Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 109 - Glute Masterclass + 7 *BEST* Glute Exercises!

Episode Date: July 14, 2021

In this episode, Coach Danny shares his from the trenches tips for building killer glutes.---What are the best movements:Hinges (deadlifts and RDL’s - RDL is best).Lunges with a long strideSplit squats with a forward leanHip thrusts45* hip extensionLeg press (feet close and central)Hip Abduction (cable)---Thanks For Listening!---RESOURCES/COACHING: I am all about education and that is not limited to this podcast! Feel free to grab a FREE guide (Nutrition, Training, Macros, Etc!) HERE! Interested in Working With Coach Danny and His One-On-One Coaching Team? Click HERE! Want To Have YOUR Question Answered On an Upcoming Episode of DYNAMIC DIALOGUE? You Can Submit It HERE!Want to Support The Podcast AND Get in Better Shape? Grab a Program HERE!----SOCIAL LINKS:Sign up for the trainer mentorship HEREFollow Coach Danny on INSTAGRAMFollow Coach Danny on TwitterFollow Coach Danny on FacebookGet More In-Depth Articles Written By Yours’ Truly HERE!Support the Show.

Hey, everybody, welcome in to another episode of the dynamic dialogue podcast. As always, I'm your host, Danny Matranga. And today's episode is going to be all about the glutes. So for those of you who are interested in developing your glutes from a strength or hypertrophy or muscular standpoint, this is going to be a really valuable episode for you. If you are a coach and you have a lot of clients whose goals are related to the development of their glutes, there's going to be a lot to pick apart here. We're going to talk about genetics. We're going to talk about anthropometry or the actual shape of our bodies. We're going to talk about band work and its place, glute activation, and whether or not that's something you should

be spending your time doing. We're going to talk about body fat around the glutes, as well as what you might want to do if you want to develop your glutes more so than the other lower body muscles like the quads, the hamstrings, and the calves. I'm going to go over my seven favorite glute training exercises, as well as some nutritional and supplementation things you can do to help optimize the development of your glutes, as well as some nutritional and supplementation things you can do to help optimize the development of your glutes, as well as kind of the total musculature of your entire body. Now, before we get into that, guys, I do actually have a program that's already constructed

and designed to help you develop the glutes, hamstrings, upper back, and shoulders. I call this program Female Physique. And the reason I did this is because when I started working with clients and in the online coaching space, I noticed that a large majority of the female clients I had that had a hypertrophy or muscular development goal, they really wanted to develop the back, the hamstrings, and the glutes. The occasional emphasis on the quads and delts as well. So I put together a 12-week program that includes a lot of the stuff we're going to talk about today. And you can find that over at www.coachdannymatranga.com. So without further ado, and after my shameless plug, let's get into the discussion of optimizing your glute development. And I think we have to preface all of this with saying first and foremost,

everybody's potential for hypertrophy of a muscle or musculature is somewhat influenced by genetics as is where they store their body fat. And many of us have a genetic predisposition to store quite a bit of fat on our glutes. In fact, women will store more fat than men on their hips and thighs, but how much of that goes on our glutes. In fact, women will store more fat than men on their hips and thighs, but how much of that goes to your glutes per se is very much influenced by genetics. In

the same way that the size of your arms, shoulders, or calves is influenced by genetics, the same can be said of the gluteus maximus muscle or the large glute muscle beneath the fat I just referenced. So first and foremost, acknowledge that everybody has genetic variations in muscle growth potential and body fat storage. So even though we're all capable of taking what I'm going to speak on from here on out and applying it to the best of our abilities, the outcomes are going to be highly unique, very much individualized, and that's totally okay. I don't think a lot of people really talk about this stuff in the fitness space. It's just a lot more train harder, do the best you can, eat this, take my protein, genetics don't mean shit. I love the idea of doing what you can and not using genetics as a

crutch or something that you use as a cop-out, if you will. But it is very kind of insidious and dubious, I think, to act as though genetics don't play a role. So first off, let's actually talk about the skeleton. There's a lot of variation in hip anatomy. And this is something that I've learned from numerous other coaches. Brett Contreras, who goes by the glute guy, and, you know, a lot of people have different opinions on him. different opinions on him, but this was the first person who educated me on the topic that pelvic skeletal structure and lower body skeletal structure varies quite a bit from woman to woman. So the disparity between the width of one woman's hips to the width of another woman's hips can be

quite large and almost exclusively influenced by genetics, but that can actually play a role in how they do things mechanically, and it can play a role in the exercises we select. An example of skeletal anatomy differentiation between women would be the presence of hip dips, which are just kind of the gap on the side of your butt cheeks. If you contract your cheeks, a lot of people have a noticeable dip in the lateral aspect of their hip. A lot of that is influenced by the actual skeleton and how

