How to build glutes without increasing thighs?

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2016-02-21

This question often troubles women. The thing is, many women have sufficiently large hips but flat buttocks. And when such women start actively training their glutes, they horrifiedly notice that along with their butt, their legs are growing too, which they don't want at all.

So, there are two pieces of news for you. One good and one bad. The bad news is that the most effective exercises for the glutes also increase leg size. The good news is that it is still possible to develop your glutes without growing your legs. However, doing so is about twice as hard and takes longer than if you included leg training.

Exercises

First, let me give you a list of exercises that actively target both the glutes and the thighs:

As you can see, these are all squats, some deadlifts, and lunges. All these exercises are extremely effective for growing your glutes… and legs as well. Therefore, if you incorporate these exercises, thigh growth is inevitable. But so is glute growth!))

Now, let's look at exercises for glute growth without increasing leg size. From the basic exercises, I would highlight the following:

All these exercises involve not just the glutes but also actively engage the hamstrings and lower back. However, there's no need to be afraid of this, as the hamstrings add very little overall volume to the legs. Thus, visually, the legs will not appear larger. However, if you have lower back issues, all of these exercises (except for hyperextensions) could be potentially dangerous for you.

Additionally, there are a few isolation exercises that target only the glutes. Here they are:

Training Methodology

You need to understand that if you have decided to train only your glutes without involving your legs, the overall load on your lower body will be less. Therefore, you need to train your glutes twice a week (once a week will not be enough). And in each glute workout, you should include 3 – 4 exercises for the glutes (2 – 3 basic ones and 1 isolation exercise). For example:

1. Romanian deadlift (3-4x10-15)
2. Hyperextension (bending over a horse) (3x12-15)
3. Hip extension with a low pulley (3x12-15)

These exercises should be performed one after the other. Even better, do them in a superset to prevent your glutes from resting and to maximally fatigue the glute muscles.

There is another approach. More accurately, it's not an alternative but an addition to this. This approach involves using exercises that target the legs. The idea is to start with 2 – 3 exercises purely for the glutes until they are fatigued, and then do squats with a barbell. This means that before squatting, you will have already worked your glutes, leading them to fatigue much sooner than your thighs. Therefore, your thighs won't get heavily loaded. This method is also known as the pre-exhaustion method.

The downside of this approach is that there is still a risk that your legs might grow. However, even if they do, it will be minimal. I recommend using this method in supersets as well. For instance, perform a dumbbell deadlift, hip bridge on the floor, and then immediately, without rest (while still feeling the fatigue in your glutes), jump into squats.

Conclusion

It turns out that the more effective a workout is for the glutes, the greater the risk of increasing thigh size. No matter what method you use. So, decide for yourself how quickly and effectively your legs grow and how large they initially are. It’s possible that your fears about massive legs are unfounded and that it's quite okay to train your glutes alongside your legs. However, if there is a significant discrepancy between your glutes and thighs, then you will need to focus on minimizing leg involvement, following the advice from this article. Good luck!