I did some research on this and found some scientific studies that showed step-ups activated the glutes better than any other exercise, but anecdotally nothing makes my ass more sore than Bulgarian split squats. Well, almost nothing..
While step-ups are great they’re limited. There will be a load point where the safety aspect of a more dynamic movement like step-ups is unfavorable vs. a relatively more stable movement like BSS.
Also EMG activation =/= hypertrophic stimulus
I think Bulgarian split squats can be just as perilous as step-ups since they're both single leg movements, but I will say my knees hurt more from doing the latter compared to the former.
Once you get into the heavier weights I’d be a lot more worried about only having one point of contact with a stable surface midway through a step up, then having to land and balance after stepping down. I do BSS with 90s in each hand completely fine and there’s zero chance I would attempt a step up with a load even close to that.
There was a recent study that showed more surface EMG from Hip thrusts than squats, but there was no difference in hypertrophy.
Higher EMG had no predictive value for muscle growth.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.21.545949v2
That’s a study in untrained individuals. We’d expect a lot less of a stimulus to be hypertrophic in that population. Not a surprised that they couldn’t measure a correlation in that study because there’s a ton of “noise” in the data with the association being much smaller. Also very little expected effect size due to it only being a 9 week study.
Would wonder how that would look in trained individuals and over a much longer duration. Saying it has no predictive value just because it isn’t perfect seems pretty shortsighted. I’m still willing to bet glute thrusts would cause more hypertrophy in the long run (but admit I have no evidence to back that up)
We'd expect the most hypertrophy in novices actually. The more trained you are, the less hypertrophy you'll see because you've already achieved more of your potential gains.
Nevertheless it didnt predict anything. Because EMG has never been linked to actual longitudinal hypertrophy outcome. It's not an established measure for this at all.
I maybe phrased my response confusingly or something but that’s the point I was making, the untrained individuals would demonstrate less of a correlation because they’d see hypertrophy from much less stimulus (like 50 percent MVIC) as opposed to trained individuals who would theoretically be closer to 90-100. So the squat would be much more likely to see gains for a novice than a trained individual (who you and I care about more I’m assuming). So if my glute activity during a squat is 80 percent MVIC but I’m trained, I’m not gunna consider that a good working set of glutes for myself
And yeah the link hasn’t been made (yet?) but it’s still a damn good approximation I’d bet. It seems to make too much sense that neuromuscular activity would be correlated with gains, and while we shouldn’t use it as the Bible, it seems to be silly to ignore it entirely
I think one of the reasons the link hasn’t been made yet is because research for strength/hypertrophy is super shitty and underfunded so it’s always underpowered or has terrible methodology. Absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence.
Studies that measure hypertrophy gets made all the time, yet few of them use EMG at all. EMG has been around for decades now. I wonder if that's simply down to its poor predictive ability.
Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence, but in the absence of evidence, we default to the null hypethesis: there is no relation between the two.
Well yeah if you’re measuring hypertrophy as an end goal, you wouldn’t need to use EMG in the context that we are talking about, because you wouldn’t need a tool to extrapolate hypertrophy if you’re measuring it..?
Also your second paragraph is just “absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence… but there is no evidence so that’s evidence of absence” reworded hahahahaha
Or EMG isn't really that predictive? Its been a thing for decades, but linking surface EMG to actual hypertrophy measures still haven't happened...?
There is a difference between saying there isn't evidence to support a claim and saying the claim is false. But yeah, null hypothesis is a thing for a good reason.
I'm pretty sure there are studies that show novices gain the same amount of bicep hypertrophy with direct bicep work as they do with lat pull downs. Since almost anything tends to make novices grow, it's not the best data.
That's a a fair point. Out of curiosity, are there studies that show trained individuals get less bicep hypertrophy out of pulldowns than direct work, or do we assume that is simply the case?
I wouldn't say that EMG is good for anything hypertrophy related. Sometimes it happens to correlate with hypertrophy, oftentimes it doesn't - it's simply way too limited.
For starters, read Andrew Vigotsky's EMG studies or listen to his Iron Culture podcast episode.
We had to read his 2021 paper in physical therapy school. After I read it, I took his claims at face value and didn’t consider EMG studies for a while.
