The Ultimate 12 Week Glute Building Workout Plan (Free PDF)

In this 12 Week Glute Building Workout Plan, you’ll find a routine that concentrates on classic no BS exercises for developing a firm and shapely backside.

This program was developed after lots of experimentation and review of resistance exercise and biomechanics research. It will work.

Jump to the workout plan now!

Alternatively, you can download the free PDF using the link below:

The 12 Week Glute Building Workout Plan In a Nutshell

Program style	Resistance training
Program duration	12 weeks
Target Gender	Male and female
Target Muscles	Gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus
Workout duration	1-2 hours
Scheduling	3 day split
Goal	Build and shape glutes
Level	Beginners to advanced
Equipment	Dumbbells (DB), Barbell (BB), hex bar, resistance bands, cable machine

7 Benefits to Training Your Glutes

While you might be familiar with exercises like squats and deadlifts that target your quads, hamstrings, and calves, it’s easy to overlook one of the most important muscles in your lower body: your glutes. Training your glutes can have a variety of benefits that go beyond just looking good in a pair of jeans or shorts. Here are 7 main benefits…

1. Get Stronger

Strong glutes will help you crush other exercises like squats and deadlifts, which require a lot of lower body strength. By training your glutes, you’ll also be able to lift heavier weights in other exercises, which means more gains!

2. Crush Other Exercises

As I mentioned earlier, strong glutes will help you perform better in other exercises. Squats, deadlifts, and lunges all require a stable base, and your glutes play a major role in providing that stability. By training your glutes, you’ll be able to generate more power and explosiveness, which will help you crush those other exercises.

3. Avoids Injuries

Weak glutes can contribute to a variety of injuries, including knee, hip, and lower back pain. By strengthening your glutes, you’ll be able to better support your joints and reduce your risk of injury. Plus, strong glutes can help prevent muscle imbalances, which can also contribute to injuries.

4. Improves Posture

Your glutes play an important role in supporting your spine and pelvis. By strengthening your glutes, you’ll be able to maintain better posture, which can reduce the risk of developing poor posture habits. Plus, better posture will help you look more confident and self-assured.

5. Boosts Athletic Performance

Strong glutes can help you run faster, jump higher, and be more explosive. Your glutes are responsible for hip extension, which is a key movement in many athletic activities. By training your glutes, you’ll be able to generate more power and speed, which will help you perform better in sports and other physical activities.

6. Improves Balance

Your glutes also play a role in maintaining balance and stability. By training your glutes, you’ll be able to better control your body during exercises, which can prevent falls and improve overall form. Plus, better balance can also help improve your performance in other exercises, like single-leg movements.

7. Burns Fat

Your glutes are some of the largest muscles in your body and training them can help boost your metabolism and burn fat. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest, which means you’ll be able to lose weight and get shredded faster.

What to Expect From This Program

Getting right to it, you can expect to work your glutes like never before.

You’ll see some familiar exercises, some new ones that will surprise you, and others will be conspicuous in their absence.

You can trust that all the exercises here, the rep ranges and progressions, aren’t just pulled out of Wonder Woman’s patoot.

They are staples of competing bodybuilders and physique athletes.

You’ll work glutes twice a week. Reps are low but intensity is high. You’ll need the rest days.

Who Should Do This Program?

Women and men who want better developed–and healthier–hip muscles should do this program.

No question that the ladies are caring a lot more about their glutes these days than the guys.

However, the men should be caring more than they do. There’s the cosmetic benefit – how a dude looks in jeans–and then there’s the functional component too.

One of the most cringeworthy moments in any commercial gym locker room is the old dude with the elephant ear backside.

Let’s put it this way: if you can’t get out of a chair without using your arms, or you need a belt to keep your pants up, you need to be doing this program. You can add Glute Day 1 or Glute Day 2 to any leg day when you’re not already working glutes.

Workout Plan Structure

Our 12 Week Glute Workout Plan breaks down like this:

The program separates into 2 days of glute work per week. The first workout is the heaviest.

Glutes max, medius, and even minimis (invisible from the surface) get attention.

Working sets are where the gains are made.

Full gas is required to get the most out of each. So, for your warm-up sets, get your body ready with a 8-ish rep set at roughly half your target working weight.

I like 60% but I’m not exactly getting my calculator out to find that weight. Sometimes I’ll go to 10 or even 12 reps for that first warm-up if the bod is feeling cranky.

