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Great
Glutes
Revealed
Glutes Demystified, Debunked,
and Re-Examined
By Bret Contreras, Kellie Davis, and Marianne Kane
Preface:
By kellie davis
Our goal in this eBook is to help
you differentiate fact from fiction
when it comes to building great
glutes. As you train and improve
through fitness, it’s often hard to
step back and ask, “Why isn’t this
working?”
You often blame yourself for not
trying hard enough, or for having
plain ol’ bad genetics. Sadly, as
women we’ve been conditioned to
think this, but Bret and I are here
to challenge the way you view
training—especially training your
glutes.
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This book will change your
perspective and help you realize that
you can and will have a more
shapely, curvy, and stronger
backside now.
This eBook will teach you to stop
doing what the latest fads or gurus
tell you to do, and how to start
activating your glutes properly. It
will also teach you what exercises
work and which ones aren’t very
effective for glutes, as well as
address your nutritional needs when
it comes to building strong, healthy
muscle.
Activation is
key to great
glutes.
As a determined woman, you are
on a constant quest for a sexy, lean
physique. Glutes are likely at the
top of your list when it comes to
building the ultimate body. The
glutes are uniquely human in that
we require this particular muscle
group for spinal support so we can
stand and walk upright.
So, in a practical sense, you want
better glutes for stronger posture,
less back pain, and greater spinal
support. But, deep down inside
you want a sexier backside so you
look great and feel confident in
even the smallest shorts and
tightest jeans.
The information offered when it
comes to building glutes is enough
to make your head spin. Hundreds
of gimmicks flood the market by
those eager to leech onto the cash
that fills your wallet. From DVD
series to butt-toning shoes: you
name it, and it’s been done by
gurus and marketers alike.
All right, so how do you know
what information to trust? Who
can you turn to for real answers?
The only way to get the right
information is conducting
extensive research into all of these
glute-training methodologies,
dieting tricks, and gimmicking
products that entice you each day.
But, who has time for that?
You have a busy life. You care for
your family, work hard in your
career, and try to keep up with
your social life all while working
toward greater health and a killer
physique. The last thing you want
to do at the end of the day is sit
down at your computer and try to
figure out fact from fiction when it
comes to building your best butt.
It’s silly to think that building your
After all, it’s just another muscle
group, right?
Not exactly.
The glutes are not only unique to
humans, but they are also unique in
how they activate. It’s not automatic
and your training may be ineffective
when it comes to using these
powerful muscles to their fullest
potential.
Worse yet, being inactive causes
your glutes to go to sleep. No, not
like when you sit too long and your
limbs go numb. They just stop
working all together. They give up
and decide to retire early.
It’s up to you to bring them out of
retirement and get them active
again. You can and will have build
your best butt by sculpting strong,
powerful glute muscles.
All you need to do is understand
what works and what doesn’t.
Rather than losing another night’s
sleep over this dilemma, we’ve
decided to take the top 52 myths
about glutes and pack them into a
these pages for you.
As two of The Glute Guy’s most
successful clients, Marianne and I
can assure you that Bret doesn’t cut
corners when it comes to research.
He devotes his life to finding and
developing the best exercises for
greater strength and development of
lean muscle mass.
It just so happens that his favorite
muscle group is the glutes, so a great
deal of his research is solely devoted
to finding and testing exercises that
relate to gluteal strength and
growth. I’ve been using his methods
for over a year now and can attest to
the fact that nothing works better.
The first step to finding the best
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glutes starts with what’s
already out there. With
years of exhaustive research
behind him, Bret was able
to come up with the 52
greatest myths known to
glutes.
Build your
best body at
any age.
Disclaimer
Please take note that the information in
this eBook, unless noted specifically,
has not been verified or approved by
FDA. This eBook is intended for
educational purposes and does not
claim to offer medical advice.
Please seek a trained medical
professional when appropriate. We can
not and do not offer any guarantees and
you use any such information at your
sole discretion. We encourage you to
read our material then combine it with
knowledge you already know and seek
the help of a trained professional before
making any final decisions.
