Activating the glutes.

The glutes / gluteal muscles are made up from gluteus maximus, which is not only the largest of the gluteal muscles, but the largest muscle in the human body, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus (smallest of the gluteal muscles).

I've found that a lot of people find it hard to feel an exercise that is aimed at their glutes, whether it be an isolated or compound exercise.

Hopefully after reading this post you will no longer have this issue.

Let me start by saying everyone's body is different and this is why our bodies react differently to exercises. This is partly due to things like body composition, muscle type, muscle mass ETC. This is a good thing to keep in mind when you come across any fitness related issue.

Here are two of my favourite glute activation exercises:

1. Glute maximus activation exercise: Prone leg lifts.

Teaching points:

Lying face down on a bench, with you legs and bum off of the bench, (so only your upper body is on the bench).
Hold the bench with your hands to keep yourself stable, legs straight and feet slightly below the bench.
Lift your legs up in the air until at the max height, keeping your legs straight. (The max height is different for everyone, to know what yours is, lift you legs up as high as you can and when you feel the pressure move from your glutes to your lower back you know you have gone too far. The max height is just below this shift in tension. so you feel all the tension in your glutes throughout the whole exercise).
When you are at your max height hold for a few seconds and squeeze your glutes as much as you can.
Slowly lower your legs down to the starting position (feet slightly below the bench), keeping the legs straight, and repeat 12+ times.

Please note that it is important to do this before the exercises you are doing to work the glutes, no matter whether its compound (squats) or isolated (donkey kicks).

There is also a variation of this exercise where your legs are slightly bent, this is in order to incorporate the hamstrings. however,because we are aiming to only activate the glutes we keep out legs straight.

2. Glute medius activation exercise: Side steps with resistance band.

Teaching points:

Place the resistance band around your feet. Place you feet far enough apart that you feel the band is in tension.
With you back straight, knees slightly bent and shoulders back, step sideways with one foot and follow with the other foot, keeping tension in the band the whole time. Remembering to control the movement of both legs steps.
Do 12x steps, then repeat in the other direction 12x steps. Continue (with rest) until you do 3 sets.

Please note that it is important to do this before the exercises you are doing to work the glutes, no matter whether its compound (squats) or isolated (donkey kicks).

Both of these activation exercises are a great way to activate all 3 of the glute muscles.

Feel free to print this out, give them a go, share and comment your views (below), I would love to know what you think.