How to Get a Bigger Butt | Top 5 Exercises & Strategies

Strong, well-developed glutes are one of the most popular training goals around, and for good reason. Beyond the aesthetic appeal, your glutes are the largest and one of the most powerful muscle groups in your body, driving everything from sprinting and jumping to simply standing up. Building them makes you stronger, more athletic, and better protected against injury, and yes, it fills out a pair of jeans nicely too.

But there’s a lot of nonsense out there, from “bigger butt in a week” promises to the idea that squats alone will do it. Here’s the honest, science-backed guide to actually building bigger glutes, and how long it really takes.

This article is informational and not a substitute for individual medical or training advice.

Can You Actually Build a Bigger Butt?

Yes, you genuinely can, and understanding why is the key to doing it right. Your buttocks are shaped primarily by muscle, the glutes, sitting on top of your pelvis, with a layer of body fat over them. Building a bigger, firmer butt means growing those glute muscles through training, exactly the same way you’d build any other muscle.

Here’s the honest nuance: your underlying bone structure and genetics influence your glutes’ natural shape and where you tend to build muscle, and those you can’t change. But everyone can build significant glute size and strength with the right approach. So while genetics set your starting point, how much you develop your glutes is very much in your hands, it just takes consistent, progressive training and proper nutrition, not a magic exercise or a quick fix.

Meet Your Glute Muscles

Your buttocks are made up of three muscles, and building a full, shapely rear means training all of them:

• Gluteus maximus: the largest of the three and the main contributor to the size and shape of your butt. This is the primary target for building size.
• Gluteus medius and minimus: smaller muscles on the side of your hips. Developing these adds to your overall shape, rounds out the sides, and is important for hip stability and mobility.

Training all three gives you not just a bigger butt, but a stronger, more balanced, better-looking one.

How Glutes Actually Grow

This is the part most quick-fix guides skip. Your glutes grow through a process called muscle hypertrophy, and it requires three things working together:

1. Progressive overload: gradually increasing the demand on the muscle over time, by adding weight, reps, or sets. This is the single most important driver of muscle growth. Doing the same bodyweight exercises forever won’t cut it, you have to keep challenging the muscle.
2. Adequate protein and enough calories: you cannot build muscle without the raw materials and energy to do so. Growing your glutes requires eating enough protein and, ideally, a slight calorie surplus.
3. Recovery: muscles grow during rest, not during the workout, so you need adequate recovery between sessions.

Get all three right, consistently, and your glutes will grow. Miss any one of them, and progress stalls. There’s no way around these fundamentals.

5 Exercises for a Bigger Butt

Just as with any other muscle, to gain volume, you need to add resistance and work on your strength. I’m sorry to burst your bubble here, but doing squats and lunges in your bedroom won’t do. You might get a firmer and toned butt by doing that, but that’s not the goal here, right?

You want to gain muscles in your glutes, and that is exactly what these 5 butt exercises will help you with.

1. Bulgarian Split Squat

Stop F*cking Up Bulgarian Split Squats (PROPER FORM!)

This killer exercise targets your glutes, quads, and hamstrings like no other, promising to give you that round, lifted look you’ve been dreaming of. Let’s dive into why this exercise is your go-to for a bigger, perkier butt:

Why it’s a Good Butt Exercise

• Isolation: The Bulgarian Split Squat isolates each leg individually, allowing you to focus on strengthening and shaping one side at a time. This helps correct muscle imbalances and ensures both glutes get equal attention.
• Deep Muscle Activation: By forcing your stabilizing muscles to work overtime, the Bulgarian Split Squat engages your glutes deeply, promoting muscle growth and strength development.
• Functional Movement: Mimicking real-life movements, this exercise improves balance, stability, and coordination, making daily activities easier and reducing the risk of injury.
• Versatility: Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned gym-goer, the Bulgarian Split Squat can be easily modified by adjusting the height of your rear foot or adding weights to increase intensity, making it suitable for all fitness levels.

How to Perform

1. Setup: Stand a few feet in front of a bench or sturdy platform. Place one foot firmly on the bench behind you, ensuring your shoelaces are facing down.
2. Positioning: With your chest up and shoulders back, lower your body by bending your front knee while keeping your back straight. Aim to bring your back knee as close to the ground as possible without touching it.
3. Execution: Push through your front heel to return to the starting position, driving your hips forward as you stand tall. Focus on squeezing your glutes at the top of the movement for maximum activation.
4. Repetition: Complete the desired repetitions on one leg before switching to the other. Aim for 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps per leg to target your glutes and build strength effectively.

