Boston Barbell

Classic glute kickbacks leave a gap in your glute training that most people never close.

A good Kickback is a great exercise. But for most people, training it means chasing the squeeze — the shortened position at the top. The glute is contracted, you feel it, so that's what you chase.

That's half the training stimulus.

The ball game is the lengthened position. Getting the glute long under load. Kickbacks build up to a peak contraction, but what's missing is continued tension into the deep moment — where the glute is stretched and loaded at the same time.

That's where the kickdown comes in.

Knee bent. Ankle High. Deep stretch. You're in the most lengthened position the cable setup allows. From there, you initiate with the squeeze, not just end with it. The load stays on the glute through the range that standard kickbacks skip entirely.

You can still do shortened position training. It belongs in your program. But if you're only ever training the peak contraction, you're missing half the your gains.

So make one of your kickbacks a Glute Kickdown. And watch how range of motion and more deliberate programming can explode your glute growth.

Forget the 45° extension. Rethink the RDL. This might be the hardest-hitting hip hinge you ever try.

This is the Smith Machine Glute Extension.

A simple setup that lets you load the glutes hard while stripping away a lot of the hamstring and low-back dominance people run into with traditional 45° extensions and RDLs.

It may look like a leaned-forward RDL straight out of the Michael Jackson “Thriller” video, but it’s actually one of the simplest ways to hinge almost purely at the hips.

Setup + Ex*****on

• Slightly elevate the heels
Helps bias the hips and keep tension out of the lower posterior chain.

• Position the Smith bar a few inches below the hips
The bar becomes the pivot point.

• Hinge over the bar
Drive the hips back and “spread your cheeks” as you lower your torso to create a deep loaded glute stretch. Think of it like an RDL supported around the Smith bar.

• Keep a stable spine
Neutral or slightly rounded is fine, but the spine shape must stay the same throughout the rep.

• Slight knee bend
Reduces hamstring dominance so the glutes take over. Do not extend the knees to finish the rep.

• Let the dumbbells drift slightly forward
This improves the strength curve and loads the deep position.

• Squeeze and stand
Drive the hips forward into the bar by squeezing the glutes.

Why we like this more than typical 45° extensions:

Most people say the same thing:
“I only feel my hamstrings.”
“I only feel my lower back.”

That’s because back extensions often turn into a spinal extension exercise, not a glute one.

This setup fixes a lot of that.

The Smith bar creates a fixed pivot, the knee bend reduces hamstring dominance, and the hinge lets you load the glutes in a deep stretched position.

If you’ve never been able to feel your glutes on back extensions or RDLs…

Try this version and thank us later.

Huge thanks to for dreaming this one up and dialing in the setup 👊

The Rotational Split Squat is how you turn a great leg exercise into a game-changing glute builder.

Most people use the Bulgarian Split Squat to train glutes through hip extension. That’s fine.

But the glutes don’t just extend the hip. They rotate it.

When you add internal rotation in the deep position, you increase stretch exactly where it matters most. And loaded stretch isn’t optional. It’s one of the biggest drivers of growth.

But here’s the upgrade 👇

At lockout, where the traditional split squat stimulus usually falls off, you actively drive external rotation.

The knee stays stacked.
The pelvis rotates open.

Now the ascent isn’t just “stand up.”
It’s controlled rotation under load and the most brutal burn of the rep.

That added concentric rotation lights up the glute medius and upper glute fibers hard.

What used to be the lowest-tension part of the lift becomes its biggest ass-et.

Now you’re training:
• Hip Extension
• Hip Rotation
• Knee Stability
• “The Shelf”

Same movement pattern.
Far more complete stimulus.

This is how you take a staple and make it a gamechanger.

“Ass to grass” isn’t the same thing as “knee to chest.” And if you actually care about building glutes, that distinction matters.

Ass to grass is about maximizing knee flexion.
It’s a depth standard defined by how much the knees bend. More forward travel. More quad demand. More compression in the hole.

That’s not wrong. It’s just aimed at something else.

Knee to chest is about maximizing hip flexion.

It’s not about how low your hips sit relative to the floor.
It’s about how far your femur travels into the socket.

That’s a completely different stimulus.

You can hit “ass to grass” with an upright torso, tons of knee travel, and barely any hinge — and congratulations, you’ve built a quad-dominant squat.

But when the knee comes toward the chest, the hip is forced into deep flexion.
The glutes get lengthened.
And now they actually have to produce force out of the bottom instead of just hanging out.

That’s where growth lives — under load, in a stretched position.

So if you’re doing split squats, step-ups, or any single-leg variation and you’re chasing ass to grass without chasing knee to chest, you’re probably torching your quads and wondering why your glutes look the same.

Different depth standards.
Different joint mechanics.
Different results.

If you want glutes, train hip flexion — not just knee flexion.

Bring the knee to the chest.

The Cable Hinge and Reach isn’t just a “cute” accessory. It’s a precision tool.

All glute training involves two things: hip extension and stability. And every exercise is a negotiation between how much external stability makes an exercise optimally loadable vs. how much support robs the exercise of the fundamental role glutes play in stabilizing.

The cable gives you a layer of external stability — almost like a subtle hand support — but more importantly, it gives you direction. The line of pull guides you back into your hip and teaches you where tension should actually live.

And here’s the key:
you are stabilizing with your glute.
you are rotating with your glute.
you are driving hip extension with your glute.

Not your low back. Not momentum. Your glute.

With the cable set directly in line with the hip, the line of pull matches the direction of the fibers of the glute. That means the resistance is pulling exactly where we want force production to happen. No wasted tension. No compensation.

You hinge back.
You control rotation.
You reach.
And your glute owns every inch of it.

This isn’t just about “feeling it.”
It’s about teaching your hips to control force in all three planes — and building glutes that are strong, stable, and impossible to ignore.

If mechanical tension is what builds muscle and deep stretch is what maximizes how much we build - then why is nobody talking about Kettlebell Swings?

KB Swings have been an age-old builder of power in sports — and it’s mostly because of how explosively they train that violent hip extension.

Think: jumping.
Think: sprinting.

But there’s another reason I genuinely believe KB swings are about to emerge as a God-tier exercise in the bootybuilding movement.

Recent strength training research has made one thing painfully clear:
deep positions build muscle.

So much so that some of the leading practitioners are now prioritizing exercises with strength curves that emphasize the deep eccentric moment… and actually load the bottom more than the contracted portion of the lift.

Now pair that with the unique benefit KB swings give us:

explosive hip extension.

Because here’s the thing…

In a normal RDL, the top portion of the lift becomes a fairly poor stimulus for the glutes and hamstrings.

But the explosive nature of the KB swing lets you maintain constant tension and train MAXIMAL force production — at an intensity that simply wouldn’t be possible in a slower, less dynamic movement.