To target your glutes on the leg press, place your feet high and wide on the footplate with your toes turned slightly outward. This combination shifts the work away from your quads and into your glutes and hamstrings by increasing the demand on your hip extensors. Small changes in foot position make a surprisingly large difference in which muscles do the heavy lifting.
Why High Foot Placement Works
The single biggest adjustment you can make is moving your feet toward the top edge of the footplate. When your feet sit high, the geometry of the movement changes: your knees bend less and your hips flex more deeply. That extra hip flexion, roughly 70 to 80 degrees compared to a standard position, forces your glutes and hamstrings to drive the press instead of your quads.
EMG data from a systematic review published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health supports this clearly. At heavier loads (80% of one-rep max), high foot placement produced roughly 115% of baseline gluteus maximus activation, while low foot placement at the same load produced about 81%. At lighter loads the difference was minimal, which tells you something important: high feet plus heavy weight is the combination that really lights up the glutes. Going high on the platform but using light weight won’t produce the same effect.
Go Wide and Turn Your Toes Out
Height on the platform targets the gluteus maximus, the large muscle that shapes the bulk of your backside. But your glutes are actually three muscles, and the outer two, the gluteus medius and minimus, respond to a different cue: width. Spreading your feet wider than shoulder width and angling your toes outward by about 15 to 30 degrees introduces a small amount of hip abduction into each rep. That outward component recruits the upper and outer portions of your glutes, giving you more complete coverage than a narrow stance ever could.
The combination of high and wide is the starting point. Think of it as positioning your feet in the upper corners of the footplate rather than dead center. Your heels should be firmly planted, and most of your drive should come through your heels and midfoot rather than the balls of your feet.
Seat Angle Matters Too
If your gym has an adjustable leg press or multiple machines to choose from, the seat angle plays a supporting role. A steeper, more reclined seat angle opens your hip joint further, which shifts even more tension into the glutes and hamstrings. A more upright seat keeps the movement quad-dominant regardless of where your feet sit. The ideal setup for glute work is a reclined seat paired with high foot placement. If you’ve been using an upright leg press and wondering why you only feel it in your quads, the seat angle is likely part of the problem.
How Deep to Go
Depth is where most people run into trouble on a glute-focused leg press. More range of motion generally means more glute stretch and more muscle activation, but only up to the point where your form breaks down. The warning sign is your lower back rounding off the pad at the bottom of the rep, sometimes called “butt wink.” When your hips tuck under and lift off the seat, the load transfers from your legs to your lumbar spine. That’s a fast path to back pain, not bigger glutes.
The fix is straightforward: brace your core before each rep and lower the platform only until you feel your hips start to shift. That’s your safe end range. For most people, this means the thighs reach roughly parallel or just past it. Chasing extra depth beyond that point doesn’t add meaningful glute stimulus and does add spinal risk. If you find your range of motion is very limited before your back rounds, tight hip flexors or hamstrings are usually the bottleneck, and stretching those outside the gym will gradually let you press deeper with good form.
Putting It All Together
Here’s a practical setup checklist for your next session:
- Foot height: Place your feet in the top third of the footplate so your toes are near or at the upper edge.
- Foot width: Go wider than shoulder width, roughly 1.5 times your shoulder distance apart.
- Toe angle: Turn your toes out about 15 to 30 degrees from straight ahead.
- Drive point: Push through your heels and midfoot, not your toes.
- Seat position: Choose a more reclined angle if your machine allows adjustment.
- Depth: Lower until your thighs are at or slightly past parallel, stopping before your lower back lifts off the pad.
- Load: Use a weight heavy enough to be challenging for 8 to 12 reps. Light weight with high feet won’t produce the same glute activation that moderate to heavy loads will.
Single-Leg Pressing for Extra Glute Focus
Once you’re comfortable with bilateral pressing, try the single-leg variation with the same high and wide positioning. Pressing one leg at a time eliminates the chance for your stronger side to compensate and forces each glute to handle the full load independently. Place your working foot high on the platform, angled slightly outward, and use a weight that’s roughly 40 to 50% of what you’d use with both legs. You’ll likely notice one side feels weaker or less coordinated, which is exactly the kind of imbalance single-leg work is designed to correct.
The single-leg version also naturally increases your hip range of motion because there’s no second leg limiting how deep you can press. Just apply the same rule: stop lowering before your pelvis tucks under.