Alternatives:

• Reverse Lunges: Similar to the Bulgarian Split Squat, reverse lunges target the glutes, quads, and hamstrings while improving balance and stability.
• Step-Ups: Another excellent exercise for building a bigger butt, step-ups engage the glutes and quads while also challenging your cardiovascular system.
• Walking Lunges: Incorporating walking lunges into your routine adds a dynamic element to your workout, helping to increase muscle engagement and calorie burn.

Incorporate the Bulgarian Split Squat into your gym routine and watch as your booty transforms. This is my favourite exercise for a bigger butt, and if done with good form and consistently, you will notice fantastic results. Remember always to add more resistance and not more than 10 reps per set.

2. Hip Thrust

How To Build Great Glutes with Perfect Hip Thrust Technique (Fix Mistakes!)

If you’re on a mission to build a booty that turns heads, you definitely need hip thrusts in your life! This powerhouse exercise is designed to target your glutes like no other, promising to lift, shape, and sculpt your backside to perfection.

Why it’s a Good Exercise:

• Maximum Glute Activation: The hip thrust specifically targets the glute muscles, including the gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus, ensuring maximum activation and growth for that coveted round shape.
• Progressive Overload: By easily adjusting the weight and resistance, you can progressively overload your glutes, challenging them to grow stronger and bigger over time.
• Minimal Lower Back Stress: Unlike traditional squats or deadlifts, the hip thrust minimizes stress on the lower back, making it a safer and more effective exercise for isolating and developing the glutes.
• Versatility: Whether using a barbell, dumbbells, resistance bands, or even just your body weight, the hip thrust can be tailored to your fitness level and goals, making it suitable for beginners and advanced lifters.

How to Perform It:

1. Setup: Sit on the ground with your upper back against a sturdy bench or platform. Roll a barbell or place a weight plate across your hips, ensuring it’s stable and comfortable.
2. Positioning: Plant your feet firmly on the ground, hip-width apart, with your knees bent at a 90-degree angle. Engage your core and squeeze your glutes to stabilize your body.
3. Execution: Press through your heels and thrust your hips upward until your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Squeeze your glutes at the top of the movement, then lower your hips back down under control.
4. Repetition: Aim for 3-4 sets of 8-12 repetitions, focusing on quality over quantity and maintaining proper form throughout each rep.

Alternatives:

• Single-Leg Hip Thrust: Elevate one foot off the ground and perform the hip thrust with just one leg, increasing the intensity and targeting each glute individually.
• Banded Hip Thrust: Incorporate resistance bands around your thighs to add extra tension and challenge your glutes throughout the entire range of motion.
• Weighted Bridge: Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground, then lift your hips toward the ceiling while holding a weight on your pelvis, effectively targeting the glutes and hamstrings.

3. Walking Lunges With Weight

How to Do Walking Lunges

This dynamic exercise is a surefire way to sculpt and tone your glutes while also engaging your quads, hamstrings, and core. I always add walking lunges to any leg day routine as it not only helps you get a peachy butt but also helps your balance.

Why it’s a Good Exercise:

• Functional Movement: Mimicking everyday movements like walking, the walking lunge with weights improves balance, coordination, and stability, making it not only great for building a bigger butt but also enhancing overall lower body strength.
• Compound Exercise: By engaging multiple muscle groups simultaneously, including the glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves, the walking lunge with weights provides maximum bang for your buck, helping you torch calories and build lean muscle mass efficiently.
• Scalability: Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned gym-goer, the walking lunge with weights can be easily customized to suit your fitness level by adjusting the weight of the dumbbells or the length of your stride, ensuring a challenging and effective workout every time.
• Variety: With endless variations and progressions, such as reverse lunges, forward lunges, or lateral lunges, you can keep your workouts fresh and exciting while continually challenging your muscles to adapt and grow.

How to Perform It:

1. Grab Your Weights: Hold a dumbbell in each hand, keeping your arms by your sides with your palms facing inward.
2. Stand Tall: Stand upright with your feet hip-width apart and your shoulders back, engaging your core for stability.
3. Take a Step: Take a big step forward with your right foot, lowering your body down until both knees are bent at a 90-degree angle, ensuring your front knee stays aligned with your ankle and doesn’t extend past your toes.
4. Lunge Forward: Push through your front heel to rise back up, bringing your left foot forward to meet your right foot, then repeat the movement on the opposite leg, alternating sides with each step.
5. Keep Moving: Continue walking forward, alternating lunges on each leg, until you’ve completed the desired number of repetitions or reached the end of your designated space.

Alternatives:

• Weighted Reverse Lunge: Instead of stepping forward, step backward into a reverse lunge, targeting your glutes and hamstrings while also improving balance and stability.
• Curtsy Lunge: Take a step diagonally behind your body, crossing one leg behind the other into a curtsy position, effectively targeting the outer glutes and inner thighs.
• Walking Lunge with Overhead Press: Add an overhead press with dumbbells as you lunge forward, engaging your shoulders and arms while also challenging your core stability.

