How to Grow Your Glutes: A Wellness Competitor's Guide

Glutes are my specialty. I compete in CPA Wellness, a division where the entire lower body, and the glutes especially, is what wins or loses you the show. I have spent years building mine and coaching women to build theirs, so when someone asks me how to grow their glutes, I have a very specific answer.

Here's the thing: growing your glutes is not complicated, but most women are doing things that barely move the needle. Endless bodyweight squats, the StairMaster, a hundred band kickbacks, and not enough food. Let me show you what actually builds a bigger, stronger backside.

To grow your glutes, train them 2 to 3 times a week with heavy, glute-focused lifts (hip thrusts, squats, Romanian deadlifts, and lunges), add weight or reps over time, and eat enough protein and total calories to support growth. Glutes are muscle, so they grow the same way any muscle does: progressive overload plus enough fuel. Cardio and bodyweight moves alone will not do it.

Let's get into the specifics, including why yours might not be growing yet.

If you have been training and your glutes are not changing, it is almost always one of these:

• No progressive overload. Doing the same weights for the same reps forever gives your glutes no reason to grow. You have to add weight, reps, or sets over time.
• Too light. Glutes are a big, strong muscle. Pink dumbbells and bands alone will not challenge them. You need to lift heavy enough that the last few reps are genuinely hard.
• Not enough food. Muscle needs fuel and protein to build. If you are eating in an aggressive deficit, your glutes cannot grow. See how much protein you actually need.
• Quad-dominant training. If every leg session is squats and leg extensions, you are growing quads, not glutes. You need dedicated hip-hinge and hip-thrust work.
• No mind-muscle connection. Many women cannot feel their glutes working because they have been sitting all day for years. Slow your reps down and focus on squeezing.

Fix the one that applies to you and growth usually restarts.

These are the movements I build every glute program around, including my own:

1. Barbell hip thrust. The single best glute builder. Heavy, controlled, with a hard squeeze at the top. This is the king of glute development.
2. Squats. Back squats, and especially a slightly wider stance, hit the glutes hard alongside the quads.
3. Romanian deadlifts. The best hip-hinge movement for the glute and hamstring tie-in.
4. Bulgarian split squats and reverse lunges. Brutal but they build the glutes and fix side-to-side imbalances.
5. Cable kickbacks and hip abduction. Great accessory and finisher work for shape and detail, not your main movers.

Build your sessions around the first three (hip thrust, squat, RDL), then add the rest as accessories. If you are newer to lifting, my beginner strength training guide walks through how to perform these safely.

Train glutes 2 to 3 times a week. That is the sweet spot for most women. Glutes recover well and respond to frequency, so hitting them across 2 to 3 sessions beats one brutal leg day a week.

As for the classic question, how many squats a day to grow glutes: it is the wrong question. It is not about a daily squat count. It is about total weekly volume and progressive overload. Aim for roughly 10 to 16 hard sets of glute-focused work per week, with weights you can only do for 8 to 15 reps. Doing 100 bodyweight squats a day will build endurance, not size. Fewer, heavier, harder sets win.

You can absolutely do this on a 3-day-a-week schedule, and you need rest between sessions, so do not train heavy glutes two days back to back.

This is the most common glute question I get, so let me answer it clearly: cardio is not how you grow glutes.

The StairMaster, walking, running, and cycling all use your glutes, and for a true beginner they can add a little growth and tone at first. But cardio does not provide the progressive overload needed to build real size. Your glutes adapt quickly and then just maintain. Cardio is excellent for fat loss and heart health, which can make your glutes look more defined by revealing them, but it is not a building tool.

Here's the honest breakdown:

If growing your glutes is the goal, lift. Use cardio as a supplement for fat loss, not as your main strategy.

You cannot build muscle, glutes included, without enough fuel. This is where a lot of women sabotage themselves by eating too little.

• Protein: 0.8 to 1 gram per pound of bodyweight daily. This is the raw material for muscle. Most women I onboard eat half of what they need.
• Calories: eat at maintenance or a slight surplus to grow as fast as possible. If you also want to lose fat, eat at maintenance and grow more gradually through body recomposition.
• Carbs: do not fear them. They fuel heavy training, which is exactly what grows glutes.

There is no special glute food. You build glutes by lifting hard and eating enough protein and calories to support it. If you want help setting your numbers, my guide on protein for women is the place to start.

Yes. Creatine is one of the few supplements actually worth taking, and it helps you build all your muscles, including your glutes, slightly faster. It does this by helping you train harder and recover better, so you get more out of every hip thrust and squat.

Take 3 to 5 grams of plain creatine monohydrate daily, every day, including rest days. It will not make you bulky and will not cause bloating in the way people fear. I covered the full details in my guide to creatine for women.

Most women see noticeable glute growth in 3 to 6 months of consistent, progressive training, with strength improving within the first few weeks. Visible size takes longer than strength, so be patient.

Beginners grow fastest because their muscles are highly responsive. If you have trained for years, growth is slower and requires more precision in your programming and nutrition. Either way, glutes are one of the more responsive muscles for most women, which is good news. For a fuller picture of muscle-building timelines, see how long body recomposition takes.

The women who build great glutes are not doing anything magic. They are progressively overloading a few key lifts, eating enough, and staying consistent for months. That is the whole secret.

Building glutes is simple in principle but easy to get wrong: too light, too quad-dominant, not enough food, no progression. That is exactly what I fix for clients. I program glute-focused training around your body and goals, the same way I build my own Wellness physique, and I adjust it every week.

If you want to see how I structure lower-body training, my post on how I train for the Wellness division shows my approach. When you are ready for a plan built for you, grab my free starter guide or apply for coaching here.