I have. I’ve worked in the fitness industry for well over a decade and I’ve been hearing people say this since day dot. Sometimes it almost seems like the fitness industry consists of nothing but people walking around telling each other how great squats are for building butts, as if a couple of BodyPump classes per week is enough to get Sir Mix-a-Lot writing songs about you.

Dig a little deeper, though, and we find a problem. Not a small problem, either. There’s a dirty little secret amongst these gym-goers; a secret nobody likes to talk about or admit to. The confidence and enthusiasm of these squat-loving, booty-building fitness-enthusiasts can be rocked with one simple question:

“So do you actually feel your glutes working when you squat?”

Gluteals, or ‘glutes’ to use the fitness lingo, is the collective name for the group of muscles that form our buttocks. Most people, even those who don’t exercise, are familiar with the simple fact that as muscles work hard they grow stronger, and as muscles grow stronger they create a more shapely, toned physique. It’s pretty easy to tell when muscles are working hard too – we can feel them. They fatigue. They get a little sore.

So if squatting really is great for building better butts, if it truly is the mother of all perky backsides, when we ask our booty-building enthusiast if they feel their glutes working during a squat, they should respond with a resounding ‘Yes!’.

But they don’t.

Why not?

There are dozens of subtle errors people make when squatting that affect which muscles are working hardest. Although an enormous number of people will admit to squatting to improve their figure, a quick glance around any regular gym reveals an abundance of these subtle errors and shows just how few of them are actually getting the glute activation they're hoping for.

There are many reasons why this is so.

Poor instruction is unfortunately the most common culprit, however our lifestyle factors can also exacerbate the problem.

We sit down a lot in the course of an average day. Over time, this can create an imbalance in our body where we become stronger in our thighs (our quadriceps muscle group, or ‘quads’) and weaker in our glutes.

If your thighs are stronger than your butt, your body will default to using your thigh muscles to complete a strenuous task – squatting, for example – because it’s easier to use a strong muscle than a weak muscle.

You’re likely not even aware of your body doing this. It’s not a conscious decision.