Episode 256: The Top 22 Glute Exercises Ranked S to F Tier

0:00:11.6 Mike Vacanti: Hello, Jordan.

0:00:12.2 Jordan Syatt: What’s up, Michael?

0:00:13.2 Mike Vacanti: Brother, we missed the first episode of 2026. We might have done that last year too.

0:00:17.5 Jordan Syatt: Might be a new thing we’re doing, bro.

0:00:19.0 Mike Vacanti: And then we went on a 51-week streak last year.

0:00:22.2 Jordan Syatt: That’s what it’s going to be this year. Maybe we’ll bump it an extra once we make it 52.

0:00:26.1 Mike Vacanti: That would be amazing.

0:00:27.4 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I’m getting sick. I can feel it.

0:00:28.7 Mike Vacanti: You’re about to get again?

0:00:30.2 Jordan Syatt: I can feel it. It’s coming on again, dude.

0:00:32.8 Mike Vacanti: Well, your family got crushed last week and you kind of escaped it and now you’re kind of getting it. Is that what’s happening?

0:00:41.8 Jordan Syatt: They were all throwing up. Like it was crazy. They were all throwing up, but I never had that, which is crazy. I didn’t throw up at all. But like I’m… I don’t know, crazy cough. Yeah, it’s coming on. I can feel it. It’s not good.

0:00:55.9 Mike Vacanti: Dude, and yeah, because we had to reschedule. We missed the podcast last week. I also had some kind of, I don’t even know, the plague.

0:01:05.5 Jordan Syatt: Plague. Yeah. The plague.

0:01:06.3 Mike Vacanti: Literally the East Coast plague. The day after Christmas, we started feeling it and it lasted for like 10, 11, 12 days. I’m still hacking up green stuff. Just…

0:01:18.5 Jordan Syatt: Ugh.

0:01:19.4 Mike Vacanti: Disgusting.

0:01:20.0 Jordan Syatt: Well, how are you doing otherwise? Are you feeling better now?

0:01:22.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I’m on the mend for sure.

0:01:24.8 Jordan Syatt: Good.

0:01:25.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. I hope you don’t end up getting crushed too hard.

0:01:29.0 Jordan Syatt: 2026, baby. Let’s go.

0:01:31.3 Mike Vacanti: Brother. Are you familiar with the process of purchasing license tabs for your car?

0:01:40.5 Jordan Syatt: A license tab?

0:01:41.6 Mike Vacanti: You know, the little sticker on the back, registration. You got to pay the state a fee every year and then you put the new sticker on the back of the plate?

0:01:50.6 Jordan Syatt: Am I familiar with it? No, I’m not.

0:01:52.8 Mike Vacanti: Okay.

0:01:53.3 Jordan Syatt: I mean, I’ve done it, but I don’t… I couldn’t tell you how to do it.

0:01:56.3 Mike Vacanti: I got a letter from the State of Minnesota to pay for the tabs for my vehicle. $700. And I had never seen anything like this before and I started looking into it. In Minnesota, they charge you this annual fee based on the value of your vehicle.

0:02:16.8 Jordan Syatt: No way.

0:02:17.7 Mike Vacanti: So like in a lot of states, Texas, for example, you pay a flat rate. I think it’s 80 bucks.

0:02:23.1 Jordan Syatt: Okay. Regardless of your… It’s like property tax but for your car?

0:02:28.0 Mike Vacanti: Exactly. Exactly. And it’s… And it’s not…

0:02:30.3 Jordan Syatt: That’s crazy.

0:02:31.4 Mike Vacanti: Uh-huh. And you might be thinking, well, like people who can… Who have nicer cars should have to pay more on it. I disagree for one. But two, you know, had a kid this past year, wanted to get a good safe…

0:02:45.6 Jordan Syatt: It’s not like you got a Ferrari either.

0:02:47.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I know. Got an SUV, like a nice, safe family car, bought it new. I’ve bought used my whole life. It’s like, I don’t want anything to happen. I just want like a good, safe car. Spent a little more than I have in the past. I’m historically more frugal on stuff like that. And then I see this come in the mail. I’m just pissed. And this sent me down a rabbit hole because I was like… I was like, how in a state like Texas where they have zero state income tax, how are they also like not gouging people on something like this and making up for it?

0:03:21.0 Mike Vacanti: Because in my brain, the way I think about state tax revenue across the United States is the states who have lower state income tax rates or zero state income tax rates, Texas, Florida, Nevada, there’s a handful of them. They have to be making it up somewhere else. Property taxes, sales taxes. Like, in my mind, state tax revenue per resident of the state has to be pretty equal across the country. That was just like this assumption that I’ve always carried that I never really thought about. It sent me down a rabbit hole. I’m going to bust out some numbers because it’s not true. And, you know, with all this, you’ve seen the fraud stuff, the Nick Shirley, Minnesota fraud stuff going on.

0:04:05.1 Jordan Syatt: Oh my gosh. Dude, it’s crazy.

0:04:07.8 Mike Vacanti: When I cut the state a check and my property tax thing came in and that went up 12% year over year, which is like, why is that going up 12%? Every time I cut a check, I’m like, if this were going to services that I thought were genuinely helping people, I’d be happy to pay a higher tax rate. But the fact that so much of it is going into this like vacuum of fraud makes me more and more furious and makes me pay attention to these things more. Layer that with the fact that… I don’t know if you remember after my initial coaching Gary stint from 2014 to 2016, and then you came on, I was going to move to Florida after that because I just loved the sun.

0:04:50.3 Jordan Syatt: I remember. You were going to move to Miami. Yeah.

0:04:51.7 Mike Vacanti: I’ve talked about it a hundred times. Like, love the UV, love the weather, love the beach. And now I’m like, okay. So I’m in this state by my choosing where I chose to live because family and it still the benefits and enjoying being close to family and spending time with my family still justifies it. However, after running these numbers, like… I mean.

0:05:27.4 Jordan Syatt: However.

0:05:27.8 Mike Vacanti: And… All else equal, I’d rather be in a state that has better weather. Like that’s just always been a thing. But now… So I busted this out. Did you know, when you think of New York, you think higher taxes, right?

0:05:45.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, of course.

0:05:46.5 Mike Vacanti: Minnesota has significantly higher income taxes than New York.

0:05:50.6 Jordan Syatt: No way.

0:05:51.6 Mike Vacanti: So here’s why I thought that they were similar. Because the top state tax rate in Minnesota is 10% and the top state tax rate in New York is 10.9%. So in my mind I’m like, okay, similar state tax rates. To hit the 10.9% in New York, you need to earn over $25 million per year.

0:06:16.6 Jordan Syatt: Shut up. Really?

0:06:17.8 Mike Vacanti: To get taxed at… To get taxed at 10.9%. To get taxed at 10% in Minnesota, 200,000.

0:06:26.3 Jordan Syatt: Shut up.

0:06:29.1 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm. Uh-uh.

0:06:30.5 Jordan Syatt: That’s crazy.

0:06:32.1 Mike Vacanti: Crazy. Crazy. So then I’m like, okay, I pulled Texas, Florida, because you’re in Texas, New York, Minnesota, these are all like states that are familiar to us. And I looked up the populations of the states and then the total tax revenue per year. Assuming that the amount that the government collects is going to be relatively equal on a per capita basis, because the benefit that each person needs, roads, firefighters, police, schools, etcetera, are going to be relatively equal. Maybe there’s going to be a little bit of variance, but relatively equal. The Minnesota state government collects three times as much money per person as Texas and Florida.

0:07:24.4 Jordan Syatt: Dude, what the fuck?

0:07:25.6 Mike Vacanti: Minnesota’s like seven grand per person on average. Texas and Florida are right around 2,500. New York’s like 5,500.

0:07:31.9 Jordan Syatt: That is crazy.

0:07:33.5 Mike Vacanti: Insane.

