Floor exercises for glutes: Glutes one of the biggest muscles in our body consist of three muscles. Glutes are the most powerful muscle group in our body yet most people suffer from weak glutes problems. There may be many reasons behind that, but what we can do is to make them strong is only one thing and that is to train. While there are several machines and exercises in the gym that are designed to build glutes strong, but very few are known or discovered without the gym. But the gym is not the only option out there if you want to train your glutes, you can train them at home, office anywhere on the floor, you just need a mat. So, let’s look at some floor exercises for glutes that train your glute muscles.
Floor exercises for glutes
Below are some easy floor exercises for glutes that you can perform or do at home at any time. All the exercises are different from each one and focus on the specific muscle of your glute.
Glute bridge
The Glute Bridge is a hip and knee extension exercise that trains the gluteus maximus muscle of the glutes. Not only that glute bridge also trains and strengthens your core because the movement in the bridge involves the engagement of the abdomen muscles of your body. This is the most effective floor exercise for glutes that you can do on matt.
How to perform
- lay on the floor with your back with hands at arms at a comfortable distance from your body.
- bring your feet close to your hips by bending your knees up. make sure there is enough distance between your glutes and feet so that you can lift your body up.
- Now, push your glutes up by making your core strong with the help of your feet(to put more tension on the muscle, use your heels to push the weight up). When pushing up squeeze your hips to activate the muscles of your glutes.
- While up make sure your body from your neck to the knee is making a straight line without any bend.
- Now, slowly bring the glutes down in a way that they don’t touch the floor because then the tension from the muscle is gone.
- do 15 reps of this exercise for 4 sets by keeping the rest of 10 seconds between each set.
Note while forming the glute bridge exercise you can keep your head down or up to see the movement. The best option is to keep the head down because keeping the head up while performing exercise will reduce the oxygen intake.
One leg bridge
This is the advanced version of the glute bridge. After getting comfortable with the glute bridge you can do one leg glute bridge which is more effective and challenging at the same time.
How to perform
- Take the position of the glute bridge by lying on the floor and bringing your feet close to your glutes.
- Now, extend your one knee so that the leg is straight and lift it in the air or up.
- Perform the movement by pushing your glutes up with help of one foot and leg while other still in the air. Follow the same process by bringing the glutes down.
- Do 8 to 10 reps of one leg and then interchange the legs, and do the same reps with the other leg makes it a one set.
- Do 3 sets of this exercise by keeping the break of 10 seconds in between each rep.
Glute bridge one leg out
This exercise is similar to a one-leg glute bridge but easy to perform. This exercise also focuses on the gluteus maximus muscle of the glutes while putting more tension on the muscle.
How to perform
- Get yourself in a glute bridge position.
- Now, push your glutes up with both feet or heels and squeeze at the top
- Now, instead of coming down release your one leg in the air straight by keeping no bend in the knee and extending your leg.
- Now, ringback the foot, and a leg to its initial position while holding your glutes up at the same time.
- Next, bring the glutes all the way down, and perform the next rep.
- do 12 reps of this exercise for 3 sets. Take 10 seconds of break between each set.
Note: while doing any glute bridge movement, make sure there is no arc in your back when you push the glutes up or create a straight line because the arc in your back puts most of the pressure on your back instead of your glutes.
Donkey kicks
Donkey is the best floor exercise for glutes that targets multiple muscles of your glutes at the same time i.e gluteus maximus, gluteus medius. While the exercise is more reliant on flexibility but can target the glutes in many ways. Donkey kicks is a common name for the scientific name of quadruped bent-knee hip extension.
how to perform
- Keep your hands below your shoulders on the floor, knee parallel to hands width apart, back and neck straight parallel to the floor.
- Now perform the movement by pushing your one knee up in a way that your foot is facing the ceiling and your knee remains bent. Also, keep the other leg at rest in an initial position.
- use your glute muscles to lift the leg and foot towards the ceiling, and then squeeze your glutes at the top.
- Now, bring the knee back to its initial position, and again lift it up. do 20 reps of each leg for 4 sets.
Straight leg kicks
This is the advanced version of the donkey kick where the addition of circle and hip extension makes the movement or exercise more difficult.
How to perform
- Put your body weight on your hands and knees by Keeping your hands below your shoulders parallel to each other, knee width- apart parallel to hands and each other, neck and back straight parallel to the floor facing the floor.
- Push your foot and toes back to eliminate the knee bend and make the leg straight and parallel to the floor. use your glutes muscles to lift the leg up as much as possible.
- Next, create a half-circle with your lower leg by moving your foot and lower leg outward and bringing it back in. While bringing in bend the knee and bring the leg in its initial position.
- Do this for 12 to 115 reps of each leg (counted as one set for 4 sets). take 10 seconds of rest between every set.
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Hip drives
Another floor exercise that is way easy to perform t6hen other exercises. This exercise is a little bit explosive than other exercises.
How to perform
- Sit on your knees with your hips touching your calves.
- Now pick your glutes or hips up and push forward while squeezing at the end.
- then sit back to complete the one rap (hold your hands on your chest to eliminate any help).
- Do 20 steps of this exercise for 3 sets with moderate speed.
side-lying abduction
side-lying abduction is another floor exercise that trains glutes, and tensor fasciae latae. This exercise is also helpful in stabilizing your knee and hips. This is one of the easiest floor exercises for glutes that can be done by any age group.
how to perform
- Lie on the floor on one side in a way that your head is resting on your one arm(keep your other arm in front of your stomach) and a slight bend in your knees.
- lift your upper leg up by eliminating the bend.
- Now, bring the leg back down to the initial position.
- you can also use the suspension band to increase the tension on the glute muscle.
- Do the 10 reps for 4 sets with 10 seconds break between sets. Change the leg by changing the position after every set.
Are floor exercises enough to train the glute muscles?
The floor is a good way to activate your glutes muscles which is responsible for the growth of glutes, but there are few other factors that determine the growth of glutes, no. is diet. Diet is the most important factor in muscle growth, and because glutes are one the powerful muscle in the human body it requires a lot of fuel to grow it. If your diet is healthy and in a caloric surplus, then your glutes will grow, but the fastest way to grow glutes is always lifting heavy weights on your shoulders and doing deep squats, but this is not true for all. Not all human body is the same, which means some bodies react better to lightweight exercise than heavyweights. besides that the main benefit of doing floor exercises for glutes is, it increases the strength, endurance, and agility of your glutes. If you struggle in lifting weights off the floor these floor exercises will help you in building the strength in your glutes which gives you the two powerful beasts to lift the heavyweight.
What glutes muscles do floor exercises target?
There are three muscles in the glutes i.e gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. The combination of these muscles makes up the buttocks. So, to attain the maximum result it is best to train all three muscles in your workout. And floor exercises do target these three muscles. but always keep in mind that your workout includes a minimum of two exercises for your workout so that you can target all of your three muscles because each exercise is more dominant on a particular part or muscle of the glute than the other.
