The Best Cardio for Glutes | Dumbbell Lower Body Workout ⋆ Fitwitchery

The best cardio for glutes isn’t something you might think of as “cardio” at all.

You’ll get your best sweat on with amazing cardio and work those glutes at the same time! It’s a win-win.

All you need for this lower body workout is one dumbbell and a lighter weight or object. For extra intensity, you might want a second, heavier dumbbell and minibands for the goblet squat jump.

Jump to workout.

Glutes: What are they?

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What we commonly call the “glutes” are the three muscles that make up the buttocks. Or, butt. (I’ll just say butt.)

There’s the gluteus maximus, which is the largest butt muscle. It makes up most of the meat back there, and is actually one of the largest muscles in the body. You know what happens when you work large muscles? You stimulate more of your cardiovascular system. That means that you get more of a metabolic, or cardio, workout, while also rounding those glutes. But we’ll go into that later.

Then there is the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus, both of which are smaller muscles on the outside of your hips. They help with hip abduction and stabilization.

Why you should work the glutes.

Glutes have gotten a lot of attention lately—and it’s good they have. For one, building a nice booty is a popular way to gain an attractive silhouette.

But also, many people have underdeveloped glutes because of our more sedentary lifestyle. This leads to all kinds of problems like back pain, knee pain, plantar fasciitis, and more.

So building your glutes is not only an aesthetic option, but a practical one.

What’s the best way to work the glutes?

Glutes is a huge subject, so I’ll just touch on it briefly in this post.

There are many ways to work the glutes, depending on your goals. Are you going for size? Strength? Involving cardio for fat burn, like this workout? Maybe looking to get a particular shape to your butt?

Regardless of your particular goals, you’ll want to make sure you’re stimulating the glutes as much as possible, which isn’t easy. Most glute exercises also stimulate the quadriceps, hamstrings, and other parts of your body. If you have underdeveloped glutes, it’s easy to rely on one of these other muscle groups during these exercises. This not only fails to build the best butt you can build, it can also cause injury.

For example, when you go down in a squat, you are working both the quads (thighs) and the glutes (butt). However, you might tend to rely on the quads a little too much. So while you do these exercises, focus on using the glutes as much as possible.

How? Form, focus and firing up.

Perfect your form: When you do a squat, sit back before you sit down, and push through your heels.

Use mental focus: When performing the motion think of your glutes, or even touch them to stimulate them. Ignore your quads—don’t worry, they’ll still get used.

Fire those glutes up: Do exercises before the workout that build or just stimulate the glutes. This way, they’ll be “turned on” for the compound exercises.

(And yeah, this stuff actually works.)

How we work the glutes in this lower body workout.

This workout is a lower body dumbbell cardio workout that stimulates and builds the glutes.

It is not, however, the most glute-focused strength workout you could do. In order to kill two birds with one stone, I used the exercises that stimulate or build the glutes and also provide a nice metabolic burn.

What are the best exercises to build your glutes?

woman doing goblet squats for glute training

The queen of the glute exercises is the weighted (and banded) hip thrust, followed by the weighted and banded glute bridge. Neither are in this workout because I wanted something metabolic and both tend to slow a fast-paced workout down.

However, sometimes I’ll do a short circuit of thrusts or bridges before a workout like this to stimulate the glutes to work more during the workout. This helps me use my glutes more during squats, lunges, etc., than I might otherwise, as well as adding to my glute strength gains.

This list is not complete, but a collection of my favorite glute exercises are:

Hip thrusts
Glute bridges (elevated or floor)
One leg squats
Side lunges
Single leg deadlifts
Deadlifts
Back lunges
Squats
Bulgarian split squats
Kettlebell swings
Kettlebell hikes
Leg curls
Walking abductions
Frog pumps
Kickbacks
Donkey kicks

Why include cardio?

Cardio has taken some knocks recently. The problem isn’t with cardio, however. It’s with the outdated notion that cardio is the best or only way to lose weight.

Most people get into fitness because they want to look better, which usually involves some fat loss. We now know that strength training helps significantly in many aspects of our lives, including weight loss and overall health.

However, this doesn’t mean that cardio is useless—quite the opposite. The best benefit of cardiovascular exercise is—that’s right!—improving your cardiovascular system. It’s really great to be able to walk up four flights of stairs without getting out of breath (especially if you live in a city like New York). And keeping your heart healthy in preparation for a long and vibrant life is a good idea, too.

