If you have trouble getting your glutes sore, this workout is for you! Many clients come to me with issues activating their glutes during squats and lunges and they can’t seem to elicit glute soreness (sore quads only). What you want to do to fix this is start your glute/leg day with GLUTE ACTIVATION EXERCISES…using a small resistance band! I actually recommend clients do the clamshells, hip bridges and fire hydrant exercises as often as possible in the early stages as these really help “wake up the glutes” and allow you to be able to fully activate them in even a barbell squat!
Here is the workout…with the glute activation exercises listed first…which will help get your glues FIRING! I love to do higher rep exercises as well as heavier, lower rep exercises to ensure I am working my glutes as effectively as possible.
GLUTE ACTIVATION/warmup
- Clamshells (band around legs above knees) 2×30 reps each leg
- Fire hydrants (same band around legs above knees) 2×15 each leg
- Pause hip bridge (band around knees) 2×10 reps with 10 second pause at top
- 2×20 walking lunges
- 2×10 (each leg) stepups
WORKOUT
- Stepups 4×10-12 each leg, increasing DBs weight each round (I use 20-30# dbs)
- Single leg deadlifts 4×10-12 each leg (holding DBs; I work up to 25# dbs)
- Bulgarian split squats 6×12 each leg (15# DBs; hitting parallel each rep-important tip here) SUPERSET hip thrust 6×10-15 (I start with 135# and work up to heavy sets of 10 then back down)
- Hamstring curls 4×10-15 superset 4×50 walking lunges (last 100 lunges I held 15# DBs)
- 4×12 weighted squat jumps (I held 2 20s and then 2 25# DBs) superset heavy calf raises 15-20 reps
- Finish with weighted hip bridges – 50# across lap – 4 x 25 reps
- misc: 4 x 1:00 side planks for core!
Kelly Hayman Fitness 