But light. That’s the ticket. You’ll get no gains from your warm-ups.

For the second warm-up, take a jump and get a few reps at about 80%. Maybe 3 to 4 reps.

Why so few?

Because again, the body builds muscle when you recruit the high-threshold motor units and weights well below your threshold will not do this.

Just cue the body and brain that the weight is getting heavier. This second set also gets the joints ready.

If you need a 3rd warm-up set, go to your target weight for a single or a double. Maybe.

Again, the idea here is that those last couple of sets per exercise need to be strenuous, and you will not want to have spent too much energy on warm-ups, or fatigue the muscle on a weight that in summary won’t matter for muscle gain.

Can I Work Out Other Body Parts Than Just Glutes?

Yes. You can do other workouts if you like as long as you’re not working glutes or fatiguing the glute muscles on the other days.

The one exception is Day 7. Stay out of the gym on that day and take it easy on the physical activity. If you don’t, you won’t be recovered enough to blast it on Day 1, your heavy day.

Don’t do compound leg exercises that require your glutes to work on your interval days between glutes.

Also, consider not working your back on the day before Glute 1 when you’ll need your back muscles fresh for RDLs. Your traps and erector muscles will need to be ready for RDLs.

You’ll be getting some quad work with the Bulgarians and Reverse Lunges. Hope that makes sense.

Remember that you can add these glute workouts to a leg workout, presenting a risk of overtraining your glutes. If you stick to the 2 working sets per exercise, you should be fine.

Working arms, chest, shoulders on other days…no prob.

NO ballistic exercises or plyometrics while doing this program please. These include:

• Box jumps
• Cleans
• Snatches
• Burpees

Doing leg isolators like Leg Extensions, Sissy Squats, Sissy Hack Squats, or Leg Curls is fine. They do not involve nor fatigue the glutes.

The 12 Week Glute Building Workout Plan

You’ll work glutes 2 days a week with this program. You get to pick which day is Day 1. It doesn’t have to be a Sunday or Monday. What’s important is recovery between workouts.

Download it here:

Why We Chose the Exercises We Chose

By now, you may be scratching your head and questioning why some of the popular glute exercises aren’t in this program?

The exercises that made it into this program share these things in common:

• Biomechanically isolate the glutes
• Provide a wide range of motion
• Low risk of injury

At some point it’s good to realize that a person doesn’t need dozens of exercises for a muscle group. Either an exercise works the muscle efficiently or it doesn’t. And if it does, why add one that doesn’t?

Apply progressive overload to keep the muscle challenge and subsequent adaptations. There is no such thing as “surprising a muscle” with a new movement, unless you go from a subpar exercise to one that really does the job.

Single Joint / Single Side vs Multiple Joint / Bilateral

“I don’t need a clinical study to convince me that jumping out of an airplane with a parachute is better than jumping without one.”

Anonymous

Our program prescribes both single joint (hip only) and multi-joint exercises. I personally like bilateral when I program heavier loads for the stability they offer, like the RDLs for example.

The glutes cross only one joint, the hip. Moving the knee to work the glutes involves other muscles.

The glutes do not articulate the knee. Other muscles do. So if the knee is moving, it’s not the glutes that are doing it.

Our program ensures the glutes work as exclusively as possible, otherwise, you’ll have absolutely no concrete idea how much the other muscles contribute.

When single-joint exercises are done and done correctly, it stands to reason that the muscles that work are working alone, therefore getting maximum isolation..

Blend of Single-Side and Bilateral Exercises

Our 12 Week Glute Building Program includes a blend of single-sided (unilateral) and Bilateral resistance exercises.

Bilateral exercises provide a greater degree of stability. For that reason, I like them when stability is required for safety, and for the broader base of support on exercises where the lifter can potentially go heavier like with hex bar or barbell RDLs.

Unilateral exercises are great for the isolation they provide and for working on imbalances between the right and left sides of our bodies. Almost everyone has one side that’s stronger, and better developed, than the other.

There’s debate in the science about which one is “better”. For some fun, informative reading, check out the Point-Counterpoint article by Mullican and Nijem in the Strength and Conditioning Journal (Feb 2016). Curl up with your beverage of choice and have a blast reading.

