Not every exercise that touches your glutes builds them. Some load the muscle directly and hard. Others involve the glutes as a supporting player while the real work happens elsewhere. Ranked here by how directly each one loads the glutes, from most effective down.
This is the movement list. For the programming behind it (sets, reps, how to sequence a week), How to Grow Your Glutes: A Complete Training Guide covers that in full.
1. Barbell hip thrust
The single most direct glute-building movement available. The hip extension pattern loads the glutes through their primary function more completely than almost any squat variation, and the seated setup lets you load heavy without the balance demands of a standing lift.
Why it ranks first: nothing else lets you put this much weight through the glutes specifically, with this little involvement from the lower back.
2. Barbell glute bridge
Close to a hip thrust in effect, performed from the floor rather than off a bench. Slightly shorter range of motion, which some people find easier to load heavy and control with good form.
Why it ranks here: nearly as effective as the hip thrust, and a good option if bench setup isn't available.
3. Romanian deadlift
Builds the glutes and hamstrings together through a hip-hinge pattern, and adds real posterior-chain strength a hip thrust doesn't touch on its own. Slightly less glute-isolated than the top two, since the hamstrings share more of the load.
Why it ranks here: the best hinge-pattern movement for glute development, and essential for balanced lower-body strength regardless.
4. Bulgarian split squat
A single-leg movement that demands real glute engagement to stabilise the whole rep. Exposes strength imbalances between sides that bilateral lifts hide, and the rear-foot-elevated position increases the range through the hip.
Why it ranks here: unmatched for unilateral glute strength, though the setup and balance demands make it harder to load as heavy as a hip thrust.
5. Walking lunges
Builds glutes and quads together through a full range of motion, and the walking pattern carries over to real-world strength better than most machine-based options. For a full at-home session built around this and similar movements, see Leg Day at Home.
Why it ranks here: solid glute stimulus with the added benefit of functional carryover, but shares load with the quads more than a pure hip-extension movement.
6. Cable or banded kickbacks
Lower absolute load than the barbell movements above, but useful for isolating the glutes at the end of a session, when you want extra volume without adding more strain to the lower back.
Why it ranks here: a strong finisher, not a strong foundation. Effective as an addition, not as your main glute movement.
7. Banded lateral walks
Minimal load, but this is an activation movement, not a growth movement, and it plays a different role. Done before your working sets, it wakes the glutes up and improves how well they fire during the heavier lifts above.
Why it ranks here: low on its own for building size, but worth including for what it does to the quality of everything that follows it.
What this list is not
Squats. A back squat trains the glutes, but the quads generally do more of the work in a standard stance, which is why it isn't ranked above the more glute-dominant movements here. It's still a good lift. It's just not the best tool specifically for glute growth, which is what this list is ranking.
Putting the ranking to work
A simple, effective structure: one session built around the hip thrust or barbell glute bridge as the main lift, a second session led by Romanian deadlifts and Bulgarian split squats, with walking lunges or kickbacks added wherever you have room. Two to three sessions a week, progressing the weight over time, covers most of what this list has to offer.
Training seriously for glute growth means training in kit that doesn't distract from the movement itself. Our scrunch leggings and bum-enhancing leggings are built with the compression and fit to hold their shape through heavy hip thrusts and split squats without shifting mid-set.