As always the choice of what you do
with your health and body rests with
you.
We do wish you the best of health.
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2011 by GetGlutes.com
No part of this book may be
reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without
written permission from the
Training Myths
The glutes get shaped sufficiently through cardio
Cardio does not activate the glutes sufficiently for meaningful muscle growth. The very
genetically luck girl might be able to get away with just doing cardio for amazing glute
development, but 99% of us “average folks” need to do shaping exercises.
A 2007 study at the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital found the following results in terms of
glute muscle activation from typical cardio activities:
Cardio Method
Gluteus Maximus Activation
Treadmill (jogging)
48.9%
Elliptical
32.6%
Treadmill (walking)
24.3%
StairMaster
24.0%
Recumbent Bike
6.0%
Traditional bodyweight circuits can shape the glutes sufficiently
Bodyweight circuits can be good for beginners as bodyweight provides a huge stimulus for muscular
adaptation in novices. However, as individuals gain fitness, they need to progressively overload the glutes in order to stimulate further gains. As you progress, add in more challenging exercises that include the use of weight to stimulate muscle growth.
Squats are the best glute exercise
This may be the biggest myth of all in regards to the glutes. A
bodyweight squat is amazing for the quads – activating around 70% of MVC. But a bodyweight squat only activates around 10% of MVC for the glutes.
Adding in a ton of resistence still only stimulates the glutes to around 30-40% MVC.
You’re glutes need more than just squats.
Glute/ham raises work the glutes very well
Put “glute” in the name of an exercise and it has to work the glutes well, right? Wrong! All the glutes have to do in a glute/ham raise is keep the torso upright. This is not a very challenging task. The glute ham raise works on knee flexion, with some hip extension, which is carried out mostly by the hamstrings. Hamstring activation reaches around 65% of MVC, but glute activation is just around 5%. Your glutes do much more when just walking than when doing a glute ham raise!
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Pull throughs are the best glute exercise
While cable pull throughs are an amazing glute exercise, they possess one inherent flaw: instability as the loads get heavier. Due to
phenomenon, maximal loading cannot be used and the glutes fail to receive an optimal stimulus. They are still an amazing glute exercise but they’re not the best.
Rocker shoes help tone the glutes
In 2010 the American Council on Exercise actually looked at three types or rocker shoes – MBT, Skechers, and Easytone, and compared them to regular running shoes during walking at 3.0 mph, 3.5 mph, and 3.5 mph at a 5% incline. In every circumstance glute activation fell between 20 and 30% of MVC for the gluteus maximus and there were no significant differences. If you want great glutes you need to do more than buy a pair of silly shoes!
Standing exercises activate the glutes the best
A study by the American Council on Exercise (ACE) conducted in 2006 showed that a simple bodyweight quadruped hip extension activated more gluteus maximus and medius muscle than a max squat. This
exercise is performed by getting on the ground on all fours and extending one bent leg rearward. It also outperformed the lunge, step up, and single leg squat exercise.
Everyone’s glutes will respond the same to exercise
Genetics is very important when it comes to glute shape and training adaptations. One client of mine completely transformed her glutes in 6 workouts spanning over 2 weeks, while another’s only changed subtly over a one-year period while training three days per week. However, everyone’s glutes can and will look better through sound training.
Walking will help shape the backside
Many women like to race-walk or just walk fast in order to get their buns in gear. While
levels will reach around 20-25% of MVC for this task, it’s just not sufficient for glute
shaping. There’s nothing wrong with walking, but don’t expect to wake up one day and
possess amazing glutes from walking around all day long.
Deadlifts are the best glute exercise
The deadlift might be the king of all exercises and may be one of the best glute exercises in
existence, but EMG shows that it fails to provide maximal
activation for the gluteus maximus. If you could only do one exercise for the rest of your life, then deadlifts would be golden. But luckily we don’t have to choose just one and can target our gluteus maximus with specialized exercises if we so desire.
