7 reasons why it’s even more important to build strong glutes after 50
When I sat down to write this, I struggled to find an angle.
Because girls and glutes at the gym are kind of a cliché at this point. And a lot of times, a fully ruched cliche.
(Sort of like dudes, bench presses, biceps curls, and size schmedium shirts.)
But if you’re a woman over 50, there are seven important reasons to prioritize your glutes beyond aesthetics…
And they have everything to do with how you may feel, move, and function for the next several decades.
Not that you can’t enjoy the aesthetic benefits!
But here’s why the other stuff matters and how to apply it to your training routine.
1. Muscle mass and your metabolism
Your glutes are the biggest muscles in your body. Training them means you’re building and maintaining the largest possible metabolic engine.
This matters because starting in their 40s, women start losing muscle at an accelerating rate. By the time you’re in your 50s and beyond, that loss can affect your metabolism, your body composition, and how easily you maintain a healthy weight.
More muscle means more calories burned at rest, better insulin sensitivity, and a body that works with you instead of against you.
How to apply it: Train for hypertrophy (e.g., muscle growth) by safely using weights that are challenging enough so that you can only do 8-12 reps with good form.
2. Building strength that keeps you independent
Honestly, it sucks to wait around for someone to help you with a job around the house.
Carrying groceries, lifting things, moving furniture, getting up off the floor, climbing stairs — all of it draws heavily on glute strength.
The women I’ve worked with who stay the most functionally independent as they age are the ones who kept doing strength training.
Your glutes are a huge part of that equation. Train them now so you don’t need to ask for help later.
How to apply it: Use a variety of exercises to build muscles that can perform a variety of movements.
3. Hip mobility — basically being able to move freely
Here’s something that no one told me until I experienced it myself: your hormones affect your joints.
When your estrogen levels drop, your collagen production slows down and your joints are less lubricated — and the hip joint, which is already complicated, can start to get cranky. (Shoulders, too, but that’s another story for another day.)
The result? Stiffness and less range of motion, which can start to interfere with your other joints.
Almost every client I work with who is in her 60s has some hip mobility issues.
Strong glutes support the entire hip complex. Building them helps keep the joint moving the way it’s supposed to.
How to apply it: Make time for mobility exercises (more info on that below) and, as with No. 2 above, train in a variety of modalities.
4. Protects your knees, low back, and hips
Weak glutes don’t just stay weak — they make everything around them work harder and can throw your movements out of balance.
Your knees and low back can start to compensate and eventually, something starts to hurt.
I wrote recently about the week my hip put me on the sidelines. Chronic hip issues are no joke, and glute weakness is often a contributing factor to exactly the kind of pain that derails your routine.
Training your glutes is one of the best things you can do to protect your joints.
How to apply it: Don’t skip the basics. Glute bridges, hip thrusts, and clamshells are unsexy but they directly target the muscles that protect your joints. If you already have knee or hip issues, these are your non-negotiables.
5. Helps with balance
Your glutes are the primary stabilizers of your pelvis. When they’re weak, your base is unstable — and that can affect your balance.
Falls are one of the leading causes of serious injury in women over 50, and your balance tends to decline so gradually that most people don’t notice until boom! They fall.
The good news: glute training directly improves balance and pelvic stability. It’s one of the most functional things you can do.
How to apply it: Single-leg exercises are your best friend here — single-leg deadlifts, step-ups, and split squats all challenge your balance while building glute strength at the same time. Two birds, one stone.
6. Bone density
Women can lose up to 20% of their bone mass during the five to seven years surrounding menopause.
The most significant bone loss happens in the 5 years following menopause… and one in two postmenopausal women will suffer a fracture, and one in two will develop osteoporosis due to this decline.
This one is non-negotiable after menopause!
The best non-pharmaceutical intervention? Heavy, loaded movement.
Exercises that train the glutes — deadlifts, squats, hip thrusts, lunges — are exactly the kind of compound, load-bearing movements that signal your bones to stay dense.
How to apply it: Prioritize compound, loaded movements — deadlifts, squats, lunges, hip thrusts. The load is the point. Bodyweight work has its place, but to signal your bones to stay dense, you need to challenge them with weight.
Start lifting for your current fitness and strength level, then build strength so you can safely load your bones even heavier.
7. Better athletic performance (even if you never thought of yourself as an athlete)
Your glutes power almost every movement you make. Walking, hiking, running, climbing, swimming, cycling — all of it draws on glute strength.
If you’ve ever felt like your workouts have plateaued, or like you’re working hard but not making progress, weak glutes might be part of the answer. Bringing them up tends to have a ripple effect across your whole fitness level.
And if you’ve never thought of yourself as an athlete — you might want to reconsider. If you move your body intentionally and consistently, that’s you!
How to apply it: Add explosive or power-based glute work to your routine — think jump squats, kettlebell swings, or step-ups done with intention and speed. Even small amounts of power training make a measurable difference in how you move in real life. Plus, it’s fun!
So how do you actually train your glutes?
The key to glute training is to “wake up” the muscles (a lot of us have imbalances from sitting) and then do a balanced series of exercises.
You can get all the details here, including suggested workouts.
A formula to build your glutes
Before we talk about exercises, it helps to know what you’re actually working with.
Your “glutes” aren’t one muscle — they’re actually three: the gluteus maximus (the big one responsible for power and size), the gluteus medius (the side of your hip, critical for balance and stability), and the gluteus minimus (the smallest, tucked underneath, works alongside the medius).
A well-rounded glute workout hits all three. Here’s a simple formula, based loosely on the work of Bret Contreras, who has done more research on glute training than pretty much anyone alive.
1. An activation move. Your glutes are notorious for being “asleep” — especially if you sit a lot. Waking them up before you load them means better muscle recruitment and safer movement.
Examples: clamshells, glute bridges, lateral band walks
2. A hip thrust or bridge variation. This is the most direct glute maximus exercise you can do.
Examples: barbell hip thrust, dumbbell hip thrust, single-leg glute bridge
3. A squat or lunge variation. Knee-dominant compound movements build overall lower-body strength while hitting the glutes through a full range of motion.
Examples: goblet squat, Bulgarian split squat, reverse lunge
4. A hinge variation. Hip-dominant movements that target the glute-hamstring connection — important for power, posture, and protecting your lower back.
Examples: Romanian deadlift, single-leg deadlift, kettlebell deadlift
5. An abduction move. This is where the glute medius and minimus get their moment. Don’t skip this — these muscles are the unsung heroes of hip stability and balance. When I started adding these moves to my group ex classes a while back, it made a huge difference not just for my class members but for me too!
Examples: lateral band walk, side-lying leg raise, cable hip abduction
How to apply it: One exercise from each category, two to three sets each, and you’ve got a complete glute workout.
The bottom line (heh)
Yes, strong glutes look good in jeans. But they also protect your joints, support your bones, keep you moving freely, and help you stay independent for as long as possible.
Try to train them twice a week, with at least 1-2 days between workouts.
Hope this helps you not just sculpt stronger glutes, but understand the why and the how.
Make it an awesome day!
Wendy
