How To Activate Your Glutes | FREE Guide

How To Activate Your Glutes | FREE Guide

For many, our glute muscles remain inactive throughout the day as we have desk jobs or occupations that require us to sit for several hours. While physiologically, the glutes are deemed one of the strongest muscles in the body, their strength and activity is declining. 

Swork It describes this alarming phenomenon of the sedentary lifestyle as The Sitting Disease.

We spend a lot of time sitting in a hip flexion position, which can cause dysfunction of the glutes and even strain the hip flexor muscles. Sitting on your glutes can also impair blood flow and neuromuscular function. This is why activating your glutes to break this cycle before a workout, and even activating your glutes at work (!) are effective ways to combat 'glute amnesia'. 

Glute expert Bret Contreras prescribes a simple glute squeeze everyday to wake them up and improve lifting performance. Simply perform a standing glute squeeze with a moderate to wide stance. This can be walking from the office to the kitchen, on the way to the bathroom or during your break. 

The roles of glutes and how to activate them

The glute muscles serve four primary roles:

  • Hip abduction (Sending the hip laterally outwards)
  • Hip extension (Think sending the leg backwards or hip thrusting)
  • External rotation of the hip (Think of a banded hip abduction)
  • Posterior pelvic tilt  

Activation of the glutes mentally and physically enables you to recruit the correct muscles during major compound lower body movements such as squatting and deadlifting. Proper activation can mean the difference between using your glutes while squatting rather than just your quads and spinal erectors. 

Using mental cues and feeling for mind muscle connection during your warm ups is a sure fire way to getting the glutes switched on and working.

So what exercises would we prescribe for glute activation?

Scroll down for you free How to active your glutes downloadable! 

 

Add a good quality resistance band to the mix and you are no doubt going to feel those glutes during activation. Check out THE BOD Booty Bands here > 

Ready to start training your glutes? Ensure you set aside some time beforehand to activate them correctly.

Enter your email below and get a copy of our free how-to guide: How to Activate Your Glutes.


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