Best Bodyweight Exercises for Glutes — Top 10
Bodyweight training is training anywhere with no equipment. Here are the best bodyweight exercises for targeting your glutes, ranked by effectiveness. Bodyweight training builds relative strength, body control, and joint resilience with zero equipment.
Ranked by glutes muscle activation percentage, range of motion quality with bodyweight, and progressive overload potential.
The single-leg hip thrust doubles the load on each glute by removing one leg from the equation. With your upper back on a bench and one foot planted, thrust upward using only the working-side glute for maximum unilateral development.
Key Form Cue
Set up as for a standard hip thrust with your upper back on a bench.
The glute bridge is the foundational glute exercise. Lying on the floor, you drive your hips up by squeezing your glutes. It is simpler than the hip thrust and is an excellent warm-up or standalone exercise.
Key Form Cue
Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart.
Cable or bodyweight kickbacks isolate the glutes through hip extension. They are an excellent glute activation exercise and work well as a finisher after heavy compound movements.
Key Form Cue
Attach an ankle strap to a low cable or get on all fours for bodyweight version.
Step-ups are a functional unilateral exercise that builds glute and quad strength while improving balance. The higher the box, the more glute-dominant the movement becomes.
Key Form Cue
Stand in front of a knee-height box or bench, holding dumbbells at your sides.
The donkey kick is a beginner-friendly glute exercise performed on all fours, kicking one leg up toward the ceiling while keeping the knee bent at 90 degrees. It isolates the gluteus maximus with zero spinal load.
Key Form Cue
Start on all fours with hands under shoulders and knees under hips.
The Bulgarian split squat is a unilateral leg exercise that crushes the quads and glutes while improving balance and fixing muscular imbalances. Elevate your rear foot on a bench and squat down on one leg.
Key Form Cue
Stand about 2 feet in front of a bench with your rear foot elevated on it.
Walking lunges build functional single-leg strength, balance, and coordination. Each step challenges your quads, glutes, and stabilizer muscles in a way that bilateral exercises cannot.
Key Form Cue
Take a long step forward and lower your back knee toward the ground.
The reverse lunge is easier on the knees than forward lunges because you decelerate into the back leg. It builds single-leg strength and is excellent for lifters with knee issues.
Key Form Cue
Stand tall with dumbbells at your sides or a barbell on your back.
The pistol squat is a single-leg squat performed to full depth with the non-working leg extended in front. It demands exceptional quad strength, ankle mobility, hip flexibility, and balance — making it the ultimate bodyweight quad exercise.
Key Form Cue
Stand on one leg with the other leg extended straight out in front of you.
The bodyweight squat is the foundational lower-body movement that everyone should master before adding load. It builds quad endurance, hip mobility, and movement quality that transfers to every loaded squat variation.
Key Form Cue
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and toes turned out 15-30 degrees.
Put these exercises into a real program
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