7 Gluteus Minimus Exercises for Hip Strength & Butt Size

Regardless of being the smallest glute muscle, the gluteus minimus drammatically impacts how your decrease physique seems and performs.

Particularly, it stabilizes the hips, permitting you to maneuver with most effectivity, and it provides width to your butt, giving it a full, proportional look. 

Unbeknownst to most, frequent glute workouts like squats and hip thrusts don’t successfully practice the gluteus minimus. 

And that’s why many weightlifters have a decrease physique that’s much less robust, steady, or well-balanced than it may very well be.

To appropriate this imbalance, it’s essential embody focused gluteus minimus workouts in your exercises. One of the best ones are:

1. Bulgarian break up squat
2. Reverse lunge
3. Single-leg Romanian deadlift
4. Curtsy lunge
5. Single-leg hip thrust
6. Cable hip abduction
7. Lateral band stroll

On this article, you’ll be taught why these workouts are efficient, how you can carry out them appropriately, how you can embody them in your program, and extra.  

Glute Anatomy

The gluteal muscle tissue, or “glutes,” include three major muscle tissue: the gluteus maximus, the gluteus medius, and the gluteus minimus.

The gluteus maximus is the biggest of the three. It extends the hip, which suggests it helps transfer your thigh backward. Due to its measurement, it offers the butt most of its form.

The gluteus medius is on the facet of the hip. Its major operate is hip abduction (shifting the thighs away from one another), although it additionally performs a vital function in stabilizing the pelvis.

The glute minimus sits beneath the glute medius and has the identical main features. 

Right here’s how the glutes look in your physique:

The 7 Finest Gluteus Minimus Workout routines for Energy and Measurement

Many weightlifters suppose the squat and hip thrust are the one workouts it’s essential develop huge, robust glutes. 

Nevertheless, research reveals that whereas squatting and hip thrusting are implausible for gaining measurement and energy within the gluteus maximus, they’re awful at coaching the gluteus minimus. 

Regardless of the dearth of particular research on the very best gluteus minimus workouts for development, analysis reveals which workouts activate these muscle tissue probably the most, which helps us perceive the very best methods to coach them.

In accordance with this information, unilateral exercises (workouts that practice either side of your physique independently) are most effective, doubtless as a result of they require extra hip stability than bilateral workouts (workouts that practice either side of your physique concurrently). Workout routines that contain hip abduction additionally yield good outcomes. 

With this in thoughts, listed here are the very best workouts for gluteus minimus measurement and energy:

1. Bulgarian Cut up Squat

The Bulgarian split squat is without doubt one of the finest “facet glute workouts” as a result of it’s an inherently unstable unilateral train that greatly entails the glutes. 

Methods to:

1. Whereas holding a dumbbell in every hand, stand about 2-to-3 ft in entrance of a bench. 
2. Together with your proper foot (and heel particularly) firmly planted, place the highest of your left foot on the bench behind you. 
3. Have a look at a spot on the ground six-to-ten ft in entrance of you and decrease your butt towards the ground by bending at your proper knee.
4. Maintain decreasing your self till your proper knee bends to 90 levels. 
5. Arise and return to the beginning place.
6. When you’ve accomplished the specified variety of reps, swap sides and repeat the method.

2. Reverse Lunge

The reverse lunge is an ideal train for the gluteus minimus as a result of it’s dynamic, trains the glutes to a excessive diploma, and requires stability, stability, and coordination.

Methods to:

1. Holding a dumbbell in every hand, get up straight with each ft about hip-width aside.
2. Step again about two-to-three ft along with your left leg, inserting most of your weight in your proper foot.
3. Decrease your physique by bending each knees till your left knee touches the ground. 
4. Push off the ground along with your proper foot and lean barely backward, permitting your legs to straighten.
5. When you’re standing, deliver your left foot ahead in order that it’s subsequent to your proper foot, then repeat in your left facet.

3. Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift

The only-leg Romanian deadlift requires stability and stability and trains the glutes in a stretched place, which benefits development.