The glutes have one role: to extend the hip
The gluteus maximus functions as a hip extensor, a hip abductor, and a hip external rotator. This means that it moves the thigh rearward or raises the trunk, moves the thigh laterally, and rotates the trunk or leg
depending on whether the task is open or closed chain. The gluteus maximus stabilizes the SI Joint through its attachment at the sacrotuberous ligament and can initiate knee extension via its attachments through the IT Band.
The gluteus maximus tenses the thoracolumbar fascia, which aids in limb rotation during gait while stabilizing the torso, and provide shear protection during spinal flexion-extension tasks. Finally the gluteus maximus initiates foot rocker action during gait. The gluteus medius and minimus have multiple roles as well. Beck et al. (2000) found that the gluteus minimis acts as a flexor and an abductor as well as an internal or external rotator depending on the active portion of the muscle and the position of the femur relative to the hip.
In short, your glutes have a big job. How else would you be capable of standing upright?
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The glutes should only be trained once per week for maximum shaping
The gluteus maximus is an incredible muscle, which is capable of outrageous performances if given a chance. It can and should be trained heavily on multiple days of the week. For optimal results, I believe that training the muscle four times per week is required.
The glutes have to work hard during movement
Research shows that the glutes are not highly active in daily tasks such as during walking, stair stepping, or getting up from a chair. It is thought that this phenomenon is due to an evolutionary mechanism that spared metabolic cost by failing to engage the large gluteus maximus muscle and instead relying on the more elastic and metabolically efficient hamstring musculature for hip extension.
Only heavy strength training needs to be performed for optimal glute shaping
There are plenty of type I gluteus maximus fibers. For this reason, cardio and lighter loads may be of benefit for glute shaping. Though heavy work should activate all the fibers, research suggests that higher reps and higher volumes in typical bodybuilding routines can lead to higher increases in type I muscle fiber hypertrophy.
Furthermore, it has been shown that women often have larger type I fibers than type II fibers. For this reason, it’s important to in
lude some cardio and lower load/higher rep training in order to ensure maximum glute shaping.
Back extensions work the back and not the glutes
This is a very common misconception. Because of the name – “back” extensions – people think that the exercise is supposed to work the erector spinae dynamically so they end up flexing and
extending their spines when they perform the lift. However, it is possible to perform the movement solely at the hips, so the erectors function as stabilizers and the hip extensors produce the
For great glutes it’s only necessary to get really good at one or two exercises
The glutes have multiple
subdivisions and functions, and it’s therefore necessary to perform a variety of glute exercises in order to maximize activation and muscular shape throughout the entire gluteus maximus. Varying types of hip extension exercises, such as knee dominant hip extension exercises, hip dominant hip extension exercises, bent leg hip extension exercises, as well as abduction and external rotation exercises, should be blended together in order to maximize glute shape.
Simple bodyweight exercises are no longer important for glute shaping once you get strong
The glutes seem to want to shut down. Quit using them and you’ll lose them. When load gets very heavy, quite often individuals compensate by substituting other muscles to do the job that the glutes are supposed to do. By performing simple low load exercises that engage the glutes, you’ll keep them firing which will blend its way into heavy and explosive training to ensure that they activate easily.
The direction of the resistance doesn’t have anything to do with how well the glutes get worked
From a standing position, loads produce axial forces on the human body. Studies indicate that axial loading fails to maximally target the gluteus maximus. When lying on the back, loads produce anteroposterior forces on the human body. These horizontal loads have been shown to maximize gluteus maximus activation and are critical for the development of great glutes.
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Bodybuilding training is best for the glute development
Bodybuilders are the masters of hypertrophy, but they don’t typically train the glutes frequently enough and don’t typically perform the best glute exercises for maximum development. Their leg workouts usually consist of squats, leg presses, hack squats, leg extensions, straight leg deadlifts, and types of leg curls. These exercises hammer the quads and hamstrings but leave room on the table for the glutes.
Powerlifting training is best for glute development
Powerlifters are the masters of strength, but they don’t always train in high enough rep ranges in order to maximize glute development. Some powerlifters train the glutes optimally but many fail to perform the best assistance exercises for their glutes and rely on mostly squats and deadlifts with the occasional glute ham raise or good morning. This leaves some room on the table for optimal glute development.
