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The Weakest Muscle in Your Lower Body (Your Glute Medius)

The Weakest Muscle in Your Lower Body (Your Glute Medius)

by | Dec 1, 2024 | Blog, Butt, Exercises, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief, Runner's

Stop ignoring this muscle…

The Glute Medius.

The thing is…we THINK we’re doing a ton of exercises to work this muscle and target it at times.

But all too often we’re doing the “right” moves and compensating because of previous injuries and tight hip flexors from sitting for most of the day.

We’re letting our TFL, a hip flexor, or our piriformis, a butt muscle that turns the hip out and open, take over for the glute medius.

And this not only doesn’t help us build stronger glutes, but perpetuates the aches and pains and injuries FURTHER.

So all of that hard work we’re putting in to correct the problem is actually making it worse.

That’s why I want to break down how to actually make sure your glute medius is working and form tweaks to 2 basic glute medius moves I see people doing all of the time and not truly benefiting from.

I’ll also share a few bonus prehab tips to help you get more out of your glute activation exercises in general!

But first, I need to mention the most important part of activating the correct muscles during movements…

Not just going through the motions with exercises!

You need to actually ask yourself as you do the moves, “Where and what do I feel working?”

This mind-body connection is key. And starting out it may be more of a challenge.

You may not feel anything working when you think about it.

The key is learning to notice when other muscles are taking over.

Which is why I want to help you understand how to know your glute medius is truly working…

This starts with understanding where you DON’T want to feel the move.

And you don’t want to feel this move in your TFL, piriformis or down your IT band. Now if you have no idea where these things are, don’t worry, I’m about to break all of this down!

Let’s start with the TFL…

It is key to note that the TFL, or tensor fascia latae if you want to be all fancy, IS an abductor muscle like the glute medius so IS going to work with lateral raise movements too. It helps raise your leg out to the side and stabilize lateral movement.

But too often it is becoming overworked leading to hip, back, IT band and even knee and ankle issues because we aren’t aware it is taking over for the glute medius.

To feel where your TFL is so you can notice when it is working, put your hand on the front top of your pelvis down your leg as you’re lying on your side.

Rotate your toe down toward the ground, turning your leg all the way up toward your hip.

You’ll feel the TFL flex as you do this movement. That’s where you then DON’T want to feel the main part of any lateral raise type movements you do if you want to target your glute medius.

Next the piriformis…

Now this muscle will assist more with external rotation type exercises, so moves where you’re lifting your leg out to the side but also rotating your hip open or turning your toe out.

To notice your piriformis working instead, you will want to lie on your side and put your hand were the top of your back pocket on your pants would be. Then turn your toe open toward the ceiling, externally rotating your hip. You’ll feel that piriformis muscle flex.

Again you don’t want to feel this taking over during those glute medius lateral raise, abduction movements.

And the last area I want to mention is the IT Band as often we can feel tension down the side of our thigh during these movements as we start to progress them.

Part of this is because of the TFL’s connection to our IT Band and that becoming overworked.

But also because we aren’t focusing on the lift coming from our glute.

If you feel tension down the outside of your leg, you will want to then check to feel if your TFL is really flexed during the exercise especially or if you feel your glute medius working.

Now…I want to help you find your glute medius so you can check to feel it working in moves when you can’t yet just feel it activating with that mind-body connection yet.

Then I want to dive into the 2 moves and form tweaks you can make to help you make sure this muscle is powering the movement.

To find your glute medius so you can place your hand on this muscle even during moves to feel it working and build that mind-body connection, set up half kneeling with one leg forward and your knee bent to 90 degrees.

You want your knee right over your ankle.

Take your hand on the same side and place your thumb in your hip crease with your palm resting fat at the outer hip joint.

Your palm is resting on your glute medius.

Keeping your palm there, lie on your side and lift your leg straight up to the side.

You “should” feel it working.

But if you don’t, this is where the tweaks to form with basic moves is key!

Because form with exercises isn’t so binary and just good or bad.

There are tweaks we can make to work with our builds and our recruitment patterns, or how we’ve taught our body to use muscles based on daily movements and injuries.

Since we used the basic lateral raise to find these muscles, I want to start with this move and the adjustments you can make to this exercise to really make sure you feel your glute medius working!

The Basic Lateral Raise:

The lateral raise exercise can be done standing or lying down and you can use a variety of tools, including mini bands to progress it.

But before you advance it, you want to be able to really activate your glute medius with just your own bodyweight.

You have to EARN the addition of resistance, or even a bigger range of motion. And you earn that by being able to engage a muscle with just your own bodyweight.

If you struggle doing the lateral raise with feeling those other areas we went over and not your glute medius, the first change to the move you may want to make is your hip rotation, which often we can see in our TOE ANGLE.

Is your toe and foot pointing straight ahead? Turned open? Or down toward the ground?

If you’re struggling to feel your glute medius, you may find it isn’t turned down toward the ground and that internally rotating your hip and turning your toe down toward the ground actually HELPS.

