Editor’s Note: Dana Santas,Mobility Makeris a certified strength and conditioning expert, professional sports mental and physical coach, and author of “Practical Solutions for Relieving Back Pain.”
In a culture that tends to equate fitness with appearance, glut often draws more attention on how they look than what they do. But beyond aesthetics, your lute muscles play an important role in almost every aspect of movement, posture and pain prevention.
When the glut is strong and functioning properly, it stabilizes the pelvis, supports the spine, and creates the strength necessary to walk, climb, run, and lift stairs. If the glut is weak or inactive, other muscles take over in an unintended way, often leading to discomfort, dysfunction, and even injury.
If you’re sitting for much of the day or you’re not intentionally training the glut section, you may not be pulling your weight. And it can shift your body from alignment and cause avoidable pain.
Why is your glut important for posture and movement?
Your glut section is not just one muscle. They are a group of three glut muscles called Gluteus Maximus, Medius and Minimus. Together, they give strength and stability to the hips and pelvis, helping to maintain an upright position. This muscle trio also provides force, control, and alignment during lower body movements.
The Gluteus Maximus, or Glute Max, is the largest and most powerful muscle in the body. It is located in the center of the butt and is responsible for stretching your hips. Every time you stand up, walk, charge, or climb stairs, your glute max should drive movements.
Located outside the waist, Gluteus Medius is important for stabilizing the pelvis when walking, running or standing on one leg. The gluteus minimas is beneath the Medius and adheres deep into the sides of the pelvis. The two muscles work in the tandem to support pelvic alignment, lateral movement, and internal rotation of the legs.
The weak or inactive glut areas are often behind chronic pain and dysfunctional movements. Without a strong glut that stabilizes the pelvis and supports the spine, other areas of the body become stressful and more vulnerable to injuries.
People who sit regularly for long periods of time often suffer from lower back pain due to posture-related gl end weakness. Sitting, the glut is placed in an extended, inactive state that pushes the pelvis forward and places the lower back in a painfully compressed mechanically unfavourable position, creating a tight, stiff, and unstable position.
Are you suffering from knees and ankles? It may be limited hip expansion or pelvic misalignment due to weakness of the glute. This lack of strength changes the way you stand, walk and run, putting extra pressure on your knees and ankles.
If any of the three glute muscles are not functioning to work, your body will find other ways to compensate during movement. Your hamstrings (back muscles of the upper limbs), hip flexors (front muscles of the lower back), squares (front muscles of the upper limbs) or lower back muscles will pick up looseness and reduce strain and efficiency. Over time, these imbalances and corresponding poor movement patterns contribute to an increased risk of chronic pain, tension, and injury.
Even if you exercise regularly, it may not be effective in activating the glut area during training. Therefore, intentional training, strengthening and mobilization, prioritizing appropriate activation, is important.
If you think your glut department isn’t doing their job, take a look at these signs:
• Like squats and lunges, you can feel most of the lower body exercises on the lower back of the four heads, not on the glut section.
•Struggling to maintain balance between single movements.
• Crouching or lunging will cause your knees to become caves inside.
•Repeated tension in the hip flexors, quads and hamstrings.
•Experiences lower or knee pain during regular activities.
To test lute activation, try this simple glute bridge.
Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Push your heels and lift your hips. If you feel mostly effort in your hips and hamstrings, not your bluts, then your glut section may not be properly activated. Push one or two fingers into the muscles in the glut on either side to check for activation. If your touch is not satisfied with the underlying tension, it is a sure sign that your glut section is not working.
How to retrain and strengthen the glut section
The good news is that consistent, targeted efforts can help you regain the glut section and regain functionality. To that end, zero of these three important components: activation, mobility and strength.
1. Focus on intentional activation.
It enhances your ability to activate the glut before diving into traditional strength exercises. To get started, use the same bridge position from the Groot test, but change it to the activation exercise. Here’s how:
Lie on your back with your legs hip-width apart, holding a block or towel between your knees.
Exhale completely, attract the core and push the heel to lift it up 4-6 inches away from the floor. For 5 seconds, grip the top and squeeze the glut without arching the back. Underneath, slowly control it and inhale. Repeat 10 to 12 times.
2. Restore mobility and alignment.
It is often accompanied by a tight waist and a weak glut. Targeted hip mobility drills such as three-way hip flexor release help to open the hips and position the pelvis to guide the glute more effectively.
3. Strengthen through combined exercise.
Once the glut area is well activated, incorporate a combined exercise that strengthens these muscles through a functional range of movement. Choose 3-4 exercises that prioritize quality over quantity and train the glut section in multiple directions with at least one single movement. These include squats, hip thrusts, step-ups, single-leg deadlifts, step-back lunges, lateral lunges, or lateral monster walks (with or without bands). Perform 10-12 repetitions of each exercise in 3-5 rounds. Start with weight exercises, complete your form and only apply resistance with weights if you feel ready to progress.
Ideally, warm up with a Grute Bridge activation exercise, follow up with one or two hip open mobility exercises, then do some reinforcement exercises, add training to your training, and add two or three workouts. Taking this approach will help you safely build a strong glut area that supports better posture and painless movement in your daily life.
Don’t forget that glute training is about creating a powerful, mobile and resilient body that is not only good looking. Whether you’re exercising, chasing your child, or simply moving through life, your glut section is behind you and doing heavy lifting, so you pay to give them the attention they deserve.
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