Whether you’re lunging your way to a bigger booty or simply embracing the journey to a stronger, healthier you, this exercise is sure to take your fitness goals to new heights. Keep stepping forward, and the results will follow!

4. Donkey Kicks

Donkey Kicks & Fire Hydrants with Hip Resistance Band

This simple yet effective exercise also targets your glute muscles, helping you sculpt a rounder, firmer booty that you’ll be proud to flaunt. I love this exercise as you can perform it at home, all you need is a resistance band!

Why it’s a Good Exercise:

• Isolation: Donkey kicks specifically target the gluteus maximus, the largest muscle in your gluteal region, helping you isolate and strengthen this crucial area.
• Range of Motion: By lifting your leg against gravity, donkey kicks allow for a full range of motion, effectively engaging your glutes through both the concentric and eccentric phases of the movement.
• Core Stability: While performing donkey kicks, you engage your core muscles to stabilize your body, helping improve overall balance and posture.
• Versatility: Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced fitness enthusiast, donkey kicks can be modified to suit your fitness level by adjusting the intensity or adding resistance bands or ankle weights.

How to Perform It:

1. Setup: Start on all fours with your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Keep your back flat and engage your core muscles for stability.
2. Execution: Begin by lifting one leg up and back, keeping your knee bent at a 90-degree angle. Focus on squeezing your glutes at the top of the movement to maximize muscle activation.
3. Controlled Movement: Slowly lower your leg back down to the starting position, maintaining control throughout the entire motion. Avoid swinging your leg or arching your back to ensure proper form and prevent injury.
4. Repetition: Aim for 3-4 sets of 12-15 repetitions per leg, focusing on quality over quantity and squeezing your glutes with each rep for maximum effectiveness.

Alternatives:

• Fire Hydrants: Similar to donkey kicks, fire hydrants target the glutes and hip abductors by lifting the leg out to the side while maintaining a 90-degree angle at the hip.
• Standing Leg Lifts: Stand tall and lift one leg straight back while maintaining balance on the opposite leg. This exercise targets the glutes and hamstrings while also challenging your core stability.
• Weighted Donkey Kicks: Add ankle weights or resistance bands to increase the resistance and intensity of your donkey kicks, providing an extra challenge for your glute muscles.

5. Banded Walk or Banded Side Step

Banded Lateral Walks

This underrated exercise is a game-changer when it comes to sculpting and strengthening your butt, promising to give you that round, firm booty you’ve always dreamed of.

Why it’s a Good Exercise:

• Targeted Glute Activation: The banded walk specifically targets the gluteus medius and minimus muscles, which are often neglected in traditional lower body exercises. By focusing on these smaller muscles, you can achieve a more balanced and sculpted booty.
• Functional Movement: Mimicking the motion of walking, the banded walk engages the glutes in a dynamic way, improving hip stability, balance, and coordination. This translates to better performance in sports and everyday activities.
• Low Impact: With minimal stress on the joints and lower back, the banded walk is suitable for individuals of all fitness levels, including those recovering from injuries or with joint pain.
• Versatility: Whether you’re using a resistance loop or a long band tied around your thighs, the banded walk can be customized to your fitness level by adjusting the resistance level, making it a great option for beginners and advanced exercisers alike.

How to Perform It:

1. Setup: Place a resistance band around your thighs, just above the knees. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and maintain a slight bend in your knees.
2. Positioning: Engage your core and keep your chest up as you take a small step to the side with one foot. Maintain tension on the band throughout the movement.
3. Execution: Follow with your other foot, stepping to the side to create tension on the band. Keep your steps controlled and deliberate, focusing on engaging the glutes with each movement.
4. Repetition: Continue walking sideways for a set distance or time, then switch directions and repeat in the opposite direction. Aim for 3-4 sets of 10-15 steps per side to feel the burn in your glutes.

Alternatives:

• Monster Walks: Similar to the banded walk; monster walks involve taking larger steps while maintaining tension on the resistance band, targeting the glutes and hip abductors.
• Crab Walks: Start in a squat position with the band around your thighs, then walk backward and forward while keeping your hips low and your chest up, challenging your glutes and thighs from a different angle.
• Lateral Band Step Outs: Stand with the band around your ankles and step one foot out to the side, then bring it back to the starting position. Alternate sides to target the outer thighs and glutes effectively.

How to Get a Bigger Butt: The Strategy

1. Prioritise Progressive Overload

Since progressive overload is the key to growth, make it the backbone of your training. Aim to gradually get stronger over time, adding a little weight or an extra rep whenever you can. Simply going through the motions with the same light weights won’t build much. Challenging your glutes progressively is what forces them to grow.

