Glute kickbacks are an effective way to warm up and activate your gluteal muscles, improve balance, strength and shape in your glutes, as well as improving overall balance and strength in them.
Assuming you’re facing the machine, secure an ankle strap and lean your torso against it for stability. Push your working leg back and up to contract the glute before slowly lowering.
1. Cable Glute Kickback
The cable glute kickback is one of the best exercises to strengthen and sculpt glute muscles. As this movement is highly targeted to your gluteus maximus muscles while engaging your gluteal medius and minimus gluteal tissues too, you’ll work your hamstrings and core in tandem to keep the movement stable while performing this exercise.
No matter if it is your first time lifting or you are an experienced lifter, when performing this exercise there are some key techniques to remember when performing it. First and foremost is using an appropriate amount of weight – lifting too much will cause your leg to move back and forth during movement, taking away from some of the tension generated from exercise.
Mistakenly standing up straight while performing exercises can limit range of motion and stop you from hitting your glutes as hard as possible. Instead, hinge at the waist and bend over slightly for more range of movement.
Once you’re ready to perform this exercise, attach an ankle cuff to your lower leg by connecting a cable machine. Begin with lighter weights in order to get used to moving before progressing up to heavier ones. With the cuff secured, lean forward while holding onto the machine for balance while slowly driving your leg backward.
Once your hip has been extended fully behind you, squeeze your glute muscles for two seconds before slowly returning back to starting position and repeating for desired number of reps on each side. Switch sides after finishing desired number.
The glute kickback can make an excellent addition to any lower body or leg day workout, and can even be included as part of upper body routines! However, be careful not to pair this exercise with too many glute-specific isolation movements in order to maximize strength gains across your entire posterior chain. Instead, pair this exercise with squats and deadlifts for an efficient workout with maximum return!
2. Glute Kickback with Leg Lift
If you want to increase glute muscle size, the Glute Kickback with Leg Lift exercise is ideal. As an advanced version of regular kickbacks, this advanced version targets not only glutes but hamstrings and lower back too! Depending on your workout needs and available space in the gym, you can either perform this standing or lying down; using resistance bands can add even greater challenge and expand range of motion.
Glute kickbacks have been demonstrated to effectively target all three glute muscles, particularly gluteus maximus and medius, according to research conducted by the American Council on Exercise. They’re also an excellent way to strengthen your core. For optimal results, make sure each repetition drives back through its full range of movement in order to fully engage and strengthen all three glute muscles.
While performing glute kickbacks, many common errors include arching their lower back, swinging their leg back and rushing through reps. If too much weight is used then this may also result in swinging instead of using muscle strength for lifting. This shifts emphasis away from muscles to momentum which aids you through each lift.
As you push through the footplate with your heel, keep your abs tensed to protect and manage your lower back. Lifting up your back leg until it is parallel with the floor and squeeze your glutes, holding this position for one second before gradually returning back down towards starting point and repeat for 10-20 reps on each side.
The glute kickback is one of the best exercises to strengthen and sculpt your butt, helping improve posture and relieve lower back pain. It is an ideal warmup exercise before more intensive butt-building movements such as squats or deadlifts as it will prevent injury while improving performance by increasing overall stability.
Even without access to a cable machine, you can still obtain an effective glute burn by performing the donkey kickback as an alternate variation of this exercise. Or use resistance bands in leg lifts – particularly useful if trying to minimize stress on your lower back.
3. Glute Kickback with Hip Thrust
This exercise provides an effective alternative to the hip thrust for building glute strength with lighter loads, and can serve as an introduction for those wishing to learn how to fully contract their glutes for full hip extension – helping ensure better form and technique when performing later versions of hip thrust exercises in your program.
Traditional Glute Kickback exercises (also referred to as the “donkey kick”) involve performing on all fours with body weight to target the gluteus maximus muscle group. Although still an integral component of any strong glute program, incorporating hip thrusts will add tension to these muscles for greater gains and allow you to see faster gains overall.
For this exercise, begin by standing facing away from a cable machine or pulley system that’s set at waist height with an appropriate weight attached. While keeping a neutral spine position, bend forward at the waist while lifting one leg until it reaches straight behind you while simultaneously squeezing your glutes at each rep’s completion. Unlike classic cable glute kickback exercises, this variation focuses more on hips rather than thighs – and to maintain proper alignment you should ensure not arching your back while performing these movements!
Mistakes made when performing this exercise include allowing momentum to take control, swinging one leg up and down without using its entire range of motion. This reduces muscle activation, decreasing effectiveness of exercise. If more of its range can be reached during each rep, the better results you’ll see from this workout.
Increase the difficulty of your exercise by adding weighted dumbbells whenever your body weight becomes too easy, increasing weight on the bar and making the exercise even more challenging for stronger glutes.
Finally, this exercise can be an ideal warmup exercise before engaging in heavier butt-building movements such as squats and deadlifts to help optimize performance in these movements. Building lower body strength through this exercise may also make maintaining proper form easier when performing heavier exercises while simultaneously optimizing strength gain.
4. Glute Kickback with Leg Extension
Glute kickback with leg extension can add extra glute work to your workout, particularly if you don’t have access to a glute kickback machine at the gym. Doing a donkey kickback exercise works similarly to doing regular kickbacks, except that resistance bands are used to increase tension on your hip. This exercise is commonly known as “Donkey Kick,” as it appears that your hind leg is being kicked like that of an animal such as a donkey. Start in the quadruped position with both feet in a quad position and hands underneath your shoulders (kneeling push-up position). Hook a resistance band around your right ankle, keeping one end under your hand as support during movement. Extend your right leg back behind you while maintaining neutral spine alignment and 90 degree knee angle; squeeze glutes to drive heel towards ceiling while driving heel back down slowly back towards starting point – repeat on both sides until desired reps have been completed.
One common error when performing glute kickbacks is allowing their upper body and neck to relax too much, which can put less load onto your glutes and lead to less effective results. To counter this effect, brace your core while keeping your neck neutral as you perform this movement in order to help elevate hips during movement.
Another way to increase the difficulty of the glute kickback is by adding an extension at the end of each movement. This will place more focus on quads and hamstrings than on glutes, yet still can provide effective workout.
As your strength with the glute kickback grows, it’s essential that your technique evolves to keep challenging your muscles. Once you can complete bodyweight glute kickbacks with controlled and precise form, progress to dumbbell versions of this movement to maintain muscle growth.
