Few debates in the gym run as hot as this one. The hip thrust lights up the glutes like almost nothing else, and the squat has built lower bodies for a century. So if your goal is bigger, stronger glutes, which one actually deserves the first slot in your session? The answer is more interesting than "it depends", and it carries a lesson that reaches well beyond glute training: the exercise that produces the loudest muscle signal is not automatically the one that produces the