IN THIS POST

Why your glutes aren’t growing: 12 reasons + how to fix them so you can build a rounder and sexier pair of buns.

Sharing is caring so go ahead and send this to a friend you think will find it useful. 💪🏾

And be sure to pin this post so you can come back to it whenever you want.

Intro: Why your glutes aren’t growing

Not a flat pancake booty with zero shape. 

“Why aren’t my glutes growing?!” you ask yourself in frustration. 

It makes you want to pull your hair out but I’m here for you and you don’t have to do that.

In this article, I want to show you how to build the backside of your dreams. 

Here are 12 reasons why your glutes aren’t growing, plus how to correct them to start seeing the booty gains you want.

1. Your glutes won’t grow because you’re not eating enough

Booty growth = muscle growth. 

And the only way to build muscle–unless you’re a total beginner or have stopped lifting weights for a little while–is through a calorie surplus.

Being in a calorie surplus just means you’re eating more calories than you burn. 

In other words, calories in > calories out.

It’s the opposite of what you need for weight loss, which is a calorie deficit. 

You know, a surplus isn’t exclusive to just growing your glutes.

You need a surplus to build muscle in other areas too, like your chest, back, and arms.

While you build muscle by being in a surplus, that also comes with gaining a little bit of body fat.

But this is where you have to ditch diet culture (** cough, 1,200 calorie diets on Pinterest, cough cough **) and focus on the goal at hand.

Which is to grow your glutes.

Start thinking like this: Long-term booty gains > short-term discomfort.

At the end of the day, muscle growth can’t happen unless you give your body some extra fuel.

You can keep fat gain to a minimum (whew, isn’t that a relief?!) by applying what you learn in this post. 

2. You need to eat more protein

Out of the three primary macronutrients, protein is unequivocally most important (by a landslide) when it comes to building muscle. 

And as you know by now, your glutes won’t grow without muscle. 

Protein repairs your muscles in between workouts and stimulates muscle growth.

Ideally, you want to shoot for 0.7g-1g per pound of your body weight in protein daily.

3. You’re a cardio-aholic 

Cardio is great for building up endurance and improving overall health but your glutes won’t grow if you’re prioritizing the treadmill or elliptical over lifting weights.

You need to prioritize strength training the same way you prioritize watching your favorite show that just came out with a new season on Netflix. 

I’d say the only cardio you need when trying to grow your glutes (mainly just for the health benefits) is your daily steps. 

7,500-10,000 steps per day.

4. You need to be on an actual plan

Here’s booty-building 101 for you when it comes to strength training: 

It is NOT hopping on the StairMaster and doing a few random sets of glute kickbacks.

Or venturing over into the stretching area and cramming a 2.5 pound pink dumbbell into the back of your knee for some donkey kicks until you “feel the burn.” 

You’re only truly strength training when you’re on an actual weightlifting program.

You’ll do the same batch of structured workouts for a number of weeks before switching up your routine.  

5. You’re not lifting heavy enough 

You need to step outside of higher rep ranges.

Your glutes won’t grow if you’re always lifting “lighter weights for reps.”

Take advantage of rep ranges on the lower end.

The 5-10 rep range is the sweet spot for the majority of exercises you perform to target your glutes.

6. You need more compound movements in your workouts

Do you have exercises like Bulgarian split squats in your routine?

What about hip thrusts?

Or RDLs?

These are examples of compound movements. 

You can lift the most weight with these (and target more than one muscle group) so they give you the most bang for your workout buck. They allow you to truly overload your muscles, which is what you need to do if you want to grow your glutes.

7. You don’t apply progressive overload 

“Here ye, here ye! I am progressive overload, the king of all strength training principles.”

If you don’t implement this, you’re saying you don’t want to grow your glutes without actually saying it. 

It’s that big of a deal.

Progressive overload is the act of gradually lifting heavier and heavier weights over time.

This places added stress on your body, which is then forced to adapt. 

It adapts by building muscle to handle all of the extra stress (aka glute growth for you). 

Record your sets, reps, and how much weight you were able to lift each workout.

That way, you can ensure you’re making progress and not just spinning your wheels wondering why your glutes won’t grow.

8. You’re not training your glutes as much as you should

How much is enough?

Twice per week is optimal. 

That also comes with performing enough volume (sets and reps).

Your glutes won’t grow if you just do one exercise twice per week.

You need somewhere between 10-20 sets of glute work. 

Here’s how that could play out with your workout routine.

Let’s say your current split is a 4-day-a-week upper/lower split:

• Monday–lower body workout
• Tuesday–upper body workout
• Thursday–lower body workout
• Friday–upper body workout

You could do 7 sets of glute exercises on Monday followed by 7 sets of glute exercises on Thursday, which would put you right within that 10-20 set range.

9. Your workouts contain waaaaay too many exercises

Having exercise on top of exercise on top of exercise is just overkill.

Your body won’t be able to recover from that, which will hinder your glute gains.

Scale back some.

Think quality > quantity.

10. You’re not training with proper form

I’ll give you an example here.

Let’s say you’re doing hip thrusts.

Having your feet too far out in front of you places more emphasis on your hamstrings.

And having your feet too far in takes the emphasis off of your glutes and puts it on your quads.

Proper form for hip thrusts = your shin should be in a straight, up and down line at the top of the movement.

Or, ankles directly below your knees.

11. You need more patience

Growing your glutes isn’t Amazon Prime one-day delivery.

It won’t happen overnight.

You won’t be able to just snap your fingers and see this insanely impressively glute growth transformation when you look in the mirror.

Take the time frame you have in your mind of how long it takes to grow your glutes and think significantly longer than that.

I’m not saying this to discourage you.

I just want you to have realistic expectations and head into this understanding you have to be in it for the long haul to achieve the results you want.

There just are no shortcuts or “skip the lines” when it comes to growing your glutes.

Focus on putting in the work and getting just 1% better each day.

I know any day in itself won’t seem like anything at all. 

But think about all of those 1%’s added together, what that will look like over the long haul.

12. You haven’t been consistent

Why your glutes aren’t growing also comes down to consistency. 

At the end of the day, your results will simply be a reflection of how consistent you are.  

But you have 100% control over that, which is awesome. 

In the long run, you WILL see results as long as you’re consistent with your workouts and nutrition. 

Why your glutes won’t grow Q&A

Will doing 100 squats a day make my butt bigger?

If you truly want to build a bigger, more shapely backside, here are a few things you can do, just to name a few:

• Consume more calories than you burn (eat in a calorie surplus)
• Eat 0.7g-1g per pound of your body weight in protein daily
• Get on a program, lift heavy weights, and apply progressive overload

Again, those are just a few things but this re-read the tips in this article for more details.

How do I know if my glutes are growing?

I know I linked to this post previously but here it is again.

If you go through that you’ll come away from it knowing how to tell whether or not your glutes are growing, or really, any muscle for that matter.