• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • New? Start Here!

RunToTheFinish

Online Running Coach for All Paces, All Ages

  • Training
    • Beginner Half Marathon Training
    • Sub Two Half Marathon Training
    • Marathon Training
    • New Runner Tips
    • Low Heart Rate Training
    • Group Run Coaching
    • Nutrition for Runners
  • Running Injuries
  • Gear Reviews
  • Work Together
    • Virtual Run Club
    • 1-1 Coaching
    • Brand Partnerships
  • Courses
    • Book
    • IT Band Solution
    • LHR Training Plans
  • Blog

Glute Activation Exercises: Don’t Be a Lazy Ass

2180shares

It’s true, runners are notoriously lazy asses.

It’s not our fault, it’s our lifestyle. Hours of sitting for work cause our glutes to slowly stop firing due to the reduced oxygen and tightened hip flexors. The result is less powerful running.

But most of us don’t even know we’ve gone radio silent. I mean, I can still see my ass…it’s still there and I feel it, so what do you mean my glute is not active??

Issues with poor glute activation:

  • Over reliance on hamstrings
  • Less control over internal rotation of legs, leading to knee injuries
  • Increased lower back pain

Glute Activation Exercises

How do you activate your glutes? By including a number of glute strengthening exercises in your workouts. As with every single physical therapy move I share the key is to work these in to your existing running routine. (Pin the image below to remind you to come back to them over and over again!!)

If you include a couple as part of each warm up then you’re consistently activating the glutes, rather than trying to remember to add an entirely new workout to your schedule.

For all of these glute strengthening exercises for runners you can add a resistance band to increase the intensity. The more you incorporate the moves, the more you’ll need to find little changes to continually progress and challenge the glutes.

Clam shells (forward and reverse)
Standard clam shell is laying on your side with knees bent at 90 degress, while keeping your ankles together raise the top knee and you should feel the activation in your hips and glutes.

Additionally, do a reverse clam shell where you keep your knees together and raise the foot!! This is often overlooked, but allows you to hit a different muscle head.

Single Leg Bridge
The single leg bridge is very similar to the cook hip lift. Instead of keeping your knee bent to the chest, you keep the leg as straight as possible while lowering and lifting. Again if you start to notice the work coming from your hamstring, go back to the cook hip lift.

Bulgarian Goat Belly Squats
Standing with the kettlebell pressed in to your core, engaging the entire core, bend from the waist and then quickly power back to vertical. This is a unique, but effective way to force your entire core to work together and fire up the glutes.

Prone Leg Lifts
Lying flat on your stomach, focus on raising first one leg at a time. If the knee bends you are using too much hamstring.

Focus on keeping the leg long and raising 1 leg at a time with toes pointed. You can do 1 leg at a time, move up to both legs or using a resistance band. This increases hip extension, you should contract the core, but never feel tension in the back.

Looking for more resistance band glute exercises? Checkout this post, it dives deeper in to how and why the bands work, plus provides new moves to help you keep progressing.

And just as important is to ensure you’re warm up fires up those glutes, checkout these moves from the pro’s!

Sorry for the initial audio gang, still working through my video equipment! The moves start at 28 seconds.

Additionally, we need to ensure that our hip flexors are not tight because that can deactivate the glutes. Take a look at these stretches and these moves to stabilize your hips, which are also key to getting a hard working ass.

What is your glute?

When we talk about the gluteal area, it’s not just one large muscle, but 3: gluteal medius, maximus and minimus. Working all three is required to keep us running strong. Glute activation exercises are designed to help us engage all parts of the bum, so we can run injury free.glute musclesAs explained by Kelly Bagget, there are 2 main problems that occur with regard to the glutes:

Inhibited Glutes
In this situation the glutes are on permanent shutdown mode. For a variety of reasons, they don’t contract in your daily life when you walk, stand, get up off the pot, or when you move in sport. This situation has probably been overblown in the sports world, but does exist.

Overshadowed Glutes
Here the glutes DO fire correctly, but are not as strong as other lower body muscles (like the quadriceps), thus the body will use other muscles to do what the glutes SHOULD be doing, resulting in inefficient performance and often some type of pain or injury over the long haul.