While having your foot parallel to the ground and toe pointing forward isn’t wrong in the slightest nor is turning your toe open, often those make it harder for us to avoid compensating to start.

If you turn your toe down and still don’t feel your glute, notice your body alignment.

Are your hips slightly flexed? Is your torso slightly forward or legs slightly in front creating a slight bend in your hips?

If so, straighten out and squeeze your glutes to drive your hips into extension. Do not arch your back. Just extend your hips with your glutes.

This engagement of your glute max can help.

You can also then slightly kick back as you raise your leg out to the side.

This also focuses the move more on your glutes to help prevent the TFL, which flexes the hips, from engaging.

Kicking back into a wall even and holding that pressure as you raise can even help further if the basic kickback isn’t enough.

Just to recap the tweaks…

Turn the toe down toward the ground, rotating your hip toward the ground. Keep this position during the move. If you’re standing, you’re turning your toe in toward your other leg.

Make sure your lying in a straight line with your glutes engaged.

Kick back slightly as you lift even pushing into a wall through the entire move.

The next move I wanted to cover is The Clamshell.

This is a move that anyone with back pain, hip pain, knee pain, ankle pain has probably been given in physical therapy.

And it is an amazing move, when done correctly.

But so often this move isn’t done while targeting the glute medius and we don’t even realize it.

With the clam, we tend to focus on range of motion and making it a bigger movement, which really is just more external rotation of the hip and often leads to us feeling the piriformis more.

To stop us focusing so much on the range of motion, place a yoga blocks between your feet. This helps you really focus on lifting from your glutes and makes the move very small.

Sometimes shrinking the range of motion on an exercise to start can help.

Because, while we do want to strengthen muscles through a full range of motion, we first need to isolate to activate at times.

So using the yoga block you can focus on just that small movement to lift the knee open.

This also helps you avoid any toe rotation and therefore extra hip rotation. This keeps your feet locked in parallel.

But if you don’t have a block, just like with the lateral raise, even turning your toe down over your bottom foot can help you focus on that glute medius and restrict the range of motion of the clam too!

You can also put your back against a wall to help you avoid rotating open or swinging your leg if you don’t have a yoga block while almost seeing the exercise as you working to STOP the lift open.

And just like the lateral raise, we also want to pay attention to the amount of hip flexion we have during the exercise or how much our hips are bent.

The more out in front of you your knees are, the more your hips will be bent, which can make it harder to feel your glute medius and easier for your TFL to compensate.

And while you may adjust the degree of hip flexion to target different aspects of the glute medius eventually, to start you want to find the positioning that allows you to make sure your glute is working.

Keeping your hips more extended can help and the wall behind you can be a guide to set up.

To recap these tweaks quickly…

Use a yoga block or wall to help you avoid making the exercise movement bigger than it needs to be and focus on that glute lifting.

Adjust how bent your hips are to even extend your hips more and engage your glutes better.

Turn your top toe down over your bottom foot to help limit the range of motion and focus on that glute even stopping the lifting through engaging.

Then as you feel your glute medius working in both of these moves, you can add resistance.

A mini band placed often on the thighs is a great way to start.

Placing a light resistance closer to our hips helps us really focus on still feeling our glute medius working as we create more of a challenge for the muscle to strengthen it!

Now if you’re still struggling with feeling everything but your glute medius working right from the start, you should NOT add resistance.

And you want to make sure you’re doing that full prehab process, including foam rolling and stretching prior to these activation moves.

Foam roll your TFL and your piriformis to help relax and release those muscles.
Stretch your hip flexors to allow your glutes to engage better.

THEN do these activation moves.

And don’t be afraid to pause in your activation to use those foam rolling moves especially if you do feel something compensating.

But don’t just keep pushing through!

Because what you feel working is getting all of the benefit of the exercise. Make sure the muscles you want are truly being worked!

If you want to improve your hip stability, avoid knee, hip and lower back aches and pains, lift more, run faster and cycle further, stop ignoring the importance of making sure your glute medius is actually benefiting from all the exercises you are doing!

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How Strong Is Your Mind Muscle Connection? (Take This Test)

How Strong Is Your Mind Muscle Connection? (Take This Test)

by | Dec 10, 2023 | Blog, Exercises, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief

How aware of your body are you?

Do you think you have an amazing mind-body connection?

Well…here’s a test to find out!

I mention this because too often we’re doing the right moves yet not seeing the results we want.

And it’s because we’re going through the motions with our training, mimicking proper form.

But proper form doesn’t guarantee proper recruitment patterns.

Aka just because a move looks pretty doesn’t mean we’re using the right muscles or seeking out mobility from the correct joints.

And the more advanced an exerciser you are, the more you can easily cheat and compensate.

But this can lead to overload and injury and you not seeing the results of your training you want.

That’s why in this video, I want to take you through a quick test to assess your mind-body connection.

And I want to do this test for an area many of us actually struggle to activate correctly…

OUR GLUTES!

