Glute Exercises Ranked | Hamstrings (BEST TO WORST!)

There are many different glute exercises but today, we are going to rank them so that you know which are worth your time and which ones you should skip. Because the glutes and hamstring muscles share many of the same functions, you are going to get a two for one here as both the glute exercises and

And so even a high foot placement doesn’t save  this exercise this placement at the bottom of my list, the Leg Press has got to go.

What’s up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere, athleanx. com. What you see behind me is a bunch of different leg exercises, specifically for the hamstrings  and glutes. And they share a lot of functions together, so we’re going to group them together.

But not just that, I want to help you to find the ones that are actually worth your time. Because  we’re going to do what we always do here, we’re going to rank them from the best to the worst,  leaving you only with the best exercises capable of delivering the gains that you’re after. So, it’s all these guys in our Exercises Rank Series, we have to define the criteria for  the inclusion of these exercises in this list. Number one, they have to be capable of being  progressively overloaded. Can you continue to increase the resistance to keep those gains  coming?

Number two, can you do these exercises and create muscle growth and hypertrophy as the main  focus? Sure, there are strength exercises, but for this list, they have to create muscle growth. And number three, guys, as a physical therapist, as always, each of these exercises has to have  one thing in common. They all have to be Don by me. Oh, God.

Where have you been? I’ve been hanging in the  back. Where have you been? Why do you have to do the exercises? Oh, I’m the one with the juicy booty, remember?

Oh, I wish you’d stay away. Listen, they all have to be safe and by being safe,  what I’m talking about is they can’t compromise pain in order to deliver the gains that we’re  after here, guys. So, each of these exercises is going to fit that important criteria. And so, as always, we’re going to start here at the bottom of the list in the Worst Category  and work our way up. And as I mentioned in the open here, the hamstrings and glutes actually do  share some functions together.

Both of them are capable of extending the hip or bringing the legs  straight back behind the body. But the hamstrings also have the capability of bending the knee. So,  one of the worst ways to do this, unfortunately, is one of the most popular exercises and ways to  do it. It’s the Prone Hamstring Curl. But before you get too excited, trust me, there’s going to  be better options ahead.

The reason why I don’t like this particular version of the exercise is  because of the position, being faced down. And as you struggle to get that weight up and really  try to get your feet into that end position, we oftentimes will drive our thighs down into  the pad. That engages the hip flexors, which, as we know, attach to the lumbar vertebrae,  which can start to pull on them and result in low back pain or spasm. Not the way we want  to really try to build our hamstrings. As I mentioned, the exercise does fit the  criteria of hypertrophy and overload.

But again, knowing that there’s better options ahead, I’m  not willing to take that trade off. So, for me, it’s going to start at the bottom  of the barrel with a big red X. Next up, we have a glute exercise and this one  you’ve probably seen before or done and it’s just a simple Heel Press. Now, this is a bodyweight  exercise, easily done, no equipment limitations here to get in the way. However, it still  doesn’t make it very high on my list.

Why? Well, it’s very much incapable of the overload that we  seek in order to build muscle. You’re doing mostly a bodyweight movement here, and it’s also very  limited in its range of motion. Even when it’s done correctly here, you’re talking about a very  limited 10 to 15 degrees of motion for the entire exercise. And even more than that, it’s oftentimes  missed performed because this is one of those exercises that easily leads itself to muscle  substitution as we start to rotate the hips, taking away some of the effort from the  glute max.

Guys, this is definitely one that belongs here at the bottom and it’s not going  to deliver the gains that you’re looking for. So, between the last exercise and this one, I kind  of feel like I’m pissing off a lot of people in my audience and a lot of females. But it has to  be said, and I’m trying to deliver you the best information and that exercise that has to go next  is the Step Mill. And you guys have probably seen this and maybe even seen the people who add that  little flare of the hip extension at the end. It still doesn’t save the exercise.

Why? Well, a lot  of times these Step Mills are actually powered, which means that as you step, the motor on the  machine brings your leg back down into extension, not the muscles in your body. That’s a problem. What makes this worse is the only muscles that are working are your hip flexors once again,  just to lift your foot up onto the next step, only to take that ride back down. It’s not going to get you where you want to be, and it could lead to some of that back pain we  talked about.

Now, sometimes, if be lucky enough to find a version of the machine that you actually  power by driving your foot down into extension. But at the end of the day, any exercise that can  be done for many, many, many minutes in a row becomes less anaerobic and therefore less likely  to deliver muscle gains and more aerobic. It doesn’t fit our categories or criteria here, and  therefore it also is going to get a big red X. And so, if my ladies out there got maybe  a little bit mad at me, this time I’m going to give everyone a chance to, because the  next exercise on this list is the Leg Press. Now, look, I understand a lot of people have used  the leg press as an alternative to a squat, especially if they have knee pains and problems  and maybe even had seen some gains along the way.

My issue is, as a glute developer, it’s a  horrible exercise, there’s no way around it. And I know people say, Well, Jeff, that’s maybe  because you’re doing it incorrectly. You need to put your feet high up on the platform in order  to get more glutes and hamstrings. It doesn’t save the exercise, guys. And here’s why.

First of all, when we put our feet high up on the plate, what we get is a lot of hip flexion, a  lot of hip flexion, actually. You may not be able to see it until I take the position at the bottom,  and I simply turn it to a standing position, as you would at the bottom of the squat. And there’s  no squat you’ve done that’s ever looked like this for good reason, because it’s not a great way  to do a squat. With this amount of hip flexion what oftentimes happens is you get an extreme  amount of posterior tilt and lumbar reflection that can compromise the stability of the low back  and the SI joint. Two things we don’t want to do, but more than that, when we go back and we extend  our legs, look at the excursion we go through, what is the range of motion on the exercise?

Remember, hip extension is what we’re looking for when we’re trying to train the glutes. We’ve gone through very little hip extension, went from extremely flexed to moderately  flexed, but still never even close to neutral, let alone extended. The exercise does not do  a good job of targeting the glutes. Therefore, it’s going to stay here at the bottom of the  list with the big red X right through it. And so, with that, now I get to break out my  blue marker as we head up the charts here into the Better Category.

And for this, we need to go  back and look at the same position we just talked about with the Leg Press. It’s the Dumbbell  Reverse Sprinter Lunge. And yes, you might notice that same chest to thigh position, but there’s  some very different things going on here. Number one, with t