Whenever you perform a movement such as a squat, lunge, deadlift, jump, sprint, or any exercise that involves several different muscle groups, the majority of work will tend to be done by the strongest of those muscle groups.

Glute Activation Test

Not sure if your glutes are firing or taking a nap?

You can try these two quick glute activation tests to find out what’s firing and what needs some extra work! Of course you’ll always learn more from going to a PT, but these are things you can do at home.

Both of these tests are demonstrated in the video below along with the glute strengthening moves (starting at 28 seconds).

Cook Hip Lift
I feel like this is a good exercise to do in general as it fires all kinds of muscles.

Laying on your back, place both feet on the floor, knees bent. Pull your right knee in to the chest and place a ball between your calf and thigh. Release your hands from the leg, while your foot on the floor is driving the heel in and the toe up off the floor, try to hold for 2 seconds when you raise up.

The ball will force you to focus on the glutes because going too high starts using your back muscles and the ball will fall. DON’T drop the ball, literally.

Are you relying on your hamstrings instead of glutes when running? Find out and fix it! #runchat Click To Tweet

Single Leg Activation
There are a couple of different methods of testing via single leg activation, from squatting to balance.

Runner’s World provides this video explanation…I think it’s a decent way to test, but not as good as one’s that allow you to feel whether your glute or hamstring is activating.
Glute Activation Exercises

 

PS – For anyone who cares it should really be glut, but most of us hear it with an e and thus that’s how we most commonly spell it.

Do you do exercises to counteract your daily sitting?

How often do you focus on the booty?

Other ways to connect with Amanda

Instagram for daily motivation RunToTheFinishRunning_motivation_thumb

Pinterest for more recipes and running RunToTheFinish

Facebook stay up to date with running news RunToTheFinish

Read Next: How to Undo the Effects of Sitting >>>

Checkout the Ultimate IT Band Solution >>

2180shares

Posted by amanda Categories: cross training, Hip Strength, IT Band Recovery, running coach

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Megan @ Skinny Fitalicious says

    September 27, 2016 at 6:10 am

    As soon as I’m allowed to work more on my new hip replacement (which the surgery went awesome by the way), I’ll be working on this. My glutes are definitely weak from years of dealing with avascular necrosis.

  2. Ellie says

    September 27, 2016 at 7:08 am

    I can’t wait to try these today after my bike ride. Thanks Amanda!

  3. Diana Fitts says

    September 27, 2016 at 8:03 am

    Having strong glutes is so important. I once ended up with a calf injury because of my weak backside. All of our leg muscles connect to our glutes in some way and ignoring them can have unforeseen consequences. Now, I make sure that I spend some time working my glutes every week in order to keep my body in tip-top running condition.
    Diana
    betterthanalive.com

  4. Patty @ Reach Your Peak says

    September 27, 2016 at 8:24 am

    omg my PT made me do clam shells yesterday and today i am SO SORE. I can barely walk lol. He’s like yeah clearly those muscles are never firing lol. He even gave me a band to do them on my own.

    • amanda says

      September 27, 2016 at 4:05 pm

      Isn’t it so crazy how a little move can hurt so bad!! I think that’s why I like pilates, ha!

  5. Jess @hellotofit says

    September 27, 2016 at 8:29 am

    These are GREAT!! Love any exercise that targets glutes. We live in a world of weak glutes :P

  6. Laura @ This Runner's Recipes says

    September 27, 2016 at 8:29 am

    Focusing on my glutes is one of the reasons I think I’ve stayed mostly injury-free in my running. These are great exercises – clamshells and bridges are my favorites for glutes!

  7. Jill @ RunEatSnap says

    September 27, 2016 at 11:29 am

    Most of these are exercises my PT was having me do during marathon training to help prevent knee injury. My quads are strong but my hammies are weak and it causes an imbalance.

  8. Susie @ Suzlyfe says

    September 27, 2016 at 11:55 am

    I preach this to every one of my runners and clients. The majority of my issues stem from inactive glutes (damn you flat Chicago)!

  9. Judy @ Chocolaterunsjudy says

    September 27, 2016 at 1:13 pm

    Definitely some new stuff for me in there — looks great!

