Basically, a strong glute will pretty much cure any lower body postural issue, and when developed right, it will look great, as fitness model Marzia Prince and singer Nicole Scherzinger can attest.

Every woman I’ve ever worked with or come across in the gym always, always wants a better butt. However, what do they do to try to achieve it? They sit on a bike or a new cardio machine for 45 minutes or they go and sit on the hip abductor machine hoping to create steal buns.

Working out like this will help atrophy (shrink) your gluteal muscles and before you think it’s a good idea because you have a big butt, it’s not. Weak glutes will lead to all kinds of postural problems and not just a sagging butt.

If you want to have a nice pair of buttocks, you have to do the work. The main thing is to really isolate the glutes. The glutes get hit a lot with other exercises, like squats and lunges, but the exercises in the workout below really isolate the glutes. The hip thrust, seen at weeks 7-9, recruits more muscle fibers in the glutes than a full squat.

These exercises can be done in conjunction with leg training or as part of a full body workout. The first thing you want to do is activate the muscle fibers in your glutes, as they have probably been dormant for the last few years before you started putting on the extra weight.

If you skip weeks 1-3 and 4-6 and go directly to weeks 7-9, you will be working to strengthen current imbalances. The first phase is very important as it basically teaches you how to contract your gluteal muscles. Until you can do this correctly, weeks 4 through 9 are out of the question.

Then you want to move on to weeks 4-6 and start adding some size and shape to your glutes, which will set them up for the strength of weeks 7-9. The strength phase will help build strength in the glutes and help keep them strong and in the short and long term it will provide much more support for the hip and lower back structure.

Weeks 1-3

High rep glute activation work

3 days a week, for example, Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Quadruped Hip Extension – 2 x 20 reps per side

Glute Bridge Raise – 2 x 20 reps

Fire Hydrant – 2 x 20 reps per side

weeks 4-6

hypertrophy work

3 days a week, for example, Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Barbell Glute Bridge – 3 x 15 reps

Weighted Bird Dogs – 3 x 15 reps

weeks 7-9

strength work

2 days a week, for example Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday

Barbell hip thrusts – 5 x 5 reps