the muscles sit and attach on the skeleton. And so it's largely genetic. And while a lot of people say, oh, do this to fix it, it's not really something you can fix. But I think it's a really good example of just how the genetic differential between women with regards to their pelvic structure is going to play a role on how these things work. So moving on, now that we've kind of covered the anatomy and genetic stuff, let's talk a little bit about how glute training has been portrayed in conventional fitness media in recent years. And I think that we are all familiar with booty bands or glute bands, and they become extremely popular for training the glutes. You'll even see glute bands around knees on things like hip thrusts or complete standalone glute band workouts. And while

I do think that there is utility to using glute bands, I've certainly softened on just how important I think they are. I think where they really succeed is in helping with proprioception, helping improve quote-unquote mind-muscle connection, building a metabolic stress, preparing the abductors of the glute med and the glute max for heavier work, and just making sure that they're adequately primed for movement. I do not think that you need to activate your glutes prior to training them. I think that that has, one, been semi-debunked in the literature, and two, I think that as part of a global dynamic warmup, band work and quote unquote glute activation is fine. But I don't think you're leaving any gains on the table if you don't spend 20 minutes working with your band before you even work out. And that's become very popular for some people. it does help you and there's nothing wrong with that. You can totally continue to do it, but just temper your expectations as to how much, if any difference it's going to make in the outcome of your training. Now, I do think, like I said, bands have some applications, but there are a few

applications that I think are just really poor. One of which is wearing the band on the Stairmaster. I don't think that that's going to do anything except for open the door for a potential injury. Another of which is wearing the band when you are squatting or lunging. I think it's okay to wear the band while you do bodyweight squats or even squats with a bar. If you are, again, working on opening up your abductors

and using a little proprioceptive feedback or external cueing, I think that's okay. But I do not like to see people squatting with a band around their knees when they have a loaded barbell on their back, right? That's, I think that's asking for trouble. I think that's doing a little bit too much. I think that it's really going to limit how much load you can have on the barbell. And I think that that mechanical tension that you get from loading the barbell up heavy and doing the movement properly on things like squats or lunges is going to be way more important than having a band on. So here's something else that I hear a lot, and we're going to get into my favorite glute exercises and why I like them in a minute.

But one I hear often is I really want to develop my glutes, but I don't want to develop my quads and my hamstrings as much. So basically I want a really bigutes, but I don't want to develop my quads and my hamstrings as much. So basically, I want a really big butt, but I don't want my legs to get too muscular. Now, this is challenging because some of the movements that best target your glutes, like squats, lunges, and Romanian deadlifts, also work your hamstrings and quads quite a bit. also work your hamstrings and quads quite a bit. However, if you were really adamant that you did not want to develop those muscles much, if at all, and you were willing to limit the amount of work you spent or time you spend doing knee extension based exercises like squats and lunges, because those will also work your quads and your hip hinge movements like Romanian deadlifts and deadlifts because those will also work your hamstrings.

You could probably do a decent job. It's worth noting you would never do an optimal job, but probably do a decent job of helping to develop your glutes, doing things like bridges, hip thrusts, some combination of cable band work or abduction. You could throw some bands in there for a little metabolic stress work. I doubt it would hurt and really reduce the amount of cumulative volume you're doing with your hip extension, knee flexion based exercises. I don't think you can ever really throw those out because I think they're patterns worth training. I think they're very quote unquote functional. Like you want to be able to hinge. You want to be able to brace and load while you go through both hip flexion, hip extension and knee flexion and knee extension, right? Particularly,

we're going to get all of those joint actions going on during squats and deadlifts in patterns that I think are very functional in the way we move day to day, if you will. So it is possible, but I don't know if it's ever going to be optimal. It's certainly not optimal for muscle growth, possible, but I don't know if it's ever going to be optimal. It's certainly not optimal for muscle growth, which leads me to my top seven glute training exercises. And these are in no particular order. Some are better than others, though. And number one is hip hinges, particularly the Romanian deadlift. But this includes things like conventional deadlifts and kettlebell swings as well. And why we really like this movement. When you think about the Romanian deadlift, we'll use this as our example because it's a great full hip hinge.

We are really pushing the hips back. We're going into big time hip flexion as the body leans forward and the torso comes towards the ground. We're maintaining a base of support, right? We're stable. We have a tight core. Our lats are engaged. So we have good stability in the trunk, but we're getting a great stretch in the glutes. And then when you extend the hips forward and you bring the bar up to get out of that hip flexed position, we have to train big time hip extension. And hip extension is the primary function of the gluteus maximus. And that's the largest muscle in that glute complex.