  10. Jennifer says

    September 27, 2016 at 2:23 pm

    “Relying on hamstrings”….distance runners use their hamstrings more than glutes. It’s an overhyped fallacy that we need strong glutes. If you’re a sprinter, yes. Glutes are activated – if they didn’t, you’d fall down.

    • amanda says

      September 27, 2016 at 4:04 pm

      True, we of course need total strength for our best running. The issue here is really that many runners don’t realize their glutes aren’t firing at all, which leads to lots of hip issues and knee issues because of poor gait.

  11. eri says

    September 27, 2016 at 3:13 pm

    Very much needed exercises! I love all of them! I will definitely be working them out more to feel the burn!

  12. TheDimpledRunner says

    September 27, 2016 at 11:00 pm

    YES!!!! I really needed this and I am so grateful you made it into an easy to follow graphic!!!! THANK YOU!!

  13. Beth says

    September 28, 2016 at 9:12 am

    Such good exercises! My PT says my hips and glutes are weak so I have been working on them as well as my core.

  14. Runwright says

    September 29, 2016 at 2:14 am

    This is such a great post. I am pinning it to come back to because I know I didn’t soak in all the info but I do feel motivated to do some more glute work. As a big-bootied-lady, I’ve never really thought there might be lazy muscle back there. Thanks for the motivation.

  15. Mary says

    September 29, 2016 at 11:37 pm

    Ah the infamous inhibited glutes. I worked so hard on my glutes (and core in general) all year, then had a back injury that shut those glutes right down. Still working on reactivating them with a PT. I’ve done most of those exercises (have done so many clamshells) but have never heard of the Bulgarian goat squat, what a great name! Looks like one that would be out for me for now (forward bending). Nice work on the graphic!

  16. Ashley @ Balancedbabe says

    September 30, 2016 at 11:17 am

    These are great tips! Thanks!

  17. Ashley @ A Lady Goes West says

    October 2, 2016 at 10:02 am

    Such an important topic! Bridges and clam shells were always my go-to when training clients and trying to get them to activate. Thanks for this one, Amanda! :)

  18. Dana Eden says

    October 5, 2016 at 10:23 pm

    A big thank you for explaining LAZY GLUTES! I realised my glute muscles were not firing after MANY YEARS of running, weight training and exercising. I do have SUPER TIGHT hip flexors and although I have been doing your strengthening exercises, you reminded me the importance of STRETCHING my Hip Flexors. Thanks again. I am on MISSION GLUTES for the next 6 months

Primary Sidebar

Filter by Category
  • Select a Category
  • 10 miler
  • 10K
  • 13.1 marathon series
  • 15K
  • 30 Day Challenge
  • 5k
  • About ME
  • Abs
  • Active Travel
  • alaska
  • Amanda Brooks
  • Arizona
  • Asics
  • Austin
  • Baltimore
  • barefoot running
  • beauty
  • Biking
  • birthday
  • bloggers
  • blogging tips
  • body fat
  • body image
  • body weight exercises
  • book reviews
  • Boston Marathon
  • breakfast
  • California
  • Camping
  • Canada
  • Caribbean
  • chicago
  • ChiRunning
  • Clean Eating
  • cold weather training
  • colorado
  • compression
  • Costa Rica
  • Crockpot
  • cross training
  • CrossFit
  • dairy free
  • dessert
  • egg free
  • electrolytes
  • emotional health
  • Europe
  • family
  • Fit Together
  • fitness gear
  • Fitness Tracker
  • fitness vacation
  • florida
  • foam roller
  • food sensitivity
  • Fort Lauderdale
  • France
  • Funny Running
  • Gift Guide
  • Gluten Free
  • GPS Watch
  • Green Smoothie
  • Guides and Tips
  • habits
  • Half Marathon
  • Hawaii
  • HBBC
  • health coach
  • healthy eating
  • Healthy Home
  • Healthy lifestyle
  • Heart Rate Training
  • HIIT workout
  • hiking
  • hiking
  • Hip Strength
  • Hoka One One
  • Holistic Health
  • Hormones
  • hydration
  • Iceland
  • injury
  • inspiration
  • instagram
  • Ireland
  • IT Band
  • IT Band Recovery
  • Jerusalem
  • key west
  • knee injury
  • Kona
  • Love
  • low heart rate training
  • Maffetone
  • main dish
  • Marathon
  • marathon training
  • marriage
  • meal planning
  • Meditation
  • Memphis
  • mental marathon training
  • Mexico
  • Miami
  • Motivation
  • New York City
  • New York City Marathon
  • New York City Marathon Training
  • NYC marathon
  • Oregon
  • Orlando
  • Palm Beach
  • Philadelphia Marathon
  • physical therapy
  • podcasts
  • Prague
  • Product Review
  • Race
  • race costume
  • race medal
  • race photo
  • race report
  • Ragnar
  • Recipe
  • recovery
  • recovery meal
  • relaxation
  • relay race
  • resolution run
  • review
  • Rock N Roll
  • run club
  • Runner's World
  • running accessories
  • running books
  • running coach
  • running form
  • running fuel
  • running gear
  • Running Group
  • running motivation
  • running music
  • Running Shoes
  • safety
  • salads
  • san diego
  • Saucony
  • Seattle
  • skin care
  • Soup
  • South Beach
  • South Carolina
  • South Florida
  • speed work
  • sports nutrition
  • Stand Up Paddle Boarding
  • Steamboat Springs
  • Strength Training
  • stretching
  • sugar reduction
  • Thanksgiving
  • trail running
  • Training Group
  • training plan
  • travel
  • travel running
  • treadmill
  • treadmill workout
  • triathlon
  • ultrarunning
  • vegan
  • Vegas
  • vegatarian
  • vegetable
  • virtual run
  • wedding
  • weight loss
  • winter
  • women's running
  • workout
  • workout motivation
  • workout schedule
  • Yoga