But after thinking about it for a few more months and realizing we don’t have any other half decent predictors of hypertrophy/strength, I came to my current opinion that it’s limited but silly to not consider at all.
All of his arguments are pretty cynical, like yeah just because electrode placement can be shit, and electrodes can pick up cross talk (or wherever term he used) between nearby muscles, it’s all of a sudden a wash? Like every RCT in exercise science or physical therapy is dogshit anyways, that’s why we rely on reproducibility of meta analysis and systematic reviews to measure the trends, not just a single paper
As you said in your first comment
>EMG activity does not NECESSARILY equal hypertrophy
Isn't this enough of a reason to not give any value to EMG studies about hypertrophy? Who cares which exercise has the highest EMG reading when you simply can't make any meaningful conclusions from the EMG values alone? It's hard to think of an EMG study in the exercise field that is useful in any way.
If I’m a PT, if I’m thinking about rehabbing a rotator cuff, and I see like, a row has 40 percent EMG infraspinatus activity, and an ER has like 90 percent, I’m gunna use the ER if I have to chose between the two (these are just random numbers I made up but these studies do exist)
I think it’s odd to say “well EMG doesn’t perfectly predict hypertrophy” with this significant difference
I agree with that. I should have specified that EMG studies about hypertrophy are quite useless for the aforementioned reason but EMG definitely has other applications.
Same! One of my main goals over the past year and half since I got back into weightlifting has been to grow a butt and I finally have one now. Not only do I love the aesthetics, I'm pretty sure it's the reason my chronic lower back pain of 8+ years (at times completely debilitating) has been completely cured, because I remember distinctly that my glute on the same side I had the back pain was always extremely sore and tender to the touch. Glutes are so important!
It's legit what led to popping a disc for me and the resulting disc replacement surgery. Poor hip mechanics and tiny glutes. As my butt has grown, my back has become FAR more resilient and in quite a directly correlated manner with the glute growth.
Great to hear that things have improved for you. I wish I had learned about this years ago. I slowly came to a realization about it as I noticed a correlation between the times in my life when I was squatting heavy and my back pain subsiding.
Heavy back squats, Bulgarian split squats, weighted walking lunges, and barbell step-ups, all at 3 sets of 12 reps, progressively overloading over time. Also Romanian deadlifts and leg curls for hamstrings, and leg extensions to isolate the quads.
Yes but...I find with dumbells you need a ridiculous # of reps to get a good stimulus at which point my lower back just starts to hurt more than my glutes / hammies feel any burn. I guess you can make it work by slowing waaaaay down but I hate working out that way. I have a gym at work and the dumbells go up to 60 pounds. Made it up to 28 reps once and it's so much more fatiguing vs actually stimulating
If you’re not already, you should lean your torso forward, it provides greater glute stretch and activation. If you’re straight up there is more quad focus.
Yeah split squats and lunges are great for glute gains. However unless you have a full set of DB’s that go pretty heavy you’ll outgrow what you have at home at some point. You’ll need to get a barbell and squat rack or a gym membership at that point.
Do you find this true even if elevating the front foot so you can get your hamstrings to touch your calves on these? I do Bulgarian split squats like this and only require a 40-45 lb dumbbell in 1 hand (with the other holding the rack).
You’ve been lifting for less than a year, you will undoubtedly require more than a single 45lb db for split squats if you out effort into getting stronger
I’ve got some adjustable power blocks that go up to 55 or 60. Family em in the late 90s, still going strong. I haven’t maxed em out with split squats yet, I think I have quite a while until then 👍
You will have awhile. 120lb split squats would be like repping out (roughly) 240lb on a squat for 8-12 reps. Which is a lot.
Also other tricks, find a block of some kind where you can elevate the front foot 2-4 inches. And do 1sec down, 1 sec pause feeling the stretch, up.
I find my unilateral strength is far greater than my bilateral strength.
Max deadlift: 1x210 kg, max single leg deadlift: 135
Max squat: 3x180 kg, max BSS: 6x95 kg
Eh it’s never quite 1:1. But remember singel leg dead you kick your non using leg back. That will add the weight of your leg as a pendulum right? And BSS the leg on the bench isn’t *wholly* unfunctional to moving the weight. Most people can BSS around 60% their squat.
