Glute strengthening exercises are important because they are your main driver of strength and movement. For example, walking, climbing stairs, picking up things from the ground, and running are all daily functional movements that rely on the hips. If you’re an athlete, your glutes allow you to jump higher, stay agile, and increase your speed.
“They have a lot of stability for your hips and lower back. Often when your hips aren’t as strong as they should be, your body finds other ways to compensate , like using your lower back muscles,” DeMatos says. Therefore, building strong glutes plays an important role in avoiding lower back pain.
Also, building strong glutes can also help you get stronger in other lower body exercises, such as the aforementioned squats and deadlifts, as they are also good for these movements helper.
Why Glute Push Workouts Are Good for Your Glutes?
The glute press is one of the best glute exercises out there because its movement pattern just hammers your glutes: the glute extension (the top of the movement) gives you the biggest glutes Activate to make the movement more of an isolation exercise, DeMatos says. Also, your hamstrings shorten when your knees are flexed, which better isolates your hips.
RESEARCH BACKS THIS: A 2021 Study in the Journal of Researchers in Exercise and Fitness Research Glute activation was compared during barbell hip presses, back squats, and split squats. The researchers found that hip presses had more EMG activity (a measure of muscle response to stimulation, or electrical activity) than back squats and split squats during 3 maximal lifts. (There was no difference in peak glute activation between the back squat and the split squat.)
“Squats and deadlifts are great compound exercises that work the glutes, but they don’t Work in isolation as much as possible,” DeMatos said. “You have more muscle groups coming in, like your core and back, depending on the variation.”
When comparing the glute press to the deadlift, the glute press also takes the crown. A 2019 review in the Journal of Exercise Science & Medicine concluded that the barbell hip press activates the glutes more than the deadlift. (That said, traditional deadlifts exhibit more hamstring activation than glute presses.)
The horizontal loading of glute presses is one reason, while glute presses show more hamstring activation than squats or Deadlift activation is higher. With vertical load exercises, there is less tension in the hip extensors (like the gluteus maximus) as you approach lockout; but with horizontally loaded movements, as you approach lockout, there is less tension in these hip extensors will be emphasized.
Can you do weighted hip presses with dumbbells?
Absolutely. Doing weighted glute presses with dumbbells is a great way to continue adding to the glute thrust challenge, which is important for continuing to get stronger and build more muscles.
Before you start adding external resistance, though, you should make sure you’re able to complete unweighted exercises with proper form. When you’re ready to add weight, you can start with one or two dumbbells. It depends on your preference and comfort, but Rice says it might be easier to start with a dumbbell. Just make sure the weight is placed evenly between your hips horizontally for proper weight distribution, and keep the dumbbell in place throughout the workout so it doesn’t roll off your body.