Geek Stuff

The hip is a complex joint that can move the leg in a lot of different directions:

• Extension (move leg backward)
• Flexion (leg raise)
• Adduction (bring leg toward you and across)
• Abduction (move leg outward to the side)
• Internal rotation (rotate upper leg inward toward the middle)
• External rotation (rotate upper leg out toward the side)
• Circumduction (make a circle with your leg).

Exercises Not Included (But Often Expected)

Banded Side Walks

Banded Side Walks are actually pretty good exercises for the glutes, especially glute medius and glute minimus.

The problem with them is that they’re really hard to do right, so much so that I don’t even include them.

Even experienced lifters benefit from a knowledgeable coach to observe form.

I have literally seen *one* person do these correctly, which means I’ve seen dozens doing them badly… and embarrassingly badly, to the point of epic gym fail bad.

Common mistakes include:

• Band too heavy, making steps too small.
• Band too light, not enough resistance.
• Fox-trotting, step one way then step back the next.
• Moving at the knee.

A proper Banded Side Walk should:

• Have the band secured below the knees.
  • The farther down the leg (and of course the heavier the Thera-Band) the more challenging it gets.
• Toes should be pointed forward. Lead with your ankle bone.
• The step out to the side should be done with the sole of the foot parallel to the floor and the leg should be held rigid from the hip all the way to the foot. If the sole begins to point outward, you’re doing it wrong. Think like walking sideways Frankenstein-style.
• The trailing leg should follow the same strict movement pattern. Sole of foot parallel to the ground. Control the eccentric portion of the movement by a slow and controlled following step.

Here’s where almost everyone (and based on observational math, probably you) get this wrong:

The glutes do NOT attach below the knees nor do they move the knees.  That means that if your leg is bending to the side, your form is bad.

If your lower leg from the knee down is getting out in front of your upper leg, you are 110% wasting your time and taking up gym floor space from someone who might actually be doing something worthwhile.

Also, please please do not turn these into a dance, taking one step left and one step right, like you’re doing the Fox Trot. Again…waste of time. And it looks dumb.

Finally, bands are end-phase loaded. The resistance increases with the band’s stretch.

You’ll get better results with Cable Hip Abductions, which are in the 12-Week Glute Program. Cable Hip Abductions work the same muscles, remove all the foo-factor, and cables offer resistance from the beginning to the end of the motion, unlike bands.

Back Squats

This one always makes people mad.

Back Squats are a skill. Doing one properly requires a lot of practice.

Some people are born to squat and others are not. The squat is a “folding” exercise.

Due to anatomical variation in hip joints, femur length, femur-to-tibia ratio, and trunk length, some people aren’t even able to execute a glute-dominant squat.

If your goal is powerlifting, you’ve got to squat. Powerlifters need to train them for their sport.

But again, if you’re not one of the lucky ones whose skeletal proportions don’t predispose you to squatting, you’re going to lose to the gifted folks, no matter how hard you train.

Back squats do involve the glutes to some degree, regardless of anatomical variations. However, they do not isolate the glutes.

The quads, hams, adductors, and lumbar spine are also involved. Those muscles all help lift the weight, so arguments on the amount of weight as a reason to do back squats don’t hold much water.

It’s impossible to know how much weight any of those muscles are lifting at any given point during the back squat.

If you feel you absolutely must squat, I’d suggest doing wide stance bodyweight squats with long isometric holds in the bottom on Glute day 3. Look up Alexander Cortes’ video on Horse Stance to see proper form for these.

Program Guidelines

1. Warm Up and Stretch!

Warm up before your workout to prevent injury and practice the movements. Warm-ups are important for anyone and even more crucial for older adults. If you’re a newcomer to the gym but a veteran in another sport, you’ll already understand the value of a good warm-up.

The warm-ups included in this workout program are composed of very light sets of the movements you’ll be doing during the workout, an application of the SAID Principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands).

You should also get in the habit of stretching the target muscles before actually targeting them. This program will target basically every single muscle you have in your body, so getting those muscle loose is crucial.

There’s nothing worse than getting started on a heavy set of RDLs and pulling your glutes, which could have easily been prevented with some simple stretches.

2. Apply Progressive Overload

Apply progressive overload as you move through the program.

Do the specified number of reps with a weight you can move with excellent form until you can do more reps than written, and then increase the load. Simple yet effective.

Tons of data support progressive overload. No need to go looking for another exercise to break a plateau.

Do more reps, then do more weight. Get rest between so your muscles and central nervous system can recover and adapt. Again… simple.