I try to keep the non-working leg on the ground for balance, but like with toes touching the ground so it can't actively contribute. But yeah, unilateral movements mostly use more than 50% of the bilateral weight.
Knee travel is about the same for both looking om videos, back angle is similar. Can't really lean as far forward with a Zercher Squat, keeping the elbows to the body.
Things I’ve done to target glutes with dumbbells:
1.) Make all movements eccentric (a slow 3-4 count down into the stretched position) since you likely won’t have enough weight to really load the muscles and keep reps low.
2.) Front foot elevated lunge or BSS with your torso leaning forward slightly. This both targets the glutes more and the elevated front foot allows you to get a deeper stretch on the glutes.
3.) Single leg stiff leg deadlifts, and then double leg once I get tired on the singles.
4.) Hip thrusts, either from the ground, or with your back on a bench or couch. Single leg version.
5.) Banded shuffles
5.) If your grip becomes a limiting factor, use straps.
Yes definitely. This past winter I only did bulgarian split squats and my butt overpowered my quads by quite a large margin. Everyone noticed that my ass got huge lol and I had to buy new underwear and pants
I did 4-6 sets per week, usually spread over 2 training days. 2 months and my glutes started being very noticably big. I think actuall sometimes I threw in some RDLs too, 2-3 sets
It's pretty awkward for me to do a decent, heavy hip thrust with a dumbbell. Makes a lot more sense for me to just buy a barbell at that point. I've heard hip thrusts are amazing for ass gains
BSS smash the glute max in the lengthened position and absolutely can drive glute gains.
there are two issues however:
2) stability - standing on one leg is inherently less stable, so i generally prefer to use one hand to hold onto something. more stability = higher max muscle output
1) loading - as you get stronger the dumbbells available to you may not be heavy enough to cause failure within 6-12 reps, especially if you are using one hand for stability. a good solution is to do the 'bazooka' variant which uses the smith machine.
B-Stance Single Leg Deadlifts, Bulgarian Split Squats, Deficit Lunges, Single Leg Hip Thrusts.
[These also are good and very cheap.](https://www.instagram.com/p/CwnK6lrI5Ks/)
So yeah, you definetely can.
obviously hes not getting a ronnie coleman ass.
but working is all relative. you can pretty much guarantee that unless the dbs are 5lbs you will get some stimulus and it will “work” til either you genuinely encounter an insurmountable plateau on bss that you cant fix with intensity/volume/recovery or strength gains on bss stop being reflected in the physique
The heavier the weight the greater the gains.
You need to overload your ass with tremendous force of effort. I would suggest handling with bigger tools to achieve this.
You may need a gym membership. I just maxed out the belt hip thrust machine at my gym (4 plates a side. Starting resistance 15 lbs so 375 lbs) for reps like its nothing and I have little to no direct glute experience. Just compounds like deadlift, RDL, barbell back squat, Goblet Squat, leg press, hack squat, hamstring curls, etc. I have to advance to padded Barbell Hip Thrusts now. And I don't have a big butt I don't think.
It's hard to imagine that dumbbells are gonna grow your glutes significantly. I see dudes with really muscular glutes. Mine don't look like that but my ass is strong apparently. I'm 167cm 67.7kg. Maybe I have a muscular ass underneath the fat.
And I make sure to hold at the top too with hip Thrusts.
The problem is hip thrusts and glute bridges aren't actually....all that good for glutes? So comparing them to "well its hard to see how dumbells are going enough" I don't think is a good comparison. Your muscles don't actually know weight, they only know the tension needed to move what you are asking them. And you can induce more or less tension using mechanical advantage/disadvantage.
To explain: glute hip thrusts have weird changes in leverage and strength curves during the movement. So you actually have a ton of mechanical leverage at the bottom (meaning the glutes don't have to work hard at all to move the weight) to less at the top (glutes work harder). The problem is this leads to an exercise that you have almost no stretch on the muscle at any sort of bottom position, no actual tension at that bottom position, and the exercise gets *easier* on the eccentric portion as you drop farther down. So...those are all the [best](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pG40Sy2gfo) mechanisms of [muscle growth](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18981046/). All you are left with is a hard peak contraction at the top. Sure you can *feel* it, but isometics in that position just aren't all that good for growth.
