Why your glutes aren't growing

Growing your glutes is probably one of the most common goals I hear from women inside TWS. And when someone feels like they’re not seeing the progress they want, their first thought is usually that they need a different exercise, another glute day, or some new variation they’ve seen on Instagram.

But from what I see as a coach, it’s rarely an exercise problem.

Usually, there are a few much less exciting things going on behind the scenes. So if you’ve been training your glutes consistently but still feel like they’re refusing to grow, these are the first things I’d look at.

You’re always trying to lose weight

This is probably one of the biggest ones I see. You want bigger glutes, but you also want to be leaner, so you’re constantly either in a deficit or thinking about starting another one.

While you can build muscle in a deficit - particularly if you’re newer to training - if growing your glutes is genuinely your priority, you need to give your body enough energy to actually build them. That doesn’t mean you need to go on an aggressive bulk, but spending some decent time around maintenance or in a small surplus is going to put you in a much better position.

There are seasons for fat loss and seasons for building. Trying to stay as lean as possible year-round while also expecting your glutes to continuously grow can become a bit of a conflict of interest.

You’re training, but you’re not progressing

Doing hip thrusts every week doesn’t automatically mean you’re progressively overloading your glutes. If you were doing 60kg for 10 reps six months ago and you’re still doing 60kg for 10 reps now with roughly the same effort, your body hasn’t been given much reason to adapt.

Progress doesn’t have to mean adding weight every session. It could mean another rep, slightly more load, better technique, more control or improved range of motion. But over time, you should be able to look back at your training and see that you’ve actually gotten better at the movements you’re doing.

This is exactly why I’m always encouraging our members to track their lifts. Your logbook is one of the best indicators we have that what you’re doing is actually progressing.

You’re not training as hard as you think

This is another really common one, especially when someone is still learning what training close to failure actually feels like. There’s a big difference between finishing a set because you’ve reached the prescribed number of reps and finishing because you genuinely only had another one or two good reps left.

You don’t need to take every set to complete failure, but your working sets should be challenging. If you finish 10 reps and realistically could have done another eight, we probably need to turn the intensity up before we start adding more exercises.

Sometimes the answer isn’t more training. It’s getting more out of the training you’re already doing.

You’re doing too much

On the flip side, more glute work isn’t automatically better glute work. You don’t need three different hip thrust variations, four kickbacks and an abduction finisher every time you train lower body.

There’s a point where adding more sets and exercises simply adds more fatigue without giving you much more in return. I’d much rather see someone do a handful of well-selected movements, train them hard and progressively overload them than spend two hours doing every glute exercise they’ve ever saved on TikTok.

More isn’t always better. Better is better.

You keep changing what you’re doing

Muscle growth is unfortunately quite boring. You need to repeat movements for long enough to get good at them, progressively overload them and actually see whether they’re working.

If you’re changing your program every few weeks because you’ve found a new exercise or workout that looks better, you’re constantly starting again. This is why our TWS programs intentionally repeat key movements across a training block - repetition isn’t a lack of creativity, it’s how we actually measure progress.

Give your program enough time to work before deciding you need something new.

You haven’t given it enough time

And finally, sometimes nothing is actually wrong. You just haven’t been doing it for long enough yet.

Building noticeable muscle takes time, particularly once you’re past those initial beginner gains. Social media makes it very easy to underestimate this because we see the transformation without seeing the months or years of consistent training behind it.

If you’re training hard, your lifts are progressing, you’re eating enough protein and calories, you’re recovering well and you’ve only been doing all of that consistently for a couple of months, I probably wouldn’t change anything.

I’d tell you to keep going.

Because most of the time, the answer isn’t hiding in a magical glute exercise you haven’t discovered yet. It’s in doing the basics really well - training hard, progressing your lifts, eating enough, recovering properly - and doing them for much longer than you think.

Unfortunately, that’s significantly less exciting than telling you one specific kickback variation will change your life. But it works. 

If you're ready for real glute growth - we can help you gf! Become a TWS member and learn for yourself why growing glutes is our bread and butter. 

Love TWS Coach Bronte x