One weird trick for activating your butt.

February 20, 2024 4:00 PM

I cannot seem to squeeze/activate my glute muscles without recruiting a whole lot of other muscles to help. Any advice?

Long story, but: I've been in physical therapy since July for leg pain. While I do have a herniated disk (L4/5) with some nerve compression, my right glute muscles are also not activating well, even after months of PT. The theory is that the leg issues stem from overuse, since my glute muscles aren't working as hard as they should.

Even after so many months of working with a PT, I have a really hard time squeezing my glutes. Like, I can DO it, but it involves tensing a whole lot of other muscles in the area -- think quads, hamstrings, low back, etc. I have to stiffen my entire lower body in order to really get the glutes going, and even then, both sides are weak, and the right side especially.

I will obviously talk to my PT about this too, but do y'all have any advice on how to activate JUST your glutes? Any visualizations, particular exercises, etc? I used to be a dancer and have pretty good body awareness, but my glutes seem to be out of my control ...

posted by leftover_scrabble_rack to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)

I had the same issue. Could have written this verbatim. Check out : single leg bridges . You may need to work up to those with standard / “double leg” bridges.
posted by jerome powell buys his sweatbands in bulk only at 4:36 PM on February 20, 2024 [5 favorites]

Doing the bridge pose in yoga, especially holding it at the top gets my glutes to squeeze.

This is kind of crass, but I very mindfully did a glute squeeze just now to see what I'm actually doing, and it definitely involves clinching the butthole. Maybe start there to see if you can do that without tensing anything else, then keep clenching inwards using more of the other butt muscles to pull in, like a weird black hole of gravitational pull.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 4:44 PM on February 20, 2024

I think you may find that lying prone (on your stomach), bending one leg up towards the ceiling (and working towards having your leg more extended, thus adding more weight), and then lifting with the glute will activate the muscle you're looking for without being able to contract as many muscles in the process, simply due to the prone position. It's a very small movement - you probably wouldn't really notice it much in a mirror - but concentrate on feeling the contraction, rather than seeing any movement.
posted by itsflyable at 4:57 PM on February 20, 2024 [4 favorites]

After doing squats and similar exercises for many years it wasn't until a trainer had me do some box jumps that activating my glutes "clicked" for me. I don't think it was necessarily the box jumps just that doing a new exercise and being aware of what I wanted to focus on let me do it. So I'd say try the leg bridges, box jumps, or other exercises that end up getting recommended here and hopefully while you work out how to do them properly it'll "click" for you too and then you'll be able to activate your glutes whenever you want to.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:38 PM on February 20, 2024

I had a leg injury this fall and ended up in PT only to learn my glutes were barely active. It seems my hamstrings had been doing all the work - which is why I ended up injured.

Clamshells using a band above my knees and “monster walk” and a lateral walk with the band around the ankles have made the difference. They started me with a very light band at first, and even that wasn’t easy. It took a couple of months to get things fixed.

Just Google it - as I have learned since the fall, there are seemingly thousands of videos and instructional sites showing exactly how to do them.

I had no idea I wasn’t feeling my glutes fire (their term) when I walked. Now I do.
posted by AMyNameIs at 5:55 PM on February 20, 2024 [3 favorites]

Good suggestions above. Note that many of the above suggestions (clamshell, bridge, single leg bridge, monster walk) are from the first few weeks of a competent PT program for the glutes. This is not advanced material. If you have not been offered this program it may be time for a new PT.

Also be aware that the “glutes” are separate area. Clenching your butt cheeks does not activate all of your glutes, almost by design. Your gluteus medius is more easily identified and activated in lateral or single leg movements such as standing on one leg or a Jane Fonda style leg lift. Your butt cheeks can remain relaxed while the glute med is active.
posted by shock muppet at 6:47 PM on February 20, 2024 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Hi all -- thanks for the answers so far! To clarify, yes, I did months and months of clamshells, bridges, monster walks, glute isolation exercises, etc. It hasn't helped my ability to fire my glutes very much, and I don't get that "burning" feeling in my glute muscles after I do them, so I'm wondering if other muscles are helping out too much. I have a long and very positive history with this PT clinic; it's been really frustrating that it hasn't helped! PT is usually a miracle cure for me.
posted by leftover_scrabble_rack at 7:16 PM on February 20, 2024 [3 favorites]

This is sort of out of left field, but the belly dancer Suhaila Salimpour is known for her glute isolations and when I was learning her technique I found the exercise she does at around 10 minutes here to be really helpful. Her whole approach is glute-based but if you've previously learned a different style of belly dance it's hard to avoid engaging your legs; this particular exercise really takes the legs out of the equation and for me it was the key to learning what glute isolation even feels like. If it's not helpful, it will at least be entertaining to watch!
posted by babelfish at 7:41 PM on February 20, 2024 [5 favorites]

Have you tried using a TENS unit before / during glute-focused movements?
posted by cotton dress sock at 8:14 PM on February 20, 2024

Best answer: I have been working on this as well. For over a year, without too many hugely noticeable results.