To do this test, you’ll just be performing what seems like an oh so simple move and is an essential basic…

The Bodyweight Glute Bridge.

To do this glute bridge assessment…

I recommend setting up your phone camera to film yourself from the side and even from the knees up on a second round through. 

This external feedback can then help you adjust form if you need to tweak things to get the correct muscles working.

As you perform this move, you are going to ask yourself 4 key questions at different points of the move to assess different muscles and even imbalances between both sides. 

If you have the camera running, you can verbally answer.

Otherwise you may want a piece of paper next to you to make notes on! 

Then set up as you normally would for the glute bridge.

I like to have clients place their feet flat on the ground at a comfortable distance from their glutes and bend their elbows to drive their upper arms down into the ground. 

Then you want to bridge up.

Pausing at the top of the bridge, ask yourself…What do I feel working the most? 

Lower Back – Yes or No?

Glutes – Yes or No?

Hamstrings – Yes or No?

Quads – Yes or No?

Relax back down.

Repeat the move a couple more times pausing to assess. Then record what you felt.

Then next, AS you bridge up, ask yourself…

What do I feel working FIRST?

Is it your hamstrings, glutes, quads or lower back? 

Write down which muscle you feel engage FIRST.

Next, as you repeat the bridge, assess both on the way up AND as you pause for a second or two at the top, to ask yourself…

Do I feel one side working more?

Yes or No?

And if yes, which side?

Even make note of whether or not you just feel one side MORE or if you ONLY feel one side truly engaging.

The final assessment you want to do, is focusing on WHERE you truly feel your lower back, glutes or hamstrings working especially.

Do you feel the top of your butt under your SI joint working?

Yes or No?

Do you feel in the meat of your glute working?

Yes or No?

Do you feel right under your butt working?

Yes or No?

Or do you feel the middle of your hamstring working?

Yes or No?

Make a note, yes or no for each.

Now let’s break down what this information helps you understand about your glute engagement…

This may come as no surprise, but what you should have felt driving this movement is your GLUTES.

However, many of us do feel our lower back or hamstrings working and even taking over for our glutes during this move. 

We even sometimes feel our quads trying to engage although we can also feel them stretching as the glute bridge IS a hip flexor stretch. 

But often we don’t fully realize what is driving the movement when we get caught up only trying to focus on form.

We even simply think, “Oh my lower back is just weak and needs to get stronger.”

But really this shows that other moves are taking over when our glutes should be engaging.

This means we need to address our mind-body connection.

So if you found your lower back, quads or hamstrings compensating, I want to share some tweaks to your glute bridge form you may want to consider. 

Especially if you felt under your butt or your hamstrings working, this can mean your hamstrings are synergistically dominant.

Yes…under your butt is often that hamstring origin area becoming overworked.

And sometimes it is us not realizing that it is NOT our glutes but actually our hamstrings working right there that can lead to hamstring tendinopathy or tendinitis. 

Not to mention our hamstrings constantly being overworked is why they perpetually feeling tight no matter how much we stretch.

And when they are constantly overworked this can lead to knee pain, hamstrings strains and pulls and even perpetuate your lower back issues. 

So making sure the correct muscles are working during a fundamental more focused movement is key so we can lift more and run faster and avoid injuries with more complex movement patterns.

I will also share some tips as well if you found that you had an imbalance between both sides. Sometimes this can mean we feel only one side working or that we feel our glute on one side but actually our hamstring on the other!

But first, how can you adjust your form if you don’t feel your glutes working like they should?

Here are 5 quick tips…

#1: Focus on maintaining that posterior pelvic tilt from the start and don’t get caught up in bridging higher.

This can help you make sure you’re using your abs to protect your lower back AND the posterior pelvic tilt engages the glute max.

Also, often in an attempt to bridge up higher, we arch our back at the top over extending our hips further, which overloads our lower back and can engage our hamstrings.

#2: Drive your knees toward your toes.

Focus on pressing through your entire foot and as you bridge up driving your upper arms into the ground, don’t push yourself backward.

Focus on driving those knees forward to help you avoid overusing your hamstrings.

This can even help if you tend to feel your quads working too.

#3: Focus on STOPPING the lift with your glutes.

So often in trying to work through a full range of motion, we stop engaging muscles to power the move.

Instead of trying to get a bigger movement, try and really squeeze your glutes hard to prevent yourself from being able to lift any higher. This focus on that activation of the glutes will make sure you’re driving true hip extension while avoiding anything else compensating!

#4: Pause and adjust.

At the top of the bridge, pause and then try little adjustments. If you move your feet in closer to your butt does that help? Or does moving them further away help you engage your glutes better? 

While technically moving our heels further away toward a straight leg glute bridge engages more hamstrings, you may find, due to hip tightness that having your heels in too close to your butt engages the hamstrings more or makes you arch your back or even feel your quads.

So as you hold at the top, assess what you feel working and play around with even your posterior pelvic tilt or trying to engage each side. 

