Gluteus Maximus Training

    Training Gluteus is obviously one of the most trendy and controversy topic among personal trainers and gym funs.
    Gluteus training has been at the gym for ages and men and women are looking for the most efficient way to train them. Exercises can be vary, with exercises engage more the gluteus maximus and some exercises engage more the gluteus minimus and medius. Another factor we have to consider is the sport specificity and the gluteus anatomy.
    We are going to focus more on the gluteus maximus. Having strong and big gluteus maximus show athleticism and it is the first factor as strength and condition coaches we are look to improve in our athletes, however, a lot of women and men they are trying to improve the gluteus for aesthetics reason in the gym. 
    #1. Anatomy
The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the human body. It has an extra origin on the pelvis (at the iliac crest) in addition to the origins that other primates have on the lower spinal vertebrae. Developing it will likely contribute substantially to increases in whole body muscle mass. It has a wide variety of origins and insertions, and therefore likely fulfils a number of different functions, including hip extension, hip external rotation, hip abduction, and posterior pelvic tilt.
The gluteus maximus can be most easily trained by hip extension, hip external rotation, and hip abduction exercises.
    #2. Muscle Fibers
As gluteus maximus belongs to posterior chain and it is useful for a lot activities including standing, walking, running. For that  we can consider that they need more endurance than explosiveness. Couple of studies indicated that gluteus maximus has equal amount of slow twitch(type I) and fast twist(type IIx) muscle fibers. For this reason training the gluteus maximus with alternate high volume and high intensity can be both beneficial.
    #3. Exercise Selection
The gluteus maximus can be most easily trained by hip extension, hip external rotation, and hip abduction exercises. Variety of exercises are recommended in order to train the gluteus maximus efficiency including the 3 axles and plates. Keep in mind that having strong and big gluteus you should not forget to train all the heads of the hamstrings and the lower back regions of the erectors muscles.

Recommended exercises:
-Hip bridges/thrusters 
-Bulgarian lunges 
-Sumo deadlifts 
-Sumo Squats
-Romanian Deadlifts
-Gluteus Hamstring Development (GHD)
-back squat/low back squat (full range of motion) 
-kettle bell swings
-Sprinting 
-low push sled 

Hypertrophy:16-20 sets per week @ 65-80%
Strength:6-10 sets per week @ 85-100%

To sum up, training gluteus can be a multidimensional and long procedure and in order to achieve that a good periodisation plan fluctuating volume and intensity must be achieved. Use variety of exercises according to the principle of individuality and specificity of your goals.