Best cable glute exercises | Cable glute workout plan | Tips to grow your glutes with cable | Takeaway
Although we can train the glute at home, using an exercise machine like cable can help further increase our glute strength and size.
In this article, I’m going to share with you the top seven best cable glute exercises for a rounded booty. I’ll also give a proper workout plan and some effective tips to maximize results.
What are the Best Cable Glute Exercises?
Here’re the top 7 best glute exercises with a cable machine:
- Single-Leg Cable Glute Kickback
- Cable Pull Through
- Cable Hip Abduction
- Cable Romanian Deadlift
- Cable Side Lunge
- Cable Step-Up
- Cable Zercher Squat
1. Single-leg Cable Glute Kickback
How to do it:
- To begin, hook an ankle cuff to a low pulley and attach the cuff to your right ankle.
- Take one step backwards away from the cable machine and grasp the steel frame of the machine for support.
- Keep your core tight, and hips and knees bent slightly.
- Keeping your glute engaged, move your leading leg back and up in a semicircular arc as much as possible.
- Squeeze your glute at the top and then slowly lower your leg to the starting position. Repeat and switch sides.
Target Muscles: Gluteus Maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus.
Tip
As you move your leading leg back, slightly turn your leg outward to get more glute activation. Be sure to keep your glute engaged throughout the movement and squeeze your glute at the top for 3 seconds.
2. Cable Pull Through
How to do it:
- To start, set up the pully at the bottom and attach a cable rope to the cable.
- Stand behind the cable machine with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
- Keep your knees slightly bent like a partial squat, chest up and back flat. Grab the rope and take your feet one step forward.
- As you hinge your hips back, you’ll feel the stretch on your hamstrings.
- From there, drive your hip forward and squeeze your glute.
- Then slowly return back to the starting position and repeat.
- As you’re done, step back toward the machine and slowly release the rope.
Target Muscles: Glutes, hamstrings, and abdominals.
Tip
Keep your core tight throughout the movement, and squeeze your glute intensely when driving your hip forward.
3. Cable Hip Abduction
How to do it:
- Set an ankle cuff to a low pulley and attach it to your leg. Stand laterally with your leading leg outside.
- Hold the machine with one hand for support and the opposite hand on your hip or at your side.
- Stand upright with your core tight, glute engaged, and point your leading toe upward. This is your starting position.
- Extend your leg out to the side as much as possible and squeeze your glute at the top.
- Slowly lower your leg to the starting position. Repeat and switch legs.
Target Muscles: Gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, and tensor fasciae latae (anterolateral thigh muscle).
Tip
When lowering your leading leg, let your leg come slightly forward and closer to the machine to increase the stretch on your gluteus medius.
4. Cable Romanian Deadlift
How to do it:
- Set the pully at the bottom and attach a cable rope or handle to the cable.
- Grab the handle with both hands and take a few steps backwards away from the machine.
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart and your chest up and back straight.
- Slightly bend your knees and slowly come down to feel the stretch in your hamstring and glute.
- Then drive your hip forward to pull the weight up and squeeze your glute at the top. Repeat.
Target Muscles: Glutes and hamstrings.
Tip
When lowering your body, make sure to pull the weight up with your hip, not with your arms and keep the back flat throughout the movement.
5. Cable Side Lunge
How to do it:
- Set an ankle cuff to a low pulley and attach it to your ankle of the outer leg.
- Stand laterally with the machine and keep your back flat throughout the movement.
- With your leading leg, take a longer step to the side and lunge as deep as possible.
- Then pushing through your leading leg, slowly return to the starting position. Repeat and switch legs.
Target Muscles: Glutes, quadriceps, and hamstrings.
Tip
Make sure to squeeze your glute at the top of the movement. Try to take longer steps to fire up the gluteals.
6. Cable Step-Up
How to do it:
- Set the pulley at the bottom and place a bench or knee-height platform in front of the machine.
- Grab the pully handle with one hand and stand after the bench so that the bench is placed between you and the machine.
- Stand in an upright posture, lift and place your right leg on the bench and then with your leading leg, lift yourself up on the bench and squeeze your glute.
- Then slowly lower yourself off the bench. You can repeat with one leg, then another, or alternate between legs.
Target Muscles: Glutes, quadriceps, and hamstrings.
Tip
Keep your glute engaged throughout the movement and squeeze at the top.
7. Cable Zercher Squat
How to do it:
- To begin, attach a bar to the cable and set the pully at the bottom.
