Six exercises to do at home with a couch, a chair, and a resistance band, training both the muscle that drives you forward and the one that keeps your pelvis level.
- The two different jobs of the gluteus maximus and the gluteus medius, and where you feel it when they’re not pulling their weight.
- Six exercises in order of difficulty, from the floor bridge to the single-leg deadlift.
- For each one: starting position, execution, breathing, and the sign that the work is sliding onto your lower back.
- Equipment: a mat, a couch, a sturdy chair, and a loop band.
- Sets, reps, and weekly sessions gathered in one box to keep close at hand.
Eight hours in a chair are eight hours in which your glutes serve as a cushion and little else. The bill comes due somewhere else: a lower back that’s tired by evening without having lifted a thing, knees that cave inward when you climb stairs or get up from a low seat. Behind both are two different muscles that need to be put back to work.
Gluteus Maximus and Gluteus Medius — Two Different Jobs
The gluteus maximus, the largest muscle in the body, extends the hip: it moves the thigh back and the pelvis forward. It’s working when you stand up from a chair or step onto a stair. When it does too little, part of the push tends to shift onto the muscles of the lower back, which are the worst candidates for that job.
The gluteus medius sits higher and farther to the side, right under your palm when you rest a hand on your hip. Think of your pelvis as a shelf resting on two legs: as long as both stay on the ground, it stays level on its own. Lift one, and it’s the gluteus medius on the other side that keeps the shelf dead level, with every step and every stair. If it gives, the shelf dips on the side of the lifted leg and the standing knee slides inward. That’s the knee you see caving in on the stairs.
If you play a sport, you feel it more sharply: in running and cycling the gluteus maximus provides the drive; in skiing and tennis the medius holds the pelvis steady through every plant and change of direction; in swimming the glutes work through the kick and the push-off on each turn.
The Six Exercises
They run from easiest to hardest, and it pays to keep that order within each session too: the first two switch on the gluteus maximus, the third isolates the medius, and the last three ask for drive and stability at the same time, on a single leg.
Glute Bridge, Two Legs and Single Leg
Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet hip-width apart, heels about a hand’s width from your glutes. Before you lift, draw your lower ribs toward the floor, as if pressing your back flat into the mat, then push through your heels and raise your hips until shoulders, hips, and knees form a straight line. Hold for a second and lower slowly. Exhale on the way up, inhale on the way down. In the single-leg version, extend the free leg in line with the supporting thigh and lift your hips without letting them rotate or drop on the free side. If the muscles running alongside your spine are working harder than your glutes, you’re arching your back to get up instead of extending your hip. Stop at the straight line, not past it, and repeat the ribs-down cue before every rep.
Hip Thrust with Your Shoulders on the Couch
Think of it as a bridge with a longer range of motion. Sit on the floor with your back against the couch, the edge of the seat under your shoulder blades, knees bent. Push through your heels and drive your hips up until your torso and thighs are horizontal and your shins vertical, then lower under control. Breathe out as you rise and take the air back in at the bottom. Torso and pelvis move as a single block pivoting on your shoulders, chin toward your chest and eyes on your knees; the full technique is in our dedicated guide to the hip thrust at home. The warning sign is your gaze drifting up to the ceiling: with your head tipped back, your ribs flare and your back arches at the top. Bring your chin back down and finish the movement by squeezing your glutes, while your belly stays still.
Banded Clamshell
Lie on your side with the band just above your knees, hips and knees bent to about 45 degrees, feet together, one hip stacked directly over the other. Keeping your feet in contact, open your top knee like a clamshell parting, then close it slowly against the pull of the band. Exhale as you open, inhale as you close. The right kind of burn shows up high on the side of your hip, right where you’d rest your hand: that’s the gluteus medius. If instead you feel a pull at the side of your lower back, just above the hip bone, your pelvis is rolling backward to buy extra range. Rest your back against a wall so it can’t rotate, and settle for a smaller opening. That’s the one that does the job.
Reverse Lunge
Stand with your hands on your hips, take a long step back, and lower straight down until your back knee nearly touches the floor and your front knee forms a right angle, with your weight in the heel of your front foot. Push through that heel to come back up and bring your back leg in next to the other. Inhale on the way down, exhale on the way up. Stepping backward tends to take load off the front knee and leaves more of the work to the glute that’s pushing. The signal not to ignore is your belly sliding forward as you lower, with your lower back curving: it happens when the step is too long for your back hip. Shorten your step by an inch or two and squeeze the glute of your back leg as you go down.
Split Squat with Your Back Foot on a Chair
With your back to a chair, rest the top of one foot on the seat. Move your standing foot forward until, as you lower, your knee stays roughly over your ankle. Lower straight down by bending your front leg until your thigh is nearly parallel to the floor, then push through your heel to come back up, keeping one hand on the wall if your balance comes and goes. Breathe in on the way down, out on the way up. Tilting your torso slightly forward shifts the work toward the glute. The leg on the chair pulls on the front of the hip and, if you let it, drags your pelvis forward and arches your back: you feel it as pressure low down, just above the sacrum. Squeeze the glute of your back leg, as if pushing that knee toward the floor, and go down a couple of inches less. The tension at the front of the hip stays; the strain on your back disappears. It’s the toughest of the six and the first one you’ll be tempted to skip. Keep it: nothing else loads a single leg this much with a chair as your only equipment.
Single-Leg Deadlift
Stand on one leg, supporting knee slightly unlocked, hands on hips. Push your hips back and let your torso tip forward as your free leg rises behind you: from your head to your raised heel, your body forms one line, like a plank seesawing on a pivot. Lower until you feel a pull in the back of your standing thigh, then come back up by driving your hips forward and squeezing your glute. Inhale as you lower, exhale as you rise. Your pelvis stays parallel to the floor: if the hip of your free leg opens toward the ceiling, the gluteus medius is losing its grip. The movement is a Romanian deadlift on a single leg, and the hip hinge is broken down step by step here. If your back rounds before your thigh feels the pull, you’re bending at the spine instead of the hip. Go only as low as your back stays flat; the range will come with the sessions.
Sets, Reps, and Weekly Frequency
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Glute bridge | 3 | 15 on two legs, or 10 per side single-leg |
| Hip thrust with your shoulders on the couch | 3 | 12 |
| Banded clamshell | 2 | 15 per side |
| Reverse lunge | 3 | 10 per side |
| Split squat with your back foot on a chair | 3 | 8 per side |
| Single-leg deadlift | 3 | 8 per side |
Rest one minute between sets, for a session of 30 to 40 minutes. Two sessions a week on non-consecutive days, three if you have the time. When the last reps feel easy and clean, slow the lowering phase to three seconds before adding more; move the bridge to a single leg once 15 reps on two legs no longer feel like work.