How to Get Rounder Glutes – 5 Mistakes Keeping Your Butt Flat

Use these tips to get rounder glutes. They have been selected and explained by Jeremy Ethier.

How to Get Rounder Glutes

“Wondering how to get a round butt? For most men and women, round, firm glutes are seen as more attractive than having a flat, pancake butt. A nice-looking butt isn’t just important for turning heads though. The glutes are a key muscle for athletic performance and keeping them strong can also go a long way to preventing back and hip pain. The problem is, most people approach their glute training the wrong way. 5 mistakes, in particular, that keep them from getting a bubble butt. Find out what they are, and how you could avoid them, so you can make your glutes rounder here. Includes the best exercises you could do for round glutes.”

Anatomy of the Glutes

“Before diving into the mistakes preventing you from achieving a bubble butt, let’s first understand the anatomy of the glutes. The glutes are composed of 3 muscles; the gluteus maximus, the gluteus medius, and the gluteus minimus.”

“The gluteus maximus is much larger than the other 2 glutes muscles. It’s actually the largest and heaviest muscle in the human body. It’s also a strong predictor of sprint performance. Since this muscle makes up most of your butt and seems to be the most important region for boosting athletic performance, it only makes sense to make it the focus of your training. But most people fail to do this because of the following 5 mistakes.”

How to Get Rounder Glutes – Exercise Selection

“The first mistake people make that lock them into a flat, pancake butt has to do with exercise selection. The primary function of the gluteus maximus is hip extension, the movement of driving your hips forward. Most “glute exercises” you’ll find online either don’t train hip extension at all and focus on the smaller glute muscles, or they’ll train hip extension but not in a way that enables you to use heavier and heavier weights over time. The best glute exercises are instead the ones that focus on hip extension and enable you to use heavier weight overtime. Exercises like back squats, leg presses, bulgarian split squats, deadlifts, and hip thrusts. They’re not fancy, but if you use the right form and get really strong with them over time, these will be the key to the glutes growth you’re looking for.”

Source: Photos courtesy of CrossFit Inc

Working Quads More than Glutes

“The second mistake when most people try to make their glutes rounder is working the quads more than the glutes. In a leg press, if you were to place your feet higher up on the platform and stop each rep once your knees hit 90 degrees, this would enable your shins to stay vertical over the foot throughout and will also involve more hip extension, therefore emphasizing the glutes more than the quads. You can do these one leg at a time as well, and you can also apply this concept to lunges and Bulgarian split squats as well.”

How to Get Rounder Glutes – Best Exercises

“Alright so we talked about the quads taking over but in other glutes exercises, the lower back and hamstrings actually have a tendency to take over. Let’s take a look at one of the best exercises for round glutes, the Romanian deadlift. To emphasize the glutes more, you want to use some knee bend. This incorporates more hip extension into the exercise. In addition to this, you should only go down as far as your mobility allows you to. This is the point at which the hips stop moving backward on the way down. So, try to look in the mirror and spot the point where your hips can’t move back, and stop each rep at that point.”

How to Program The Exercises

“Alright so we already covered what some of the best glute exercises are, but the way you program them into your workouts is also very important when it comes to how to get a round butt. You want to include exercises that challenge the glutes in different ways. Bulgarian split squats, back squats, leg presses, and Romanian deadlifts challenge the glutes the most at the bottom position. At the top position however, there’s no tension placed on the glutes.”

“So we’d want to look for an exercise that challenges the muscle when it’s fully shortened. Exercises like the hip thrust and the 45 degree hip extension both do just that. To apply this to your glute focused workouts, pick 1-2 exercises that challenge the glutes most at the bottom position, and then include 1 that challenges the glutes most at the top position.”

Putting it All Together

“Finally: although picking the right exercises and performing them correctly will set you up for success, some people (especially those who sit a lot) will still have a hard time activating and feeling their glutes working. One way of improving this is with activation exercises.”

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Muscles of the glutes

The glutes are comprised of four muscles: piriformis, gluteus maximus, tensor fasciae latae (TFL), and gluteus medius. All four muscles contribute to hip abduction, extension of leg at hip joint, and external rotation of hip.

How to Get Rounder Glutes – Piriformis

The piriformis muscle is located on the posterior side of the hip, deep to the gluteal muscles and superficial to the gluteus maximus. It originates from three places:

• The back portion of the sacrum (a triangular bone at the base of your spine)
• A joint capsule that surrounds a small opening in your pelvis called the greater sciatic foramen.
• Both sides of your pelvis where it attaches to muscles on each side of your hip joint (the obturator membrane). The piriformis muscle inserts into several different areas including:
• Your superior ramus (the top part) of your pelvic bone.
• Your hamstrings at their tendons below their bony attachments in your lower leg bones or tibia/fibula; these are known as long head biceps femoris and short head biceps femoris respectively.

How to Get Rounder Glutes – Gluteus maximus

The gluteus maximus is the biggest muscle in your body. It supports your hips and thighs, and it’s especially important for athletes who perform squats or other lower-body movements.

How to Get Rounder Glutes – Tensor fasciae latae

The tensor fasciae latae is a muscle that stretches from the anterior superior iliac spine to the tibia. It can be found on either side of your outer thighs, just below your glutes and above your hamstrings. It plays an important role in hip extension and adduction, as well as abduction of your leg (moving it away from the midline).

Tensor fasciae latae injuries are common in activities such as running and jumping that require strong adduction forces on your legs. Injuries may occur when you overuse this muscle or use it in high-impact activities like sprinting or plyometrics without proper preparation. If you’re experiencing pain near or around where your tensor fasciae latae muscles attach to their respective bones (either one side of both bones), there might be something wrong with them!

How to Get Rounder Glutes – Gluteus medius

The gluteus medius is a fan-shaped muscle that originates on the outer surface of the iliac crest and gluteal muscles, and inserts on the lateral surface of the greater trochanter.

The gluteus medius acts to abduct and rotate the thigh laterally. It also assists in flexing and internally rotating the hip joint.

The muscle is found deep to other muscles including: gluteus maximus, piriformis, tensor fasciae latae, biceps femoris long head (long head), semimembranosus (partially), semitendinosus (partially).

How to Get Rounder Glutes – Gluteus minimus

The glutes are three muscles that make up the buttocks. They include:

• Gluteus maximus: This is the largest and most superficial muscle of the gluteal region, located on the posterior portion of your hip. It works with other muscles to extend your leg when running or jumping.
• Gluteus medius: This muscle is one of two muscles in your buttocks that stabilize your pelvis when you walk or run. It also helps rotate your thigh inward (adduct). If you have weak glute medius muscles, it can lead to a condition known as “glute imbalance.”
• Gluteus minimus: This small muscle makes up part of what’s called the greater trochanteric bursa system, which connects tendons near your hip joint to their respective bones. The system helps protect these tissues from friction during movement.

These muscles make up your glutes.

Your glutes are a set of three muscles that make up one of the largest muscle groups in your body. These muscles play an important role in helping you walk, run, jump and squat. They also help keep your knees stable.

Conclusion – How to Get Rounder Glutes

The glutes are a complex group of muscles that play an important role in your everyday life. They help you move and maintain balance, so it’s important to take care of them!

Avoid these mistakes and keep your body and training effective and healthy.