Methods to:

1. Arise straight and maintain a dumbbell in your proper hand in entrance of your proper thigh.
2. Flatten your again and decrease the burden towards the ground in a straight line whereas conserving your proper leg largely straight, permitting your butt to maneuver backward and your left leg to straighten behind you as you descend.
3. As soon as you’re feeling a stretch in your proper hamstring, bend your proper knee barely extra and proceed decreasing the burden till your decrease again begins to spherical.
4. Reverse the motion and return to the beginning place.
5. When you’ve accomplished the specified variety of reps, swap sides and repeat the method. 

4. Curtsy Lunge

As a result of your stepping leg strikes throughout the midline of the physique, the curtsy lunge entails a rotational aspect that trains the glute minimus in a novel manner. That is helpful as a result of coaching your muscle tissue by way of completely different ranges of motion and at varied angles produces extra balanced and full development than coaching with much less variation. 

Methods to:

1. Holding a dumbbell in every hand, stand along with your ft about hip-width aside.
2. Step diagonally backward along with your left leg in order that it crosses your proper leg. 
3. With many of the weight on the proper leg, decrease your physique by bending each knees on the identical time till the left knee touches the ground.
4. Reverse the motion and return to standing place.
5. When you’ve accomplished the specified variety of reps, swap sides and repeat the method. 

5. Single-Leg Hip Thrust

The only-leg hip thrust is a top-tier gluteus minimus isolation train for people who find themselves new to training or working round an injury, or for individuals who need to do gluteus minimus muscle exercises at house.

Methods to:

1. Sit on the bottom along with your shoulders resting towards a bench perpendicular to your physique.
2. Place a dumbbell in your hip crease.
3. Plant your ft on the ground about shoulder-width aside and 12-to-18 inches out of your butt so your knees are bent to about 90 levels.
4. Straighten your left knee to elevate your left leg off the ground.
5. Push the dumbbell upward by urgent by way of your proper heel till your higher physique and proper thigh are parallel to the bottom and your proper shin is vertical. 
6. Reverse the motion and return to the beginning place.
7. When you’ve accomplished the specified variety of reps, swap sides and repeat the method.

6. Cable Hip Abduction

7. Lateral Band Stroll

Lateral band walks is usually a helpful “activation exercise” for the glute minimus that helps you warm up and set up a robust mind-muscle connection. Alternatively, incorporating high-rep units of lateral band walks on the finish of your exercise is usually a enjoyable technique to get a glute “pump,” which can aid growth in some eventualities.

1. Wrap a brief resistance band or booty band round each legs simply above your knees.
2. Place your ft about shoulder-width aside to create rigidity within the band, then bend your knees barely and press your palms collectively in entrance of your chest.
3. Take a step to the left along with your left foot, then a step to the left along with your proper foot, ending along with your legs about shoulder-width aside once more.
4. Proceed taking small, managed steps to the left for a set variety of steps or a specified distance. 
5. Reverse the course and do the identical variety of steps or distance to your proper. 

Methods to Incorporate Gluteus Minimus Workout routines into Your Routine

Don’t simply take my phrase for it. Bret Contreras, one of many world’s main specialists on glute coaching, defined this nicely on a latest episode of my podcast, Muscle for Life:

I’ve this rule of thirds, which means a 3rd of your volume for glutes must be vertical hip extension workouts. These maximize this rigidity within the stretch and people contain squats, lunges, split squats, step-ups, deadlift variations, and good mornings. One other third must be horizontal. That features your hip thrust, glute bridge, kickback, again extension, and reverse hypers. After which the remaining third must be abduction.

In different phrases, even if you wish to emphasize the glute minimus, your exercises ought to nonetheless embody train for all of the glute muscles.

With that in thoughts, right here’s a balanced glute exercise that emphasizes workouts for the gluteus minimus:

The Advantages of Gluteus Minimus Workout routines

1. Enhanced Decrease Physique Aesthetics: Creating the gluteus minimus helps so as to add width to your butt, making a extra rounded, full look.  
2. Improved Athletic Efficiency: A powerful gluteus minimus improves hip stability and motion effectivity, which doubtless boosts running and sprinting efficiency.
3. Might Scale back Harm Threat: Some specialists imagine strengthening the hip abductors, together with the gluteus minimus, can forestall weaknesses that result in knee valgus, iliotibial band syndrome, ACL accidents, and patellofemoral ache syndrome. In addition they suppose it might probably scale back the danger of decrease extremity accidents brought on by poor drive absorption and instability.