0:07:34.1 Jordan Syatt: Is there a reason for that? Like…

0:07:37.0 Mike Vacanti: I think because it’s all being stolen, because the benefit… As a citizen, like I’m not receiving more benefit from my state than you are from your state than, you know.

0:07:52.1 Jordan Syatt: Right.

0:07:52.3 Mike Vacanti: I’ve spent the whole winter of 2021, spent five months in Florida. Like I’ve spent a lot of time down there. Seems incredible.

0:08:00.5 Jordan Syatt: I just can’t imagine what the justification is for that.

0:08:03.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I’m not gonna go down conspiracy land. I’ll just stick to facts here and say I don’t know. All I know is that this state is fundamentally different than it was 20 years ago when I was growing up here or 30 years ago. And the combination of cold, terrible weather, like, what are we getting to pay for culture, like shifts in culture? And that’s not like…

0:08:33.2 Jordan Syatt: The fraud stuff is crazy.

0:08:34.8 Mike Vacanti: That’s not a red state, blue state thing, by the way, either, because I love the culture in New York. Like every time I’m in New York, we absolutely love it.

0:08:41.2 Jordan Syatt: No. It’s the greatest city in the world.

0:08:42.4 Mike Vacanti: My family has a great time there.

0:08:43.3 Jordan Syatt: New York is the best city in the world.

0:08:44.0 Mike Vacanti: And even outside of the city, other parts of New York I really like. This state has just gone. I’m sorry, I think I’m… I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m gonna do.

0:08:53.4 Jordan Syatt: You’re going to go to Florida? You’re going to talk to your family? You guys are going to go to Florida?

0:08:56.4 Mike Vacanti: I’m on a weekly basis chirping my family about why we live here.

0:09:01.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, the fraud stuff is crazy, dude. Like I’m not… I don’t claim to be the most educated on it. I try and get my news from the most unbiased sources possible. So I try and look at both sides, but then I follow a fair few that are like right down the middle here. Let’s just look at the facts. It’s pretty wild. It’s pretty fucking crazy. And it appears that this is leading into looking into other states like Ohio, but I’m sure like this is happening elsewhere too. But like it looks like there are other states where fraud like this is just rampant. And it’s obviously fraud happens everywhere. But like this is to the tune of hundreds of millions, billions of dollars. That’s, it’s just… It’s really, it’s crazy.

0:09:46.7 Mike Vacanti: Crazy. Crazy.

0:09:48.7 Jordan Syatt: And it can’t be something that like no one knew about. Like this is… This is deliberate, this is known. This is like swept under the rug.

0:09:57.6 Mike Vacanti: You would imagine. Yeah.

0:09:58.8 Jordan Syatt: There’s no way this was a mistake.

0:10:01.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. People within the government were complicit.

0:10:04.6 Jordan Syatt: Completely aware. Yeah. Especially looking at… The thing that really jarred me with it was looking at some of these places that were recipients of this money were also some of the largest donors to various campaigns. And these places shouldn’t be donating to campaigns.

0:10:32.4 Mike Vacanti: Correct.

0:10:33.3 Jordan Syatt: Like these are businesses that have no business donating to political campaigns, period. Never mind, in the… To the tune of millions and millions of dollars.

0:10:40.6 Mike Vacanti: Correct.

0:10:41.8 Jordan Syatt: It’s crazy. That, yeah… It’s yeah, mind-blowing.

0:10:45.8 Mike Vacanti: Insane.

0:10:47.4 Jordan Syatt: It’s just… And then I don’t know what to do about it as an individual, meaning like, what can I do to help fix this problem?

0:11:00.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know what I have to say is, I think the best thing that I’ve seen a private citizen do is, I believe his name is Nick Shirley, the guy who’s like this independent journalist who’s just like, he’s on his own dime going out and researching this.

0:11:21.3 Mike Vacanti: Knocking on doors asking questions.

0:11:21.5 Jordan Syatt: And risking his own life. Yeah, just doing like really what journalism was meant to be.

0:11:27.0 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm.

0:11:28.4 Jordan Syatt: And that like just bringing it to light. And okay, then I don’t know. I don’t know what the answer is subsequently other than like voting. But then again, like, what does our vote really do at this point, you know?

0:11:40.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:11:40.6 Jordan Syatt: It’s just playing a game at this point.

0:11:47.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:11:48.1 Jordan Syatt: But I was… I… Just objectively incredibly impressed with that independent journalism.

0:11:54.4 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm.

0:11:55.1 Jordan Syatt: And I’m… I pray that him and his fam… I heard him giving an interview being like, him, his whole family is getting death threats. His sister, his father, like calling his house, like being doxxed. Just like, it’s crazy. He’s just doing independent journalism.

0:12:08.6 Mike Vacanti: Really impressive work by him, but also infuriating outcome here.

0:12:17.0 Jordan Syatt: Well, I know you like the beach, so you’re probably not coming to Texas, but.

0:12:19.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I’ll come… I’ll come visit.

0:12:22.1 Jordan Syatt: Not before I come visit. March.

0:12:24.2 Mike Vacanti: That’s right. That’s right.

0:12:25.5 Jordan Syatt: Minnesota. Get ready.

0:12:26.6 Mike Vacanti: Got some good… Some good mentorship plans here.

0:12:29.0 Jordan Syatt: Oh, yeah.

0:12:29.9 Mike Vacanti: Some really good content we’re going to be filming, some good videos.

0:12:34.3 Jordan Syatt: Mm-hmm.

0:12:34.7 Mike Vacanti: New course. It’s going to be sweet. And just hang out, you know. Take you to the Quality Learing Center.

0:12:42.3 Jordan Syatt: We’ll go. [laughter]

0:12:56.0 Mike Vacanti: Bro, peptides are crazy. Peptides are crazy.

0:13:01.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:13:01.7 Mike Vacanti: You and I had a nice 20, 30-minute conversation about this the other day. We don’t need to get into it in detail, primarily because neither of us are experts. But I’ve seen some transformations firsthand and some of the benefits of these various peptides. And I called Jordan and was like, dude, tell me everything you know about peptides. I’ve had my head in the sand, but I think it’s time. And within 24 to 48 hours, I’m now in like, all right, I need more long-term data before I would ever do something myself.

0:13:42.2 Jordan Syatt: Oh, really?

0:13:42.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Especially with all like the GH stuff.

0:13:47.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

0:13:48.3 Mike Vacanti: The… What’s the name? Melon. Something melon.

0:13:55.4 Jordan Syatt: Tesamorelin.

0:13:56.4 Mike Vacanti: Tesamorelin. Yeah. With those. But…

0:13:59.6 Jordan Syatt: Which is FDA approved for those with HIV.

0:14:02.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

0:14:04.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:14:07.1 Mike Vacanti: Just wild. I don’t even have a lot to say on these other than my head has been in the sand it no longer is. And my high-level thesis is still, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is as like a philosophical take on it, but some of these results are insane.

0:14:28.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, dude, it’s real. I mean, I’m not an expert at all, like whatsoever. But I think… Uh, it’s funny. I think a lot of people are, are taking them and they’re not disclosing it and they’re pulling the natty card. Yeah, I haven’t taken any steroids, but like they’re definitely taking a lot of peptides. And it’s like, they can completely transform your body. And I’m not saying it’s healthy. I’m also not saying it’s unhealthy. I don’t know. But like, it’s definitely not natty, that’s for sure.

0:14:59.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:15:02.0 Jordan Syatt: It’s… You know, it’s funny. Some people ask me… I’d say the vast majority of the response to me talking about me being on a GLP-1 is very positive, overwhelmingly positive. But I get a small number of people being like, why do you talk about it like you’re promoting people to be on it who shouldn’t be? And I’m like, no, first and foremost, I’m not. I’m always saying you should talk to your medical provider, get that opinion, second opinions, third opinions. Like, it’s a… I always say it’s not a decision you should take lightly. But I always say, I’m one of the few people who are being very open and honest and say I’m on it. Imagine, would you rather me be on it and lie and say I’m not on it? Because that’s what a lot of them are doing.