2. Do the Best Glute-Building Exercises

Not all exercises are equal for the glutes. The most effective are heavy compound movements that load the glutes through a full range of motion. The standout is the hip thrust, which targets the glutes more directly than almost anything else, but squats, deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts, lunges, and the leg press are all excellent. A good approach is to build your training around these compounds, then add a smaller amount of isolation work like glute bridges, cable kickbacks, and banded hip abduction to target the medius and minimus.

3. Train With Enough Volume and Frequency

To maximise growth, train your glutes at least twice a week, with enough recovery in between. For each exercise, a hypertrophy rep range of around 6 to 12 reps for 3 to 5 sets works well, using a weight that’s genuinely challenging by the final reps. Our guide on how many exercises per muscle group can help you structure your weekly volume sensibly.

4. Focus on Full Range and Mind-Muscle Connection

How you perform each rep matters. Move through a full range of motion, and consciously focus on squeezing your glutes to drive the movement, rather than letting your quads or lower back take over. This mind-muscle connection genuinely helps you get more out of every set, especially on isolation exercises.

5. Eat to Build Muscle

You can train perfectly, but if you’re not eating enough to support growth, your glutes won’t get bigger. Prioritise a solid protein intake, which you can plan using our guide on how many protein shakes a day, and consider eating in a slight calorie surplus, the approach we cover in our clean bulking guide. Building muscle requires fuel.

6. Manage Your Body Fat for Shape

Since your glutes are muscle covered by fat, your body composition affects their appearance. A little body fat contributes to a fuller shape, while getting very lean reveals more muscular definition. There’s no single “right” level, it depends on your goals, but it’s worth knowing that you can’t spot-reduce fat from any one area. Overall body composition is managed through your total diet, not targeted exercises.

7. Be Consistent and Patient

Finally, the truth about timelines: building noticeably bigger glutes takes months of consistent training, not days or weeks. Ignore anyone promising a dramatic transformation in a week. Real muscle growth is gradual, so commit to the process, stay consistent, and trust that the results will come with time.

A Sample Glute Workout

1. Hip thrusts: 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps
2. Squats: 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps
3. Romanian deadlifts: 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
4. Walking lunges: 3 sets of 12 reps per leg
5. Cable kickbacks or banded abduction: 3 sets of 15 reps

Perform this once or twice a week, focus on progressively adding weight or reps over time, and pair it with good nutrition.

Common Myths About Building Glutes

• “You can get a bigger butt in a week.” You can’t. Real muscle growth takes months of consistent training. Anything promising results in days is misleading.
• “Squats alone will do it.” Squats help, but they’re not the most glute-specific exercise. Hip thrusts and a variety of movements, plus progressive overload, are far more effective than squats alone.
• “You can spot-reduce fat from your butt or spot-grow it instantly.” You build the muscle through training and nutrition over time. You can’t target fat loss to one area, that comes from your overall diet.
• “It’s all genetics.” Genetics influence your natural shape, but everyone can build significant glute muscle with the right training and consistency.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to get a bigger butt? Building noticeably bigger glutes takes months of consistent, progressive training and proper nutrition. You might feel and see early changes within a few weeks, but meaningful size takes time. Ignore any “results in a week” claims.

What is the best exercise for a bigger butt? The hip thrust is the most effective single exercise, as it targets the glutes more directly than almost anything else. Squats, Romanian deadlifts, and lunges are also excellent, and the best results come from combining them with progressive overload.

Do you need weights to grow your glutes? To build significant size, yes, progressive resistance is key, whether from free weights, machines, or bands. Bodyweight exercises help beginners at first, but you’ll need to keep increasing the challenge to keep growing, which usually means adding weight.

Can you build glutes without getting bigger legs? To some extent. Glute-focused exercises like hip thrusts and cable kickbacks emphasise the glutes over the legs, but many effective movements like squats do train the legs too. Some leg development usually comes along with glute growth.

How often should I train glutes? Training your glutes two to three times per week, with adequate recovery between sessions, is ideal for growth for most people. Consistency over months is what delivers results.

The Bottom Line

Building a bigger butt is entirely achievable, but it comes down to fundamentals, not gimmicks. Grow your glute muscles through progressive resistance training built around effective exercises like hip thrusts and squats, train them a couple of times a week with enough volume, eat enough protein and calories to fuel growth, and give yourself the consistency and patience it genuinely requires.

There are no shortcuts and no one-week miracles, but the good news is that with the right approach, almost anyone can build stronger, fuller, more athletic glutes. Put in the work over the months ahead, and the results will follow.