Why Your Glutes Aren't Growing
(And It's Not Your Programme)
You can run a perfect programme and still fail to grow your glutes — if the system underneath it is compromised. And that system starts at the floor.
Most people think glute development is about doing the right exercise. Hip thrusts, RDLs, split squats. Pick the right exercises, hit them hard, and the glutes will grow? Here's the uncomfortable truth: the exercise you pick matters a lot but if you are not able to execute it well you will end up not recruiting the target muscles in the way you think you are.
The issue: you can't use your foot properly
This isn't about heels versus toes — that debate misses the point entirely. It's about whether you can access a functional foot tripod: heel, 1st metatarsal (the big toe side), and 5th metatarsal. That three-point contact is the base everything else is built on.
What I see constantly in practice is weight dumped onto the outside of the foot, the 1st metatarsal head losing contact with the floor, and toes lifting during hinges or split squats. That's not a minor technical fault. That's the start of a chain reaction that travels all the way up to the hip.
What looks like pronation often isn't
There's a widespread misconception in the gym world: if a foot appears to roll inward, it must be pronated. Not necessarily. What you're often looking at is compensatory pronation — a positional orientation, not true joint motion or relative motion. True pronation requires calcaneal eversion, talar internal rotation and plantarflexion, and midfoot yielding. Many people simply don't have access to those mechanics. So instead, the whole system shifts into an orientation and the foot appears pronated — but it lacks the actual movement to use that position. It's a workaround, not a solution. The foot remains in an ER representation (arched position) while the foot is orientated into an IR or pronated position, crucially not orchestrated by the joints that should be controlling the motion rather by compensating shoving the whole foot into that position giving the appearance of having 'flat feet'.
The chain above the foot
The foot doesn't move in isolation. When you can't load the 1st metatarsal properly, the tibia stays biased toward external rotation, the femur follows, and the pelvis settles into an externally-rotated orientation. Now you're trying to extend the hip from a position that limits internal rotation — and that's where glute training starts to fall apart.
Why internal rotation actually matters
A lot of people assume glute training is about external rotation. It isn't — or at least, that's not the full picture. Most lower body movements require the ability to accept internal rotation to stretch the glute and load them eccentrically or when lengthening and then transition into extension. If the glutes cannot do this they cannot be worked through the full range. Hinges — RDLs, deadlifts — are heavily internal rotation-dependent. They require femoral IR, a pelvic position that allows it, and a foot that can accept medial load. When those conditions aren't present, the body finds the path of least resistance. That's why so many people feel their hamstrings or lower back in movements that should be loading the glutes, and why reps feel like they never quite "finish" properly. The IR space often isn't there.
Pelvic position drives everything
If the pelvis is biased into an externally-rotated representation — associated with a more counternutated sacrum — then internal rotation becomes more limited. To access true IR, you need a pelvic position that's more consistent with a nutated sacrum. Without that, the body finds alternatives that reinforce the problem rather than resolve it.
The glutes aren't the villain
Yes, the glutes externally rotate the femur. But the issue usually isn't that the glutes alone are too active. The issue is that the system is constantly trying to deal with the body's CoM (centre of mass), the glutes respond to falling forward by contracting into ER-dominant strategies — and the glutes then reinforce that position rather than balance it. This is a loss of IR option. It's a system problem, not a muscle problem.
The lateral chain reinforces the problem
Structures along with glute max, TFL, short head of biceps femoris and fibularis longus contribute to an ER orientation, laterally acting and meeting at the head of the fibula, externally rotating the fibula head and reducing the ability to shift pressure medially and load the 1st metatarsal. They bias the system away from medial foot loading, which keeps the whole chain externally oriented. The foot problem and the hip problem are connected. They usually have the same root.
What you see in the gym every day
During hinges and split squats, watch the feet. Toes lifting. 1st metatarsal losing contact. Weight drifting to the outside of the foot. That's not random or just a technique flaw. That's the system avoiding internal rotation it doesn't have access to. Cueing "push through your heels" or "drive through your toes" doesn't fix it, because the underlying problem isn't about where the pressure is pointed — it's about whether the foot can actually do anything useful with it.
When I cue "toes" in training, it's not because that's the goal. It's because most people cannot access the inside of their foot. Biasing toward the toes tends to encourage medial loading, helping them find 1st metatarsal contact and a more useful pressure distribution. It's not a cue. It's a constraint to solve a problem.
The takeaway
If your glutes aren't growing, it might not be your programme, your effort, or your exercise selection. It might be that you don't have access to internal rotation and medial foot loading — so you're training on a compromised base.
Fix the foundation. Restore the ability to use the whole foot. Regain access to internal rotation. Allow the pelvis and femur to move properly. Once that's in place, the glutes don't need more exercises — they finally get the position to do their job.