0:15:43.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:15:44.3 Jordan Syatt: And then that sets up a whole different set of circumstances and false beliefs. And there are… I personally, I think it would be better to be on it and tell the truth and say, hey, just so you know, I’m taking this and this is what I’m experiencing and blah, blah, blah, rather than pretending I’m not on it and just… So I don’t know. But I think, especially in the fitness industry where so many people’s incomes are, at least in their mind, which I don’t know if it’s… I don’t think it’s necessarily true, but many fitness influencers’ incomes are… They believe it’s dependent on how they look. And obviously their income can be influenced by how they look, for sure.

0:16:22.3 Jordan Syatt: And so if they think that they’re going to get… Make more money based on looking a certain way, then you better believe they’re going to be taking shit to change how they look. And then also recommending their clients do that so they can have more testimonials and to get more people to sign up with them. But they might not be disclosing to the general public what they’re on, which can then be massively influenced. You can get these same results. Just look at me. And…

0:16:43.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:16:44.0 Jordan Syatt: So I don’t know. I think it would be way better for people to be open and honest about what they’re taking. So at least people have a better understanding of what’s realistically feasible. And I think a lot of the stuff people hear about peptides, which again, I’m not an expert on it at all, but it’s often framed as, yeah, it’s like it’s… It’s natural within your body and like it’s… It almost makes it appear as though it’s not going to make that big of a difference. But like, no, they can make a huge fucking difference in your physique and your performance. Like even something like BPC-157 is not allowed by the athletic commission, which is mostly for repair. But it’s like, it’s… Athletes are not allowed to use it because… For any number of reasons, but if an athlete’s caught using it, they face I believe, a suspension of a long period of time.

0:17:30.0 Mike Vacanti: Oh.

0:17:31.4 Jordan Syatt: It’s a huge advantage to be able to recover from an ACL tear in six weeks as opposed to a full year. You know what I mean?

0:17:41.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Absolutely.

0:17:41.6 Jordan Syatt: It’s a massive advantage. Yeah.

0:17:43.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. And this has been happening for decades just with steroids prior to peptides.

0:17:49.6 Jordan Syatt: Correct.

0:17:50.4 Mike Vacanti: With all of these, you know, fitness personalities. They weren’t called influencers back then, but they were on the cover of Men’s Health and Men’s Fitness and then they did an interview in the magazine and they said that it was chicken and broccoli six times a day and their whatever bodybuilding program, four sets of 10 reps, yada, yada, yada. So this has been going on. You said something interesting in there, which was they think their physique is influencing their business positively.

0:18:20.9 Mike Vacanti: You know, in general, someone who is making fitness content, who really looks incredible versus doesn’t look as great, all else equal, the person who really looks incredible, has an incredible physique, is going to garner more attention, do better in business. A lot of the people who really have profited from their physique weren’t doing any education, weren’t really helping people, or maybe not a lot of. There’s a subset of people who aren’t educating, who look incredible, who are making a lot of money on their body, who are monetizing their body. I think that for those who educate and help first, that you… How you look has less of an effect on your bottom line compared to those who aren’t, who are just making like, oh, look how great I look type of content.

0:19:13.4 Jordan Syatt: Agreed. Agreed.

0:19:15.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:19:15.4 Jordan Syatt: I think it’s a better long-term strategy to build your brand off your brain as opposed to your physique. But it’s also harder. It’s way more difficult. You’ve got to spend way more time building up trust. It’s more difficult to get attention. It’s more… It’s more difficult to build it off your education and your knowledge than the shock value of look how good I look.

0:19:34.1 Mike Vacanti: It’s also more sustaining.

0:19:36.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Agreed.

0:19:36.6 Mike Vacanti: So harder to build, but doesn’t crash as easily.

0:19:39.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Agreed.

0:19:40.6 Mike Vacanti: It’s… You also avoid the problem of the trap. You know, let’s take a random guy who does massive amounts of steroids to get absolutely jacked, garners an audience of millions in a very short amount of time and is making a ton of money off his body. And then obviously runs into health issues because he was blasting tons of steroids for a period of time, has to stop taking them. He basically doesn’t have a business.

0:20:10.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Correct.

0:20:10.8 Mike Vacanti: Right? Like when you’re building your house on sand, it’s going to collapse. Yeah, good luck.

0:20:17.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:20:17.7 Mike Vacanti: Anyway, just wanted to document my eyes opening to the insanely powerful benefits of a lot of these peptides.

0:20:27.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Like I told you on our call the other day, I tried to get into that like… I wanted to get more educated on them. So I started trying to dive into it, but I was just so not interested. It’s like getting… There’s so many numbers and letters and this. I’m like, all right. And I’m just like not looking to get into that world right now in terms of… But yeah, just looking at the effects that it’s had on people, the people who have been open and honest about it, it is pretty wild.

0:20:59.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Insane.

0:21:00.2 Jordan Syatt: Agreed.

0:21:01.7 Mike Vacanti: Okay. S-tier to F-tier. 20 glute building exercises.

0:21:10.6 Jordan Syatt: Oh, let’s go.

0:21:11.5 Mike Vacanti: You ready?

0:21:12.2 Jordan Syatt: Yes, sir.

0:21:13.0 Mike Vacanti: Barbell hip thrust. And precursor, we’ve done a couple of these episodes now that I think people like them. They’re pretty fun and educational. This isn’t like the most scientific ranking of all time. There’s a lot of nostalgia. There’s a lot of just like what Jordan and I prefer. There’s a lot of evidence-based, you know, science behind these decisions, obviously, but this isn’t like a purely scientific approach.

0:21:41.5 Jordan Syatt: And it goes S, A, B, C… S, A, B, C, D, E, F, right?

0:21:45.4 Mike Vacanti: Yes.

0:21:46.2 Jordan Syatt: Okay. Everyone knows my thoughts on the barbell hip thrust in terms of how much I just don’t like it personally. At the same time, it’s an S-tier.

0:21:59.9 Mike Vacanti: Wow.

0:22:00.8 Jordan Syatt: It is an S-tier. It is… Like, just it is. It’s my personal feelings for the obnoxiousness of this exercise and like how easy it is to… How much time it takes to set up, how uncomfortable it can be, da, da, da, da, da. All that aside, it is still a S-tier glute building exercise. You can’t… I take all of my personal feelings for it aside, you can’t argue against it. It’s a phenomenal glute building exercise.

0:22:30.6 Mike Vacanti: I agree. I don’t even have anything to add. S-tier. I was not expecting that to start. That’s a real, like, way to be objective right there.

0:22:42.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, just it’s the truth. And I will say, like, now they have so many machines that do like a… Like they have machine barbell… Machine hip thrusts, which are basically the same thing. It’s much more convenient. It’s just there’s no argument. It’s just it’s a great, great exercise for building your glutes.

0:22:58.0 Mike Vacanti: RDLs.

0:23:01.8 Jordan Syatt: Oh, man. I’m going to put RDL… I’m shifting between A and S. I’m just going to say A. I have to be very judicious with S-tier, so I’m just going to say it’s an A.

0:23:13.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I’m with you. I have the benefit of seeing the rest of the list, but with barbell hip thrusts in S-tier, RDLs are clearly at least half a step below the hip thrust. So A-tier, great movement, glute builder. You know, you get some some isometric loading of the low back. You get great hamstring…

0:23:40.2 Jordan Syatt: Hamstrings. Yeah.

0:23:41.0 Mike Vacanti: Work, obviously, and phenomenal exercise.

0:23:44.6 Jordan Syatt: And any one of my clients, inner circle members, I’m sure your clients as well, they know, like, I’m programming… I almost never program barbell hip thrusts. I almost always program Romanian deadlifts. I think if… In overall, RDLs are a better exercise in general. But again, if it’s just glutes, the hip thrust wins.

0:24:03.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Yeah, that’s a good caveat. And easier. You can just grab a set of dumbbells, or you can grab a single dumbbell, do some single leg barbell.

