Building muscle in butt, but not thighs?

jenifer7teen

I don't mind bulking up a bit in my glutes but I feel like most of the strength exercises i do also impact my thighs which I don't really want to become bulkier...any suggestions? Thanks!

jennybearlv

Weighted glute bridges are pretty good at getting the glutes, seem to hit the hamstrings a little, but I don't notice it working my quads like most lower body exercises do.

sardelsa

Bret Contreras wrote this article about it:
https://bretcontreras.com/growing-glutes-without-growing-the-legs/

Daily glute activation helps so that when you do the glute dominant exercises, you are using the glutes vs. other leg muscles. Body weight exercises like: bird dogs, clams, fire hydrants, side lying abductions hip extensions etc.

My go-to glute focused exercises are weighted hip thrusts, glute bridges, American deadlifts, cable deadlifts, cable pull throughs, abductions, hip extensions, kickbacks and frog pumps (some people don't feel this one in the glutes, just gotta experiment)

To be honest, it is really hard to build significant muscle in the legs unless you are bulking or recomping. But if you are noticing increasing in size regardless, I would limit squats or keep them light and focus on glute activation when you do them. I don't squat heavy but I do a lot of other leg exercises so my quads are nicely sized but not huge in comparison (at least I think so, some people may find my quads too bulky for their taste)