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How to Structure Your Glute Workouts: The Ideal Order Sequencing For Your Workout

So, you’re trying to come up with a good glute workout routine, but you’re not sure in what order you should do your exercises? Don’t fret, I’m here to help you figure out the order in which is best for YOU specifically; because there is no “generic” or “copy and paste” answer. Instead, I’m going to give you guys a run down of one of my own personal, glute focused workouts, and I’m going to help you answer the question yourself. But first…. I should introduce myself. 



My name is Coach Daven- I’m a personal trainer in Biloxi, Mississippi. I specialize in helping women burn fat and growing their glutes through a holistic approach. I cover all aspects of wellness, including your physical, mental, and nutritional wellness. 


Today I’m gonna be giving you guys a 2 for one: a free glute workout and the thought behind the sequence in which I perform these exercises.  How you structure your glute workouts will ultimately make or break it’s effectiveness. If you’re putting the hardest workout at the very end, it’s gonna be that much harder to perform the lift. 

Today’s Glute Workout (in order): ​​Cable kickbacks, hip thrust, bulgarian split squats,curtsy lunges, hyper extensions, forward hip abductions. 


Now, let’s talk about it.


The Start of your Workout: Big Lifts and Activation of The Glutes 


So, the main lift of my workout today is going to be hip thrusts. Not that I’m going to go easy on my other exercises, minus the kickbacks, but my main goal is to have a successful and effective hip thrust. The hip thrust is the big lift of the workout, so it’s going to need to be towards the front of your workout. For me, it’s number 2 on my list of exercises.  Before I get into my hip thrusts, I like to make sure that my glutes are warmed up and active, so I start with a glute activation exercise, like cable kickbacks. I usually do 2 sets of 15, with moderately light weight, and I focus on getting my glute muscles to fire on each individual rep. This helps me establish a mind-muscle connection with my glutes, so that my hip thrusts are that much better. Of course, a lot of us see online where fitness influencers will tell you that cable kickbacks are key for growing your glutes; while they’re not an ineffective exercise by any means, they are just a better for activating and warming up the glutes as opposed to taking heavy loads.


Once the kickbacks are out of the way,he next part of the exercise will be the  big lift, our hip thrusts. Since I’m focusing on hypertrophy (muscular growth and development), I’m going to be increasing the weight gradually over each set. This is called progressive overload, and is crucial for getting your glutes to grow if that’s your goal. An easy way to utilize progressive overload is with something called a pyramid; here’s how it works: I will start off with a set of 12 at 135; my second set will be 10 reps at 185; my third set will be a set of 8 at 225; and finally, i will perform a 4th set for 6 reps at 275 (I don’t always do 4 sets but I was feeling strong when I wrote and performed this workout). As i increase the weight, I decrease the amount of reps I perform (you can utilize this method with for most exercises, but it’s not always necessary).


So, after our big lift, which normally consists of some form of barbell exercise, I like to move on to the rest of my free weights. At this point, it’s kind of up to you what order you do them, but this is my thought process for myself: 

I get way more exhausted doing split squats and curtsy lunges than I do hyper extensions or good mornings. It makes the most sense for me personally, to move on to split squats next and then curtsy lunges (or the other way around, depending on the day) and then put my good mornings and hyper extensions in. This is because I still am at the peak of my energy levels, or closer to it at least. 


Depending on how hard my hip thrusts were, I might be fairly gassed out. So instead of putting these lifts I struggle with towards the end, after I’ve used a lot more energy, I’m going to put them towards the front, where I have the most energy, as opposed to the end, where my energy is the lowest.


Post Free-Weights 


It’s typically at this point that I’ll move onto any machines that I plan to do. Hip abduction is the only machine I had planned for this workout, so that is what I chose  to end my workout with. Machines provide stability, and are generally easier to go hard on, so machines should definitely go after your free weights exercises (note- im referring to selectorized/pin loaded machines). It would make a lot less sense for you to start your workout with your machine exercises and then move onto your free weights; it also makes a lot less sense to do 2-4 free-weight exercises before moving into my barbell lift… how you sequence the order of your workouts will definitely have an effect in how efficient you get through it. This is why exercise programming is important, because it’s not just a black and white thing when it comes to getting the best results. A lot of factors are taken into consideration when planning a workout, especially if you want to train your glutes. They can only handle so much and will need adequate recover, so you want to make the most of your time. 


Hopefully after reading this post, you feel a bit more confident in planning the order of your workouts and what workouts you need to prioritize and when to do them. If you feel like you’re having a hard time sustaining or completing your workouts, it could simply be that you’re doing them in an order that is not very optimal for your body! 


If you REALLY want to see success in the gym, if you REALLY want to see/make change, and if you REALLY want nicer glutes, you HAVE to be in tune with your body. Your body is not the one in control, but your body is what you’re essentially working on, right? So instead of “fighting your body”, listen to it, and make adjustments from there. The mind-muscle connection that you hear all the big influencers talking about? That requires you to be in tune with your body.


If you are ever in need of more fitness tips or have questions, you’re more than welcome to send me a message, and I’ll be happy to get you squared away!

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