Athletic training is best for the glute development
Athletes often perform the best exercises for glute development, but they usually aim for low rep ranges or explosive tempos, which fail to take advantage of “the pump” – a mechanism that has proven itself quite useful for hypertrophy purposes.
The best style of training for the glutes borrows from each of these fields – bodybuilding, powerlifting, and athletic training – in order to maximize the stimuli on the glutes.
Specialized-glute training isn’t necessary; they get worked fine
from quad and ham training
Women usually don’t do well developing glutes by pureley performing squats and
deadlifts. This can cause quads and hamstrings to overpower glutes aesthetically, which
results is loss of that desired curvy, feminine shape. For this reason, specialized glute
training is a must!
The adductor machine hits the glutes well
The adductor machine works the inner thighs, not the gluteus
maximus. Even the lower glute fibers do not get worked during this
exercise.
Infomercial products work the glutes well
Most infomercial products work far better on t.v. than they do in reality. There are certain
infomercial products that are not effective glute shapers because they fail in either using sufficient range of motion or resistance. Some of them involve abduction and adduction motions, which don’t involve much glute activity.
Machines don’t help build glutes
As you recall, the glutes are highly active in all three planes so they benefit from free weight movement. But, ff all you ever performed were lever machine squats, hammer strength deadlifts and lunges, the four-way hip extension machine or butt blaster, seated abductor machine, bodymasters low back machine, and exercises like the pendulum quadruped hip extension and reverse hyper, your glutes would look just fine! Things don’t have to be black or white; there’s a lot of gray area in strength & conditioning.
Unilateral exercises are better than bilateral exercises for glute development
Unilateral exercises are amazing for glute development, but bilateral have a slight edge due to increased stability. It is true that single-leg work, such as lunges, can induce much glute soreness.
However, activation levels on bilateral exercises such as barbell glute bridges and hip thrusts far exceed levels seen in the lunge.
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Kettlebells are the best glute building tool
There are plenty of great kettlebell exercises for the glutes, including swings, cleans, snatches, push press, goblet squats, walking lunges, and Turkish get ups. And although these are indeed great glute exercises, they’re not the best glute exercises in existence. The best glute exercises keep the knee bent so they glutes have to do more work, and they’re maximally stable to allow use with the heaviest load.
Core and abdominal strength is not related to glute development
Core stability is very important for glute development. Many exercises require a very stiff core in order to transfer kinetic energy from the upper body to the lower body and vice versa. If there’s a weak link in the chain in the core region, then the stimulus to the glutes will be
diminished until the link is strengthened and brought up to speed.
For maximum results I need to be doing heavy strength training, stretching, cardio, high-intensity interval training, plyos, yoga, pilates, and zumba.
Many women believe in the shotgun approach and fail to realize that signaling from various forms of exercise can interfere with each other and yield suboptimal results. Many are superstitious and have serious misconceptions. For example,the thought that plyos “get their legs shredded.” What this fails to address is that plyometrics is a form of exercise aimed at increasing the elastic strength of the tendons and other connective tissues surrounding the muscles.
There aren’t any secret fat burning properties to plyometrics, and you don’t have to train for 4 hours a day to see excellent results. All you need to do is some general strength training and a little bit of cardio for fantastic results.
Unstable training is the best glute-building tool
Unstable training may work well for some muscle groups, but that doesn’t hold true for
glutes. Glute activation is much lower during unstable training because your glutes are like
a canon trying to fire out of a canoe. Not much force can be created due to the instability.
The glutes prefer a nice, stable environment if they’re going to fire maximally.
If I walk on an incline treadmill or do the
stairstepper I’ll strip fat off my glutes
The myth of “spot-reduction” has been around for ages, and despite the fact that it’s been debunked, it still prevails. Working your buns will not cause localized fat storages at the glutes to melt away. Instead, fat from the entire body will be used for energy production.
