[better health3]

I am too embarrassed to ask anyone at the gym....besides squats, lunges, and step-ups, is there anything else that boosts up the gluteal area? I'm not sure how many I should be doing?

[Depalma]

throw in some romanian deadlifts, pull-throughs, and hip bridges (as you progress, do these on a swiss ball and add a leg curl at the end), dumbell or preferably (if available) kettlebell swings. Basically, think hip dominant movements. You are using predominantly knee dominant movements right now. A great way to make lunges a more hip dominant exercise is to do slideboard lunges. Reverse lunges with the backfoot on a slideboard. If you don't have a slideboard available, a cheap set of ValSlides will work as well

Your glutes are your primary hip extensors so any movement that requires hip extension will work for you.

For your cardio, try sprint intervals. Sprinters have great glute development.

Also, prior to your workout, make sure to get the glutes activated. As part of your warmup, do some hip bridges on the floor and some unweighted single leg good mornings. When you do the hip bridges, make sure that you are using the glutes and not letting your hamstrings (which are both hip extensors and knee flexors) do the majority of the extension for you. A good trick here is to press down on your quads, this will turn off your hamstrings because they will be reciprocally inhibited, ensuring that the glutes will performing the work. This is especially important if you have tight hamstrings. If the hamstrings are tight and overactive that means your glutes are weak and inhibited, so doing some activation work prior to your workout is even more important or else all these exercises you do for your glutes will not be very effective as the hamstrings are going to take over the movement.

Also, throughout the day, activate your glutes from time to time. Do some "butt squeezes" every now and then.

[srmb60]

I'm not particularly knowledgeable or consistant in this area but I do have sore glutes today.

I did some things I remember from an old VHS tape called Buns of Steel ... various kicks from an on-all-fours postion, rear leg lifts, supermans, plie squats, side lunges and a couple of different deadlifts. And I'm nice and sore today.

[baffled111]

I like deadlifts in conjunction with the step-ups, lunges and squats for this purpose. If you don't already, you should start to hold weights while you do these exercises. Then you would do 3x10 of each exercise with the weight. Body-weight is a good place to start, but barbells and dumbbells will help to keep challenging your body and working those glutes.

[Nori71]

Originally Posted by Depalma

hip bridges

I guess (so many names for the same move?) these are included in what I just added to my lower body routine last week - lower legs on a stability ball, lift to bridge and bring feet in rolling ball to butt and then reversing - intense burn! I include regular lunges and squats, I also like Sumo squats, deadlifts, step-ups. I second doing some dynamic warm-ups - I do a set of 20 of each high-knee grabs, butt kicks, frankenstein march, and a lateral walk or some cariocas. It makes a HUGE difference for me.

[Chinchilla Fairy]

Squatting, Deadlifts (sumo or romanian), lunges (forward, backward, side) and don't be scared to add weight and then increase it as you get stronger.

I've found that squats also tame the dreaded saddle bags better than any other exercise. Have fun!