And since you’re looking to work your butt, let’s first learn about the muscles that make up your butt.
Butt Muscles
There are three main butt muscles (biggest to smallest):
- maximus
- medius
- minimus
The main difference in exercises often leads to this: different muscles they target.
When you take a look at the effectiveness of squats and lunges, this is essentially what it comes down to.
It's not the matter of which exercise is better per se, but it's the question of what muscles do squats engage more versus the muscles lunges engage, and picking one that suits your needs better.
Squat
Squat—works your hips, glutes (butt), legs and thighs. It’s the foundation of sitting and lifting heavy objects off the floor.
So, this movement is crucial to a healthy, strong, and fit body.
Lunge
Lunges hit all the same muscle groups as the squat.
Obvious difference is in the movement. Lunge is the basis of all walking and running patterns.
Even though both exercises work somewhat similar muscle groups, they are some technical differences between the two.
With squats, less balance is required during the movement.
You have a more stable base by having both feet firmly planted on the ground.
On the other hand, lunges work one side at a time, making your base of support less stable.
Put simply, lunges require more balance to perform.
While this may sound as if lunges are more fit for improving your daily functions by challenging and improving your balance, core strength, and toning the legs, but squats are no less useful.
Squats are also used as a rehabilitation exercise and way to improve one’s functionalities.
Squat mimics one very important movement that we all perform everyday.
Sitting down and getting up; two very fundamental and essential movements in your everyday life.
While a nice firm and round butt is a good aesthetic goal, retaining range of motion is also important and a key benefit of squats.
Now, what also separates the two is their target muscles.
Squats and lunges engage your butt muscles in a slightly different way.
Like squats, lunges play an important role in developing the gluteus maximus; however lunges really come into their own with the development of the gluteus medius.
Lunge—Gluteus Medius Muscle Activation Chart
Squat—Gluteus Maximus Muscle Activation Chart
Research led by John Porcari, Ph.D, from the LaCrosse Exercise and Health Program at the University of Wisconsin has shown that the gluteus medius is significantly more activated during the lunges than the squat exercise.
In fact, when it comes to the gluteus medius, lunges are almost twice as effective as the squat!
However Porcari states that the subjects in the study were instructed to only squat with thighs parallel to floor.
If they performed deeper squats, the results may have been different.
So, the bottom line is, if you want to effectively train for well-rounded glutes(butt), you have to include both squats and lunges in your workout regimen.
But let’s also not forget that the key is in the proper exercise form and range of movement.