We think of it as one of our strongest muscles, but in reality many of us have at least one underactive glute. Poor glutes, being sat upon for a large portion of the day! And perhaps because they are a somewhat taboo part of the body, they are often ignored on a conditioning level and subsequently not integrated well into movement patterns.

In an ideal world, however, the core muscles will keep the spine neutral and the glutes will be the motor that drives a hip hinge. This is usually preferable to bending from the waist, which can stress the low back, or being overly dominant with the quads, which can stress the knees.

Glute Activation: How to do it

One approach is to sit at the front edge of a firm chair or bench, so that the edge of the bench is in contact with the bottom of your underwear line. This gives some sensory feedback as to the positioning of the muscles you’re asking your brain to activate. Then you simply squeeze or twitch your glutes. Placing your hands on the buttocks at the same time lets you check if they are activating well. It is often easier to twitch them both simultaneously, moving later to alternating sides.

A different position that sometimes works is face down. Again, using your hands to physically check if your glutes are activating is useful. It’s easiest to keep your legs straight to check, but a truly “sleepy” glute may need a bent knee to engage more easily once it is already in a shortened range. If so, care must be taken to use your core engage before lifting and before releasing your heel so as to now stress the low back. If you are not yet able to engage your core, please master that first to keep your back safe during the bent-knee glute engage practice.

For more information, Bret Contreras, AKA “The Glute Guy,” does a excellent job of laying out technical information on glutes.

NOTE: This is not a substitute for medical advice.