0:24:14.1 Jordan Syatt: Athleticism overall, like, in general, RDL wins, but for just glutes.

0:24:17.8 Mike Vacanti: This is the glute building list.

0:24:19.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:24:20.2 Mike Vacanti: Bulgarian split squat.

0:24:21.7 Jordan Syatt: Oof. I’m going A again.

0:24:25.5 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm.

0:24:25.9 Jordan Syatt: I think it’s just it’s an A. It’s a… Amazing exercise. I think it’s an A. It’s just because like they’re more… It’s not just glutes anymore. There are so many other things involved. Yeah, but yeah, it’s a… It’s an amazing exercise. It’s an A for glutes.

0:24:44.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, there’s a… There’s like a weird bias towards posterior chain movements where you’re not getting any or very little quad activation. Like mentally being like, that’s an incredible glute exercise. But anytime you throw some knee flexion into the equation, it’s like, oh, no, if we’re targeting the quads too, like, that’s not as good of a glute exercise. It’s like, no, like a lunge, a Bulgarian split squat, these move… A squat are amazing glute exercises, even though they’re also hitting the quads. And for someone who has very specific aesthetic goals and really wants to build their glutes and doesn’t want to build their quads, sure, select more of the hip thrust RDL, like targeting the posterior chain specifically, and less volume on the quads. But in general, you can pick these exercises and build phenomenal glutes while also getting good quad work in.

0:25:42.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. And with the Bulgarian split squat, you could just bring your front foot out further, like, make a longer stance.

0:25:47.0 Mike Vacanti: Yep.

0:25:47.3 Jordan Syatt: And that way you get less quad. You have that like much longer stance. You lean forward much more. You get a more forward lean. That way you’ll end up getting less quad and more glute. Whereas as you bring your front foot in more and stay more upright, your more quads going to be involved. So you can manipulate it based on what you want.

0:26:08.1 Mike Vacanti: Exactly. Making those modifications to target more glute. Number four, step up.

0:26:16.2 Jordan Syatt: C.

0:26:17.0 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm. Say more.

0:26:19.3 Jordan Syatt: I love the step up. I think it’s a great exercise. I think it’s awesome for so many things. And again, there are so many different types of step ups. You could do like a low box step up, you could do a higher box step up. You could do them with cables. You can do them goblets. You could do them so many different ways. For me, when I’m doing a step up, it’s often less because it’s a great glute exercise and more because I think it’s great for you’ve got the ankles, you’ve got knees, you’ve got hips, you’ve got overall athleticism. If someone was like, hey, I really, really, really want to build my glutes, I’m sure step ups might be in there at some point, but it wouldn’t be like the… This is the primary driver of glute growth. This isn’t in my top 10 glute growth exercises.

0:27:00.8 Jordan Syatt: It’s more just like, it’s a really good exercise that also hits your glutes. But if it’s like… One of the main things is if I’m going to use a step up specifically for glutes and like, that’s like the main purpose. I’m probably going to do some type of a step up where I’m supporting myself, holding on for that extra support where… Because if you’re not holding on for support, the balance is going to take away from the stability of the exercise. And that’s one of my favorite parts about a step up is you have to balance and that’s where you get that ankle stability, knee stability, hip stability, athleticism involvement. So when I do step ups, I’m not having people hold on for support unless they need it. But if it’s specifically for glute growth, I would have them hold on for support.

0:27:39.7 Mike Vacanti: So in that case, you just might not program it.

0:27:41.8 Jordan Syatt: Exactly. Yeah. So it’s a great exercise but…

0:27:43.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. ‘Cause there’s so many better options.

0:27:45.1 Jordan Syatt: Probably. I’d put C for glute. What about you?

0:27:47.4 Mike Vacanti: Okay, I’m with you. I would I would layer in something relevant, the type of step up. If you’re doing like a little bit higher lateral step up. And like you said, to get even more glute activation, holding on to something for support or ability to potentially load it even heavier, hit the glutes harder versus a forward step up on a lower box where you’re going through a much smaller range of motion, you’re targeting the quads more. Those are obviously different. I would say between B and C, and I get… You know, I guess at some point you do have to just rank these on a relative basis and say there are so many other good exercises. All right, C-tier for step up. I’m with you. Number five, glute bridge.

0:28:37.9 Jordan Syatt: It weighted or…

0:28:39.3 Mike Vacanti: Any variation, but yes, we can say all the way from what would probably be the best variation, which is a barbell loaded glute bridge versus…

0:28:45.3 Jordan Syatt: Yep. Is it single leg or no? Single leg hip thrust type thing or no?

0:28:50.1 Mike Vacanti: I put… Single leg hip thrust is later on the list.

0:28:53.2 Jordan Syatt: Okay, okay, okay.

0:28:53.9 Mike Vacanti: So glute bridge, single leg, banded glute bridges, barbell glute bridges, dumbbell glute bridges.

0:28:59.4 Jordan Syatt: No, so it’s… Listen, it’s… I think the glute bridge in general, knowing that we have single leg later down, glute bridge, I’m going to put it honestly, like as probably like a D.

0:29:20.0 Mike Vacanti: Really?

0:29:20.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, only because the amount of time that it takes to like sort of max that out within your… Within your… Before like you’ve really… Before you’ve maxed out your ability to reach a very, very high level on that is so early on. Like I would 10 times out of 10 rather have people start doing the single leg hip thrust variations rather than going heavier just on a standard glute bridge, dumbbell glute bridge, banded glute bridge, barbell glute bridge.

0:29:48.6 Mike Vacanti: Because you would simply program a barbell hip thrust instead?

0:29:52.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, exactly. The range of motion is so small, the amount of time it’s going to… Like, it doesn’t take long to be doing 405 on a standard glute bridge. It doesn’t take long at all. So like, just in terms of I will very quickly progress someone to a bigger range of motion in or to a more difficult variation. It is… It targets the glutes really, really well, but in terms of practicality within the overall program, you max it out within eight weeks max of almost anybody being in the gym.

0:30:25.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. The shorter range compared to the the barbell hip thrust, the fact that you’re going to be able to go heavier on a glute bridge than a barbell hip thrust. And so when we… When we take Jordan’s law into account, which is the number of plates you have to add on the bar and how annoying that is, probably knocks it down, having to go heavier and just have more of that inconvenience. I like the feeling of a barbell glute bridge and like you kind of alluded to, it does target the glutes really well.

0:30:56.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:30:56.8 Mike Vacanti: I think in the the EMG stuff at least, this was maybe… Man, 2022 is four years ago. How crazy is that?

0:31:04.3 Jordan Syatt: I know. It’s crazy.

0:31:05.2 Mike Vacanti: It’s like unbelievable. I remember it was like, maybe glute max EMG on the barbell glute bridge was actually bigger than on the barbell hip thrust, which was surprising because the theory was the bigger range of motion and like bigger glute stretch would lead to the hip thrust getting more. I’m going to say B-tier for the barbell glute bridge.

0:31:35.1 Jordan Syatt: Okay.

0:31:35.4 Mike Vacanti: And then all the way down to like, you know, a banded glute bridge for hypertrophy would probably be E or maybe even worse, you know, bodyweight glute bridge, great activation. You want to throw it in a warm up? Amazing.

0:31:47.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Warm ups. Awesome. Yeah.

0:31:49.4 Mike Vacanti: But in terms of like actually getting real strength or muscle building work in for anyone who’s like trained more than a day in their life, it’s not… Not incredible.

0:32:00.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:32:01.7 Mike Vacanti: Walking lunge.

0:32:02.5 Jordan Syatt: Oof. That’s a real good one. I’ll put that at A.

0:32:10.2 Mike Vacanti: Nice.

0:32:10.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I’m putting that at A. That’s just… It’s such a great exercise. It’s… Yeah, I mean, I put that right there with the Bulgarian split squat. You know, it’s amazing. I love… And again, my brain always goes outside of just the glute stuff and more towards like how it applies to everyday life, function, whatever.