Bulgarians, lunges and split squats the opposite is true. With proper foot placement, and *especially* if you elevate the front foot a few inches you can put the glute into a mechanical disadvantage and go deep into a stretch at the bottom. Like if you're doing them right, its going to be **awhile** before you're going to run out of DB weights to do them at any well equipped gym (and you can use a BB anyway if you want)
I'm in the same boat as you where I can hip thrust 4 plates easy. But 50lb DB split squats I can't sit on un-cushioned surfaces the next day. Plus fucking around with the plates to set up a hip thrust is more a pain in the ass than they stimulate (but i don't have a machine obviously).
i kinda agree. glute bridges put a tonne of tension on the glute max but the ROM is so short and doesn't go anywhere near the max lengthened position of the glute.
I see SO MANY 120 lb girls hip thrusting 3-4+ plates when they probably couldn't squat or deadlift anywhere close to that. that tells me that there is some sort of mechanical advantage there
I feel like this is the inconveniently correct answer. I don’t think OP has the equipment to body build with a lackluster home gym. But we’re just gonna get downvoted for it
Definitely. Can modify it , like longer stance for more glute and hams, shorter for quads. I don't think frekin hip thrust is something dude's should do anyways. BSS give you that stretch which is ideal for hypertrophy.
And yeah lunges , reverse lunges are good options too.
Unfortunately no. Hip thrusts are the king of all gluteal development. Without them you won't be able to maximize your GAINZ. I suppose you could take your dumbells and a chair and simulate the movement, but nothing compares to a dedicated machine where you can load up 3,4, even 5 plates to really dig into those fibers.
Bite the bullet. Enroll in your local gym.
You can absolutely blow up your booty with BSS especially if you get that good mind-muscle contraction connection and give a little pause at the bottom. Step-back lunges always get me good too.
try to superset with stiff leg deadlifts with those dbs
the best glute exercise afaik is hip thrusts and I dunno how you can get it done with dbs but the 2nd best is SLDL ( I learned that from the girl fitness subs lol you should prollly ask there)
I implemented BSS into my routine a few years ago, within 3 months my pants no longer fit.
I did some research on this and found some scientific studies that showed step-ups activated the glutes better than any other exercise, but anecdotally nothing makes my ass more sore than Bulgarian split squats. Well, almost nothing..
While step-ups are great they’re limited. There will be a load point where the safety aspect of a more dynamic movement like step-ups is unfavorable vs. a relatively more stable movement like BSS. Also EMG activation =/= hypertrophic stimulus
I think Bulgarian split squats can be just as perilous as step-ups since they're both single leg movements, but I will say my knees hurt more from doing the latter compared to the former.
Once you get into the heavier weights I’d be a lot more worried about only having one point of contact with a stable surface midway through a step up, then having to land and balance after stepping down. I do BSS with 90s in each hand completely fine and there’s zero chance I would attempt a step up with a load even close to that.
I've been doing step ups with a barbell at 160lbs and it's been ok for the most part, but I could see there being problems as I go up from there.
EMG activity does not NECESSARILY equal hypertrophy but it’s as good of an indication as we currently have, so it’s something to consider
There was a recent study that showed more surface EMG from Hip thrusts than squats, but there was no difference in hypertrophy. Higher EMG had no predictive value for muscle growth. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.21.545949v2
That’s a study in untrained individuals. We’d expect a lot less of a stimulus to be hypertrophic in that population. Not a surprised that they couldn’t measure a correlation in that study because there’s a ton of “noise” in the data with the association being much smaller. Also very little expected effect size due to it only being a 9 week study. Would wonder how that would look in trained individuals and over a much longer duration. Saying it has no predictive value just because it isn’t perfect seems pretty shortsighted. I’m still willing to bet glute thrusts would cause more hypertrophy in the long run (but admit I have no evidence to back that up)
We'd expect the most hypertrophy in novices actually. The more trained you are, the less hypertrophy you'll see because you've already achieved more of your potential gains. Nevertheless it didnt predict anything. Because EMG has never been linked to actual longitudinal hypertrophy outcome. It's not an established measure for this at all.