Even put a hand on your glutes to try and give that tactile cue to feel them working to make that mind-body connection! 

That can allow us to get the positioning we need!

#5: Try other bridge variations.

Sometimes we need to first adjust the variation we use to recruit the correct muscles. Slight changes to our posture and positioning can really impact things and even tools can provide an extra stimulus to improve our mind-body connection.

Even doing a move we feel working our glutes correctly prior to the one we struggle with can help us established the mind-body connection in that second move.

Two great variations to try if you’re struggling to engage your glutes can be the frog bridge as the external hip rotation can often help. 

Or the mini band glute bridge. Pushing out on the band can help engage our glute medius which can help us better engage our glute max. 

The band can also sometimes help if you struggle to get both sides working together!

Now To Address An Imbalance Between Sides… 

I do want to note we will NEVER be perfectly evenly BUT we do want to note when one side isn’t pulling it’s weight.

When we have an imbalance this can lead to our stronger side taking over during other moves. This can lead to injury on that dominant side.

It can also mean that we risk injury on our weaker side if it is fighting to keep up. 

So we want to address imbalances as much as possible and be conscious of them.

This is where unilateral glute activation may be key. 

You may consider extra work for that weaker side, even swapping in something like the single leg reverse hyper to get that glute working. 

Or you may use something like the 80/20 glute bridge to help you focus on each side more independently. 

We have to recognize how challenging the full unilateral or single leg glute bridge is, which is why I recommend the 80/20 version instead.

If you can’t control the two-leg bodyweight bridge, there is a good chance your weaker side will continue to struggle with a full single leg variation.

But modify the move or even add in unilateral work to make sure you aren’t feeling other muscles take over for that weaker glute!

Bonus Tip:

And a final bonus tip, which can be helpful whether you’re addressing an imbalance or even just your hamstrings, lower back or quads engaging when they shouldn’t…

Foam Roll those overactive muscles PRIOR! 

The impact of foam rolling is short-lived, but by rolling that muscle that wants to compensate before you then do the exercise, you can help interrupt that mind-body connection so you can better engage the proper muscles.

Especially if you feel only the hamstring on one side, trying rolling that muscle prior to the glute bridge to relax it to make it easier to establish that mind-body connection to your glutes!

Just remember, changes to our mind-body connection and recruitment patterns won’t happen overnight.

Our mind and body will want to default back into patterns we’ve created over time that now feel natural.

But if we don’t work to address them in fundamental moves like this, we put ourselves at greater risk for injury when we lift heavy, run or cycle.

Not to mention we may not be seeing the improvements in our other training that we want because we aren’t using muscles as efficiently to power our training!

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4 Tips To Fix TIGHT Hamstrings (Stop JUST Stretching!)

4 Tips To Fix TIGHT Hamstrings (Stop JUST Stretching!)

by | May 23, 2023 | Blog, Exercises, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief, Stretches

Can’t touch your toes?

Hamstrings always feel tight?

STRETCHING Alone isn’t the answer!

In this video I want to share why stretching your hamstrings more may actually be perpetuating the issues and what you should be doing instead.

Now I’m not saying stretching is bad, BUT just because a muscle feels tight doesn’t mean that stretching is the answer.

In the case of our hamstrings, we have to understand why they are tight to realize why stretching is often making matters worse.

Our hamstrings can often become tight because they are actually already OVERSTRETCHED or even compensating for weak or underactive glutes.

This often happens because our hip flexors become tight and overactive or even our ankle mobility is lacking.

This shortening of our hip flexors can lead to excessive anterior pelvic tilt or a change in our posture that can lead to our hamstrings becoming overstretched.

And with this change in our posture, often our glutes don’t function as they should.

So then when we stretch our hamstrings, we may get temporary relief but we aren’t actually addressing the problem.

So what should you do instead?

These 4 steps can help us improve our hamstring flexibility by actually addressing the true mobility and stability issues!

First…Foam Roll Your Hamstrings.

If you always feel your hamstrings during any glute exercises they may be synergistically dominant and working instead of letting your glutes be the prime mover. 

Part of this happens because of our mind-body connection. We have that recruitment pattern ingrained which means our mind asks our hamstrings to work FIRST over using our glutes the way we should.

By first foam rolling your hamstrings, you can relax this muscle to better allow yourself to recruit your glutes. This is a great way to release the muscle WITHOUT stretching.

To roll out your hamstrings a ball on a bench works best. 

Sit on the ball with it under the back of your leg. Find a tight spot anywhere down your hamstring and hold on it. Lift your leg out in front of you to tense and relax the muscle.

Do this about 5 times and move to another spot. Focus on a few different tight areas before switching sides.

If you’re doing this for the first time, it’s not bad to roll along under your butt and then down toward your knee, even moving from the outside of your leg toward your inner thigh to find what’s tight for you!

Next…Stretch Your Hip Flexors And Ankles.

Part of that perpetual hamstring tightness might be a lack of mobility at our hips or ankles. 

