Image credit: manganite
Power comes from the hips: your posterior chain. It consists of your lower back, hamstrings, calves & glutes. A strong posterior chain is important for Deadlifts, Squats, Power Cleans, jumps, sprints, …
Excessive sitting shortens your hip flexors. This stretches the opposite muscles: your glutes. They become dormant. You can’t fire your glutes properly anymore. The solution is glute activation exercises. Here’s how.
Benefits of Glute Activation Exercises. Dormant glutes force your lower back & hamstrings to compensate. This is less effective & increases risks of injury.
- More Strength. You can lift more weight, sprint faster and jump higher when using all the muscles of your posterior chain, including your glutes.
- Less Injuries. Lower back pain, hip flexor pain, knee pain, strained hamstrings, … Glute activation minimizes risks of injury.
- Better Posture. Tight hip flexors pull your pelvis forward: lordosis. Glute activation & hip mobility exercises are the solution to anterior pelvic tilt.
Do You Need Glute Activation? Do 20 reps supine bridges. You need glute activation if your hamstrings feel more tight than your glutes. I recommend doing glute activation exercises even if you pass this test.
Exercise Guidelines. 1 set of 10 reps per exercise. Add sets if necessary. Do glute activation pre-workout so you can fire your glutes better on weight lifting exercises. You can also do them on non-training days for faster improvements.
- Start with Hip Mobility. Dormant glutes are linked to tight hip flexors. Do hip mobility exercises before doing glute activation exercises.
- Squeeze Your Glutes. As hard as you can. You can squeeze your glutes best at lockout: when your hip joints approach neutral alignment.
- Focus on Quality. Avoid compensating with your hamstrings or lower back. Squeezing your glutes matters, not the amount of reps.
1. Supine Bridges. Back & heels on the floor. Knees bent at 90°. Curl your toes up. Lift your hips by squeezing your glutes until your body is straight from knees to shoulders. Hold for 5 seconds, come back down, repeat.
- Don’t Use Your Lower Back. Push your lower back against the floor by tilting your pelvis back. Get off the floor by squeezing your glutes hard.
- Don’t Use Your Hamstrings. Cramps in your hamstrings means you’re not using your glutes. Squeeze your glutes as hard as you can.
- Quality not Quantity. Put your legs on the floor if you can’t do supine bridges correctly. Squeeze your buttocks, hold for 5 seconds, repeat.
2. Standing Hip Flexor Stretch/Glute Activation. Pull your leg back & stretch. When your hip flexor releases, squeeze both glutes for 5 seconds. The stretch will increase. Relax your glutes while holding your leg. Repeat.
Stay tall at all time. Keep your spine neutral, don’t arch your lower back. Picture below is perfect technique. If you have a desk job, this is the best exercise you can do through the day to avoid tight hip flexors/dormant glutes from sitting.
Standing Hip Flexor Stretch. Image: TheSanDiegoBootCam
3. Mule Kicks. Bend over on a bench. Face down & hands on the floor. Kick 1 leg back & up by extending your hip and squeezing your glute. Hold the contraction for 5 seconds and come back. Repeat for 10 reps, switch legs.
- Don’t Use Your Lower Back. Keep your spine neutral. Brace your abs hard as if someone would punch you in the stomach.
- Don’t Use Your Hamstrings. Squeeze your glutes hard while extending your hips. You can bend your knee.
- Quality not Quantity. The goal is not get as high as possible, the goal is to squeeze your glute as hard as you can. Lead with your glute.
Mule Kicks. Image: PTontheNET.com
4. Clams. Lie on your side. Knees bent & together. Feet aligned with your back. Lift your knee by squeezing your glute. Don’t rotate your hips & don’t try to go high. The movement comes from your glutes. 10 reps, switch leg.
5. Birddogs. Get on all 4s. Arms & thighs perpendicular to the floor. Brace your abs as if someone is going to punch you in the stomach. Extend your hip while extending your opposite arm.
- Keep Your Spine Neutral. Don’t hyper-extend or arch your lower back. Brace your abs. Put a water bottle on your lower back for feedback.
- Quality not Quantity. If you can’t do them correctly, keep both arms on the floor. If that’s still too hard, go back to mule kicks.
6. Fire Hydrants. Get on all 4s. Arms & thighs perpendicular to the floor. Lift 1 leg to the side by contracting your glute. Press your heel back by extending your leg. Come back. Repeat. This is a mix of birddogs & clams.
- Keep Your Spine Neutral. Don’t hyper-extend/arch/rotate your lower back. Keep your abs braced.
