How To Turn Square Glutes into Round Glutes
AKA How To Get A Bubble Butt
A round “bubble” shaped pair of glutes is a common goal for many women.
However, we are all born with different glute genetics that will largely control our glute shape.
After you read this, I strongly suggest you check out my wildly popular post on How Your Genetics Shapes Your Glutes.
The shape I get asked about the most is square-shaped glutes.
Square-shaped glutes tend to fall a little on the bottom of the glutes and hold excess body fat around the top of the glutes, hips and lower abdominal area, sometimes known as the “muffin top”.
While every person’s body is uniquely beautiful, many women with square glutes ask me how they can achieve a rounder, more peachy bum.
I’ve done A LOT of looking around the internet before writing this because I always want to see what other people suggest for this particular goal.
Needless to say, there is a ton of utter rubbish on websites and blogs about building rounder glutes.
Trust me when I say most of it will get you nowhere!
Let’s look at the best exercises and techniques to turn square glutes into round peachy glutes (but before we do, go follow my Instagram below)
Glute Building Nutrition
If we don't fix your nutrition first, there is no point in looking at the exercises that build and shape your glutes.
I cover glute-building nutrition in detail in this article.
We need calories and protein to build muscle, so we need to eat to change our square glutes to round glutes.
I’ve got a brilliant and handy CALORIE CALCULATOR on my instagram that will give you custom calorie targets, macro splits and advice on either building muscle or burning fat, make sure you check it out.
It’s A Two Step Process
Step One
You must spend time in a calorie surplus with a high-protein diet to build new muscle (you can get this from the calculator).
I recommend training your glutes 3-4x times a week for a minimum of 3 months to see any glute shape and size changes.
But honestly, a great bum can take years of consistent work and effort.
Remember, if you don’t eat, you won’t grow, and your glute shape won’t change.
Step Two
This is the fat loss phase. Once you’ve built your glutes up to a size and shape you are happier with, then we can look at tackling the muffin top.
Fat loss requires a calorie deficit with a high protein diet to burn fat and preserve muscle (again, you can get this from the calculator).
With a sensible diet, weight training and moderate cardio (as needed), we can burn off the fat around the top of the glutes (along with the rest of the body as you can’t spot reduce fat) to help lessen the square shape and enhance the round glute shape you’ve been aiming for.
Depending on your starting point, you may need to diet for 4-12 weeks (but it’s wildly variable).
I recommend a slower approach with a less aggressive calorie deficit of around 10% to preserve as much muscle and strength as possible.
During both the glute building phase and fat loss phase, your training should stay pretty much the same:
Lift weights,
Keep it heavy,
Train to failure when you can,
Maintain your strength levels (getting weaker is a sign of muscle loss and too harsh a diet)
Check out this article on Progressive Overload - The one thing you MUST master to grow any muscle.
Cardio should be used as a tool as and when needed or for general fitness. Cardio will not build your glutes, so stop doing kickbacks on the stairmaster!!!
Exercises For Rounder Glutes
How Client Georgia went from Square Glutes to Round Glutes.
Liking what you’ve seen so far? You should check out my Instagram where I post amazing glute training tips daily.
To lift your bum, you should train all the glute muscles from all angles, but with square-shaped glutes, we want more focus on the gluteus medius - the lateral muscles that sit higher on your bum, closer to your waist and are responsible for the abduction of the leg.
Your Go-To lifts will always be your priority; no matter what you want your glutes to look like, these are your bread and butter:
Hip Thrusts - Barbell, banded, foot elevated, machine, single leg.
Glute Bridges - Barbell, banded, single leg.
Deadlifts - Sumo, Conventional, Romanian.
Squats - Back, Front, Sumo, Goblet, Split. - Check out this post on Why you can’t squat deep and how to fix it
Lunges - Static, Deficit, Walking.
Abductions - Machine, Fire hydrants, Cable, German etc.
Exercises for the Upper Glutes (Glute Medius)
A strong gluteus medius sculpts, lifts, and provides protection from chronic back pain. Therefore, exercises that build them are important for everyday health and pain-free living, not just a round-shaped bum.
The gluteus medius runs along the side of your glutes and outer thigh (see image above) and can be difficult to target with squats and deadlifts.
Check out this post that will teach you the most effective way to grow your glutes.
We need exercises that isolate the gluteus medius to grow your upper glutes.
The Extra Range Side- Lying Hip Abduction is the quickest and easiest way to get started.
Extra Range Side - Lying Hip Abduction
You can make this harder by adding ankle weights, bands or cables but they are pretty spicy on their own. Remember to always keep your hips facing forward; don’t allow the top hip to externally rotate or you won’t target your gluteus medius as effectively.
Machine Hip Abduction
If your gym has one (which almost every gym does) then the Machine Hip Abduction is a fantastic bit of kit when done properly for targeting the gluteus medius and helping to lift the glutes and make them appear rounder.
I love to have my clients do this machine using pause reps where you have to hold your legs open for 1-3 seconds against the weight to really achieve that glute pump and insane burn.
Deficit Curtsy Lunges
A great addition to any leg day is the Curtsy Lunge. It’s a great exercise to target the glute max, gluteus medius and quads and to help pump up those glutes to get those round glutes.
Glute Dominant Back Extension
One of my favourite exercises to target the glutes and hamstrings is the Glute Dominant Back Extension. Hitting the hamstrings will help you lift and shape the lower glutes while this move also hits the gluteus medius and, of course, the all-important glute max.
You need to focus on rounding the upper back, tucking in your chin and pulling with your glutes and not your back. Using a penguin stance (heels together, feet pointing out) hits the glutes hard!
Cable Standing Hip Abduction
This is a great alternative to the Extra Range Side - Lying Hip Abduction or Abduction machine. The secret is to keep the weight light so you can focus on squeezing the muscle rather than trying to throw the weight up with bad form.
A Great Finisher
A great finisher for helping turn square-shaped glutes into round glutes is Banded Seated Hip Abductions.
By the time we get to the end of a workout, we’ve hit the muscles with big compound exercises and heavy weights, so it’s fine to finish with a few banded exercises to get that final booty pump.
For women with more square glutes, this exercise and variations of it are a go-to for me and my clients.
Final Thoughts…..
This is not an exhaustive list of exercises, but they are fantastic options to add to your glute workouts if you have square-shaped glutes and want to improve their size and shape to make them appear rounder.
But remember, you can’t change your glutes completely. Your genetics gave you your glute shape; all we can do is try to enhance what you already have and learn to love what you got.
Finally, remember that your glutes greatly impact performance and injury prevention. So if you are prone to injuries training your glutes is an absolute must.
Looking great, staying healthy, and having a strong booty will improve your health and wellness, not just your appearance; it’s not going to happen in a week, so be patient.
Thanks for reading
Aaron
If you want to stress test the seams on your Lululemons and become a Badass with a great ass, then
apply for ONLINE COACHING HERE
And Check out a few of my client’s glutes below
Hi, I’m Aaron Schiavone, owner of Mind Muscle Personal Training. Over the past 7+ years I have helped women increase their self confidence, improve their relationship with food, improve their health, become stronger, fitter and happier.