This immobility leads to improper posture in everyday life, making our hamstrings feel like they’re constantly tight. 

That’s why you want to include this side lying hip and quad stretch in your routine to stretch out those tight hip flexors as well as the bear squat to foot stretch to improve your ankle and foot mobility. 

This can help you avoid your hamstrings being strained or overworked while being able to be better get those glutes engaged.

While you can do the side lying hip and quad stretch standing, the side lying variation is great if you have balance issues or can’t focus on that true hip extension while standing.

As you pull your heel back toward your butt, sqeeuze your glute to truly extend your hip. The knee flexion and hip extension will stretch out those hip flexors.

If you can’t reach your foot, you can loop a towel around your ankle to pull your heel back with that.

Relax out and repeat that same movement. Really focus on engaging the glute to truly extend that hip and stretch those hip flexors.

If you feel your hamstring cramp as you bring your heel back in, conscious relax your foot over allowing your ankle to flex. And focus on that glute!

With the bear squat with foot stretch, you’ll work to improve your ankle mobility as well as your foot mobility.

With this stretch, start on your hands and knees then sit back on your heels. You can rock side to side sitting back. Then place your hands back down on the ground and lift your butt up toward the ceiling as you drive your heels down toward the ground.

You can pedal your feet or hold for a second then lower down and sit back.

If you can’t sit back on your heels without pain, or have knee pain kneeling down, you can do a great ankle mobility movement, placing the ball of your foot on a plate weight or dumbbell and then driving your knee forward while keeping your heel down.

This move is best done without shoes on if you can but will then be more intense on your toes.

Now let’s address your glutes.

Focused glute activation moves like the glute bridge will not only stretch out your hip flexors but they’ll improve your hip stability through strengthening and activating your glutes. 

Strong glutes mean you won’t be relying on those hamstrings as much so they don’t just keep feeling tight from being overworked!

The one thing you have to be conscious of though is WHAT DO YOU FEEL WORKING?!

If you let your hamstrings compensate while doing the right moves, you’ll perpetuate your hamstring issues and they will keep feeling tight. 

In order for the glute activation work to pay off, you have to feel your glutes working as that prime mover.

If you struggle with even that bodyweight glute bridge, try the frog bridge instead. That external hip rotation can be helpful. Or you can use a mini band to even help engage that glute medius more which will help the glute max fire better. 

Just make sure you aren’t arching your back or pushing yourself backward as you do the move. 

Focus on a slight posterior pelvic tilt and only bridging up as high as you can control using your glutes! 

For more tips to help you really use the glute bridge to improve your hamstring flexibility by improving your glute activation, CLICK HERE.

Using these key moves you can improve your hamstring flexibility and see those results truly last.

Stop wasting time stretching and address the true mobility and stability issues that are going on!

8 Glute Activation Exercises (Improve Hip Stability)

8 Glute Activation Exercises (Improve Hip Stability)

by | Jun 12, 2022 | Blog, Butt, Core, Exercises, Push Ups

If you want to help prevent lower back, hip or knee pain and improve your lifting, running and riding, you need to include glute activation in your workout routine.

Glute activation exercises are movement generally done with little to no weight and for higher reps (15-25). They are isolation exercises meant to really target the glutes so you can feel them working before you even go into your compound exercises.

And you want to use these moves to strengthen all of actions the glute muscles perform – from abduction to extension to external rotation and even hip hyperextension.

That’s why I wanted to share 8 glute activation moves you can do with minimal equipment in a wide range of postures and positions. These moves will help you truly build functional strong glutes to improve your hip stability!

(Video demoing all moves below this 👇)

1: 3-Way Standing Hip Circles

Everything is connected. If you want better glute engagement, you can’t ignore your feet and ankles. And if you want better balance and foot and ankle stability, you can’t ignore your glutes!

That’s why standing moves like the 3-Way Standing Hip Circles are so key to include. They work on improving your balance while activating your glutes.

And with this move, you’ll activate your glute max with the hip extension kicking back, your glute medius with the abduction or knee raised out to the side and even your abs with the knee tuck in and forward.

Make sure to move slowly as you cycle through those moves while focusing on your other foot’s connection to the ground.

And do not lean or rock away to increase the range of motion. Focus on those glutes really working to lift the leg and your abs working to pull the knee in!

2: Hip Airplanes

When working on glute activation, we want to address all joint actions this muscle group contributes to, which is why I love to use Hip Airplanes.

This standing glute move will improve that balance and hip stability while helping you learn to engage the glutes to stabilize as you work through internal and external rotation – targeting all three gluteal muscles (the maximus, medius and minimus)

While you can do this move without your hands on a chair or box, I like to add in that little stabilizing element to start so you can work through a full range of motion.

Really focus on rotating from the hip, feeling your glute work over just allowing your spine to twist. You will not get the full benefit if you don’t focus on that rotation going from your head to your raise foot.

You want to rotate open from your standing leg fully, then rotate back closed toward that standing leg, even dropping the hip of the raised leg toward the ground.