Besides bridges etc I tried two things (both learned from youtube videos, take that for what it is) that seemed to help

#1. When walking, walk just slightly more splay-footed than normal. This helps to activate the glutes with each step.

#2. When walking and bicycling I very consciously contract the relevant glute when activating that leg to pedal or take a step. It feels like squeezing the muscle right under your butt on that side. If you can do this even a little it helps activate the (probably very sleepy/weak) glutes.

I thought those helped a little.

But recently I came across some youtube physical therapy channel where the presenter spoke very highly of isometric exercises. Hmm, thought I. I just hate going to the gym to lift weights but I'll bet I could do a set of 10 isometric exercises at my desk once very 15 or 30 minutes, or while driving, etc.

So I tried it, and - aha!

Specifically for glutes/knees:

#1. Isometrically compress the right glute, then the left glute, then repeat 10X (or 20X or whatever). You just squeeze the muscle, hard as you can, for, say, 5 seconds, while sitting or standing. Then release and rest. Repeat this a number of times (10 or 20, for example). Do several sets of this throughout the day.

(Except beware of overdoing this and getting really sore, as I describe below. Like anything else, gradually work up.)

At first you may not be able to isolate the glute very well. That is OK - learning to do exactly that is precisely what this exercise is about. Besides just paying attention to what is tensing and what isn't in that area, and just "trying" to isolate to the glute as best you can, you can do things like:

- Put your hand on different places on your upper & lower leg, lower back, etc etc etc, and notice what else is tensing along with the glute. Try to get those other things to release while the glute continues to compress.

- Put your hand on your OTHER glute - ie, when isometrically compressing your RIGHT glute, put your hand on your LEFT glute. Try to get the right glute to compress as hard as possible while the left stays as relaxed as possible.

By putting your hands in different areas, on different muscles, you can tell right away which muscles are firing off and which are relaxed. Super helpful.

- Instead of just compressing the muscle always at maximum, can you do it in gradations - slowly move from 1 to 10 in strength, hold 10 for a few seconds, then move slowly back from 10 down to 1 and then 0.

- When I'm sitting on a chair and flexing my glute, I can feel the muscle right where I am sitting compress, and this actually raises my thigh bone and leg and (thus!) my whole upper body by an inch or so. When I'm doing the glute isometrics sitting, I can thus feel my entire body going up and down with each flex and release of the muscle. Once you feel this, it's very obvious and the flex of that muscle becomes easier to replicate.

#2. Similar isometric exercises, but this time for the muscles around your knee. Specifically we are thinking about the muscle on your thigh just above your knee, front and back. Though you can also think about and include (or practice separately) the muscles just below your knee as well.

The objective here is not so much to strengthen the muscles. If you have knee problems, in fact, you probably over-rely on these muscles rather than using your glutes. Over-using these muscles puts unnecessary pressure and stress on your knee - specifically, compressing the knee more than necessary - and so we want to learn control of this group of muscles so that we will know when they are firing off and we can reduce the usage of them to the degree possible.

The exercise here is you tighten the muscles just above the knee on the right side. Go from strength 0 to 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 (max). Hold for a few seconds, then reverse: Strength 4 (max) to 3 to 2 to 1 to 0.

Then repeat the same with the left side.

Do a few repetitions - maybe 10? Be careful of over-doing this one if you have knee problems, because putting this kind of pressure on the knees can indeed make them hurt. Do fewer reps and/or reduce your maximum muscle pressure if so.

The idea here is gain more control & awareness of these muscles. Can you tighten the right side without also tightening the left side. Can you tighten these knee muscles without also tightening the glutes? Without also tightening the lower leg or calf muscles? How about ankle & foot - can you tighten the knee area while keeping the ankle relaxed and free to move?

How about your back, abdominals, shoulders, neck, arms & hands, etc etc etc. Can you tighten those knee muscles while keeping the other(s) very relaxed?

So you are not only strengthening your muscles with isometrics, but even more important, you are learning to control and flex certain muscles, and to various degrees of strength, while relaxing others - even nearby or adjacent muscles.

