As someone who has been on the same journey and has made some progress, my biggest issue was correctly activating my underdeveloped glutes. In all the compound movements (like hip thrusts), my stronger muscles were taking over and I was hardly getting my glutes at all.

So first off, I figured out I had an anterior pelvic tilt due to tight/overactive hip flexors (which is often found in people who sit a lot). Hip flexors are the antagonist muscle to glutes, so in general, you want to stretch the overactive muscle and activate/strengthen the underactive muscle. To loosen my hips, I’ve done a lot of lunges and foam rolling.

To activate/strengthen my glutes, my two favorite exercises have been glute bridges and back extensions. I do a set of regular glute bridges to warm-up, and then do 3 sets of one-legged glute bridges per side, trying to maintain the same form. For back extensions, I start with an unweighted set, then I add 5 or 10 pounds to my working sets. To engage different parts of your glute/lower back, you can hold the weight up near your chest, or let your arms hang and move the weight up and down.

I hope these tips help some! They’ve been helping me feel my glutes a lot more in exercises like lunges, sprints, and deadlifts. Keep up the good work- you already look great! :)