0:32:31.9 Mike Vacanti: Factor that in a little bit.

0:32:33.5 Jordan Syatt: One of my favorite parts about a walking lunge is it teaches deceleration. You’re really forced to learn how to absorb that force. And I think it’s amazing for strengthening your knees. It’s amazing for overall athleticism and performance. And man, I think the soreness that I get from a walking lunge is pretty wild systemically. So, yeah, I’m putting that in A-tier.

0:32:58.2 Mike Vacanti: I’m with you. A-tier.

0:33:00.0 Mike Vacanti: Cable kickback.

0:33:02.0 Jordan Syatt: S-tier. Cable kickback. I’m going S-tier. A cable kickback done properly is an S-tier glute building, glute focused exercise. I wouldn’t put this… For like in athleticism, I wouldn’t put this for overall movement performance, but when you do it properly for your glutes, it is an S-tier glute building exercise for sure.

0:33:27.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Got that constant tension. You know, you’re getting hitting really all parts of the glute. The stability from grabbing onto the rack and like getting yourself in a good athletic stance. Yeah.

0:33:48.2 Jordan Syatt: You can get a nice big stretch in that line of pull. Like it’s…

0:33:51.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. S-tier.

0:33:53.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:33:56.2 Mike Vacanti: We’re gonna make this one the conventional deadlift.

0:33:59.5 Jordan Syatt: C. C tier. It’s a great exercise. I love a good conventional deadlift. Personally, at this point in my life, I’m mainly only doing conventional RDLs. I’m not doing conventional from the… Excuse me. Conventional from the floor. Just like, not worth it for potential lower back. But…

0:34:18.3 Mike Vacanti: And you always preferred pulling sumo?

0:34:20.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I’ve always preferred pulling sumo. It’s really good. It hits your glutes. But like, I’m not… I’m rather do. If I’m… If the goal is glutes, I’m rather doing an RDL than a from the floor deadlift, especially conventional. So there’s just so many… It’s the technicality of it, like the how much form is required to do it properly, to load it properly and safely. It’s just it’s… I’m putting it at a C-tier for glute specifically.

0:34:50.0 Mike Vacanti: Unbelievable exercise. I agree with what you outlined there. Many, many benefits. Another thing to consider is the systemic fatigue it’s going to have on you and in relation to the amount of glute work you’re actually getting in. Right? Your entire central nervous system’s fried from heavy deadlifts. You’re hitting your entire posterior chain from your traps all the way down. And I’ll go B, but again, mostly because of, like, nostalgia slash, I think it’s a great overall exercise, not because it’s the greatest for targeting and building glutes.

0:35:39.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:35:40.5 Mike Vacanti: Sumo deadlift.

0:35:41.6 Jordan Syatt: This one’s probably gonna be a little bit controversial. I’m gonna put this at B-tier. I’m putting this above conventional.

0:35:46.6 Mike Vacanti: Okay.

0:35:47.1 Jordan Syatt: I love the sumo deadlift, and I know a lot of people are like, no, sumo doesn’t hit the glutes as well. I think it does. Whenever people tell me that sumo doesn’t build your glutes, I’m like, what are you talking about? It absolutely does. I think it… It has, it’s so much safer for your lower back that it allows you to load your glutes much, much better. I’m again, like, for the same reasons that conventional, uh, isn’t S or A. I’m putting that same reason, like, this isn’t S or A, because there are so many other things involved. Grip, back, technical ability, blah, blah, blah. But I do think it actually has the potential to hit your glutes better, in my opinion, than a conventional from the floor. I would rather a sumo RDL than a sumo from the floor if it’s just glutes. But, like, I do think a sumo from the floor, I think is better than conventional from the floor for your glutes.

0:36:48.7 Mike Vacanti: For any, like, hardcore powerlifters or even just enthusiasts who might be listening, it’s also important to note that Jordan’s sumo stance and the one that I’ve seen you talk about for, like, gen pop, isn’t this crazy, like, you know, where your toes are almost touching the plate, and you’re super flared out and getting this, like, massively quad dominant, adductor dominant position. It’s much more of, like, a neutral-ish stance where you’re still gripping between your legs but…

0:37:25.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. It’s like a squat stance. It’s like a squat stance with your hands inside. Yes.

0:37:29.3 Mike Vacanti: Yes. And I would imagine, without having the data in front of me, that you’re getting more glute activation in that position than you are, because the wider your legs are, you’re probably getting an even more vertical torso. You’re definitely getting an even more vertical torso. I’m gonna flip it. I’m gonna go C instead of B. I could never sumo deadlift. I’m bringing a lot of like personal bias into this one, but with the caveat that I think you can really change the amount of glute work you’re getting here based on your technique and your position.

0:38:14.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, agreed.

0:38:20.4 Mike Vacanti: Barbell back squat.

0:38:20.9 Jordan Syatt: I’m going A.

0:38:21.6 Mike Vacanti: Nice.

0:38:22.3 Jordan Syatt: I think it’s an A-tier glute exercise and A-tier exercise… I think it’s an S-tier exercise overall. A-tier glute exercise. I know it’s been super popular in recent years to shit on barbell back squats, but it’s just such a great exercise.

0:38:41.5 Mike Vacanti: Would you differentiate between a high bar and a low bar on this list?

0:38:45.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, for sure, absolutely. You know, that’s actually a really interesting point. I think they’re both great, but I would prefer most people err towards a moderate to high bar as opposed to a lower bar. I think the lower bar ends up… Most people end up doing more of a good morning. Yeah, I just think that for a moderate to a higher bar, you’re going to get a better overall squat. I think you’re going to end up… Your technique is going to be better overall. I think when people go too low…

0:39:19.8 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I just saw a horrible video. I was thinking about making a video about it. I saw a video, this woman was going super, super low bar and she ripped her shoulder, like during the squat. Because people put it super low bar, they put so much weight onto their shoulders that like… She like literally ripped her shoulder out of her socket while she was squatting. And that’s one of the issues with low bar is like they try and take advantage of this… The leverage so much that they end up focusing on… They put too much stress on other areas that shouldn’t be stressed. The bar resting on your back, that’s really what it should be. It should just be a resting place for the bar. You shouldn’t be taking that stress into your wrists, shouldn’t be taking it into your shoulders. It should be… And based on on your own anthropometry, your own body proportions, slightly higher or lower bar can be beneficial.

0:40:10.9 Jordan Syatt: But I think most… Like when people go so, so, so low to try and optimize their squat numbers, they actually end up missing out on the other benefits of the squat. And then going too low bar, they end up sending their hips way too far back. They don’t get any quad whatsoever. And I think that getting a little bit of quads can actually help you get more glutes involved too. So moderate to higher bar is probably going to be better.

0:40:33.9 Mike Vacanti: I like it. I’m going objectively A-tier, not letting my personal bias, because when I think about having Bulgarian split squats or walking lunges in A-tier here, my bias wants to put a barbell back squat into B-tier for me personally, because the enjoyment factor, like barbell back squats are really hard. The personal injury risk factor. When I say injury, I mean just wear and tear stuff, like single leg lower body work, heavy, feels so much better for me personally than, you know, just having compressed spine and going heavy, low rep on a barbell back squat. But I will set that aside and say that this is an A-tier movement for building glutes.

0:41:22.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. That’s fair.

0:41:24.2 Mike Vacanti: And personal preference on high bar versus low bar. Like, I really would rather someone do what feels best for them than like, someone who can squat, has a really nice higher bar squat, but they’re thinking, oh, but I want to target more glutes. And then they intentionally move the bar three, four inches further down on their back and put themselves in a position that, you know, whether it’s injury risk or just not feeling as good doing the movement in an effort to get more glutes. Again, we have so many ways to target the glutes super safely and effectively. There’s no reason to, like, modify a squat just to hit your glutes.

0:42:03.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, agreed.