That's the one that when you say, I want a bigger butt, that's the muscle that you're targeting, that muscle right there. And so the other thing that's really nice about the Romanian deadlift is it allows us to use quite a bit of weight. Same thing with conventional deadlifting

and even kettlebell swings once you become good at them. quite a bit of weight. Same thing with conventional deadlifting and even kettlebell swings once you become good at them. And there are a lot of reasons to try to select exercises that allow you to train heavier. And I kind of alluded to this earlier, but mechanical tension is really important when it comes to muscle growth. So picking exercises that you can get better at over time and put weight on the bar is a really smart way to develop your glutes. And I think that the Romanian deadlift and hip hinges overall allow you to do that very well and train those glutes in, you know, a position that I would say is extremely important for their overall development. So the second exercise is walking lunges with a longer stride. For several years, and this is anecdotal because I like to provide a little bit of anecdotal stuff in here too.

I think it's one thing to listen to a researcher talk. It's another thing to listen to a trainer talk. It's another thing to listen to a strength coach talk. It's another thing to listen to a bodybuilder talk. And I try to incorporate elements of anecdote, my own personal experience so that you guys can, you know, get a little bit of my antiquity or, you know, what makes me, me. And I, for a long time used a walking lunge as a finisher in my leg training. I would do bodyweight locking lunges for distance. And I find that when I do long stride, bodyweight walking lunges, or longer strided dumbbell or barbell lunges, I get tremendous growth in my glutes. And pretty much any long stride lunge, right, either whether it's a reverse lunge, a forward lunge, a split squat, which we'll talk about in a minute, it's going to get some stretch into that glute and

going to allow you to really, quote unquote, recruit the glute. I like to say that a lot, but those are absolutely fantastic. And I have found in my own programming that when I incorporate these for clients and make them a standing, like kind of front of the line exercise, we put it right up there with where we put split squats, barbell squats, deadlifts, all of these things, that clients get amazing glute development. And yes, you do get some quads. Of course, we talked about this and alluded to this earlier, you don't get much hamstring. But I think they're a wonderful, wonderful exercise for developing the glutes. And they're one that I don't think people really consider, because they do tend to be a little bit challenging, because many lifters struggle with the stability requirements

of walking lunges. So those are something that you can incorporate body weight for distance. You can throw a barbell on your back or even carry dumbbells or kettlebells if you would like to load them up. But I think just having them in there in some capacity is really, really valuable. And as far as progressively overloading them, you can just lunge further if you're doing them for distance. That's a unique way of creating progressive overload and variety in your programming. But you can load them up with a barbell or dumbbells too, which is awesome. Hey guys, just wanted to take a quick second to say thanks so much for listening to the podcast. And if you're finding value, it would mean the world to me if you would share it on your social media.

Simply screenshot whatever platform you're listening to and share the episode to your Instagram story or share it to Facebook. But be sure to tag me so I can say thanks and we can chat it up about what you liked and how I can continue to improve. Thanks so much for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the episode. The third is a split squat with a forward lean. So the more vertical your torso is on a split squat, the more you tend to load the quadricep. The more forward leaning the torso is, if you cue kind of keeping your weight back, you tend to load the glute. And I find that all split squats performed anyway really hit your glute hard. But if you really perform them with that

glute bias, that slight forward lean loading posteriorly, they're a wonderful option. Right up there with walking lunges, I find that the technique nuance between the quad bias split squat, which is most people's default, and the glute bias split squat takes a little bit longer to refine than just long stride walking lunges. When I say long stride, I don't mean absurdly long. But I do think that both of those are like a 2A, 2B on this list. I think they're both fantastic. So number four are hip thrusts and bridges. And they're basically the same thing, but they are a little bit different. If you want to see a great tutorial of a bridge, check out N1 Education. N1 Education has an awesome bridge tutorial. And Kasim, who's kind of the main guy over there, he has a style of bridging that he calls the Kass Bridge. And I

think it's like one of the best tweaks to the hip thrust or the glute bridge, if you will. It's more of a glute bridge because there is a difference that I've seen. And it really is. It's good cueing. It's a great way to keep the glutes in their active range on the exercise so you don't get into too much lumbar spinal flexion. You'll see a lot of that with big hip thrusts as people just do a ton of spinal flexion. And they almost lose the glutes because it's like, yo, the first, like, like the whole eccentric portion of that exercise, you're just bottoming out and just sometimes hip thrusts can get a little sloppy. Um, and, and the cast bridge is

