus medius and regular massages, in particular, can help to prevent pain in the lumbar region.