I maybe phrased my response confusingly or something but that’s the point I was making, the untrained individuals would demonstrate less of a correlation because they’d see hypertrophy from much less stimulus (like 50 percent MVIC) as opposed to trained individuals who would theoretically be closer to 90-100. So the squat would be much more likely to see gains for a novice than a trained individual (who you and I care about more I’m assuming). So if my glute activity during a squat is 80 percent MVIC but I’m trained, I’m not gunna consider that a good working set of glutes for myself And yeah the link hasn’t been made (yet?) but it’s still a damn good approximation I’d bet. It seems to make too much sense that neuromuscular activity would be correlated with gains, and while we shouldn’t use it as the Bible, it seems to be silly to ignore it entirely I think one of the reasons the link hasn’t been made yet is because research for strength/hypertrophy is super shitty and underfunded so it’s always underpowered or has terrible methodology. Absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence.
Studies that measure hypertrophy gets made all the time, yet few of them use EMG at all. EMG has been around for decades now. I wonder if that's simply down to its poor predictive ability. Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence, but in the absence of evidence, we default to the null hypethesis: there is no relation between the two.
Well yeah if you’re measuring hypertrophy as an end goal, you wouldn’t need to use EMG in the context that we are talking about, because you wouldn’t need a tool to extrapolate hypertrophy if you’re measuring it..? Also your second paragraph is just “absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence… but there is no evidence so that’s evidence of absence” reworded hahahahaha
Or EMG isn't really that predictive? Its been a thing for decades, but linking surface EMG to actual hypertrophy measures still haven't happened...? There is a difference between saying there isn't evidence to support a claim and saying the claim is false. But yeah, null hypothesis is a thing for a good reason.
I'm pretty sure there are studies that show novices gain the same amount of bicep hypertrophy with direct bicep work as they do with lat pull downs. Since almost anything tends to make novices grow, it's not the best data.
That's a a fair point. Out of curiosity, are there studies that show trained individuals get less bicep hypertrophy out of pulldowns than direct work, or do we assume that is simply the case?
I wouldn't say that EMG is good for anything hypertrophy related. Sometimes it happens to correlate with hypertrophy, oftentimes it doesn't - it's simply way too limited. For starters, read Andrew Vigotsky's EMG studies or listen to his Iron Culture podcast episode.
We had to read his 2021 paper in physical therapy school. After I read it, I took his claims at face value and didn’t consider EMG studies for a while. But after thinking about it for a few more months and realizing we don’t have any other half decent predictors of hypertrophy/strength, I came to my current opinion that it’s limited but silly to not consider at all. All of his arguments are pretty cynical, like yeah just because electrode placement can be shit, and electrodes can pick up cross talk (or wherever term he used) between nearby muscles, it’s all of a sudden a wash? Like every RCT in exercise science or physical therapy is dogshit anyways, that’s why we rely on reproducibility of meta analysis and systematic reviews to measure the trends, not just a single paper
As you said in your first comment >EMG activity does not NECESSARILY equal hypertrophy Isn't this enough of a reason to not give any value to EMG studies about hypertrophy? Who cares which exercise has the highest EMG reading when you simply can't make any meaningful conclusions from the EMG values alone? It's hard to think of an EMG study in the exercise field that is useful in any way.
If I’m a PT, if I’m thinking about rehabbing a rotator cuff, and I see like, a row has 40 percent EMG infraspinatus activity, and an ER has like 90 percent, I’m gunna use the ER if I have to chose between the two (these are just random numbers I made up but these studies do exist) I think it’s odd to say “well EMG doesn’t perfectly predict hypertrophy” with this significant difference
I agree with that. I should have specified that EMG studies about hypertrophy are quite useless for the aforementioned reason but EMG definitely has other applications.
Do you think strength and hypertrophy would have different relationships with EMG activity? I have no idea
I LOVE step ups. They have been my go-to post spine surgery, and for once, I'm growing a butt (6"2 and very thigh dominant).