I happened to learn about this just before a cross-country drive. So I amused myself for quite a large number of hours on the drive doing these various isometrics.

First thing I noticed was, my glutes were really sore afterwards. Really, really sore. In fact I had to take a little vacation from this and then work back into it very, very gradually because they were pretty damn sore.

But - like you! - I had done all the bridges and etc etc etc and never had my glutes come out really sore before from anything.

Second, after doing this for a couple of weeks, when I went on a walk suddenly I noticed those glutes really coming into play, in a way they had not done before. Very noticeable and very strong - like they were really working the way they are supposed to, for the first time in many years or maybe decades.

FYI for various reasons, the glutes tend to "go to sleep" for many people, probably most, by about the 50s. We get out of the habit of using them and use other muscles instead to compensate. As a result the glutes can get very small, weak, and just kind of pass out of our awareness. It's work putting a little work and effort into waking them back up.
posted by flug at 12:17 AM on February 21, 2024 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Of course I can't manage to find even one of the videos I saw the describe the exercises above. However, here are some of the physical therapy presenters on youtube that I have found helpful - and the specific exercises above are probably in one of the videos from these presenters:

- El Paso Manual Physical Therapy
- Precision Movement
- Bob & Brad

Generally it is the videos on the topic of knee pain where these issues are addressed.

Two P.S.s:

P.S. #1. When isometrically flexing your glutes, be aware that they are way, way up in your butt area and not down in your thighs. So for example when clenching them & noticing that makes your entire body rise up, as I described above, note that it is possible to do this (1) With glutes alone, (2) With glutes plus thigh muscles, and (3) With thigh muscles alone.

You can learn to do all 3 of these things, and learning to do so can be helpful - again, partly to help you learn what it is like to get all these different muscles firing.

But be aware that this "rising motion" when you clench these muscles, can come from your entire thigh & butt area, or from your butt area alone. When it is the butt alone, this almost feels like you are being lifted from behind - or from the very most behind (or top, if standing) part of your leg. And of course it is exactly this that is the gluteus muscle. Here is an image that helps visualize this.

P.S. #2. Especially if you happen to be a relatively fit or strong person, probably one reason things like monster walk, walking with bands, bridge, and other such things are not doing much for you is, they are generally pretty light or "easy" exercises. They are simply not challenging you enough.

Your glutes are designed to be rather massive and strong muscles. They are among the largest muscles in your body.

So if perchance your glutes are not super-weak per se - perhaps they are actually quite strong, but only relatively weak in comparison to some of the other muscles they work with, then something like a monster walk or bridge is probably just not really challenging your glutes very much.

Also, physical therapy focuses a lot on the elderly, people with various degrees of weakness and disability, and people who have been through and accident or surgery that leaves them tremendously weak. They are building back from that. Usually about the time you start to approach "normal" strength is the time your physical therapy is done.

Point is, if you are starting with fairly normal strength to start with, the normal run-of-the-mill physical therapy exercises simply may not be challenging your glutes enough.

And on the other hand, no real-life movement really isolates a single muscle completely. It's very possible that you're recruiting a bunch of other surrounding muscles to help you do these exercises. Thus the glutes are getting something of a workout, but not a really "hard" or challenging workout.

I think one reason the isometric approach has been more successful for me, is it addresses both of these issues head-on.

#1. You adjust the strength of your muscle flex according to what is the maximum you can do. If you are quite weak it will be objectively weak. If you are quite strong it will be really, really strong. Either way, it feels like "maximum effort" and that (or at least, close to it) is what it takes to increase the strength.

#2. You are really focusing on activating the correct muscles. Once you learn to do that, you might (for example) be able to go back to bridge, focusing on activating the glutes while doing so and keeping all other muscles from "helping", and thus be able to get a lot more glute strengthening out of the very same exercise.

When we exercise, we often think of making the muscle itself stronger. But just as important, is learning to control and strengthen the systems in the nervous system that control the muscle. Isometrics really help with that neuro-muscular angle - both in being able to recruit a certain muscle or group of muscles when needed, but also in being able to release and relax other muscles - so a matter of coordination and neuromuscular control as much as of strength.
posted by flug at 1:08 AM on February 21, 2024 [3 favorites]

When I had PT for hip/leg issues, I also couldn’t activate my glutes by themselves while lying on my back. The therapist had me lie on my stomach (as itsflyable says) and then I could do it. That pretty quickly translated into my being able to do it in my back.
posted by 2 cats in the yard at 3:38 AM on February 21, 2024