Make sure as you do rotate, your standing foot is firmly pressed fully into the ground and you do not rock out on your foot.

If you have Piriformis issues, be careful with this movement, especially the external rotation.

3: Mini Band Pulse Squats

Many of us have heard the phrase “Squat for a better butt.”

But squats, especially weighted squats, partly because they are a compound movement, really aren’t that great for glute activation. You’re definitely going to feel those quads and adductors even as well.

However, how much we target and activate a muscle is also based on the range of motion and equipment we use with that movement.

By changing the full squat to a pulse squat while adding a band, we can make the squat an amazing glute focused movement that creates metabolic stress so you really feel that pump in those glutes to establish that mind-body connection.

When you do this move, you can add loads, but start with the mini band right below or above your knees. You want the band just above or below your knees to use it to help you really focus on pressing out to activate your glute medius. This will improve your hip stability and actually better activate your glute max as well.

You then want to make sure you’re sitting back as you pulse right around parallel while sitting in that squat. Stay controlled and make sure you’re heels are firmly pressed down into the ground without rocking back.

To modify you can do this move holding on to a suspension trainer or even hovering over a bench!

4: Bench 2-Way Leg Raises

Often with glute activation, we think we have to get down on the ground to do it. And while quadruped moves are an amazing way to target and activate those glutes, you can easily modify all of those movements off a bench if you need extra padding on your knees or simple don’t want to get down on the ground.

And the added bonus of using a bench is that you can even increase the range of motion you work through on many moves because your knee is raised off the ground.

That’s why I love Bench 2-Way Leg Raises. You can work your glutes through both hip extension and abduction and a larger range of motion.

When you do this move, make sure not to bend your arms or lean away. You want to even feel the glute medius or side butt on that leg that is down stabilizing your body as you lift the other leg to work.

Focus on even almost trying to stop the movement with your glute instead of just swinging the leg up higher. Focus on feeling that glute on that kickback stop the leg at about parallel to the ground. Do not arch your lower back to kick up higher. And really feel the side of your butt on that lateral raise. Do not rotate your toe open toward the ceiling as you raise.

To add a bit of progression to this movement, you can even wear ankle weights. But focus more on that mind-body connection over adding loads!

5: Lying Jacks

Often when we include abduction movements or lateral raise movements to work our glute medius, we are standing or seated. But by doing this abduction movement lying down, we can work our glutes while in hip hyperextension even.

We have to remember that by changing the degree of hip flexion involved in the abduction movement we can target different portions of the glute medius, addressing more anterior or posterior fibers!

We will also work our glute max to maintain the reverse hyper position.

When you do this move, you want to focus on pressing out against the band while not just rotating your toes out and open.

You also want to think about your glutes holding your legs up as you press your hips down. Be very conscious you aren’t feeling your lower back compensate to raise your legs up higher!

If you feel your lower back taking over, try a Y Reverse Hyper instead of holding the position as you perform the abduction.

6: Side Plank Clams

Planks are a great core move that you can use to also target your glutes, side planks especially. And often the side plank with leg raise is the one you see being used.

But that move is not only far more advanced than we give it credit for, it also often will lead to fatigue of the muscle over simply helping us prep the muscle for more work.

That’s why I like the side plank clam variation. It can also include more external rotation or be a straight abduction move based on your foot positioning.

However, like the basic clam it is also often misused. Make sure you don’t let your TFL compensate by turning your top toe down toward the ground. And make sure as you lift you drive your hips forward.

If you did want to remove the external rotation, say if you have Piriformis issues, you could actually lift the top leg straight up during the movement, keeping the knee bent, over keeping the foot down which will force external rotation.

Both can be great variations to include and you may alternate which you used based on what you’re trying to target!

Just make sure that, while you’re focusing on the side of your butt, you keep your elbow stacked under your shoulder and your back engaged to support it. You want this move to benefit your entire core, including those obliques as well!

7: Figure 4 Glides

It can be easy to cheat with moves when we struggle to activate a muscle correctly. We call on other muscles to not only assist but we will seek out mobility from other joints. Often with lateral raise movements we will even try to swing the leg up higher as we lean away.

That’s why I love the Figure 4 move, especially with these glides.

This is a very small movement and can allow you to easily focus on that glute working. It can be easy also to feel yourself trying to cheat because you are holding in this raised position as you allow that leg to glide forward and backward.

It also engages the glute medius through hip flexion and extension.

Focus on sitting up nice and tall as you raise that leg on the side up. Think about keeping it level as you allow it to glide forward and backward slowly. You can even watch it to stay conscious of what is working.

And if you really struggle with wanting to lean away, you can put your shoulder against a wall as you set up.

But because you’re holding this position, do that easy assessment every once in awhile to make sure you aren’t leaning away!

8: 80/20 Glute Bridges

Often injuries and aches and pains aren’t just due to weakness but also an imbalance between sides and muscles. That means that often we need to do imbalance prehab, working only one side and even doing more reps on that side.

