Summer may seem far away, but it’s not.

In 3 short months you’ll be ready to head to the beach, the pool and to wear less clothing.

Something I notice every summer is that the bathing suits keep getting smaller and smaller.

So they cover less, and more of you is on show.

And you know what makes any bathing suit look better?

A nicer butt.

The glutes are an easy muscle group to train, and you’ll see results quickly as long as you’re performing the right movements with the right form.

Here are 2 exercises you must do to have a nicer butt.

1. Hip Thrust

The hip thrust is a movement that specifically targets the glutes while keeping other vulnerable areas of your body- i.e your lower back- out of harm's way so you can perform it with intensity and recovery quickly. 

It’s another movement where the risk reward ratio is distinctly skewed in favor of reward.

The hip thrust works a very similar looking range of motion as the RDL except your body is in a different position.  The name of the game is still loaded hip extension.

Here’s how to perform the hip thrust.

• Set up with your butt on the ground and your shoulders on a bench, or a hip thrust platform.

• You want the bench to be right in the middle of your shoulder blades, so your shoulders are fully supported

• Bring your feet about 8-12 inches from your butt, with your soles flat on the ground

• Squeeze your butt and lift your hips as high towards the ceiling as you can

• Pause for 2-3 seconds as you squeeze your glutes as hard as you possibly can, then slowly release and gently lower your butt to the ground.

2. Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

When you look at a huge function of the glutes- it’s to extend your hips. Meaning to push your hips from a backward position to a forward position.  There’s no better way to train this range of motion than with a hip hinge.

A hip hinge is exactly what it sounds like. It’s hinging at the hips. You do this by pushing your hips back toward the wall behind you, while allowing your knees to gently bend and keeping your back flat.

It’s the main movement pattern trained with a deadlift.

Now as I get older the more I hate deadlifting from the floor.  It’s a great movement for building strength, but it’s an incredibly demanding exercise that takes time to recover from. The older I get the more focused I am on targeting specific muscles and recover quickly.

Basically the juice isn’t worth the squeeze if your only goal is to build bigger glutes.

So I much, much prefer an RDL variation, not performed to the floor.

You can use really anything to perform an RDL but the best options are with a barbell or DBs. The form remains the same.

• Start standing tall with the weight touching your quads.

•  Push your hips back towards the wall behind you

• Keep your back flat,

• Gently allow your knees to naturally bend as you push the hips backwards (not down toward the ground)

• When you reach peak stretch start to push your hips forward

• Contract your glutes as you push the hips forward and straighten the legs

• Stand up nice and tall while squeezing your glutes as hard as you can

• Stand tall at the top of the movement, don’t lean back!

The RDL changes the range of motion slightly so that you are ONLY targeting the glutes and hamstrings, and not touching the floor. It’s a much smaller range of motion that allows you to perfectly target your ass.

Those are the 2 key exercises we use to help clients build bigger, stronger, head turning glutes. If you want a nicer butt for summer and for life make sure you master these 2 exercises.