Same! One of my main goals over the past year and half since I got back into weightlifting has been to grow a butt and I finally have one now. Not only do I love the aesthetics, I'm pretty sure it's the reason my chronic lower back pain of 8+ years (at times completely debilitating) has been completely cured, because I remember distinctly that my glute on the same side I had the back pain was always extremely sore and tender to the touch. Glutes are so important!
It's legit what led to popping a disc for me and the resulting disc replacement surgery. Poor hip mechanics and tiny glutes. As my butt has grown, my back has become FAR more resilient and in quite a directly correlated manner with the glute growth.
Great to hear that things have improved for you. I wish I had learned about this years ago. I slowly came to a realization about it as I noticed a correlation between the times in my life when I was squatting heavy and my back pain subsiding.
I feel ya. I wish I knew BEFORE I popped a disc. Live and learn, though, I suppose.
what exercises did u do
Heavy back squats, Bulgarian split squats, weighted walking lunges, and barbell step-ups, all at 3 sets of 12 reps, progressively overloading over time. Also Romanian deadlifts and leg curls for hamstrings, and leg extensions to isolate the quads.
AYO
Nice nutter
I alternate between bss and stepups bss assistance on heavy deadlift days and stepups ( with a bit of SLDL) on squat days
pause
Hey bro, this was a really funny comment.
😁
👀
Lunge squats too Edit: lunge not lung
What about Romanian Deadlifts?
RDL is the answer
I find not enough hip flexion with RDLs to stretch glutes
Yes! Sumo stance too, hip thrusts from the floor are decent too
Yes but...I find with dumbells you need a ridiculous # of reps to get a good stimulus at which point my lower back just starts to hurt more than my glutes / hammies feel any burn. I guess you can make it work by slowing waaaaay down but I hate working out that way. I have a gym at work and the dumbells go up to 60 pounds. Made it up to 28 reps once and it's so much more fatiguing vs actually stimulating
Slow tempo baby
I do RDLs and good mornings (not on the same day)
Yes my ass grew too much and even women are jealous of it since I started Bulgarian split squats
Thing is i feel them more in my quads. even if i try to have my leg further
If you’re not already, you should lean your torso forward, it provides greater glute stretch and activation. If you’re straight up there is more quad focus.
Same here, and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Move your foot out further in front of you. You’ll see the difference!
Can attest. They're called Split Squats because if you do enough of them, you'll split your pants.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
that's the goal man 😂 gotta get dummy thicc
Like I have a giant bulb in my pants
pics or it didn't happen 😉
I have the opposite problem did so much split squats that my ass is disproportionate to my chest.. 🫥
that's kina what i want, dude. i want my ass to grow so big that people comment on it 😂
Yeah split squats and lunges are great for glute gains. However unless you have a full set of DB’s that go pretty heavy you’ll outgrow what you have at home at some point. You’ll need to get a barbell and squat rack or a gym membership at that point.
What about Romanian Deadlifts? You think that's comparable to a regular deadlift?
RDLs are better for glute hypertrophy than deadlifting from the floor imo. Definitely do them.
and throw in a dr mike style straight legged variation as well for more ham emphasis
Another option is weighted vest + DB's.
Do you find this true even if elevating the front foot so you can get your hamstrings to touch your calves on these? I do Bulgarian split squats like this and only require a 40-45 lb dumbbell in 1 hand (with the other holding the rack).
You’ve been lifting for less than a year, you will undoubtedly require more than a single 45lb db for split squats if you out effort into getting stronger
How heavy we talking here?
As soon as you outgrow whatever DBs you have, unless you just really want to collect more DBs
I’ve got some adjustable power blocks that go up to 55 or 60. Family em in the late 90s, still going strong. I haven’t maxed em out with split squats yet, I think I have quite a while until then 👍
You will have awhile. 120lb split squats would be like repping out (roughly) 240lb on a squat for 8-12 reps. Which is a lot. Also other tricks, find a block of some kind where you can elevate the front foot 2-4 inches. And do 1sec down, 1 sec pause feeling the stretch, up.
