The eight best exercises to add volume and shape to your glutes - Grand Goldman 2026

The glutes are one of the muscle groups we tend to undervalue the most beyond being a mere "aesthetic" muscle, so they are often not given the importance (in terms of physical activity in the gym) they truly deserve. Today we present a series of exercises that will help you give them the shape and volume you're looking for this summer at the beach.

Squat

The squat not only serves to gain strength in our legs, but it can be a wonderful ally to give shape and volume to our glutes, perhaps not with the classic squat but through its variants.

One of these variants is the sumo-style dumbbell squat on steps: to perform it, we need two steps on which we will place our feet (one foot on each step) and between which we should leave a small gap to place the dumbbell standing up. Once on the steps, we will grip the dumbbell by one of its ends with both hands (a kettlebell can also work, in which case we grip it by the handle).

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As with any squat, we must be very careful with our back posture to avoid arching it and increasing the risk of injury. Also, we must keep in mind that this variant can increase the range of motion, and the greater the range of motion, the greater the glute involvement.

So, once the dumbbell is held, the goal is to perform the same squat movement as in the classic style until we are completely upright. Ideally, when lowering, the dumbbell or kettlebell should not touch the ground, so we must adjust the height of the steps.

Glute Bridge

Another classic exercise that couldn't be missing from this post is the glute bridge, which, as its name suggests, is focused primarily on working our glutes. The basic movement involves lying on our back with knees bent and the soles of our feet flat on the floor. From this position, we should perform a hip raise, contracting the glutes at the top of the movement.

To progress, we can use a TRX or core sliders to perform the exercise. The TRX will be a great ally as we'll be incorporating the instability component into this exercise, which will force our gluteus medius to work harder on stabilization.

Another way to add difficulty or intensity to our workout would be performing this exercise on one leg. This is an ideal way to correct possible muscle imbalances between one leg and the other.

Glute Kickback

To perform this exercise, we will need a cable machine (although it can also be done without equipment and just using our body weight), as it's where we can most easily do it. Additionally, we'll need the ankle strap to place on the sole of our foot.

Once positioned facing the cable machine, we'll place the strap on our foot over the instep (some gyms have specific "straps" for placing your feet in) and perform a backward kick (some also say it's like giving a donkey kick).

For this exercise to primarily involve our glutes, we must ensure that the leg movement originates from the hip and glute rather than being a knee flexion. Also, being another unilateral exercise, it will allow us to correct imbalances.

Box or Step-Ups

Although the primary target muscle of this exercise is the quadriceps, step or box ups will allow us to focus the work on a very important muscle for our lower body: the gluteus medius. Often, when we lose our balance, it can be caused by a weak gluteus medius, so strengthening this muscle will help us improve our balance and avoid accidental falls.

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To perform it, we'll only need a step, a box, or a chair (if doing this exercise in our living room): positioned facing the step or box, we'll place one of our feet on top of it (the smaller the surface area of the foot supported, the more instability we'll generate). We'll place our arms at both sides of our body, as they will also help us stabilize and maintain balance.

Next, we'll try to step up, bringing the knee of the leg that was on the floor towards our chest and return to the floor. Ideally, we should perform this movement fluidly, but if we find it too difficult, we can place the foot on the chair and lower in two stages until we can do it continuously.

Lunge or Bulgarian Split Squat

You can find this exercise referred to by either of these two names, as in English it's very common to see it called the Bulgarian split squat. You can also find the exercise referenced as "lunges".

The most basic way to perform the exercise is starting from a standing position with hands at your sides and taking a step forward so that the knee of the leading leg is bent at approximately 90 degrees. From here, we can progress to different variants:

• Free lunge (no weight) with foot resting on a bench or step.
• Free lunge with TRX.
• Free lunge with fitball: this differs from the bosu lunge in that the foot we rest on the fitball is the one placed behind.
• Free lunge with bosu: the foot we rest on the bosu is the leading foot, forcing greater stabilization work from the gluteus medius.
• Dumbbell lunge: this exercise also has several ways to do it: we can hold the dumbbell against our chest with both hands, hold a dumbbell in each hand, grab just one dumbbell with the hand on the side of the trailing leg...
• Barbell lunge: we'll start from a classic position as if we were about to do a squat, but instead, we'll perform a lunge. Obviously, the weight should be considerably less than what we'd use for a squat.

Hip Thrust

Possibly, this is the most effective exercise of all the ones we can name. However, it's an exercise where, like the deadlift, technique is crucial to avoid injury.

As we can see in the image, the green lines indicate the correct posture: knees at 90 degrees in the final position of the movement and the neck-hip-knee axis forming a straight line. On the other hand, the red dotted line points out the most common mistake in this exercise: flexing the neck, which implies excessive tension in the muscles of that area.

The sequence for this exercise is as follows: we start seated on the floor with our back against the edge of the bench and knees bent. As we perform a hip raise, our shoulders should move onto the bench, as seen in the image (the position of the arms will be whatever is most comfortable for us, as long as we don't use them to assist the movement). Upon reaching the point of maximum hip elevation, we'll contract the glutes for one or two seconds and return to the starting position.

The recommendation is to start performing this exercise with just our body weight and gradually add extra weight.

"The Dog" (Fire Hydrant)

This exercise has a fairly simple mechanism: starting from a quadruped position, we'll lift one of our legs with the knee bent at approximately 90 degrees, as seen in the image above. We must try to avoid arching or "hunching" our back at all times to prevent injuries.

From this position, we'll perform an abduction movement with the lifted leg, similar to when a dog urinates.

The Deadlift

Although it falls outside the main category of glute exercises given its impact on the entire posterior chain and its multiple benefits, we couldn't leave it out. This exercise will allow us to work our entire posterior chain (from the shoulders to the lower body) and also is one of the great exercises that should not be missing from any routine.

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Starting from a standing position, in this case with a dumbbell in each hand, we must begin by performing a hip hinge movement while sliding the dumbbells down our legs. When the dumbbells pass our knees, we should perform a slight bend in them (this will reduce the tension generated in the back of the knee and allow for a greater range of motion). Our final position should be, as we see in the image, with our back as neutral as possible, avoiding arching it