5 Secrets to Improve Your RUn

Start Making Quick Progress on Your Goals (I swear it's easy) no matter your current fitness level. The tips I share with the runners I coach.

Recent Posts

  • What to Eat Before a Run | Best Pre Workout Snacks
  • Budget Friendly Workout Gear |That Fits and Works
  • Running Twice a Day | Pros and Cons
  • 30 Day Core Challenge | Abs, Glutes and Hips
  • Running Gait Analysis | Is it Valuable and How to Use it?

Must Have Gear

Comparing GPS Watches

Best HR Monitor for Running

Best Foam Rollers

Best Running Books

Running Jackets for Every Condition

fitness partners

Please note that affiliate links {such as Amazon} may pop up on RTTF from time to time. They do not cost you anything to use, but are a huge help to support the ongoing content creation process. Click here to do your shopping!

Welcome!!

Hello runners! I’m Amanda Brooks, a certified personal trainer and running coach. I’ve been coaching over a decade and distance running since 2002. My philosophy is that running isn’t about your pace or the distance or your body. It’s about showing up for yourself, loving the process and doing it injury free!

 

online running coach

Footer

Get the Free 5 Day Better Runner Challenge

Start Making Quick Progress on Your Goals (I swear it's easy)

About Amanda Brooks

Amanda Brooks is a Certified Running Coach, Certified Personal Trainer and long time distance runner with a passion for every facet of running, which leads her to do more reading, research and running than necessary. Find all the tips, tricks and tools you need from this running coach for your best injury free running. Read More…

Popular Posts on RunToTheFinish

  • Piriformis Syndrome Exercises: Alleviating a Pain in the Butt
  • 17 Funniest Running Memes – Which One’s Do You Relate To?
  • Why Your Workout is Causing Weight Gain
  • Best Virtual Races and 11 Reasons You Need to Do One
  • T25, P90X3, PiYo – Can it Improve Your Running? Complete Comparison

runtothefinish

Amanda Brooks : Run Coach
SHARE THE ONE that resonates most with you. 🏃‍♀️🏃🏾🏃🏽‍♂️
 
It’s true, I’ll never stop talking about the warm up 😂. But right now the idea that running is HOPEFUL really strikes a chord.💜
 
We show up mile after mile always looking to what’s ahead and what’s possible.
 
Which one hits home for you?
.
.
.
#runningmotivation #runninginspiration #medalmonday #fitnessmemes #runningmemes #runningquotes #runnerslife #runnerlife
AVOID HITTING THE WALL (save this and review befor AVOID HITTING THE WALL (save this and review before races) -AKA  Bonking. UK friends giggle at that, but it’s a term just like fartlek.
.
It’s that painful moment when your mind tells your legs to stop and it feels like there’s nothing you can do to turn the tides. It leaves emotional scars!🥵
 
WHAT TO DO!
1️⃣Train differently - seems obvious, but consistent training that follows a plan which progressively and smartly builds your miles and strength and speed...ya it works.
 