My personal addiction to cardio stems from its mood-enhancing benefits. Endorphins keep me on my fitness routine like nothing else.

What is cardio?

When people say “cardio” they usually mean running, elliptical or biking, but it’s really just any exercise that gets your heart rate up. That means that “cardio” can be accomplished even with weight training.

How to get cardio benefits from strength training.

If you want to get the best cardio you can during your glute workout, or any workout, two factors will help you:

Plyometrics
Compound movements

Adding plyometrics, or jumping, especially with a weight in your hands, is the best way to milk some cardio out of your glute workout. In this workout I add a jump on a goblet squat for this very purpose. The goblet squat will work those glutes, and the jump will amp up the cardio benefits while intensifying the muscle burn.

Compound movements are those that involve more than one muscle group or joint. Squats and lunges are naturally compound movements because you are involving your quadriceps and glutes (among others). More muscle mass being involved means higher heart rate, or more of a “cardio” benefit.

Why you should (or shouldn’t) combine glute training with cardio in one workout.

There are lots of training styles, and they usually cater to specific needs. You train differently for a bodybuilding competition than you will for a marathon, for instance. Traditional weightlifting has often separated out the weights from the cardio, using each in specific volumes at specific points of training to achieve a segment of your intended goal.

But if your goals are more mundane, like, “Well, I, uh, want to feel good and stuff, maybe lose weight and look kinda good” then combining weight lifting and cardio into one exercise is a fantastic idea.

This is called metabolic resistance training, and it’s my jam. It builds muscle, loses fat, sends me into an alternate universe, saves loads of time and frustration, and makes me feel freakin’ fantastic.

This workout will do all that, with special attention paid to your bodacious booty. It will give you some of the best cardio you could hope for while helping build some strong, round glutes.

Let’s jump in.

Instructions.

Winter Wonderland Workout

Part 1:

50&35×8

Weighted side lunge (dumbbell or kettlebell) L
Two way jump ups L
Weighted side lunge R
Two way jump ups R

Part 2:

30&30×5

1.5 goblet squat pulse and jump squat
Jump over jump tuck

Part 3:

3 rounds:

10 one leg squats (pistol squats) L
10 one leg squats R
20 pass under jump lunges (light weight or object)
20 Jump squats

Video instructions.

For detailed instructions on each exercise, plus modifications, watch me below:

Weighted side lunge

Hold a pair of dumbbells hanging down by your sides, or a single kettlebell by the horns. From standing, bend down with weight mostly on one leg while the other leg moves out to the side. Be sure to keep your knees behind your toes and your butt back. Go down to where your thigh is parallel to the ground, and return to standing. Repeat on same leg.

Two-way jump-ups

Stand with feet wide, knees bent. Quickly bounce down to a full squat and then jump up on one leg, then quickly bounce down to the same position but with leg behind at a diagonal, jump up on same leg, and keep repeating.

1.5 goblet squat pulse and jump squat

Sit your butt down and back, keeping torso relatively upright, and stop just before parallel. Come up almost to standing, to where you feel your glutes stop workout. Sit back down all the way to parallel, jump up, and stand. Go right into next rep. Can perform these with a band above the knees for extra resistance, then keep it on through the next exercise.

Jump over jump tuck

Do a jump squat over your dumbbell or kettlebell, jumping laterally. After you land, do a jump tuck by jumping up in the air and lifting your knees as high as you can. Reverse movement, jumping laterally the other way over the dumbbell.

One leg squats (pistol squats)

Squat down on one leg with the other pointing in front of you. Come down so thighs are parallel (half), or if you can, go down all the way. Return to standing. (See my post on pistol squats for more information and modifications.)

Pass under jump lunges

With a light weight in one hand, held out to the side, go down in a lunge. Jump up on both feet and switch legs in the air. Come down in lunge on opposite side and hold while you pass the weight from one hand to the other under the front leg. Continue.

Jump squats

Perform a squat, then jump up and land in a squat for the next rep. Go one after the other.

Write down your scores in your workout journal.

Listen, get a workout journal and get it now. Write down your scores, weight used and notes on difficulty. If it’s too easy or hard, adjust weight up or down, or adjust the exercise for next time.

My scores:

16-14-13-14

11-11-11-10

15-14-14-13