Victor Forge
Losing fat from your glutes is a common goal, but it's a myth that you can target just one area of your body to lose weight. However, with a combination of exercise and diet, you can tone up your glutes and lose fat all over your body. This includes committing to strategies that help you lose fat, such as building muscle, improving your diet, and doing cardio and muscle-building exercises.
How to Lose Glute Muscle
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Exercise | Squats, lungeing, stepping, rock climbing, stair climbing, leg presses, HIIT, power yoga |
| Diet | Reduce calories, cut out refined grains, sugars, sugary drinks, alcohol and fried foods |
| Strategy | Combine cardio and muscle-building exercises, target multiple muscle groups |
| Posture | Avoid slumped shoulders, straighten lower back, engage core |
| Consistency | Maintain a routine, be patient |
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What You'll Learn
Diet and exercise
To lose glute muscle, avoid exercises that target the three glute muscles: gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. The gluteus maximus is the outermost muscle and the largest muscle in the gluteal region and in the whole body. It helps with movements such as standing, walking, and running. The gluteus medius and minimus lie underneath the gluteus maximus and add stability to the lower half of the body, aiding in hip flexion and movement of the leg to the front and side of the body.
Exercises that target the glute muscles include:
- Squats
- Lunges
- Deadlifts
- Hip thrusts
- Glute bridges
- Split squats
- Single-leg Romanian deadlifts (RDLs)
In addition to exercise, diet plays a crucial role in losing glute muscle. To avoid building muscle, it is important to avoid a calorie surplus. This may involve reducing overall calorie intake and tracking calories to understand how many calories are needed to lose weight. However, it is important to ensure that you are still consuming adequate protein, carbohydrates, and fats to support your health and other bodily functions.
On training days, it is recommended to eat 25% of your daily carbohydrate intake and 20-30 grams of protein 1-2 hours before your workout. Consuming another 25% of carbohydrates and 20-30 grams of protein within 60-90 minutes after your workout will help fuel your muscles and stimulate the growth process.
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Stair climbing
To get the most out of a stair-climbing workout, you can incorporate various techniques. For example, taking two stairs at a time, including a little kickback with the climbing leg, and changing your plane of motion by walking sideways with one foot over the other. You can also train with intervals by increasing your speed for one minute and then recovering at a steady climb for 30 seconds.
The way you position your feet when stair climbing also determines which muscles are targeted. For instance, pushing off with the ball of the foot targets the quadriceps, while placing more weight on the heel activates the glutes and hamstrings. Additionally, skipping every other stair focuses on strengthening the glutes and leg muscles.
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Squats
While squats are an excellent way to build and tone glute muscles, they can also help reduce overall body fat when combined with cardiovascular exercise. This means that squats can help create leaner, better-defined buttocks.
To perform a basic bodyweight squat, stand with your feet hip-width apart, lower down as if sitting back in a chair, keeping your torso straight and core engaged. Stop when your knees are at a 90-degree angle or before you lose the natural arch of your back. Push through your heels to return to the starting position, squeezing your glutes at the top. Aim for 10-15 reps and work up to 3 sets.
Once you have mastered the basic squat, you can add variations to challenge yourself further and target the glutes from different angles. This includes the Bulgarian Squat, where one foot is placed on a bench behind you, and the Sumo Squat, which involves a wide stance with toes turned out to the sides. You can also add resistance by holding a dumbbell or kettlebell at chest height, or placing a barbell on your shoulders.
It is important to maintain proper form and technique when performing squats to ensure effectiveness and avoid injury.
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Leg presses
The leg press is a simple and effective exercise for strengthening and developing the muscles in the lower body. It is particularly useful for beginners who want to strengthen their leg muscles using weights. The leg press can also be used to address muscle imbalances in the legs.
The standard leg press involves placing your feet at hip-width apart, but you can also go narrower or wider. A narrow stance targets the outer thigh muscles and the quads, while a wider stance emphasises the inner quad muscles. However, if you're aiming to activate the glutes more than your quads, you should pay attention to the height of your feet on the footplate. Placing your feet higher up on the footplate encourages the hamstrings and glutes to activate, taking the stress off the quads.
To further target the glutes, you can point your toes outwards and keep them in this position throughout the movement. This replicates the movement of hip external rotation, one of the three roles of the glute muscles. Additionally, you can try a single-leg press or a Bulgarian split squat, which are better for glute growth than a double leg press.
The lying leg press is another variation that is suitable for beginners. It allows new lifters to get comfortable with heavier lifting before progressing to free weight exercises. Both the seated and lying leg press machines enable you to progressively overload your glutes by increasing the weight you're pressing.
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HIIT workouts
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a great way to lose weight and tone your body. HIIT workouts for the glutes can be done with or without equipment, and they combine the weight loss benefits of HIIT with moves that specifically target the glutes.
A HIIT workout typically involves a series of exercises done in quick succession with short rest periods in between. This type of training challenges both your muscles and your heart, improving your stamina and endurance while making your glutes look stronger and more toned.
There are various HIIT exercises that specifically target the glutes. One example is a workout by Sunny Health and Fitness, which combines weighted and bodyweight lower-body exercises to target the glutes and thighs. It includes exercises such as the weighted glute bridge and walkouts, with short rest periods in between.
Another example of a glute-focused HIIT exercise is the crab move, where you lift your leg to the side until you feel the stretch in your inner thighs and glutes, and then repeat on the other side. This dynamic routine works multiple muscle groups, including the back extensors, buttocks, arms, and hamstrings.
Additionally, squats are a staple in any workout routine as they target the complete lower body, including the glutes, thighs, hips, and lower back. They strengthen the buttocks, increase hormone release, improve flexibility, and can be done almost anywhere.
It is important to note that while HIIT can be an effective way to target muscle groups, a 2018 study found that intense cardio sessions like HIIT had minimal effect on muscle loss. Progressive overload, which involves constantly challenging your muscles by increasing weight, reps, sets, or training frequency, is a principle for muscle growth that can be applied to glute workouts.
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Frequently asked questions
To lose glute muscle, you need to lose fat and restore muscle mass in that area. This can be achieved through a combination of diet and exercise. Specifically, you should focus on decreasing your overall body fat through cardio exercises and healthy eating habits, while also restoring muscle mass through strength training.
There is no single workout that targets the glutes for fat loss. However, exercises such as lunging, stepping, rock climbing, and stair climbing can help to tone the glutes while also keeping the heart and lungs healthy. Squats are also a suitable exercise for toning the glutes, although you can modify your biomechanics to place more emphasis on the quads and less on the glutes.
Diet plays a crucial role in losing glute muscle. To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. This can be achieved by sticking to smart portion sizes, filling your plate with colourful vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fats, and avoiding refined grains, added sugars, sugary drinks, alcohol, and fried foods.
Yes, it is important to be patient and consistent with your diet and exercise routine. Additionally, you can try higher-rep glute and quad exercises, as well as HIIT workouts two to three days per week, to achieve fat-burning benefits while de-emphasising muscle building.