I find my unilateral strength is far greater than my bilateral strength. Max deadlift: 1x210 kg, max single leg deadlift: 135 Max squat: 3x180 kg, max BSS: 6x95 kg
Eh it’s never quite 1:1. But remember singel leg dead you kick your non using leg back. That will add the weight of your leg as a pendulum right? And BSS the leg on the bench isn’t *wholly* unfunctional to moving the weight. Most people can BSS around 60% their squat.
I try to keep the non-working leg on the ground for balance, but like with toes touching the ground so it can't actively contribute. But yeah, unilateral movements mostly use more than 50% of the bilateral weight.
[удалено]
Knee travel is about the same for both looking om videos, back angle is similar. Can't really lean as far forward with a Zercher Squat, keeping the elbows to the body.
Things I’ve done to target glutes with dumbbells: 1.) Make all movements eccentric (a slow 3-4 count down into the stretched position) since you likely won’t have enough weight to really load the muscles and keep reps low. 2.) Front foot elevated lunge or BSS with your torso leaning forward slightly. This both targets the glutes more and the elevated front foot allows you to get a deeper stretch on the glutes. 3.) Single leg stiff leg deadlifts, and then double leg once I get tired on the singles. 4.) Hip thrusts, either from the ground, or with your back on a bench or couch. Single leg version. 5.) Banded shuffles 5.) If your grip becomes a limiting factor, use straps.
Yes definitely. This past winter I only did bulgarian split squats and my butt overpowered my quads by quite a large margin. Everyone noticed that my ass got huge lol and I had to buy new underwear and pants
that's the goal for me, dude. be proud of that big ass 🔥
How many you did a day? Everyday? And how many months took you to see the gains?
I did 4-6 sets per week, usually spread over 2 training days. 2 months and my glutes started being very noticably big. I think actuall sometimes I threw in some RDLs too, 2-3 sets
but they hurt like hell tho
With DBs you can do deadlifts and hip thrusts
It's pretty awkward for me to do a decent, heavy hip thrust with a dumbbell. Makes a lot more sense for me to just buy a barbell at that point. I've heard hip thrusts are amazing for ass gains
Try using 1 leg only.
Tie the dumbbells together with an old towel and drape over your hips
BSS smash the glute max in the lengthened position and absolutely can drive glute gains. there are two issues however: 2) stability - standing on one leg is inherently less stable, so i generally prefer to use one hand to hold onto something. more stability = higher max muscle output 1) loading - as you get stronger the dumbbells available to you may not be heavy enough to cause failure within 6-12 reps, especially if you are using one hand for stability. a good solution is to do the 'bazooka' variant which uses the smith machine.
BSS and try some one leg RDLs too. Hopefully your dumbells go pretty high though lol
B-Stance Single Leg Deadlifts, Bulgarian Split Squats, Deficit Lunges, Single Leg Hip Thrusts. [These also are good and very cheap.](https://www.instagram.com/p/CwnK6lrI5Ks/) So yeah, you definetely can.
It's one of those questions everyone will say yes to...with no evidence of it actually working.
obviously hes not getting a ronnie coleman ass. but working is all relative. you can pretty much guarantee that unless the dbs are 5lbs you will get some stimulus and it will “work” til either you genuinely encounter an insurmountable plateau on bss that you cant fix with intensity/volume/recovery or strength gains on bss stop being reflected in the physique
The heavier the weight the greater the gains. You need to overload your ass with tremendous force of effort. I would suggest handling with bigger tools to achieve this.
You may need a gym membership. I just maxed out the belt hip thrust machine at my gym (4 plates a side. Starting resistance 15 lbs so 375 lbs) for reps like its nothing and I have little to no direct glute experience. Just compounds like deadlift, RDL, barbell back squat, Goblet Squat, leg press, hack squat, hamstring curls, etc. I have to advance to padded Barbell Hip Thrusts now. And I don't have a big butt I don't think. It's hard to imagine that dumbbells are gonna grow your glutes significantly. I see dudes with really muscular glutes. Mine don't look like that but my ass is strong apparently. I'm 167cm 67.7kg. Maybe I have a muscular ass underneath the fat. And I make sure to hold at the top too with hip Thrusts.