That’s why unilateral or single sided movements are key.

It’s why most of the moves included here are unilateral. However, unilateral moves can also be super challenging and serve as advancements for bilateral exercises as they add more instability and require to move the load or your own bodyweight with only one side.

That’s why I love these 80/20 Glute Bridges though. They force each side to work more but add in the assistance of your other leg to help you focus on the glutes working.

If you’ve struggled with the single leg glute bridge and feel your hamstrings compensating or lower back engaging in that movement, you can try this 80/20 variation to get that same benefit but with a move you can truly control.

Sometimes we need to regress to progress.

Make sure with this move that you stagger one foot out further so the foot that is closer in does 80% of the work. And then focus on that posterior pelvic tilt as you bridge, driving your knee toward your toe as you press up so you get your glute to power the movement over your hamstrings compensating.

SUMMARY:

Now how do you include these moves in your routine? The great part is there are a ton of different ways! But you want to probably only pick 1-3 to include as your activation in your warm ups for just 1-2 rounds. 15-25 reps or even about 30 seconds per move is often good.

The goal isn’t to fatigue your glutes but simply feel them start to work and establish that mind-body connection before your full workout.

If you are using them simply as a prehab routine, you may add another move or two on and do 3 rounds instead!

Need more glute activation series? Check out my Booty Burners…

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The Right Way To Get A Strong Lower Back (4 exercises)

The Right Way To Get A Strong Lower Back (4 exercises)

by | Feb 27, 2022 | Blog, Butt, Core, Exercises, Functional Fitness, injury-featured, Pain Relief

Many of us have thought to ourselves, “My lower back is so weak” when we’ve been suffering from lower back aches and pains.

We feel it during ab movements or deadlifts and think that we feel it because we need to strengthen it.

But what if the problem isn’t that your lower back is weak?

What if the issue is that it’s actually OVERWORKED?

This is all too often the case when it comes to our lower back.

The muscles there become overworked due to our daily postures which have created mobility restrictions and underactive abs and glutes.

So all of that strengthening you’re trying to do, all of those superman you’re doing, may actually be perpetuating the issues making them worse instead of better.

Instead you may need to be working on your hip and thoracic mobility while activating your abs and glutes to protect your lower back from being overloaded.

Remember the point of pain isn’t always where the problem started. And feeling a muscle work during a move may not be because it is weak. Instead it may be working when it shouldn’t and become overloaded.

So if you’ve been feeling your lower back during moves and thought, “I need to strengthen it,” try including these 4 moves in your warm up routine instead! And stop overworking your already overloaded lower back more!

Exercise #1: Thoracic Foam Rolling

If one area is lacking in mobility, we will seek out mobility from another area to compensate.

Because we often lack proper thoracic extension due to hunching over our technology or driving in our cars, we tend to compensate for this lack of extension by arching our lower back during exercises.

If you’ve ever felt your lower back during overhead pressing movements or bent over rows or back flyes, you may be arching your lower back in an attempt to maintain a neutral spine because of your limited thoracic extension.

That’s why it’s key we work to improve our thoracic extension to avoid seeking out mobility from our lumbar spine to compensate.

That’s why I love peanut foam rolling. It’s a great way to relax those muscles that may become tight along our spine while improving our thoracic extension.

To do this move, you can use a peanut, which can easily be made by taping two balls together or tying them in a sock. Lie on your back placing the peanut in your mid-back with a ball on either side of your spine.

Place your hands behind your head, pulling your elbows open as you relax over the peanut.

Breathe and hold for a second, then crunch up and relax back down. Do a few of the crunches, extending back over, before moving the peanut up your spine.

You can also reach your arms up overhead and sweep them open and out to your sides before crunching up to stretch out your chest further.

But focus on breathing to relax as you hold and allow your spine to extend over the roller.

To progress this move, you can use something like the Simple Mobility tool which has a larger diameter and will require more spinal mobility to relax over.

Exercise #2: Bench Hip And Quad Stretch with Rotation

Tight hip flexors, and a lack of hip and spinal mobility in general can lead to you overusing your lower back as you then aren’t able to properly engage your glutes or even your upper back and abs.

That’s why stretches to improve your hip extension and spinal mobility are key.

Too often if our hip flexors are tight, we end up feeling moves that should be felt in our glutes in our lower backs and quads. Not to mention we can develop hamstring synergistic dominance where our hamstrings start to become overworked instead of our glutes working when they should!

To address both limited hip and spinal mobility, I love this Bench Hip and Quad Stretch With Rotation.

To do this move, place one foot up on a bench or chair behind you and half kneel on the ground with that back knee down and front foot flat on the ground. Move out far enough that you can squeeze that back glute to drive your hip into extension while keeping that front knee aligned over that front ankle.

In this half kneeling position, place both hands down on the ground even with your front instep.

In this position it is key you squeeze that back glute to drive that hip into extension or you lose out on the hip flexor stretch. Having your back foot up on the bench flexes your knees to stretch your quads at the same time.

