Can You Do Glutes After Leg Day? (Solved!)

There are now so many different training programs, new exercises, diet plans, and workout techniques that are meant to help you reach your fitness goals as effectively as possible.

With so many people telling you so many different things, it can be really difficult to know which is the best way of training for you.

One common problem facing gym-goers is trying to plan your workouts throughout your training week so that you target each muscle group effectively, without having a negative impact on other muscle groups that you’ll work later on.

So, in this article, we answer the question of whether you can do glutes after leg day.

We discuss the pros and cons of training in this way, as well as looking at other useful information such as the order in which to train these two muscle groups and whether other muscle groups would be better suited to each other.

Can You Do Glutes After Leg Day?

You can do glutes after leg day but you’ll need to choose your exercises carefully.

Many gym-goers will do legs and glutes on the same day as they work closely together. However, there are also plenty of gym-goers who split their lower body into 2 separate workouts too.

When targeting your glutes, it’s worth keeping in mind that your leg muscles will still be activating quite a lot.

This can be an issue if they’re already heavily fatigued from a big leg workout the previous day.

While you can do glutes after leg day, it might be a better idea, and give you a more effective training program, if you either do your glutes and your legs together.

(Or leave a couple of days in between each session to allow the working muscles enough time to recover before your next session.)

Benefits of Doing Glutes After Leg Day

You Can Build Strong Glutes

Developing your glutes isn’t just about increasing their size and strength.

Building your glutes can actually have some pretty useful benefits to your overall health.

Strong glutes can help improve your posture as they help keep your upper body upright, stable, and balanced.

Having strong glutes can also help minimize your risk of injury.

This is because one of the main functions of your glutes is to extend your hips.

If your glutes aren’t strong enough to do this, then other muscles have to activate and help the movement to happen.

This can put a lot of stress on your lower back, knees, and other vulnerable areas of your body.

Having strong glutes comes with many benefits, so by targeting them after leg day, you can hit them hard and make some good progress towards your fitness goals.

You Can Potentially Work Your Lower Body Harder

Your legs have some big strong muscles in them so it can take a lot of effort to work them effectively.

If you do your glutes after leg day, you have the potential to work each target muscle group harder during their workout.

For example, if you do your glutes after leg day, you’ll have more time (and energy) to focus solely on them rather than having less time for glutes as part of your leg workout.

Training your glutes as effectively as possible will ensure you’re getting the most from each workout.

Drawbacks of Doing Glutes After Leg Day

Fatigue

Perhaps the biggest drawback of doing glutes after leg day is the muscle fatigue and overall fatigue that can negatively impact your workout.

As your legs and your glutes work so closely together, training them back to back can be very challenging.

If your legs are still fatigued from your leg workout, then you’ll likely have to reduce the amount of weight you lift during your glute session.

Even if you’ve planned your leg and glute workouts well, you could still feel fatigue and a lack of motivation doing two heavy workouts back to back.

Should You Do Glutes After Leg Day?

This will ultimately depend on your fitness goals and your personal preferences, but it might be a better idea to not do glutes after leg day.

While separating your glutes into their own workout can be very effective, it’s usually a good idea to let your legs fully recover before targeting your glutes to ensure you’re getting the full benefits from each session.

Is It Safe To Do Glutes After Leg Day?

As long as you plan your glute and your leg workouts appropriately, it’s safe to do glutes after leg day.

However, you should keep in mind that targeting big muscle groups that work together back to back can increase your risk of injury.

While you can do it safely, you’ll need to be extra careful to minimise any risks during your workouts.

Is It Better To Do Legs The Day After Glutes?

It can be useful to do your glutes before your legs.

The reason for this is that during most glute exercises, other leg muscles come into play too.

As you’re trying to target just your glutes though, the weight will likely be lower than the weight you would be lifting in a leg workout.

By doing your glutes first, you can ensure your glutes get worked effectively without tiring out your leg muscles so they’re ready to go in your next session.

Other Muscle Groups To Train After Leg Day

Abs

Training abs after leg day gives your legs a rest without having to take a complete day off from the gym.

Your legs will have time to recover while you can still target your abs with a challenging workout. 

Chest

Depending on how long it’s been since you last trained your chest, focussing on your chest after leg day can be a good thing to do.

Chest exercises don’t need activation from your legs so you can lift weights that are as heavy as they need to be without your leg fatigue impacting your performance.

Arms

Focusing on your arms after leg day can also be useful as your legs won’t need to get involved in the session.

Your arm workouts will likely involve much lighter weight compared to other workouts too, so your legs should have no issues recovering while you work your arms hard.