Targeting The Glute Muscles

Many people, when asked about what their fitness goals are will tell you they want a ‘six-pack', or some want to have bigger arms, or even still, others will state building larger calves is their goal. But another popular goal that's becoming more and more prevalent is glute training.

What's all the talk about glutes?

The glute muscles are those that are located between your hamstring muscle and the upper bum, essentially forming that ‘curved' appearance that so many women crave.

Targeting this area is relatively easy, however, as long as you know the right types of exercises to be doing and then train with enough intensity to create change.

Obviously care must be paid to total body fat levels as well, since if you have too much fat covering this area of the body, the definition will definitely not show through.

That said, here are the top glute building movements you should be keeping in mind.

Lunges

Nothing beats a good lunge as far as glute training goes. One thing to keep in mind with this is that it will be more effective the further away you step from the starting foot. When you only take a shallow step, then you're more likely to be working primarily the quad muscles instead.

Squats

In addition to targeting the quad muscles, squats are also terrific for hitting those glutes.

Be sure when doing them though that you go down as low as you possibly can, as that is what will hit the glute muscles, taking emphasis off the quads.

Deadlifts

Next up on your list of exercises to complete should be deadlifts. Deadlifts are another very fantastic exercise as far as the glute muscles go, really help to negate the effects of gravity on the bum's appearance.

Keep in mind with these though that you really need to be mindful to keep your back in a good position otherwise you could easily set yourself up to experience back pain.

One Legged Split Squats

Nothing puts more emphasis on a single glute muscle like split squats. This exercise is very intense due to the fact you're only targeting one leg at a time.

To do them, stand in front of a chair or bench and place one leg up on top, keeping the other standing leg straight underneath you.

From there, holding a dumbbell in each hand, begin to bend the standing leg (and the back leg slightly) until you are as far down to the bottom as you can go. Then, squeeze back up to complete the rep.

Once one leg is finished, complete the same movement on the other.

Uphill Walking

Finally, the last exercise you should be doing is uphill walking. In terms of cardio, this is what will really give your glutes the best bang for their buck, plus it's a terrific calorie burner.

So, next time you're trying to target this body part, be sure you keep these exercises in mind. Making them a regular part of your lower body workouts will go a long ways towards getting your legs in the shape you'd like.