Gluteus maximus is the most powerful muscle in the body. It works mainly in hip extension — not in a deep squat, whatever you read.
PrimarySecondaryNot worked
Glute max runs from the ilium and sacrum to the femur and IT band. It extends and externally rotates the hip. Gluteus medius, above it, stabilises the pelvis in the frontal plane — it is what stops the knee collapsing inward under load. The two need different work: one loads the front-back axis, the other the lateral one.
Ten to twenty sets a week, across two distinct families: movements loading hardest at hip lockout (thrusts, extensions) and movements loading hardest in the stretch (lunges, Romanian deadlifts). Add abduction work for the medius, which sagittal movements barely touch.
Compensating by arching the lower back at lockout. Extension comes from the hip, not the spine: ribs stay down and the pelvis finishes in posterior tilt.
Names are the ones the app uses.
The journal, the anatomical map and nearly 300 movements, each with its own video — free to start.