great. Glue bridges from the floor are even great, but really what we're training here when we train the bridge is we're training that hip extension component similarly to what we are doing when we do the RDL. Um um but i find that it really hits it hard in the shortened position which is great for creating sensation and you can get a really good pump and because there's not a lot of eccentric demand i find that you can get a lot of volume in there because eccentric work has a fatiguing i think um soreness inducing component that um exercises that just don't have a lot of eccentric demand, like a RDL done with a slow tempo. There's a lot of eccentric demand in there. And that's part of

why, like, you're going to get some cooked ass hamstrings from doing that exercise as opposed to something like a hip thrust where, you know, what, what's the eccentric, like six inches to drop the bar back down on the floor. Um, you know, and you drop it down hella fast every time anyway. So you're not really like most people don't even think about the eccentric when they do hip thrusts. They're just doing the hook, a horizontal pelvic thrust. And it's a great way to hit the glutes in the short position, but I don't think on its own, it's, it's good enough, but those two are great. And some cues that I've picked up over the years that I like, I like to keep the chin tucked. I like to keep the eyes down.

I cue my clients to do what I call eyes between the thighs. I like the ribs engaged, the core tight, so that the back stays a little more neutral. I love to cue vertical shins through the entire range of motion. I like to try to keep those shins vertical. And I should see vertical shins when we get to the top. If you feel a lot of quad, your feet are probably too close to your butt. If you feel a lot of hamstring, your feet are probably too far away

from your butt because when those feet get close, you can actually use knee extension. When those feet get further away, you're going to notice you start to use some hamstring. So there are some cues here, but overall, I find these exercises are extremely simple to teach even people with a very rudimentary understanding of resistance training. Taking it over to number five is the 45 degree hip extension or the glute focused low back extension. This is done at your typical gym, right? And again, another hip extension movement, the main function of the gluteus maximus. That's the muscle we're training mostly when we talk about growing the glutes, is hip extension. And so this is kind of a fun one because you're extending into an immovable object. And you've probably seen people do low back

extensions or hyperextensions before where they get quite a bit of lumbar spinal flexion, which is fine. They're probably training the erectors a little bit too. They might get some glutes. They might even get some hamstrings. You get some blood flow in the low back. A lot of people like reverse hyperextensions as well. Those get a little more glute in my finding. You might lump them in with this group. But the glute focused or the 45 degree hip extension is great because what you do is you actually start the movement, how I've learned it, by cueing a little bit of a crunch

and basically taking that lumbar spinal flexion and neutralizing it by cueing a little bit of a crunch and basically taking that lumbar spinal flexion and neutralizing it by going into a little bit of a crunch. And that kind of flattens out your back almost like you would when you do an RKC plank. If you're familiar with the RKC plank, if you're not, you should be doing the RKC plank. It's fucking badass. And then you extend like into the pad and your glutes putting you know force into that pad is actually going to lift your body up like a crane you get some hamstrings too but you can do a little bit more volume here i find they're better off body weight when you're first learning but then you can start to load them up with things like dumbbells or plates or even get a little creative

with accommodating resistance by using things like bands where it actually gets harder at the top. But these are awesome. And I find that of the ones that I listed, these are the ones that the least amount of people do. And when I do these with women, because most of the clients who I train that are interested in developing their glutes are women, they get rave reviews. I really have had a lot of people absolutely loving this. We've been doing it for quite a few years. So many of them are really familiar with the exercise, but overall I find they're pretty easy to learn, but it is tricky right off the gate. A lot of people will kind of go immediately into like lumbar spinal extension

or just hyper extension. I should say they're not really great at getting the glutes involved just yet, but it can happen and it just takes a little practice. So the sixth one is the leg press and another one, another cue that I picked up along the way, I don't remember where I got this from, but I find that it rings pretty true. If you keep your feet central on the platform, maybe a little bit low, not too low, but like pretty much central, you get quite a bit of glute when you train through a full range of motion. And I have found this to be very true of leg presses that are on a horizontal plane, as well as the conventional leg presses that are

kind of on a decline. But yeah, I actually think the leg press is a really good glute training exercise. You don't have to like put your feet all the way out to the side and like show the world your butthole, but you can get a really, really good glute contraction and a good glute loading through the glute on the leg press if you position your feet properly. And the last one are cable hip abductions. And so this would be to train the gluteus medius and minimus, the lateral elements of that glute complex, the stuff that sits on kind of your hip pocket. And those are predominantly responsible for abduction and external rotation. So cable hip abductions done with your leg straight are pretty darn good. So let's talk about the nutritional requirements for building your glutes or building