- Don’t Use Your Hamstrings. Cramps in your hamstrings means you’re not using your glutes. Squeeze your glutes as hard as you can.
- Quality not Quantity. The goal is not to go fast or doing a lot of reps. The goal is squeezing your glutes. Hold each position.
7. Kneeling Squats. Teach you to use your glutes on Squats & Deadlifts. Kneel with your hips resting on your heels. Use knee padding. Brace your abs and keep your spine neutral. Rise by extending your hips & squeezing your glutes.
More Glute Activation Exercises. Squeeze your glutes several times per day. Stand up, squeeze your glutes hard while pushing your hips forward. Squeeze your glute when walking stairs. The more you do this, the easier it becomes.
There are many more glute activation exercises you can do: band versions, band walks, cook hip lifts, etc. Master the basics before trying the glute activation exercises described here:
- Core Training and Glute Activation by Michael Boyle.
- Hamstring Dominance by Brijesh Patel.
Great Post -
You never know how bad you need to do glute activation until you actually try some of this stuff and see how much it helps your lifts, along with everything else you do throughout the day. Same thing with hip flexibility.
I have been reading Bulletproof Knees by Mike Robertson, alot of protecting the knee comes from having hip and ankle flexibility along with good functioning glutes.
Great stuff as usual Mehdi.
One complaint though - I really think you could have done better on the pic up top, she has a wrinkle in her bottoms - ( I wont say anything about it looking like it comes from a camel toe.)
I’ve been doing a few of these exercises for a week now, it’s amazing how muscles you don’t even think about on an everyday basis can have such a great impact on everything you do from your posture to stabilizing/supporting your lifts.
On a side note . . .
For some reason I find it very exciting to watch the counter grow, almost up 500 subscribed readers in the last week.
Keep up the good work and Congratulations Mehdi!!
Mehdi…awesome post, great exercises. Clams are my favourite. So simple yet they really do target your glute med.
@ jdurando…classy comment, now I know why i choose the indoor variety of Volleyball.
Nice, the kneeling squats are especially brutal on the glutes I’ve found. I would say its not necessary to do all of them, just pick the ones that work best for ya.
Hey Mehdi, is there going to be an article on spinal deloading?
I hope those exercises help better my butt which is been AWOL since I can remember!
I come on this site at school cause I’m bored in mod tech and this is what I get. THANKS!!! that really got my attention lol the picture did but my not my teachers thank god. Also we thank our lord for not having my girl friend seeing me look at the picture good article keep it up.
good article Mehdi. and i do the same thing as youth athlete haha. i come on here every day in school
@ Lauren - Its amazing that I rarely miss an opportunity to make a fool of myself, sorry if I offended you or anyone else.
Great Blog up on your site on Protein by the way -
i just did 10 bridges and my hams were way tight!
you say if we do 20 and feel hams tight, then we need to do glute activation, but you say if we feel hams are tight, then we need to squeeze glutes harder. no matter how hard i seem to squeeze, hams still are tight which then i assume i’m doing them wrong. is this just a phase i need to get out of? i hope my question made sense.
@Alex
Yes something on lower back coming up too, but first on the knees.
@Michael
The more you do glute activation exercises, the more your glutes will start to “take over”. You’ll feel it more & more in your glutes, but less in your hamstrings. If your hams feel tight, just continue doing the exercises.
This is good because I think it would be safe to say that everybody sits for a pretty good portion of your day. If not then consider yourself lucky. I was reading study the other day that said sitting can actually deteriorate your glutes… that scary!
Squeezing your butt during the day. I use to work in retail and when I would just stand around, I would squeeze my butt all day! Good exercises… I need to do more of the clams.
Will glute exercises help get rid of my fat bum?
I think one of your other posts mentioned that you can’t “target” fat loss in certain areas very well. You report that genetics determine which part of you “holds” fat the most and diet determins how much fat you carry.
So I guess these exercises (apart from everything else) should help tone my bum but unless I sort my diet out and exercise more often then noone will see the toned muscle underneath the fat!
Wait… did I just answer my own question?
@BA
Can’t remember writing something like that, doesn’t read as my words.
Point of glute activation is fixing dormant glutes, corrects posture and improves lower back health. If tone is your goal, strength is your tool. Get stronger and eat healthy, fat bum will go away.
Your site has more free information than some of the other sites that promote fitness. Actually several of them are attempting to sell you their products and lack detailed information. Stronglifts is a great site and has detailed pertinent information. I got more insight to my problems (muscle imbalance) than all the other sites combined and if allowed will continue to patronize your site. Thank you and keep the information coming!!