Booty Gains Made Easy: 5 Power Moves for Stronger Glutes (No Squats!)

Quick answer: Hip thrusts produce significantly higher glute muscle activation than squats during a single set — but a controlled training study found that squats and hip thrusts actually produce similar glute muscle growth over a full training program. The most effective approach combines both, since each offers distinct benefits beyond glute activation alone.

Researched and written by the GymGoodies team, fact-checked against manufacturer specs and current fitness guidance.

Glute training has become one of the most researched areas of strength training in recent years, and the hip thrust vs. squat debate is at the center of it. The research tells a genuinely interesting, somewhat counterintuitive story worth understanding before you build your program around either exercise exclusively.

Why Hip Thrusts Show Such High Glute Activation

A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research compared gluteus maximus activation between the back squat, split squat, and barbell hip thrust, finding greater peak and mean glute activation in the hip thrust compared to the back squat. This lines up with a broader mechanical explanation: the gluteus maximus tends to activate most strongly near full hip extension, which is exactly the position of peak resistance during a hip thrust — meaning the exercise loads the muscle right where it’s naturally strongest, driving especially high activation.

But Here’s the Important Nuance: Activation Isn’t the Whole Story

Higher activation during a single set doesn’t automatically mean more muscle growth over an actual training program — this is a theme we’ve touched on elsewhere on this site, and it applies directly here. A study published in Frontiers in Physiology directly compared 9 weeks of set-volume-equated training using either the back squat or hip thrust, and the findings were genuinely striking: despite the hip thrust producing meaningfully greater EMG activation during the initial testing session, squat and hip thrust training elicited similar gluteal hypertrophy by the end of the program. In other words, the significant activation advantage the hip thrust shows in a single set did not translate into a proportionally larger muscle-growth advantage over time.

So Which Exercise Should You Actually Prioritize?

Given this research, the honest answer is neither is clearly superior for glute growth specifically — but each exercise brings genuinely different additional benefits worth considering:

• The squat produced significantly greater quadriceps and adductor growth alongside comparable glute growth, and improved squat strength more specifically — making it the more well-rounded lower-body exercise if you’re training multiple muscle groups at once.
• The hip thrust improved hip thrust strength more specifically, and both exercises produced similar improvements in deadlift strength, suggesting genuine transfer to other movement patterns regardless of which exercise you emphasize.

A Practical Takeaway: Use Both, Not Either/Or

Rather than treating this as a competition with a single winner, the research supports including both exercises in a well-rounded lower-body program:

1. Use squats as a foundational compound movement for overall lower-body development, since they build meaningful quadriceps and adductor size alongside glute development.
2. Add hip thrusts as a dedicated glute-focused exercise, particularly useful if you want to isolate hip extension more directly or if squats alone aren’t providing enough total glute training volume.
3. Don’t assume hip thrusts are automatically “better for glutes” based on activation data alone — the actual growth research doesn’t support a meaningful superiority for hypertrophy specifically.

Other Effective Glute Exercises Worth Including

Beyond squats and hip thrusts, a well-rounded glute training approach typically benefits from a few additional movement patterns:

• Romanian deadlifts and other hip-hinge movements — engage the glutes through a hip extension pattern with a different loading curve than either squats or hip thrusts
• Single-leg exercises (split squats, step-ups, single-leg glute bridges) — address side-to-side strength differences and add useful training variety
• Direct isolation work (cable kickbacks, hip abduction exercises) — can add targeted volume, particularly useful if you’re specifically trying to increase total weekly glute training volume beyond what compound movements alone provide

How This Connects to Everyday Function

Strong glutes aren’t just an aesthetic goal — they’re central to functional movement. Our guide on the muscles used for sitting and standing covers how the glutes work alongside the quadriceps to power one of the most repeated movements in daily life, and dedicated glute training directly supports this kind of functional strength, not just physique goals.

Glute Training and Bone Health

Both squats and hip thrusts are weight-bearing, loaded exercises, which connects to something else we’ve covered on this site: our guide on why bones become fragile with age discusses how resistance training that places mechanical stress on bone can support long-term bone density. Glute-focused compound lifts like these are a genuinely useful part of that broader picture, not just a muscle-building tool in isolation.

A Simple Weekly Programming Approach

• 2x weekly total lower-body training is a reasonable frequency target for most people, consistent with broader research on training frequency for hypertrophy
• Include both a squat-pattern and a hip-thrust-pattern exercise across your week, rather than choosing one exclusively
• Add 1-2 accessory glute exercises (hip hinges, single-leg work, or isolation movements) to round out total weekly volume
• Progress load gradually over time on your primary compound movements, since consistent progressive overload matters more for long-term glute development than any single exercise choice

Common Mistakes in Glute Training

1. Chasing “the best glute exercise” based on EMG data alone, when the actual hypertrophy research shows a much smaller practical difference between well-programmed alternatives than activation studies alone would suggest.
2. Neglecting squats entirely in favor of only hip thrusts, missing out on the additional quadriceps and adductor development squats provide.
3. Under-programming total training volume, assuming one “best” exercise alone is sufficient rather than combining multiple movement patterns for well-rounded development.
4. Ignoring progressive overload in favor of exercise selection alone — consistent, gradually increasing training stimulus matters more than which specific exercise you’re doing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the hip thrust really necessary if I already squat?
Not strictly necessary based on the hypertrophy research, but it’s a reasonable addition if you want more direct hip-extension-focused training or additional weekly glute volume beyond what your squatting already provides.

Why does EMG activation data get emphasized so much if it doesn’t reliably predict muscle growth?
EMG remains a genuinely useful research tool for understanding acute muscle recruitment and informing hypotheses, but as this research shows, it shouldn’t be treated as a definitive predictor of long-term hypertrophy outcomes on its own.

How often should I train glutes for noticeable growth?
Training the muscle group roughly twice weekly, with adequate total volume and progressive overload over time, is a reasonable, well-supported starting framework for most people.

Bottom Line

Hip thrusts genuinely do activate the glutes more than squats during a single set — but a controlled training study found this activation advantage doesn’t translate into meaningfully greater muscle growth over an actual program. The most effective, research-supported approach uses both exercises together, taking advantage of the squat’s broader lower-body development and the hip thrust’s direct hip-extension focus, rather than searching for one single “best” glute exercise.

Do you currently include both squats and hip thrusts in your routine, or lean more heavily toward one? Let us know in the comments what’s worked for your training.