Hate squats? An expert shares three alternative exercises to build your backside and you only need a dumbbell

A woman doing dumbbell hip thrusts.

Barbell squats may be crowned as the ‘GOAT’ exercise for your glutes, but if you don’t enjoy them, please stop torturing yourself, there are plenty of other alternative exercises out there. In fact, we’ll let you into a little secret – while squats are a brilliant compound exercise that hit multiple muscles in the lower body, there are other exercises out there that can hone in on your glute muscles more. Coach Adam Collard, shares the three he’d recommend and they can all be performed with a single dumbbell. 

There’s so much more to training glutes than simply having a nice butt. As the largest muscle in our body, our glutes play a massive role in facilitating stability and movement, as they keep our pelvis stable and help rotate the hip joint. “Weak glutes can also lead to instability, as the muscles are not able to provide the proper stability for the hip and knee joints,” says Surrey Physio. “This can put undue strain on the joints, leading to increased risk of injury.” 

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If you don't have a dumbbell you could use a kettlebell, a weighted vest, fill a backpack up with some household items, or even just use your bodyweight. The exercises Adam suggests can either be added onto the end of your lower body workout (or you could pick a couple). We suggest aiming for anywhere between 8 to 12 reps of each exercise, with a minutes rest in between, and to complete three rounds in total. Remember, if you don't have a heavy dumbbell you can slow down your tempo to make the movement harder. Here's the exercises:

• Dumbbell sumo squat
• Bulgarian split squats (make sure you're leaning slightly forward to hit the glutes)
• Hip thrusts (perform either with a dumbbell or barbell)

Alternatively, if you don't enjoy any of these exercises then here are five other alternative exercises to squats for you fussy lot. If you're looking for more workout inspiration (that still doesn't include squats) try this 20-minute lower-body workout using a resistance band. Need something low-impact? Give this three-move Pilates workout a try instead (warning: it will still leave your glutes on fire).