Then lift your hand closet to your front foot to rotate toward that front leg. As you rotate your chest open, don’t just move at your shoulder. Focus on engaging your upper back to rotate your chest open.

Reach up toward the ceiling then place that hand back down on the ground. Then lift your other hand up to rotate away from that front leg. You may find it harder to rotate one direction, especially away from the front leg.

Make sure to keep that back glute engaged the entire time to stretch your hips and engage your upper back to help you twist and rotate.

Do not let yourself rock out on that front foot and cheat, seeking out mobility from other areas!

Move slowly and work for about 30 seconds per side even before switching legs.

To modify, you can place your back foot on a block instead of up on a bench. You can also place that back foot on a wall if you don’t have a bench.

If you can’t kneel due to knee issues, do this from a runner’s lunge position, even modifying with your hands up on an incline.

Exercise #3: 3-Way Hip Circles

The best way to protect your back is to strengthen your glutes and your abs so they brace to help protect your spine so your lower back isn’t doing all of the work!

That’s why this 3-Way Hip Circle activation move is so important to include. It not only helps mobilize your hips, but also works on your core engagement, activating your glutes, abs and even obliques.

Avoid leaning away or rotating your pelvis as you focus on moving just at the hip joint.

In this drill you want to pause in each position as the donkey kick will target your glute max while the fire hydrant will target your glute medius and the knee tuck will engage both your hip flexors, but especially your abs if you focus on drawing in your belly button as you pull in to tuck.

By also fighting the urge to lean away you’ll feel those obliques working to keep your hips level toward the ground.

To do the 3-Way Hip Circles, start on your hands and knees with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Flex your feet.

Then, keeping your knee bent to about 90 degrees, kick one leg back like into a Donkey Kick. You may slightly abduct the leg to better engage the glute, but do not let the knee rotate open. Focus on stopping the move with your glute over arching your lower back to lift up higher.

Pause here even assessing if you feel your glute. If you feel your hamstrings, relax your foot or even kick slightly out. And make sure your hips stay level to the ground.

Then, without bringing your knee back down, circle it out to the side into a Fire Hydrant position. Do not bend your arms or lean away to try to get the leg up higher.

Pull your knee in line with your hip, keeping your knee bent to about 90 degrees. Focus on keeping your lower leg about parallel to the ground. Do not let your foot flare up higher. Feel the side of your butt working to hold the leg up.

Pause here then tuck your knee straight in toward the elbow on the same side.

Pull your abs in as you crunch and don’t be afraid to flex slightly through your spine. Focus on those abs working as you drive your knee into your arms.

Pause then repeat the move kicking back into that Donkey Kick position.

Move slowly focusing on avoiding rotation or arching of your lower back as you kick back.

Complete all reps on one side before switching.

You can not only modify this move but also simply add variety to it and a balance challenge, by doing this standing. You can also do a straight leg kickback if you really struggle with arching your lower back or your hamstring compensating.

The key is making sure you actually feel the glutes working. Because doing the right moves, without feeling the correct muscles working may only perpetuate the problem over correcting it!

Exercise #4: Pelvic Tilt Balance March

Improving your pelvic stability to properly be able to brace your abs during movement is key if you want to avoid lower back overload and injury.

It’s why the Pelvic Tilt Balance March.

It is far from an easy move but it is a great way to engage your TVA or transverse abdominis while working your rectus abdominis and obliques to stabilize.

Just make sure you advance it slowly over rushing it.

You don’t want your lower back to take over or your hip flexors to be doing all the work.

To do this move, place a larger foam ball or pilates ball right under the top of your butt.

You want to balance on this ball, pressing down into it with your arms down by your sides, palms pressing into the ground.

Then bend your knees to about 90 degrees, bringing them into that tabletop position. Better to have them slightly out than to tuck them more into your chest as that will make it easier.

Balancing here, slowly touch one toe to the ground, fighting the urge to rotate. Raise that leg back up then touch the other toe down.

Focus on bracing those abs and not letting your abs dome out or your lower back arch. If it feels like too much, bring the ball up slightly higher.

To advance from here, you may bend your elbows or even raise one or both arms off the ground. This will give you less of a base to assist with stabilizing.

But only progress as you’ve earned it. Better to modify and really feel those abs working!

Move slowly with this move and even consider starting without the ball to master that posterior pelvic tilt progression if you haven’t!

SUMMARY:

Too often our lower back becomes overworked due to hip and spinal mobility restrictions and weak or underactive abs and glutes.

But because we consistently feel our lower back during moves, we assume it is actually weak and instead try to do more to work it.

This only perpetuates the problem.

So make sure you’re also working to improve those mobility restrictions while strengthening supporting muscles so your back doesn’t become overloaded.

Remember where the point of pain is isn’t always where the problem started! And injury doesn’t only mean an area is weak!

Use these 4 moves in your warm up, even just spending 30 seconds per move to start to help you avoid those lower back aches and pains!

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