Why Are My Side Glutes Not Growing?
If you’re constantly questioning why your side glutes are not growing, continue reading to uncover the reasons behind this and discover effective strategies to change this!
Before delving into this topic, it’s important to acknowledge that we all have different body types and factors like genetics and anatomy can influence our appearance. While aesthetics can serve as motivation in the gym, let’s remember that the primary goal of working out is to maintain a strong and healthy body.
I also want to briefly address the notion of hip dips. If you’ve never heard this term, then skip this paragraph. If you have, know that hip dips are a natural aspect of our anatomy and that growing your side glutes shouldn’t be about trying to eliminate them. It’s possible to have well-developed side glutes and still have ‘hip dips’, as all you are seeing with this is the shape of your pelvis. Your pelvis is a bone and you can’t change the shape of your bone. Hip dips are not negative or undesirable, they are just the structure of our human body. So while we will talk about how you can gain muscle mass in your side glutes, this is NOT about eliminating ‘hip dips’.
Another important point is that strengthening your side glutes, also known as the gluteus medius, is crucial for more than just aesthetic purposes. This muscle plays a vital role in stabilizing the pelvis during activities like walking. Keeping this muscle strong can help you in maintaining the health of your hips and can help enhance your balance. Focusing on the strength of your gluteus medius has many benefits beyond just growing your side glutes.
The 3 Parts Of Your Glutes
In order to understand why your side glutes are not growing, you first need to have a basic understanding of the anatomy of your glutes in general.
The glutes consist of three distinct muscles: the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. While all three muscles contribute to hip movement, their individual roles differ slightly.
The gluteus maximus, being the largest of the three, is often the primary focus. This muscle is engaged during exercises like squats, deadlifts, and leg presses.
On the other hand, the gluteus medius is responsible for the outer hip area, or as known in this post, the side glutes. This muscle covers the outer hip region and extends up to cover a significant portion of the iliac crest.
The gluteus minimus is situated underneath the gluteus maximus and medius, making it a deeper muscle.
To effectively develop your side glutes, it’s crucial to specifically target the gluteus medius, as it is the muscle that’s located in your outer hip region. If you only focus on exercises that target the gluteus maximus such as squats and deadlifts, you may not see significant muscle gains in the gluteus medius.
What Does The Gluteus Medius Do?
The gluteus medius has a few jobs:
1- As mentioned earlier, the gluteus medius plays a crucial role in maintaining pelvic stability. For instance, when standing on one leg, the gluteus medius activates to prevent the pelvis from shifting to the side.
2- The main movement that this muscle is responsible for is called hip abduction. Hip abduction is when you move your leg away from you and out to the side.
3- Additionally, different parts of the gluteus medius contribute to hip rotation. The front portion aids in hip internal rotation, while the back part assists hip external rotation.
Understanding these movements helps us appreciate that the side glutes have more than one role in our body.
What Can I Do To Help Grow My Side Glutes?
1. Make Sure You Are Activating The Gluteus Medius Properly
The first question to ask is: Are you able to activate the gluteus medius properly? Even if you do exercises that target this muscle, it’s possible that you are using other muscles to compensate for weakness here.
While seeing a physical therapist is the best way to truly assess for muscle imbalances, I wanted to create something for you that you can use to get an idea of your muscle strength here.
So, I’ve designed a FREE guide to help you assess your side glute strength which you can find here: Gluteus Medius Strength Assessment
2. Incorporate Gluteus Medius Specific Exercises Into Your Routine
If you’re struggling to build your side glutes, it’s important to assess whether you’re incorporating exercises that specifically target the gluteus medius. Simply relying on exercises like squats or leg presses may not sufficiently isolate this muscle.
If you go to the gym, the seated hip abduction machine is great to specifically target the side glutes. Some at home exercises you can do include clamshells, sidelying hip abduction, and side steps with a resistance band. These exercises help activate and engage the gluteus medius effectively.
Incorporating glute medius-specific exercises into your leg day routine and progressively increasing the challenge can help you achieve better gains. This video goes into more detail on gluteus medius specific exercises: Exercises For Your Side Glutes
3. Do The Right Amount Of Reps For Hypertrophy
Ensure that you’re challenging yourself with appropriate resistance and weight. For muscle building, aim for a rep range of 8-15 repetitions. Ideally, keeping this at a max of 12 reps is best, but you can do up to 15.
If you find yourself easily speeding through and completing 15 reps, consider increasing the weight to optimize muscle growth.
Your last few reps should be challenging but remember, only as challenging as you can continue with good form. If you are losing your form, lower the weight or do less reps.
Final Points
Building muscle is a gradual process that takes time and consistency. Don’t expect to see significant results in just a couple of weeks.
Patience and dedication are key to achieving your desired outcomes.
While I do think that it’s ok to have aesthetic goals, assuming they motivate you in a healthy manner, it’s essential to remember that your physical body is just one aspect of who you are. You are more than your appearance.
Embrace the holistic perspective of wellness, which encompasses mental, emotional, spiritual and physical well-being. Focusing on overall health and self-acceptance is what is truly important.
