Which Glute gym exercise targets which glute part?

Different glute muscles and exercises:

The Glute muscle is not one big muscle, in fact every muscle is a bondage of muscle fibers and those muscle fibers are connected to the bones and fascia (connective tissue). In generally we can differentiate tree different muscle groups in the glute. The Gluteus Maximus (Downer glute), the gluteus Medius (upper glute) and the Gluteus Minimus (outer glute). 

Now we have to understand, that those muscles are not totally separated from each other, they are working with each other and are never completely isolated rom each other. Often it is therefore not possible to say that we are only working one of those three muscles during a movement, more likely we are working all of them to a certain degree (Bret Contreras, The Glute Lab, S.103), but with specific exercises we can try to target one of the muscles more than the other ones. James Ayotte shows in his book +Building the Ultimate Bikini Athlete`s Glutes different types of exercises which are targeting (more or less) the different areas of the glute. In the following table we tried to categorize the different targeted areas of different glute exercises. This is never a 100% correct, cause factors like the anatomy of the body, of the glute play a role, factors how well trained a person is and also how the exercise is exactly performed. This table is more likely to be seen as help to find exercises which are more likely to target a specific glute area, at the same time it is important to be aware of possible differences and to feel yourself, where you feel an exercise more in your glute, or even if you feel a certain exercise in your glute, while thinking about that a different form (how you do an exercise) can also influence the feeling of the exercise. For example: If you do a Kickback straight back, you will probably mostly feel it in the upper glute (Glute Medius), if you do it to the side, you`ll probably feel it more in your outer glute (Glute Minimus) and also more or less in your upper glute (Glute Medius).

Table reading: 2 = highly activated, 1 = activated, 0 = not activated (can differentiate depending on anatomy and how exercise is performed)

Muscle fiber types:

Another critical factor for muscle growth is the difference of muscle fibers. In our glute muscle (also in other muscles) we have different kind of muscle fibers which react to different forces. Roughly summarized we can say that we have long thin fibers and short think fibers. The long thin ones are responding better to lower weights and higher repetitions, the shorter ones are responding more to higher weights and lower repetitions. Now here we can see different sides of views through research and different opinions when it comes to training recommendations.

Research tells us, that some people have more or less of certain fiber types. At the same time, it is shown that the different fiber types have the ability to transition to one another. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8473039/) Taking in to consideration that different fiber types are differently affected, trainers like Bret Contreras are suggesting to do exercises with different loading varieties, to make sure to targe all the muscle fibers (the Glute lab, S.97-98 + S.107-108) (heavy, medium and light days).

On the other hand, several studies which compared heavy loading training with low loading training have shown, that hypertrophy of both loading types was really similar and that therefore both methods can lead to a similar muscle growth. (https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/fulltext/2017/12000/strength_and_hypertrophy_adaptations_between_low_.31.aspx)

After saying that, in the moment, there is maybe not enough scientifical evidence to make a 100% secure recommendation. Therefore, we can say that, although it is possible to achieve muscle growth with different types of loading, it does make sense to try different types of loading throughout for a glute-grow-plan, cause the different stimulus might help your body to grow all of the fibers and therefore we might have better results to incorporate some exercises with heavy (5-7reps) , medium (8-12reps) and low (13-30reps) weights. Still we can say that probably it is best and most efficient to keep most of the exercises at a moderate/ medium weight (with 8-12reps) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw6XPWaEK20&t=2099s) . That said, it is important to outline, that it is always a bigger priority to feel safe during an exercise, and therefore exercises which don`t feel safe should not be done with heavy weight, cause the injury risk are much bigger. For beginners it is recommended to start with medium and light weights and include higher weights with more security and experience with an exercise.