Exercise selection
Glute exercises Glute AI can program
Glute AI chooses the movements in your plan for you, based on your goal, experience and equipment. You do not need to know any of these to use the app. This page is here for the curious: which exercises build glutes, what each one is for, and how they fit together.
A little anatomy first
Your glutes are three muscles. The gluteus maximus is the big one, responsible for hip extension, the movement in a hip thrust or deadlift. The gluteus medius and gluteus minimus sit higher and to the side, handling hip abduction and stabilizing the pelvis. A complete glute plan trains all three, alongside the hamstrings and the rest of the posterior chain.
Growing them comes down to the same things as any muscle: enough training volume, progressive overload over weeks, controlled technique through a full range of motion, and recovery. Glute AI handles the programming side so you can focus on the reps.
Hip thrusts and bridges
The most direct way to load hip extension, the main job of the gluteus maximus. These usually anchor a lower-glute session.
Machine hip thrust
A guided hip thrust with a fixed load path, so the working sets and next target are easy to progress week to week.
Barbell hip thrust
The classic loaded hip thrust from a bench. High tension on the glutes at the top of the rep, with plenty of room to add weight.
Glute bridge
A floor-based hip extension, often used as a warm-up, a bodyweight option or a high-rep finisher.
Hinges
Hip-hinge movements train the glutes and hamstrings together through a long range of motion, building the whole posterior chain.
Dumbbell Romanian deadlift
A controlled hinge with dumbbells that keeps the glutes and hamstrings under stretch. A regular in lower-glute sessions.
Barbell Romanian deadlift
The heavier version of the RDL for lifters who are ready to load the hinge.
Single-leg Romanian deadlift
A balance-and-hinge movement that also asks the side glutes to stabilize the hip.
45-degree back extension
A glute-biased hip extension on the back-extension bench, useful when a plan wants volume without heavy spinal loading.
Single-leg and squat patterns
Split squats, lunges, step-ups and presses load the glutes and quads together and expose left-right differences.
Bulgarian split squat
A rear-foot-elevated split squat that hits the glutes hard at depth. Demanding, and one of the best single-leg builders.
Reverse lunge
A step-back lunge that keeps the front shin vertical and shifts more of the work to the glutes.
Step-up
A high box or bench step-up that trains hip extension through a full range, one leg at a time.
45-degree leg press
A machine press that lets the plan add lower-body volume with the feet set high on the platform for more glute involvement.
Goblet squat
A front-loaded dumbbell or kettlebell squat, often the entry point before barbell squats.
Abductions and isolation
Hip abduction and kickback movements target the gluteus medius and minimus, the side and upper glutes that shape the hip.
Standing cable abduction
A cable and ankle-strap abduction that isolates the side glutes with a steady load.
Seated hip abduction
The abduction machine, ideal for high-rep side-glute work at the end of a session.
Cable kickback
A hip-extension isolation move using a cable and ankle strap to finish the glutes after the heavy lifts.
Lateral band walk
A mini-band movement for glute medius activation, often used to warm up before thrusts and squats.
Gym or home
With a full gym, sessions can lean on the hip thrust machine, leg press, cable station and abduction machine. With dumbbells and resistance bands at home, the plan shifts to dumbbell hip thrusts, dumbbell RDLs, split squats, step-ups and banded abductions. Either way the structure is the same: glute-focused exercise selection, working sets, a rep range and a next target.
Exercise names and availability in the app depend on your equipment and training level and may differ from this list.