- Hold the bar with your elbows and make your arms curl like the top position of a biceps curl.
- Take a few steps backwards to increase resistance and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and toes pointing slightly outward.
- Keep your back straight, shoulders back, and chest up. You may want to lean slightly backwards to maintain the cable resistance. This is your starting position.
- Bent your knees and squat down until your things go parallel to the ground, and then drive your hip, stand up to the starting position and squeeze your glute. Repeat.
Target Muscles: Glutes, quadriceps, and to a lesser extent, hamstrings and lower back.
Tip
Avoid rounding your lower back throughout the movement. Squeeze your glute at the top for 3 seconds for better muscle activation.
Building a Cable Glute Workout Plan for Mass
Here is a sample glute workout plan with a cable machine:
Workout A
- Cable Glute Kickback: 3 x 12-15 (each side)
- Cable Side Lunge: 3 x 10-12 (each side)
- Cable Pull Through: 3 x 12-15 (with 3-second pause)
Workout B
- Cable Romanian Deadlift: 3 x 12-15
- Cable Hip Abduction: 2 x 12-15 (each side)
- Cable Step-Up: 2 x 12-15 (each side)
- Cable Zercher Squat: 3 x 10-12
With this routine, you’ll hit your glute twice a week (e.g., Monday and Thursday), which is effective for building strength and mass in your buttocks.
Make sure to warm up before doing the main exercises and cool down with glute stretching exercises at the end of your workout.
5 Tips to Grow Your Glutes with Cable
Follow the following tips to grow your glute faster.
1. Fast Concentric and Slow Eccentric
The concentric contraction is when the muscle shortens to meet the resistance, whereas during eccentric the muscle lengthens.
For example, during a squat, the concentric contraction happens when your move upward and the quadriceps shortens. On the other hand, the eccentric phase occurs when you go down, and the quadriceps lengthen.
For most cable exercises, you should spend 1 second in the concentric phase and about 4 seconds in the eccentric phase. This will increase the eccentric time under tension and help promote muscular hypertrophy. [1]
2. Do Full Range of Motion
When you’re using a cable machine, it automatically enables you to go further than with the dumbbell/barbell.
For example, when you do a stiff-legged deadlift, it stops you when the weight plates reach the ground, but doing this same movement with a cable machine allows you to go deeper.
It is clinically proven that using the full range of motion has a greater effect on muscle strength and size. [2]
3. Progressive Overload
Since the glutes are one of the biggest muscles in the body, they can resist heavy loads. Be sure to consistently increase the amount of stress you put on the glutes over time to keep the muscle gain alive.
You can either increase the amount of weight you lift or increase the total number of sets to force the muscle to grow.
4. Decrease Rest Between Sets
You may find some cable machines may not have a wide stack of weights that you may want to lift or to meet your strength. In that scenario, you can perform exercises with higher repetitions (i.e., 15-20) and minimize the rest between sets to achieve muscle fatigue.
Taking shorter rest, like 90 seconds or less, will prevent your body from fully recovering, meaning you’ll be able to reach optimal muscle fatigue sooner in subsequent repetitions.
5. Prioritize Your Nutrition and Sleep
Besides lifting heavy and trying different training principles, a good diet and getting adequate sleep is crucial for muscle growth.
Be sure to take a high protein calorie surplus diet (i.e., 50% carbs, 30% protein, and 20% fat of your total calories) along with 7-8 hours of sleep every day.
I recommend you read the step-by-step muscle-building guide to learn more about how building muscle works and how you can do it naturally and quickly.
The Takeaway
A cable machine can be a fantastic tool you can use to target all three heads of the gluteal. It allows you to achieve a longer range of motion and try unique variations to train the glute.
You can follow the workout routine (mentioned above) and implement the tips I mentioned to speed up your progress.
So… There we have it: The best cable glute exercises.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comment section below. I’d love to help you.
Read Next: 15 Upper Glute Exercises for Amazing Buttocks
References
1. Michal Wilk, Adam Zajac and James J. Tufano (2021): The Influence of Movement Tempo During Resistance Training on Muscular Strength and Hypertrophy Responses: A Review. Sports Medicine 51, 1629–1650. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-021-01465-2
2. Pinto, RS, Gomes, N, Radaelli, R, Botton, CE, Brown, LE, and Bottaro, M. (2012): Effect of range of motion on muscle strength and thickness. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 26(8), 2140–2145. https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Fulltext/2012/08000/Effect_of_Range_of_Motion_on_Muscle_Strength_and.17.aspx