3. Control Level of Intensity

The last few reps of any working set (not including your warm-up) should be hard without your form going to crap.

The program is written intentionally with the target reps decreasing over its course. Total rep quantity goes down, but the same principle holds: the last few reps should be grinders.

So for sets of 10 to 12, reps 8 through 12 should be hard. And for sets of 6 to 8, reps 3 through 8 should also be hard.

Work with perfect form. When your form’s not perfect, practice it with light weight or body weight until you master the exercise.

I regularly quote a 2021 study (Sports, Schoenfeld et al) that looked into the assumptions about rep ranges for strength, size, and endurance. It tested the notion of low reps for strength and higher reps for size and endurance.

Turns out that there’s not a sweet spot rep range for any of those training objectives.

4. Me Mindful of Rep Cadence

Perform all your reps in a rhythmic, controlled fashion to maximize time under tension. That means no explosive concentric moves and no AMRAP or anything that smells like it.

Mechanical tension and its duration is one of the cornerstones of resistance exercise.

Don’t rob yourself of muscle-building benefit by rushing your reps.

Weights should be sufficiently heavy to require relatively slow, rhythmic reps. You should be pushing (or pulling) like crazy even though the weights won’t be moving fast.

5. Rest!

Recovery is as important to physique development as your actual lifting is.

This is the period when your glutes grow in response to the stimulus. Ratio imbalances between stimulus (training) and recovery leads to overtraining and chronic overuse injuries.

Rest between workouts

On your “off” days, work other unrelated muscle groups–shoulders, arms, chest–if you like. Just stay away from leg or back work that involves the hips. Examples would be lunges, squats, deadlifts.

Leg or back work you could do without overtraining would be leg extensions, sissy squats, calf raises, cable pulldowns, Kelso shrug – any exercise that doesn’t load or move the hips.

Rest between sets

How long should you wait before doing your next set, or your next exercise? It may be longer than you think.

Research says that longer rest periods between sets beats shorter rest times when it comes to hypertrophic effect.

Personally, I’m not a fan of watching a clock. I prefer doing the next set once I can do it with intensity that meets or beats the previous sets’ intensity. Turns out that’s usually 2 to 3 minutes.

If you are a clock-watcher, 3 minutes between intense sets is a good rule of thumb. It’s much better to condition yourself not to rely on external cues like apps or clocks. The best learn to read their internal cues to know when it’s time to get after it again.

If you can go again in less than that for your working sets (not warm-ups), chances are that the set wasn’t hard enough.

6. Have Reps In Reserve (RIR)

Reps “left in the tank” is RIR, Reps In Reserve.

Knowing exactly how many more reps you really could do takes a long time. Not something newbies are good at. They either pull up way short, or do a bunch of shitty reps at the end of a set in the name of doing more.

The only rep worth doing is a perfect rep.

I’m now a fan of 1 RIR for most working sets, although pushing for failure (0 RIR) isn’t a problem as long as it’s not every set in every workout. Let your body be your guide.

If you’ve got a few years in the gym under your belt, go ahead and lift to mechanical failure for the last two sets of every exercise throughout the program. This assumes you’re getting the rest you need between workouts.

A Few Final Thoughts

Glute development may be the hottest topic in physical fitness right now. Strong opinions abound.

Because of the emotional attachment many have to their glute routines and what they believe works, we tried to follow the simple rules described above:

• The glutes don’t straighten the leg. The quads do. If an exercise requires the leg to straighten, it is not a glute isolation exercise (and why would you *not* want to isolate the muscle you’re trying to develop?).
• The more joints that move, the less the isolation. If a joint other than the hip is moving, another muscle is stealing the glutes’ show. That’s alright; you just need to be aware of what’s happening.
• There is such a thing as a “best” exercise. But “best” depends on context.
• And “best” can be determined by alignment with functional purpose and biomechanics.
  • Because the glutes serve the hip joint, and because the hip moves in so many different directions, you’ll need more than one glute exercise to cover them. But you don’t need 20. Beware junk volume out of fear of not working your buns thoroughly.
• Rest is key to muscle development. Resist the temptation to add exercises.

Finally, a pro tip for everyday life: Sit less, stand more, and walk more.

Sitting too much deconditions the glutes. Standing and walking require low degrees of work for the glutes.

Download our 12-week Glute Building Workout Plan PDF here: