Are kickbacks enough to grow my glutes?

If kickbacks have been the centerpiece of your glute work and nothing is changing, that's the plan, not you. On the show's tier-list video, one WarriorBabe coach ranks cable kickbacks in the A tier: great for isolation and sculpting, but not ideal for building maximum glute size because you can't load them heavily. Hip thrusts and Bulgarian split squats land in the S tier. In another video, a coach calls the cable kickback the way you "finish the job" after the heavy compound movements.

When you do kickbacks, form decides whether they count. The coach says the swinging, back-arched version all over social media is momentum, not glute work. Lean slightly forward, brace your core, and drive back through your heel like you're pushing through a wall rather than kicking at the ceiling. If you feel it in your lower back, you're hyperextending; in your hamstring, your hip angle is off. Banded kickbacks aren't the same, because the band loses tension at the bottom. If you don't have cables, she'd rather you do a slow, controlled banded version on all fours than swing through reps for a pump.

None of the exercise choice matters without progression and recovery. The coach is blunt: if you lift the same weight and reps every week, your muscle has zero reason to change. Add weight, reps or range of motion over time. Sleep is when muscles rebuild and protein is what they rebuild with, and if you're under-eating, your body doesn't have the resources to build new tissue no matter how hard you train.