Yes, squats grow your glutes. They are one of the most effective compound exercises for building the gluteus maximus, the largest muscle in your body and the primary driver of hip extension. But how much growth you get depends heavily on how deep you squat, how much weight you progressively add, and whether squats are your only glute exercise or part of a broader program.
Why Squats Work for Glute Growth
During a squat, your glutes do two main jobs: they control your hips as you lower down, and they power the drive back up to standing. The deeper you descend, the more your glutes stretch under load, and muscles that are challenged through a longer range of motion tend to grow more. Your quads handle a significant share of the work too, which is why some people feel squats mostly in their thighs. But the glutes are undeniably working, especially in the bottom half of the movement.
A study comparing full-depth squats (knees bent to about 140 degrees) with half squats (knees bent to 90 degrees) found that the full-squat group experienced significantly greater increases in glute muscle volume. The half-squat group still grew their quads, but their glutes lagged behind. This is one of the clearest findings in the literature: if you’re squatting to grow your glutes, depth matters more than almost any other variable.
How Squats Compare to Hip Thrusts
Hip thrusts produce higher muscle activation in the glutes than squats do. When researchers measured electrical activity in the glute muscles during both exercises, the hip thrust showed greater readings across the upper and middle portions of the gluteus maximus. This led many people to assume hip thrusts were the superior glute builder.
But activation during a single set doesn’t always predict long-term growth. A study that tracked both exercises over a full training program found that glute muscle size increased by a similar amount in both groups. Squats and hip thrusts produced comparable hypertrophy across the upper, middle, and lower regions of the gluteus maximus. The differences between groups were tiny and well within the range of normal variation. In practical terms, neither exercise had a meaningful edge for growing the glutes.
This is actually good news. It means squats alone can drive real glute growth, and adding hip thrusts gives you a second effective stimulus without being strictly necessary. Most well-designed programs include both, since they challenge the glutes at different points in the range of motion.
Squat Depth and Stance Width
Getting your hips below parallel (or as close to it as your mobility allows) is the single most important technique adjustment for glute-focused squatting. Stopping at a half squat shifts more of the demand to your quads and limits the stretch on your glutes. If ankle or hip mobility prevents you from squatting deep, elevating your heels on small plates or squat shoes can help.
Stance width is less clear-cut than depth. Sumo-style squats with a wide stance recruit more of the inner thigh muscles (adductors) along with the gluteus medius and minimus. Narrower stances may bias slightly more gluteus maximus involvement. But research doesn’t point to one stance being universally better for glute growth. The most practical advice: choose the stance where you feel strongest and most stable, because producing more force through a full range of motion is what drives growth regardless of foot placement.
What About the Smaller Glute Muscles?
Your glutes aren’t just one muscle. The gluteus maximus gets most of the attention, but the gluteus medius and minimus sit on the outer hip and play a major role in stabilizing your pelvis and shaping the upper portion of your glutes. Standard two-legged squats generate relatively low activation in the gluteus medius, around 18% of its maximum capacity in pooled research.
Single-leg squats are a different story. They generate moderate to high activation across all three segments of the gluteus medius, with one study recording activity above 87% of maximum capacity in every segment. The gluteus minimus also reaches moderate to high levels during single-leg squats, particularly in the posterior segment. If you want your squat routine to cover all three glute muscles, adding single-leg variations like Bulgarian split squats or pistol squats makes a meaningful difference.
Why Some People Don’t Feel Squats in Their Glutes
A common frustration: you squat consistently but your quads grow while your glutes seem to stay the same. This often comes down to movement patterns. People who are quad-dominant tend to drive out of the bottom of a squat by pushing through their knees rather than their hips. Some compensate the other direction and rely on their lower back to extend, which also bypasses the glutes.
A few adjustments can shift the balance. Leaning your torso forward slightly (while keeping your back flat) increases the demand on your glutes and hamstrings. This is why a low-bar squat position, where the bar sits lower on your back and naturally tips your torso forward, tends to feel more glute-intensive than a high-bar position. On split squats, adding a slight forward hinge targets the glutes more, while staying completely upright emphasizes the quads. You don’t need to pick one or the other permanently. Varying your torso angle across sets or training days lets you shift emphasis deliberately.
Volume and Frequency for Glute Growth
Squats can absolutely be part of your glute training volume, but most people need more total work than a few sets of squats per week to maximize growth. The general recommendation from strength and conditioning research is 10 to 25 sets per muscle group per week, depending on your training experience and recovery capacity. The NSCA suggests starting with about 10 sets per week across at least two training sessions, then increasing from there.
For people who prioritize glute development, some programming recommendations go as high as 36 total sets per week spread across three or more sessions. That’s aggressive and highly individual. Not all of those sets need to be squats. A practical approach is to build your program around 2 to 4 squat variations (back squats, split squats, goblet squats) and supplement with hip-dominant movements like hip thrusts, Romanian deadlifts, or cable kickbacks to round out your weekly volume.
Progressive overload is what makes any of this work over time. Adding weight, reps, or sets from week to week forces your glutes to adapt. If you’ve been squatting the same weight for months, the stimulus for new growth has largely disappeared regardless of how many sets you do.
How Long Before You See Results
Measurable muscle growth typically takes 6 to 8 weeks of consistent training to show up on imaging like MRI or ultrasound. Visible changes in the mirror take longer, usually 3 to 6 months, because glute growth has to outpace any overlying body fat for the shape change to be noticeable. Beginners tend to see faster initial results because untrained muscle responds more dramatically to a new stimulus. If you’ve been training for years, progress slows and the details of your programming (depth, volume, progressive overload) matter more.
Strength gains come faster than visible size changes. You’ll likely notice your squat weight climbing within the first few weeks. That early strength is mostly your nervous system learning to recruit muscle fibers more efficiently, but it sets the stage for the hypertrophy that follows.