Physiological Myths
The glutes are a fast-twitch muscle group
A study by Sirca and Susec-Michieli in 1980 involving 21 glutei maximi showed that although
there was considerable variability from one person to the next, the number of slow twitch
fibers always exceeded the number of fast twitch fibers. On average, the gluteus maximus
contained 68% slow twitch fibers and only 32% fast twitch fibers.
However, these results differ slightly from a study by Johnson et al. in 1973 where 36 autopsy
samples showed that on average the gluteus maximus contained 52% slow twitch fibers and
48% fast twitch fibers.
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Hip pain has nothing to do with the glutes
The gluteus maximus controls the way the head of the femur tracks inside the acetabulum (hip socket). If the gluteus maximus is weak, the femur will jam forward in the socket and create anterior hip pain. If the gluteus maximus is strong, it will exert a rearward pull on the femur and prevent insults to the anterior hip from occurring.
The glutes aren’t as important as the hamstrings or quads in sprinting and jumping
Though you may feel the quads working the most when you jump and the hamstrings working the most when you sprint – assuming you run for long enough distances – the glutes are critical for explosive tasks as they are very large muscles that can contribute considerably to
propulsion. More important, the glutes keep the quads and hamstrings healthy by bearing a large brunt of the load during movement, which prolongs productive training and prevents injury.
The glutes function just fine after typical injuries
Following lower body injury, the glutes will be inhibited. Different
receptors pick up signals and inform the glutes to chill out. This serves as a protective mechanism and prevents the glutes from maximally firing which could reinjure the afflicted area. As you rehabilitate the injury, special care needs to be taken to rejuvenate glute activation so power and strength levels can return to normal.
Knee pain has nothing to do with the glutes
If you watch people squat, climb, or jump, often you’ll see their knees cave in. This is
called, “valgus collapse” and is associated with weak upper glutes. In order to keep the
knees out, you need strong upper glutei maximi, strong glutei medii, and strong hip
external rotators. This will prevent knee injury and allow for pain-free lifting.
What the knee does during exercise has nothing to do with the glutes
All regions of the glutes fire uniformly
A study by McAndrew et al. in 2006 eloquently showed that the gluteus maximus consists of cranial (upper), middle, and caudal
(lower) sections and that each of these sections fire differently. My EMG experiments show the same. Research by O’Sullivan et al. (2010) and O’Dwyer et al. (2011) showed that the gluteus medius contained posterior, middle, and anterior subdivisions, which function differently than one another.
The glutes are easily activated and everyone’s work just fine
A nationwide epidemic known as “gluteal amnesia” has ensued, and people just aren’t activating their glutes sufficiently. You can palpate people’s glutes when they squat, lunge, and bridge, and quite often you’ll find a flimsy little muscle that barely activates.
Furthermore, research has shown that ankle sprains, stubbed toes, and low back pain impair glute function and prevent maximum stimulation. People need to restore glute function by learning how to sufficiently activate their glutes and form an intense mind-muscle connection while they exercise, thereby ensuring that their glutes contribute heavily toward the movement pattern.
Many individuals use their synergists to produce movement and rely mostly on their quads when they squat or lunge and their hamstrings or spinal erectors when they deadlift. Proper form and progression is critical for optimal glute development.
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Flexibility has nothing to do with how well the glutes work
If hip mobility is impaired, then the glutes will not be able to do their thing. When the hips are tight the spine ends up performing the intended movement. For example, let’s say someone’s hamstrings are tight and they can’t bend over at the hips (aka hip flexion). In this situation, the spine will round in order to get the person to where they need to be. If the hips can’t rotate, the spine will just rotate in order to make up the difference. If the hip flexors are tight and the hips can’t extend rearward, then the lumbar spine will just hyperextend to get you from point A to point B. This creates extra burden on the low back which creates pain and further inhibits the glutes, which are already mechanically inhibited and inhibited by reciprocal inhibition; a fancy term for the shutting down of opposing – or antagonist – muscles due to a neurological
phenomenon. Great glutes require sufficient hip mobility.