all muscle really. And that is that you will probably do the best growth in a small calorie surplus. So I recommend 200 to 500 calories. If you'd like to give your body enough fuel to recover from hard training and develop muscle without having so much additional energy intake that you have unwanted fat gain. A little bit of fat gain generally coincides with the most, let's call it effective or the most, yeah, I think effective bulking phases. Like if you build the most muscle possible in all likelihood, you've gained some fat. It's very hard to gain the most muscle possible if you're not willing to gain any fat. You could do what you call gain tainting, but I do think that most women would be better served, most men would be better served,

most whoever would be better served if they wanted to develop their glutes, trying to do so in a 200 to 500 calorie surplus, being sure to get between 0.7 to 1 grams per pound of body weight from protein. So if you are a heavier individual, like let's say you weigh 200 pounds, and the prospect of getting between like 150 and 200 grams of protein seems daunting. I've also heard that you can do 0.7 to 1 grams per pound of goal weight or 0.7 to 1 grams per pound of lean body mass. You can play with that. But getting adequate dietary protein is important. As far as supplements go, there is one supplement that I recommend always for anybody looking to develop any muscle,

and that is creatine, particularly creatine monohydrate. I find that five grams taken daily is really, really effective at deriving muscle growth by helping you recover better, stay hydrated in the gym, and giving you that kind of extra kick. Additionally, it's non-hormonal, so it's safe for men and women to take, and it's non-stimulant based, so it's not like caffeine. It won't give you energy at the quote-unquote cognitive level. It will give your musculature and your, you know, cells what they need to perform the various elements of forceful muscle contraction, which is awesome. The creatine I take is Legion's Recharge, and you can actually head over to legion.com, shop their entire product line, check out using the promo code DANNY, and save 20%.

I don't get paid in cash to say this. I just keep the supplements coming my way. I wouldn't actively work with brands that I don't use. And I was actually using Legion as a consumer well before I ever started working with them as a brand partner. So it's a company I very much believe in and I like all of their products. So I highly recommend checking them out. They've been very generous with me and they're a fabulous company to work with. So lastly, guys, when it comes to putting this on together, remember, if you want to build any muscle, progressive overload and mechanical tension are key. And slowly adding

in more volume or training at a variety of rep ranges is probably going to help too. But your biggest focuses should be, am I getting stronger? Am I getting more weight on the bar? Am I training with good form? Am I making tangible progress? And as far as your lifestyle goes, the number one thing you could do to help facilitate muscle growth that is a quick behavioral change is aim for seven to nine hours of sleep per night. You will develop muscle better if you're on a surplus, getting adequate protein, taking the right supplements, and ensuring you're getting enough sleep. So guys, to run it down again really quick, remember genetics do play a role in your overall body shape as well as where you store body fat and your muscle growth potential. So it's better off that

you don't compare yourself to people that you see on the internet because the genetic playing field isn't even and you should only ever be trying to be the best version of yourself. Don't worry about things like hip dips for the same reason. And when we talk about the newer wave of band-focused glute training, they're pretty effective at creating sensation and adding a little bit of quote-unquote penalty-free volume, but they're not good enough standalone tools for most people to develop their glutes. Glute activation is something that some people enjoy, but it has been kind of debunked in the literature as something that's entirely necessary for helping the glutes develop. If you want to develop your glutes a little bit more than other muscles, you can do that, but you should minimize the volume

of squatting and deadlifting you do and focus more on hip extension based exercises like 45 degree extensions, abduction work, and hip thrusts. My favorite exercises are the Romanian deadlift, long stride walking lunges, forward lean, glute biased split squats, hip thrusts, 45 degree hip extension or glute biased hip extension or glute biased low back extensions, the leg press with the feet a little bit more central to the platform, and cable hip abductions. Your nutrition, sleep, and supplementation will play a role here as well, guys. Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the podcast. It really means a lot. If you enjoyed it, if you learned something, if you found it educational, please share it. There is a lot of garbage out there around how to grow and develop your glutes. So let's get this evidence-based practice stuff out to the masses

so that they don't fall prey to the bullshit in the fitness space and they can start making the improvements that they want, building the confidence that they would like. And it makes a big difference for me in getting my message out there when you guys share it and leave me reviews. The best thing you can do for the podcast is leave a review. So thanks so much for tuning in and staying with me. More episodes will be coming very shortly. I'm moving to a two times a week frequency, hopefully dropping episodes for you guys on Mondays and Thursdays. Thanks so much for tuning in. Have a good one.