If you only had one move to build a better booty, it would be the squat. It's the foundation of nearly every serious butt workout — accessible, scalable, and brutally effective at loading the glutes. The catch is that a squat only builds the booty you want if you do it the right way and do it often enough. This guide covers both: how to make squats work harder for your glutes, the best variations to add, and the honest reason most people never see results — and how to fix it.
The short version: Squats build the booty when you squat deep, hinge at the hips, drive through your heels, and squeeze at the top — then repeat consistently over weeks. The biggest obstacle isn't form, it's volume and consistency. Stacking squats onto everyday phone use is a sneaky way to get both.
Meet your glutes
Your "booty" is mostly three muscles working together. Knowing what each does helps you train them on purpose instead of just hoping.
- Gluteus maximus — the big one, and the largest muscle in your body. It's the main driver of hip extension (straightening your hip, like standing up from a squat) and gives the booty most of its size and shape.
- Gluteus medius — sits higher and toward the side of your hip. It helps move your leg out to the side and stabilises your pelvis when you stand on one leg, which matters for that rounded "upper shelf" look.
- Gluteus minimus — the smallest, tucked under the medius. It assists with the same side and stabilising jobs.
A well-built booty trains all three. Classic squats hammer the gluteus maximus, while wider stances and single-leg variations bring the medius and minimus into play.
Why squats are such a great glute builder
The squat is a hip-extension movement, and hip extension is exactly what the gluteus maximus is built for. As you stand up out of the bottom, your glutes fire hard to drive your hips forward and upright. It's also a compound move, meaning it trains the quads and hamstrings at the same time — so you build strength efficiently and burn more energy doing it. And because you can do squats with nothing but your bodyweight, there's no excuse standing between you and your reps.
How to bias a squat toward your booty
Not every squat hits the glutes equally. A few small tweaks shift more of the work onto your butt:
- Squat deeper. Sitting down to at least parallel (thighs roughly level with the floor) — or lower if your mobility allows — stretches the glutes more and recruits them harder out of the bottom.
- Hinge at the hips. Push your hips back as you descend, as if reaching your butt toward a chair behind you, rather than just dropping straight down through the knees.
- Drive through your heels. Keep your weight in your heels and mid-foot on the way up. Driving through the heels emphasises the glutes; coming up onto your toes shifts the load to the quads.
- Squeeze at the top. At the very top of each rep, consciously clench your glutes to finish hip extension fully. That squeeze is the mind-muscle connection in action.
Proper squat form, step by step
Before you chase variations, nail the basic bodyweight squat. Good form is what keeps the work in your glutes and out of your lower back and knees.
- Stand with feet about shoulder-width apart, toes pointed slightly out.
- Brace your core and keep your chest tall and your spine neutral.
- Push your hips back and bend your knees, lowering as if sitting into a chair.
- Let your knees track in line with your toes — don't let them cave inward.
- Descend until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor, keeping your heels planted.
- Drive up through your heels, straightening your hips and knees together.
- Squeeze your glutes at the top, then reset for the next rep.
The best squat variations for your booty
Once the basic squat feels solid, these variations keep the work fresh and hit your glutes from different angles. Mix and match them.
Bodyweight squat
How: The standard squat above, using only your bodyweight.
Why it builds the booty: It's the master move — it teaches the hip hinge and heel drive that every other variation is built on, and it's endlessly repeatable anywhere, which is how you rack up volume.
Sumo squat
How: Take a wide stance with toes pointed out at around 45 degrees. Sit straight down between your legs, keeping your chest up, then drive back up.
Why it builds the booty: The wide stance and turned-out feet bring the inner thighs and the side glutes (gluteus medius) into the movement more than a standard squat does.
Bulgarian split squat
How: Stand a couple of feet in front of a bench or chair and rest the top of one foot on it behind you. Lower your back knee toward the floor by bending your front leg, then drive up through your front heel. Finish all reps on one side before switching.
Why it builds the booty: Loading one leg at a time massively increases the demand on each glute, and the forward-leaning torso emphasises hip extension. It's one of the best single-leg glute builders there is.
Goblet squat
How: Hold a weight (a dumbbell, kettlebell, or even a water jug) against your chest with both hands and squat as normal.
Why it builds the booty: The front-loaded weight helps you stay upright and squat deeper, and the added resistance is an easy way to apply progressive overload once bodyweight feels light.
Squat pulse
How: Drop into the bottom of a squat and, instead of standing all the way up, bounce up and down through a small range of motion, staying low.
Why it builds the booty: Pulses keep your glutes under constant tension and create a serious burn, making them a great finisher to fully fatigue the muscle.
Jump squat
How: Perform a bodyweight squat, then explode up off the floor into a jump. Land softly with bent knees and immediately sink into the next rep.
