Basically, strong glutes will pretty much heal any lower-body postural issues, and when developed well, they’ll look great, as fitness model Marzia Prince and singer Nicole Scherzinger can attest.

Every woman I have ever worked with or met in the gym always wants a better butt. However, what do they do to try to get it? They sit on a bike or new cardio machine for 45 minutes or they go and sit on the hip abductor machine in hopes of creating steal buns.

Working out like this will help atrophy (shrink) your glute muscles and before you think this is a good idea because you have a big butt, it is not. Weak glutes will lead to all kinds of postural problems and not just a flabby butt.

If you want to have a good set of glutes, you have to do the work. The main thing is to really isolate the glutes. The glutes get hit a lot with other exercises like squats and lunges, but the exercises in the workout below really isolate the glutes. The hip thrust, seen in weeks 7-9, recruits more muscle fibers in the glutes than a full squat.

These exercises can be done in conjunction with your leg workout or as part of a full body workout. The first thing to do is activate the muscle fibers in your glutes, as they have probably been inactive for the last several years, before starting on the extra weight.

If you skip weeks 1-3 and 4-6 and go straight to weeks 7-9, you are working to strengthen the current imbalances. The first phase is very important as it teaches you to basically contract your gluteal muscles. Until you can do this correctly, weeks 4-9 are out of the question.

Then you want to move on to weeks 4-6 and start adding some size and shape to your glutes, which will get you ready for weeks 7-9, strength. The strength phase will help build strength in the glutes and help keep them strong and, in the short and long term, will provide much more support for the structure of the hip and lower back.

Weeks 1-3

High repetition glute activation work

3 days a week, p. Eg, Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Quadruped hip extension: 2 x 20 reps per side

Glute Bridge Raise – 2 x 20 reps

Fire hydrant – 2 x 20 reps per side

Weeks 4-6

Hypertrophy work

3 days a week, p. Eg, Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Barbell Glute Bridge – 3 x 15 reps

Weighted Bird Dogs – 3 x 15 reps

Weeks 7-9

Strength work

2 days a week, for example, Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday

Barbell Hip Thrusts – 5 x 5 reps