Tip: 6 Butt Exercises You Gotta Try

Squats, deadlifts, and lunges do a great job of loading the glutes when they're closer to a lengthened (stretched) range, but they don't do a great job of loading the glutes when they're in a shortened range.

Basically, they create the most load on the glutes when your hips are flexed (at the bottom), but there's very little load on the glutes at the top when your hips are in extension.

Since strength is position specific, it's important to regularly perform isolation exercises such as hip thrusts, reverse hip extensions, hip lifts, 45-degree hip extensions, and 45-degree low-cable RDL's to train the glutes in the more shortened ranges of hip extension neglected by most squat, deadlift, and lunge variations.

Here are video tutorials for each of these exercises, starting with why I prefer to use single-leg hip thrusts over double-leg barbell hip thrusts.

LOW CABLE 45-DEGREE RDL

What about cable pull-throughs? Sure, they also load the hips and glutes closer to their extended position, but due to their awkward nature, along with limited ability to continuously add progressive overload, I prefer to use the other options above.

With pull-throughs you're not limited by the weight your hips can extend against, you're limited by how much you can hold without getting pulled backward, which has much more to do with your bodyweight than your strength level.