0:42:04.5 Mike Vacanti: A banded clamshell.

0:42:11.9 Jordan Syatt: Oh, man.

0:42:12.8 Mike Vacanti: I’m starting. F. This is an F-tier move. Just such an inability to load it.

0:42:16.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:42:19.3 Mike Vacanti: Combined with anything banded, which has the, you know, inconsistent resistance profile over the course of a rep. When your glute is in the most stretched position of a clamshell, which isn’t even really that stretched, but is when you’re just laying there, you have no tension. And then the more you flex your glute and go through the range, the harder the move gets, which inherently makes it a little bit worse. There are many… You know, this is obviously an exercise where you’re targeting more glute med than glute max. And there are other and better ways to do that, whether we look at a hip abduction machine or some kind of, you know, cable abduction or sideline leg raise or whatever it is. And F-tier is empty, and we just got to get something in there. Maybe it’s E, but I’m sticking with F.

0:43:10.6 Jordan Syatt: I was trying to find a a variation of a clamshell I was doing recently to… Because I agree, like the side lying banded clamshell, I agree. I think it can be a good teaching tool, very sort of like a a standard glute bridge. Like a standard glute bridge can be a good teaching tool. I think a standard sideline clamshell, banded clamshell can be a really good teaching tool, but I would probably put it lower than the standard glute bridge, so I’ll go with F as well. But I would say there just as with like there are different variations, I think other variations of the clamshell can be really, really good. So, man, where is this one? I want to see… If I can’t find it in the next 30 seconds, then I’ll skip it. But there are other variations of the clamshell that I think are really, really great, that I would actually put more towards like A-tier.

0:44:23.1 Mike Vacanti: For overall or for glute, like strength and muscle as well.

0:44:24.8 Jordan Syatt: For glutes.

0:44:25.9 Mike Vacanti: Oh, interesting.

0:44:26.5 Jordan Syatt: For glute specifically. Man, I don’t know where this video is. But it’s actually… So instead of… Instead of it being, you know, with the side lying banded, it’s the top leg that’s moving. You know what I’m talking about?

0:44:44.1 Mike Vacanti: Yes.

0:44:44.5 Jordan Syatt: It’s the opposite. So instead of it’s the top leg that’s moving, it’s actually the bottom leg that’s creating the movement.

0:44:48.8 Mike Vacanti: Got it. So you’re moving like your whole body weight.

0:44:50.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, exactly.

0:44:51.6 Mike Vacanti: So you can… Yeah, so you can load it.

0:44:53.7 Jordan Syatt: Yes, you can load it. You can put even more weight on top of it.

0:44:55.4 Mike Vacanti: Great. And then it skyrockets up the list.

0:44:58.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, exactly. So that top one moving, I think is… You’re right. It’s like D or F, whereas when the bottom one is moving it and you can load it progressively to infinity, then it becomes more like A-tier.

0:45:10.4 Mike Vacanti: Uh, donkey kick slash fire hydrant.

0:45:13.1 Jordan Syatt: Man. Donkey kick is… Like, would you say is… It’s on all fours?

0:45:17.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, let’s just make this like the least charitable and say these are both body weight, like on all fours.

0:45:25.3 Jordan Syatt: F. Yeah, F. Yeah. Yeah.

0:45:28.6 Mike Vacanti: Might have a place in a warm up or as a teaching tool?

0:45:33.0 Jordan Syatt: Maybe in a physical therapy spot, but not for like a maximizing glute growth.

0:45:38.3 Mike Vacanti: Correct. Lateral band walk slash monster walk.

0:45:42.9 Jordan Syatt: Man, 2011 Jordan would lose his shit right now. I’m putting that in F-tier again. Like maybe a a good warm up drill, but not as a optimizing glute growth whatsoever.

0:45:57.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Glute med activation. Cool.

0:45:59.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:46:01.1 Mike Vacanti: Teaching, warm up.

0:46:03.0 Jordan Syatt: Great. You know what’s tricky about these types of drills is you can really feel the burn. And that’s what fucks with people. They’re like, I really feel it though. It’s like, I know you feel it, but just because you feel it doesn’t mean that you’re getting the stimulus you need for it to grow. That that burn that you feel in the muscle, that sensation doesn’t equate to growth. And that’s where I feel like a lot of people get confused.

0:46:23.6 Mike Vacanti: Abduction machine.

0:46:25.9 Jordan Syatt: Oh.

0:46:26.4 Mike Vacanti: Also known as the bad girl machine. I know we maybe gotten some negative feedback in the past about… Could be considered a misogynistic term, the bad girl. You know what, why don’t we take a minute here? Just a quick minute and just… So, calling the hip abduction machine, historically, going back to the early 2000s in my memory, was called bad girl because you’re forcing your legs open. And so there’s an implied joke there that if a girl was to force her legs open, that’s like associated with promiscuity, which would be considered quote unquote bad. However, in an effort to shed my true beliefs, and I’m even gonna lump Jordan in there with me, even though he might not fully agree on this, this podcast true beliefs, I’m okay with renaming the barbell hip thrust the bad boy.

0:47:24.2 Mike Vacanti: Because high levels of promiscuity, which I do think are bad, I don’t think… Meaning I think they’re bad for the individual engaging in them. I’m not like… It’s not a judgment. I think it’s bad for the individual engaging in them. High levels of promiscuity is also bad for men. So I don’t… I think that there are negative consequences for anyone. And so just to like, take the misogynistic accusation head on, which I fully disagree with, I believe that you can call the barbell hip thrust the bad boy.

0:47:59.6 Mike Vacanti: Because for the guy who’s running around trying to get his notch count up and get 100 bodies and da, da, da, da, da, and doing all that stuff is terrible for you. If you’re the dude in your teens or in your 20s or whatever, go find a nice wife. Go find a good girl, date to marry. Don’t be going to the club doing the jawbreaking thing and then trying to like, you know, just hook up and get all your one night stands in. It’s not good for your soul, I promise.

0:48:24.6 Jordan Syatt: Agreed. All right, so barbell hip thrust is the bad boy machine.

0:48:28.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, yeah.

0:48:29.7 Jordan Syatt: A bad boy exercise.

0:48:31.0 Mike Vacanti: Bad boy. But for glutes, hip abduction, bad girl.

0:48:35.0 Jordan Syatt: Man, I think that’s, uh… I’m oscillating between A and S. I’m oscillating between A and S. I’m gonna sit on A. I just don’t think it’s like… I don’t think it deserves the S-tier, but like it’s an A-tier glute focused. You can overload it to infinity and I really think it can add some slabs to your rear end. So, yeah.

0:49:06.9 Mike Vacanti: Get those rear end slabs. My… The reason I would say it’s not S is… And I could be wrong on this, it seems like there can’t be as much glute max engagement as there is on something like a barbell hip thrust.

0:49:22.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, agreed.

0:49:23.9 Mike Vacanti: You know, you’re getting the abduction, you’re getting some external rotation, even though ChatGPT version, whatever, a few versions ago we argued with on this because it said you weren’t, but you definitely are. You’re hitting the glute med. Great move. Like you said, you can load it. You’re very stable. A-tier.

0:49:46.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:49:46.8 Mike Vacanti: Cable pull through.

0:49:49.4 Jordan Syatt: Oof. I really do love the cable pull through. I think the biggest issue with the cable pull through is it’s really very difficult for people to learn it. Even coaching people in person, it can take a long time for people to really get comfortable with it from the technical side of it. I’ll put it at a B. I’ll put it a B just because it can… I almost… Similar, obviously, completely different movement overall, different muscles targeted, obviously, but almost like the a pullover, like a dumbbell pullover. It takes a long time for people to learn it.

0:50:31.0 Jordan Syatt: And I know a lot of people when they’re first learning it, they’re like, I don’t feel like it’s working the right muscles. I’m feeling I’m off balance and they’re not feeling it. Once you get it, I think it’s a great, great exercise, but it’s very difficult for people to actually get it. So just because the learning curve is so high, whereas for example, like the learning curve on a barbell hip thrust is so low. The learning curve on a seated abduction is so low, whereas the learning curve on the cable pull through is pretty high. So that’s why I’m gonna put it at a B.

