Glute Kickback
Also works: Hamstrings
A quadruped hip extension performed on hands and knees, driving one bent leg upward with the knee locked at 90 degrees. Keeping the knee bent shortens the hamstrings and leaves the glute max to do the extending, which is why this beats a straight-leg kickback for feeling the target.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Get on all fours with hands under shoulders and knees under hips, on a mat if your kneecaps object.
- Set the working knee at a firm 90 degrees between thigh and calf and keep it there for every rep.
- Flatten your back and pull your ribs down — a neutral spine now is what stops you arching later.
- Look at the floor a hand's length in front of you, not forward; craning your neck tips the whole chain.
- Push the floor away with both hands so your shoulders stay stacked rather than sagging.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Exhale as you drive the leg up, inhale as you lower. Two seconds up, one second held hard at the top, two seconds down.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Bodyweight is the starting point. Once 20 clean reps per side feel easy, add a light ankle weight of 1-2 kg or loop a short resistance band around the working foot and hook it under the opposite hand. Progress the pause at the top before you progress the load — three seconds of hard squeeze changes the set more than a kilo does.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Cap the rep at thigh-parallel and film one set from the side. If your lumbar spine moves at all, cut 20 degrees off the top of the range and squeeze harder instead.
Actively pull the heel towards your glute for the whole rep. If the shin straightens out, you have handed the work back to the hamstrings.
Keep both hip bones pointed at the floor. Put a hand on the working hip for one set to feel the rotation and correct it.
Slow down to two seconds up, one second squeeze, two seconds down. Fifteen honest reps at that tempo beat thirty fast ones.
Why bother
The hamstrings cross both the hip and the knee. Holding the knee at 90 degrees puts them in a shortened position where they can contribute far less force, so the glute maximus has to produce the hip extension almost alone. That is the entire mechanical argument for the bent-knee version.
The catch is range. Real hip extension past neutral is only about 10-20 degrees for most people. Everything beyond that comes from your lower back arching, which is why the heel-to-ceiling photos look impressive and train nothing. Stop when your thigh is parallel to the floor and your back is still flat.
Where it fits
Best as a glute warm-up before squats or deadlifts, or as an accessory after them. Two or three sets of 15-20 per side, two or three times a week. It is not a substitute for a loaded hinge — it is what you do so the glutes are already awake when the loaded work starts.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
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Asked and answered
Bent knee or straight leg?
Bent knee, if the glute is the target. At 90 degrees the hamstrings are shortened and can produce less force, so more of the hip extension falls on the glute max. The straight-leg version turns into a shared hamstring-and-glute movement with a longer lever, which is a different exercise, not a better one.
Are donkey kicks and glute kickbacks the same exercise?
Yes. Donkey kick, quadruped hip extension, bent-knee kickback and fire hydrant-adjacent variations are the same movement under different names, and no naming scheme changes what the hip is doing. The only distinctions worth logging are knee angle, whether you are on hands or forearms, and what resistance you added — a band, a cuff, or nothing.
Will kickbacks grow my glutes?
On their own, barely. They are an isolation drill with almost no load, so they are good for teaching the glute to fire and for adding volume around heavier work. Growth comes from loaded hip extension — hip thrusts, bridges, squats and hinges — with kickbacks as a supplement.
My wrists hurt on all fours. What can I do?
Come down onto your forearms and elbows instead of your hands. That takes your wrists out of it entirely, drops your chest closer to the floor and slightly reduces the tendency to arch the back at the top.