Why it builds the booty: The explosive drive recruits your glutes powerfully and adds a cardio element, so you build strength and burn energy at once. Skip these if jumping bothers your knees.
Curtsy squat
How: From standing, step one leg diagonally behind and across the other, like a curtsy, then bend both knees to lower down. Return to standing and alternate.
Why it builds the booty: The crossing motion targets the side glutes (gluteus medius and minimus), which round out the upper and outer part of the booty that straight squats can miss.
Wall sit (bonus)
How: Lean your back against a wall and slide down until your knees are bent at about 90 degrees, thighs parallel to the floor. Hold the position.
Why it builds the booty: It's an isometric hold that lights up your glutes and quads with zero impact — a great option for building endurance and a burn without any jumping or bending.
A simple booty squat workout
Here's a straightforward butt workout you can do at home with no equipment. Run through it two to four times a week, resting about 30 to 60 seconds between exercises. Adjust the reps to your level.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Bodyweight squat | 3 | 15 |
| Sumo squat | 3 | 12 |
| Bulgarian split squat | 3 | 10 per leg |
| Curtsy squat | 3 | 10 per side |
| Squat pulse (finisher) | 2 | 20 |
| Wall sit (finisher) | 2 | 30–45 sec hold |
Want a longer, full-body plan to slot this into? Try our simple at-home routine for women, or take on the 30-day squat challenge to build the habit fast.
Turn your scroll time into squat time
PeachRep locks your distracting apps until you stand up and squat. Your camera counts every rep on-device with real-time form feedback — 100% private. 1 squat = 1 minute.
The principles that actually grow a booty
Variations are fun, but four principles do the heavy lifting. Get these right and almost any squat routine will work.
- Progressive overload. Muscles grow when you ask them to do more than last time. That can mean more reps, more sets, a slower tempo, a deeper range, a harder variation, or added weight. If you're doing the same easy sets month after month, progress stalls.
- Consistency. A few solid sessions a week, every week, beats one heroic workout followed by a fortnight off. Your booty is built in the weeks and months, not in any single session.
- Mind-muscle connection. Actively feeling and squeezing your glutes through each rep — rather than just going through the motions — helps you put the work where you want it.
- Nutrition. Muscle is built from what you eat. Eating enough overall, with adequate protein spread through the day, gives your body the raw materials to recover and grow. The specifics depend on your body and goals.
A quick safety note: This is general fitness information, not medical advice. Squats are safe for most healthy people, but if you have an injury, a health condition, or you feel sharp pain (as opposed to normal muscle fatigue), stop and check in with a doctor or a qualified fitness professional before continuing.
The real obstacle: consistency
Here's the part most booty-workout guides skip. You don't lack the knowledge — you've probably read a dozen articles like this one. What you lack is the consistency to actually accumulate the squat volume week after week. Life gets busy, motivation dips, and "I'll squat later" quietly becomes "I'll start again Monday."
The trick isn't more motivation. It's habit stacking — attaching the squats to something you already do constantly. And there are few things you do more constantly than reach for your phone.
You're going to scroll either way. The only question is whether you build a booty while you do it.
That's exactly what PeachRep is for. It locks your distracting apps until you do squats to unlock them — 1 squat = 1 minute of screen time — and counts your reps on-device with Apple's Vision framework, giving you real-time form feedback while keeping the camera feed 100% private to your phone. Every time the urge to scroll hits, you bank a few more glute-building reps. Over a week, those scattered sets quietly add up to serious volume you'd never have "found time" to do otherwise. (For the full breakdown of why that habit loop works, read how squatting for screen time sticks.)
Pair the structured workout above with PeachRep's all-day squats, and the consistency problem solves itself. The reps stop being something you have to remember — they just happen, every time you pick up your phone.
Frequently asked questions
Can you grow glutes with just squats or bodyweight?
Yes — especially if you're newer to training, bodyweight squats and harder variations are enough to build a stronger, firmer booty. As you get stronger, growth depends on continually making the work more challenging: harder variations, more reps, slower tempo, or added load. The muscle keeps adapting only as long as you keep raising the bar.
How many squats should I do to see results?
There's no magic number — consistency over weeks matters far more than any single session. Most people who train their glutes with challenging sets a few times a week start to notice changes in firmness and strength within roughly four to eight weeks. Doing lots of small squat sets through the day adds to that total volume.
Do squats make your bum bigger or smaller?
Squats build the glute muscles, which generally makes the booty firmer and often fuller. Whether your bum looks bigger or smaller overall also depends on your nutrition and body composition, since both muscle and body fat contribute to shape. For most people, training the glutes makes them more rounded and lifted.
How often should I do a booty workout?
Two to four glute-focused sessions a week works well for most people, with at least a day of recovery between hard sessions so the muscle can rebuild. If you're also doing many small squat sets through the day, listen to your body and ease off if you feel run-down or unusually sore.