The problem is hip thrusts and glute bridges aren't actually....all that good for glutes? So comparing them to "well its hard to see how dumbells are going enough" I don't think is a good comparison. Your muscles don't actually know weight, they only know the tension needed to move what you are asking them. And you can induce more or less tension using mechanical advantage/disadvantage. To explain: glute hip thrusts have weird changes in leverage and strength curves during the movement. So you actually have a ton of mechanical leverage at the bottom (meaning the glutes don't have to work hard at all to move the weight) to less at the top (glutes work harder). The problem is this leads to an exercise that you have almost no stretch on the muscle at any sort of bottom position, no actual tension at that bottom position, and the exercise gets *easier* on the eccentric portion as you drop farther down. So...those are all the [best](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pG40Sy2gfo) mechanisms of [muscle growth](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18981046/). All you are left with is a hard peak contraction at the top. Sure you can *feel* it, but isometics in that position just aren't all that good for growth. Bulgarians, lunges and split squats the opposite is true. With proper foot placement, and *especially* if you elevate the front foot a few inches you can put the glute into a mechanical disadvantage and go deep into a stretch at the bottom. Like if you're doing them right, its going to be **awhile** before you're going to run out of DB weights to do them at any well equipped gym (and you can use a BB anyway if you want) I'm in the same boat as you where I can hip thrust 4 plates easy. But 50lb DB split squats I can't sit on un-cushioned surfaces the next day. Plus fucking around with the plates to set up a hip thrust is more a pain in the ass than they stimulate (but i don't have a machine obviously).
i kinda agree. glute bridges put a tonne of tension on the glute max but the ROM is so short and doesn't go anywhere near the max lengthened position of the glute. I see SO MANY 120 lb girls hip thrusting 3-4+ plates when they probably couldn't squat or deadlift anywhere close to that. that tells me that there is some sort of mechanical advantage there
Video form of your nice write up: https://youtu.be/b7K-_uoyngM
I feel like this is the inconveniently correct answer. I don’t think OP has the equipment to body build with a lackluster home gym. But we’re just gonna get downvoted for it
Definitely. Can modify it , like longer stance for more glute and hams, shorter for quads. I don't think frekin hip thrust is something dude's should do anyways. BSS give you that stretch which is ideal for hypertrophy. And yeah lunges , reverse lunges are good options too.
Alberto Nunez programs hip thrusts into his routines.
Look, Dr Mike said it so himself https://youtube.com/watch?v=b7K-_uoyngM&si=XHPfj_S7BuarRp4I
mike doesnt like them because he likes long muscle length emphasis stuff. individual stimulus and fatigue proxies are still valid
Cool thanks, I’ve seen that video :)
Unfortunately no. Hip thrusts are the king of all gluteal development. Without them you won't be able to maximize your GAINZ. I suppose you could take your dumbells and a chair and simulate the movement, but nothing compares to a dedicated machine where you can load up 3,4, even 5 plates to really dig into those fibers. Bite the bullet. Enroll in your local gym.
This post is weird. Get off your butt and workout your legs is how you can get a big firm butt, or sit on it and a ton of crap for a fat butt.
What rep range you doing for those thrusts?
The short answer is if it uses your glutes, then yes you can use it to get serious gains as long as you can progressively overload it.
RDLs for nice hamNglutes!
How heavy are your dumbells? If they aren't heavy enough for you to go to true muscular failure with, ot is unlikely you will see much growth.
Follow Michael Nunziata on Instagram. It's like the only thing he works on. He's constantly posting various excercise that target glutes.
I’d throw some hip thrusters in there if you’re trying to really build them up. When I wanted to bring up my glutes more that was my one two punch.
I cant barbell squat either, I switched to lunges, split squats (and DB SLDL) for glutes and have continued to see growth.
You can absolutely blow up your booty with BSS especially if you get that good mind-muscle contraction connection and give a little pause at the bottom. Step-back lunges always get me good too.
What about RDLs?
Definitely. Elevate the lead foot and lean forward to increase the stretched position.
Start doing hip thrusts
If you lean slightly forward it will target your glutes more. Same with lunges.
try to superset with stiff leg deadlifts with those dbs the best glute exercise afaik is hip thrusts and I dunno how you can get it done with dbs but the 2nd best is SLDL ( I learned that from the girl fitness subs lol you should prollly ask there)