0:51:05.6 Mike Vacanti: That’s a good reason. I like that. You know, I like these. They feel really good. All right. I think B’s a good place for it. I’m thinking of a number of clients over the years who have been unable to load it as heavy as they potentially could handle because of the grip discomfort. So I think that probably knocks it down a peg too.

0:51:36.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, agreed.

0:51:37.7 Mike Vacanti: I think B-tier is… Or increases it a peg, similar to the underhand grip barbell curl where you got a little discomfort. It’s like, yeah, but when you see someone doing it, it’s like they don’t care about the discomfort. Like, it’s a basement, garage, gym, heavy metal type of.

0:51:53.2 Jordan Syatt: Agreed.

0:51:53.6 Mike Vacanti: B-tier. B-tier. Reverse lunge.

0:51:56.2 Jordan Syatt: A-tier.

0:51:57.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. I don’t even think, you know, with Bulgarian split squat, walking lunge, like…

0:52:01.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:52:02.3 Mike Vacanti: Also A-tier.

0:52:03.3 Jordan Syatt: To make it even better, I do like slightly elevated, like a deficit reverse lunge, you know, that’ll just make it even slightly better.

0:52:10.4 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm. Get that extra range. You also have that mobility, though.

0:52:14.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:52:14.4 Mike Vacanti: If you program a deficit reverse lunge for one of your clients, just be sure to give instruction on how big you want the deficit to be and maybe give them a recommendation for what to do. You don’t want someone like standing on a flat bench doing a reverse lunge.

0:52:30.0 Jordan Syatt: Right. Basically, a reverse step up is essentially what they’d be doing. Yeah.

0:52:34.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Good morning.

0:52:37.7 Jordan Syatt: Oof. Dude, I love good mornings, but I don’t do them for my glutes. I love good mornings. And I rarely program good mornings, almost never in the inner circle for clients. I love them for your lower back and upper back. That’s why I do them. So for glutes specifically, I’m putting good mornings at D.

0:53:00.9 Mike Vacanti: I think that’s right. I think I would even rank them higher for hamstrings than I would for glutes.

0:53:07.6 Jordan Syatt: Agreed. Yeah. Amazing exercise, but not for glutes.

0:53:11.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Yeah. You’re getting a lot of good isometric back work.

0:53:18.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:53:18.6 Mike Vacanti: And you’re getting a solid amount of hamstring work too. I think D-tier is the right place on the glute list, though. Single leg deadlift. I don’t even really like that this is on the list. I think we put single leg RDL in with RDLs in general, so I don’t even think… We’re not even doing that one. Frog pump.

0:53:42.8 Jordan Syatt: Frog pump.

0:53:44.0 Mike Vacanti: Which I think is like… I actually don’t know for sure. Is this laying on your back with your feet together and you’re doing, like, a glute bridge with your knees splayed out, or is this where you’re…

0:53:54.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, it’s like a glute bridge, but you’re… It’s like a glute bridge with your feet flat against each other.

0:54:01.8 Mike Vacanti: All right. And so if you want to load it, you just, like, put a dumbbell on your pelvic bone or, like.

0:54:07.0 Jordan Syatt: I don’t know. I’m not a…

0:54:08.0 Mike Vacanti: You’re not a frog pump guy?

0:54:09.5 Jordan Syatt: I put this in the same place as I would a glute bridge.

0:54:12.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:54:13.8 Jordan Syatt: It’s a glute bridge with your feet in a different position, maybe even worse, just because you don’t have the stability with your feet flat on the ground.

0:54:22.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:54:23.2 Jordan Syatt: I’d rather have someone just do a standard glute bridge and load it or go do a barbell hip thrust than that.

0:54:29.6 Mike Vacanti: And people probably feel this more because you are like, baking in some external hip rotation.

0:54:37.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:54:38.3 Mike Vacanti: Which might lead to them liking it more, because I have… I feel like I saw this more in the 2018-2020 time frame.

0:54:46.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that’s a good point.

0:54:47.2 Mike Vacanti: D. Is that where we put it?

0:54:48.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, putting it at D.

0:54:50.3 Mike Vacanti: I think that’s fair. Two more. Single leg hip thrust.

0:54:57.5 Jordan Syatt: S-tier.

0:54:58.6 Mike Vacanti: Ooh.

0:54:59.2 Jordan Syatt: S-tier. I was… Wait, there’s another exercise. I don’t have the list. There’s one more exercise that you haven’t said. I don’t know if it’s on the list yet.

0:55:06.5 Mike Vacanti: Uh oh, I only have one more.

0:55:07.3 Jordan Syatt: So we’ll see. But single leg hip thrust is just S-tier for your glutes. It’s S-tier in general, an amazing exercise. Anytime someone tells me, oh, these feel too easy, I know you’re doing it wrong. It’s a devastating exercise. There are so many different variations of it. It targets your glutes unbelievably well. You can load it in so many different ways. And most people, especially… Most people often don’t even need to load it just because they’re so weak with that movement. In general, it’s an amazing exercise. Single leg hip thrust, S-tier.

0:55:35.5 Mike Vacanti: Can you talk about some of the ways to load it?

0:55:37.6 Jordan Syatt: So, I mean, number one, you could take… You could use a dumbbell if you wanted to. But first, before you even actually add external load, you could do a pause. You could do one and a half reps. You could do constant tension reps. You could do an isometric hold at the top. You could do slow eccentrics. You could also elevate your foot as well so you get an even bigger range of motion if you wanted to. So, like, those are all amazing. From there, you could use a dumbbell. You could use a weight. I like doing… Put a sandbag on your hip. That’s awesome. Sandbag is great because it’s comfortable on your hip and you can get some real load on top of it. Also, if you have chains, chains are amazing as well. Chains are great because it’s lighter at the bottom and it gets heavier as you get higher up. So as you get towards that terminal end range, the chains get the heaviest. It’s just… It’s amazing.

0:56:33.3 Mike Vacanti: Man. I did not have this in S-tier, but you’re kind of pitching me on it being an S-tier exercise. The reason that I mentally want to put it… By the way, I program this like crazy. I do this myself. I love this exercise. The reason I want to put it below a barbell hip thrust isn’t even about load. It’s more about the increased stability of… And I don’t even know if this is, like, scientific or if this is purely me anecdotal, but my perceived stability on a barbell hip thrust versus a single leg hip thrust.

0:57:14.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I mean, stability, for sure. You feel more stable with two feet on the ground, no question.

0:57:19.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Yeah. But it’s almost like a… It’s almost like a different kind of slightly reduced stability because there are other single leg movements. I guess a Bulgarian split squat. You have two feet planted on something.

0:57:39.0 Jordan Syatt: Single leg RDL no, though.

0:57:40.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, single leg RDL, you don’t. I’m gonna go A-tier just because I… It feels less than a barbell hip thrust.

0:57:49.8 Jordan Syatt: That’s fair.

0:57:52.7 Mike Vacanti: All right, last one. Side lying or standing cable hip abduction.

0:57:55.6 Jordan Syatt: Oh wow. Man, I’m gonna have to… I’ll do this one, but I’m gonna add one after this.

0:57:59.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Add one.

0:58:01.1 Jordan Syatt: I’m shocked that this one isn’t on the list.

0:58:02.8 Mike Vacanti: Well, you can thank Grok for that.

0:58:05.1 Jordan Syatt: Side lying or what is it?

0:58:07.1 Mike Vacanti: Side lying… Basically a hip abduction.

0:58:09.8 Jordan Syatt: Okay.

0:58:10.3 Mike Vacanti: Whether and… Yeah, whether it’s side lying, like… And we could say ankle weight, etcetera, or side standing hip abduction with an ankle cuff and a cable.

