Kick Butt (And Take Numbers)

The women’s vote is in: Across the board, they’re turned on by a guy with a great butt. So start training those glutes now!

- Sean Hyson

A recent Men’s Fitness poll of women found that their favourite trainable part of a man’s body (i.e, not the eyes or smile) is his ass. So why are you trying to fit in another chest-and-arms day? Training the glutes isn’t just a way to make yourself more attractive to the ladies, it’s also the key to lifting heavier, preventing injuries, and improving performance at any sports you play. We talked to the ultimate resource to bring you the definitive guide to glute training.

The Missing Piece (of Tail)

Your glutes work on most lower-body exercises, particularly squat and deadlift variations, but Bret Contreras, PhD, a strength coach and researcher (bretcontreras.com), says the conventional lifts weren’t enough to get his butt in gear. “In high school I had no glutes to speak of ”, he says. “My legs went right into my back.”

Once he discovered how to train glutes more directly, however, his lifts all improved and he was finally able to fill out the seat of his pants. “There’s different regions of the glutes”, says Contreras. “Different actions and ranges of motion that need to be strengthened. You have to have variety.”