2️⃣Fuel, fuel, fuel - force yourself to eat before races and long runs even if not hungry.
.
Starting fueling sooner than you think you need to and keep doing it. During races your body is running on more carbs and needs that steady flow of energy. 
.
🧠 Your brain functions on CARBS, stop depriving it or it will tell you to stop running. If food while running is an issue for you, checkout something like @genucan.
 
3️⃣Pacing - Stop going out too fast because you’re excited, it absolutely catches up to you. Ideal is even pacing start to finish.
 
4️⃣Pay attention to your brain. @fitzgerald.matt in How Bad Do You Want it does a great job of showing how the brain can limit performance if you don’t know what’s happening up there.
 
5️⃣Recover better - Stop over training and give your body tools to help it destress from all the work...the best one is SLEEP. I also love @resiliencecbd to help with nerves prior to a race and quality sleep during training.
 
❓❓Helpful?? Have more race day questions?? Or an epic story of hitting the wall?? I wanna know.❓❓
.
.
.
Thanks to @moxie82co for capturing this weird moment, it worked great for this post.
HIT THOSE HIPS!!! I’ve given you a couple hip mo HIT THOSE HIPS!!! I’ve given you a couple hip mobility workouts, now we add strength!
//
🥳For the next 30 days in the Virtual Run Club we’ll be going hard on all the pre-hab work for hips, glutes and abs. Because running isn’t just about the miles.
//
That’s one of the reasons I’ve been consistently doing @insidetracker bloodwork since 2015.
.
It’s helped me identify low Vitamin D causing fatigue or catch my wayyy high cortisol to embrace easy runs as key part of the process.
📌 (Save this post because the last screen has a 25% off discount code and you can get free access to the 30 Day March Challenge.)
👉LINK IN BIO FOR BOTH
✅✅✅✅
3 CORE MOVES
|||
You can use these as a progression or do all three, they’ll target the hips, glutes and core in different ways with each variation.
 
Aim for 15 reps prior to a run or do multiple rounds as part of a workout!
 
1️⃣Side Plank Kneeling Hip Raise - Really focus on your core engaging to raise up and keeping your elbow under your shoulder.
 
2️⃣Side Plank Kneeling Leg Raise - Again core should be tight to keep hips lifted, not sagging towards the ground. Then focus on your hip and glute to raise the top leg.
 
3️⃣Straight Leg Side Plank Leg Raise - Engage the core to keep hips high and press the bottom foot in to the ground to really engage your glutes. Slow and steady to remain stable while raising and lowering top leg.
❓❓❓❓
Talk to me!!!
Who’s in for 10 min a day in March?
Who’s gotten blood work to improve their health?
Who’s excited it’s almost spring?
👉👉Me to all 3! And more info in stories!
 
 
 
#runtothefinish #insidetrackerpartner
RUN DAYS ARE THE BEST DAYS😊 I had training tips RUN DAYS ARE THE BEST DAYS😊 I had training tips planned to share today, but really just wanted to say I hope you get in some miles today and they make you smile.
 
Let go of the pace.
Let go of the distance.
Let go of HR for a day.
Just run.
We GET to.
 
Where in the world are you running today?
.
I’ll be embracing one warm day before snow here in Boulder, CO.
EMOJI POLL: Round or no? ⏰ give me whole numbers EMOJI POLL: Round or no?
⏰ give me whole numbers
👍wherever I stop, it stops
🙃I don’t use no stinking watch
||
THAT’S A LIE 😂. I can’t do it. I need the round number and when I get that close to a whole number...I need it!
Follow on Instagram
Website written, managed and maintained by Amanda Brooks, a certified running coach and personal trainer. Any advice should be taken as general information and not a personalized plan. All opinions, tips and reviews are based upon her personal life experience and the experiences of those she has coached. View our full privacy and review policy.

Copyright © 2021 RunToTheFinish

Copyright © 2021 · RunToTheFinish V2 on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in