0:58:20.8 Jordan Syatt: You’re gonna be shocked. I’m saying S-tier.

0:58:24.5 Mike Vacanti: Wow.

0:58:25.4 Jordan Syatt: Dude, it’s a devastating drill. It’s…

0:58:28.8 Mike Vacanti: Wait, why am I… You think I don’t like this move?

0:58:31.0 Jordan Syatt: I thought I… Not that you don’t like it, but I think you probably didn’t expect me to put it at S-tier.

0:58:36.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, that’s right.

0:58:38.1 Jordan Syatt: You know, it’s funny, I have actually recently started incorporating these a lot more into my splits training.

0:58:43.3 Mike Vacanti: What, like, strengthen the opposite of…

0:58:45.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, to strengthen my ability to pull my legs further apart. And the glute soreness that I get from it. And like, the… I noticed I had a pretty significant strength deficit in that end range. And it’s just… Even just with my own personal experience with this drill, it’s been pretty eye opening to me. And I’ve always thought it was a good drill. Like, probably before I started doing this one more frequently, I probably would have put it at A-tier, but just I’m putting it at S-tier. It’s like directly targets in the same way that I would say the seated abduction machine. It’s the same type of a thing, just with your leg straight as opposed to bent. And yeah, I think it’s an S-tier glute specific drill.

0:59:33.0 Mike Vacanti: It’s interesting. I’m realizing a bias where in my mind, if the glute max isn’t the prime mover, for some reason I don’t want to put it in S-tier. But then part of me is like, but on a glute max primary exercise like a barbell hip thrust, why am I okay with having less glute med or glute min activation relative to other moves? It’s like, because it’s a bigger part of the glute? I don’t know. But in my gut I want to put this in A-tier, even though I love it, because you’re not getting as much glute max. But then we can also factor in the fact that most people know a barbell hip thrust is a really good exercise, whereas definitely less people know that this is a good glute exercise. I’m going to give it the S-tier.

1:00:24.8 Jordan Syatt: Let’s go.

1:00:25.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I’m a fan. You know, we talked about this on the pod a while back, like a you can do ankle weights. I found a way to like get a kettlebell on my foot and was doing them that way. Doing them on a bench and getting a little bit of extra stretch on the glute because compared to doing it on the ground, you can let your leg like go past the midline of your body, the bottom of each rep. Yeah, cable, like you can, you know… The thing I don’t like about the cable move, shouldn’t even say don’t like. If you’re doing these with a cable, I would definitely rest in between legs because your non-working leg is getting a real isometric load from like exhausting.

1:01:13.8 Jordan Syatt: Shockingly.

1:01:14.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, yeah. S-tier. We got that we got that hip abduction in S-tier. Great.

1:01:22.0 Jordan Syatt: Dude, one more exercise that Grok didn’t think of.

1:01:24.7 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm.

1:01:25.4 Jordan Syatt: 45 degree hyperextension.

1:01:27.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, dude. Literally when I said frog pump, part of me thought that this was like a hyperextension or reverse hyper.

1:01:36.2 Jordan Syatt: Oh, interesting.

1:01:36.7 Mike Vacanti: And I was like, yeah. Because we were nearing the end of the list and I couldn’t believe we hadn’t hit it. Uh-huh.

1:01:43.9 Jordan Syatt: S-tier. S-tier.

1:01:46.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

1:01:46.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I mean, there are so many different ways to do it as well. Like there are ways to do it that actually don’t target the glutes, that are more like thoracic focused. But like if it’s… Or even lumbar focused as well.

1:01:57.4 Mike Vacanti: Low back. Yeah.

1:01:58.7 Jordan Syatt: But like for… If you target it for your glutes, it’s a… That’s an S-tier glute exercise.

1:02:03.8 Mike Vacanti: When you say 45 degree. Oh, got it. So like on the machine?

1:02:09.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah. Like I would rather that over a cable pull through, ’cause that’s much easier for people to figure out. It’s basically the same exercise. Cable pull through…

1:02:18.3 Mike Vacanti: Wait, okay, I’m sorry. Now I’m… I’ve confused myself. Are we doing like a like the back extension?

1:02:25.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

1:02:26.3 Mike Vacanti: Got it, got it. But doing it as it’s designed. We’re not like turning ourselves around on it and doing the reverse.

1:02:31.3 Jordan Syatt: Correct.

1:02:32.1 Mike Vacanti: Okay. Well, reverse hyper should probably be on this list too.

1:02:34.2 Jordan Syatt: Agreed.

1:02:35.8 Mike Vacanti: Okay. But… Got it. Glute extension to targeting the glute. And you can bias the glute. You get a little rounded like upper back. Even a little rounded low back.

1:02:47.8 Jordan Syatt: Yep.

1:02:48.6 Mike Vacanti: You’re not getting your upper body super high in the air because the end of each rep is hip extension.

1:02:56.5 Jordan Syatt: Exactly.

1:02:57.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, that’s S-tier.

1:02:59.2 Jordan Syatt: That’s S-tier for sure.

1:03:00.3 Mike Vacanti: Come on, Grok.

1:03:01.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that’s S-tier for sure. And like I was just saying, it’s… I would… I think that cable pull through has the potential to be there, but the technical side of it just makes it difficult. The the grip, as you said, makes it more difficult. That it’s basically the same. Even if you’re doing a cable cable pull through properly, you’re going to be leaning forward at that like 45-degree angle almost in that same way you are in the 45-degree extension. So…

1:03:24.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

1:03:24.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, it’s and often at the top of a cable pull through, your upper back is rounded in that same way. So yeah, it’s…

1:03:32.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, this is… I can’t believe it wasn’t on there. It’s a great exercise. Should we put reverse hyper on here too?

1:03:38.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, reverse hyper. You know, it’s funny for the reverse hyper, I’m going to put that at B-tier only because, yeah, it does target the glutes really well, but like, I’m never really doing reverse hypers for glutes. I’m doing it to really feel that traction on the spine. And in order to do that, like, yeah, your glutes come into play, but it’s more like a lower back drill for me. I’ve never really like, hey, let’s go do the reverse hyper for your glutes. You will work your glutes when you do it, but like, it’s not for your glutes.

1:04:12.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. I think B-tier is a good spot for that one. That’s why I was actually slightly confused. What did you call the… Because I know that I call the… You call it the 45-degree…

1:04:23.4 Jordan Syatt: Hyperextension, I think is what I called it. But it’s… That’s not what it actually is. It’s… That’s just the name.

1:04:27.2 Mike Vacanti: I call it the wrong… I just call it the back extension machine, which I don’t think is right either.

1:04:31.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

1:04:32.4 Mike Vacanti: But I got confused there. Yeah, easy to load the back extension. Because then you said easy to load and I was like, yeah, if you have a reverse hyper machine, it’s easy to load, but other… If you don’t and you’re doing some makeshift.

1:04:42.9 Jordan Syatt: Oh, no, you can’t. If you don’t have the reverse hyper machine, then you can’t. You can, but it’s very difficult to load it. There are ways you can do it with bands, but even then it’s really obnoxious and difficult.

1:04:53.4 Mike Vacanti: Good, brother. Good list. Good episode.

1:04:56.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I like that. That was good.

1:04:58.6 Mike Vacanti: I hope you don’t end up getting sick or too sick.

1:05:03.0 Jordan Syatt: Thanks, brother.

1:05:04.0 Mike Vacanti: Good luck. We got anything else?

1:05:08.2 Jordan Syatt: That’s it. Thank you everyone for listening.

1:05:10.4 Mike Vacanti: Five-star review, please. We were, you know, sick and out last week. We’re banging out the fitness content. If you enjoy this episode, if we’ve ever done anything useful for you, we know it takes a few minutes, but please take take five minutes. Leave a five-star review wherever you’re listening or thumbs up YouTube. We appreciate you. 2026. Let’s get after it.

1:05:30.5 Jordan Syatt: See you.