Age, pregnancy, and desk jobs make it impossible to have nice glutes
None of these things are relative to having or not having great glutes. You can get in shape at any age, with any job, after having any number of children. The golden rules with glutes is if you use them you’ll keep
them, but if you quit using them you’ll not only lose them but you’ll cause them to forget how to fire properly.
Pregnant women can continue to do various glute exercises literally up until the day of their pregnancy. Sure some exercises need to be avoided, but plenty of effective glute exercises can be performed safely during pregnancy. Those with desk jobs can always find time to train the glutes. Great glutes are a product of consistency, and you don’t need to train for an hour every day in order to see good results. You could train hard for
Getting stronger isn’t that important for nice glutes
Strength is an absolutely critical component to glute shaping. If you don’t have a nice set of
glutes and you don’t have good genetics in terms of glute shape, then your only hope in
ever getting a round, sexy booty is to get way stronger at a variety of effective glute
exercises.
My glutes just won’t grow
You may indeed have sluggish glutes, but everyone’s glutes can and will grow if you train
properly. This means ensuring proper levels of mobility, stability, and motor control. It means starting off at a reasonable level of difficulty and gradually progressing. And it means using correct biomechanics on every exercise.
My backside will get much
bigger from lifting
weights
This is a common fear in women. They look in the mirror and see this big old butt staring back at them. The problem is that their butts are wide due to fat
accumulation. Strip this fat down and there’s not much muscle or shape to speak of. The process of getting more fit, stronger, and more athletic ensures that you’re transforming your glutes because while you strip off the fat you’re building sexy shape to take its place. The result is a sexy, curvy backside that is perky, round, and 3-dimensional rather than flat, wide, saggy, and
2-dimensional.
Back pain has nothing to do
with the glutes
Many people use their back to lift objects. You watch them pick something up off the ground and they round their backs and then extend them in order to complete the task. If you look closely at their glutes while they do this you’ll notice that they barely contract. This often leads to back pain, and then back pain inhibits the glutes, which creates a vicious cycle. Proper hip hinge technique is critical in eliminating back pain and shaping the backside to perfection.
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If I workout like (insert favorite celebrity) my glutes will look just like hers
Many female celebrities were born with great booties and don’t have to work very hard to maintain them. These lucky women often have great natural shape and therefore don’t have to build their glutes as they’re already there. All they need to do is diet down and do some cardio and light activity and their glutes look amazing. For the rest of us
“genetically-average” folks we need to build our glutes and work very hard to maintain them through heavy strength training.
Just doing the right exercises will lead to great glutes
It’s not about “just going through the motions” and “just doing the exercises.” It’s about getting much stronger while using perfect form through a full range of motion. Each exercises has its own little rules and strategies for maximizing glute involvement, and to develop your best booty possible you need to learn those techiniques in order to optimally activate the glutes during exercise.
Glute strength is symmetrical from one side to the other
Usually individuals have one glute that is stronger than the other. Asymmetric glute
strength is very common and should be ironed-out as soon as training commences. If left
unchecked it could result in injury over time.
Nutritional Myths
I can’t eat carbs or fat if I want nice glutes
This misconception is absurd. A healthy balance is always the best approach and you can
always find ways to eat a little bit of what you want in life. We don’t need to torture ourselves
to look our best, and there are proper amounts of all macronutrients that will yield the best
results. These proportions can vary depending on your physiology and goals, but suffice to
say we all need certain things like essential amino and fatty acids, so protein and fat are a
must. But even carbs are useful especially during certain periods of the day such as right
upon waking and immediately following a workout.
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If I just lose a bunch of fat my glutes will look fine
Many women look in the mirror and envision what their body would look like if they lost all of their fat. Surely they’d look great! The problem is, weight loss doesn’t work this way. The body usually loses around an equal amount of fat and muscle for weight loss. This results in lost muscular shape, which leaves behind a “skinny-fat” person who doesn’t look that much better than she did before the weight loss. The truth is that we need to do everything in our power to hold onto our muscular shape when dieting down, which involves intense training.
