I'm suspicious of this "Glute activation" fad
Orphia
Posts: 7,097 Member
"Your glutes need activating": Fad or fact?
It just seems somehow like a typical fad the fitness industry pushes on us to make us feel bad about ourselves and spend more money on gyms, coaching, equipment etc.
You don't need to feel muscles to know they're working.
Surely if you're not using your glutes, you'll fall over?
It just seems somehow like a typical fad the fitness industry pushes on us to make us feel bad about ourselves and spend more money on gyms, coaching, equipment etc.
You don't need to feel muscles to know they're working.
Surely if you're not using your glutes, you'll fall over?
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Replies
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There are more than a few resistance exercises and others that are intended to use the glutes but you can substitute a large part of the hammies and get by.
Besides not targeting the intended muscle group, you can also get imbalanced.
Or perhaps not as efficient a movement, or as effective as it could be.
Doesn't mean you aren't using the glutes at all, but you aren't automatically using them as much as they could be used.
Same way people lifting can do something unbalanced to one side or another, and that side grows faster and gets stronger.
You are still using the weak side, and it may be getting stronger too eventually, but usually that situation if not noticed and fixed keeps focusing on the stronger side - making it worse.
And yes, it has become fad to start talking about it from appearance - not sure about making people feel bad about it though. It was brought up years and years ago - but not by everyone and their brother. I recall some Runner's World articles about it 20 years ago. Perhaps at the time other mag's were doing it too, just wasn't as noticeable.
But it is interesting how many people can say walk a lot and despite the glute normally being used to pull the leg back, the hammy can do it too. For some it isn't the strongest muscle.
Feeling them engage during certain tests actually is a good method - or rather, not feeling them engage when they should is easier to tell.
That's free, and the work to improve it is free too. If people are falling for spending money on it - don't worry - they would have been suckered by something else eventually.10 -
Bikini competitions have also become increasingly popular, and a huge focus for bikini girls is building the glutes, usually while keeping quad growth minimal. Some girls avoid traditional squats/lunges/etc for that reason and focus on more glute specific movements.
I don't feel like the fitness industry is pushing it for money or to promote coaching, gyms, equipment. Most of what I've seen about glutes is girls sharing their routine for free, usually using equipment you can find in any gym or do at home. As heybales said, working to improve them can be free and part of a regular fitness regimen.
I've started incorporating BB hip thrusts. I did spend about $15 to buy a barbell pad, but I've also spent money for other equipment like wrist wraps, knee sleeves, lifting shoes, etc. To me glutes are just another body part to train like all the rest of them, and if I feel like special equipment will benefit me I will spend the money.8 -
Speaking rather generally... you can do exercises (i.e. complete the movement) with less than optimal technique, and thus not see all the results/benefit. So while the statement is true, it's probably significantly over-hyped.6
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Muscle activation forces you to use those muscles your focusing on, Our bodies are lazy they want to accomplish in the most comfortable easiest way. Ie it will shift to using other muscles aswell or even instead of to complete the same motion, Often leavign the weaker muscle your actually aiming to train doing much less work. Focusing on activating the muscle you trying to train forces your body to not cheat itself ill see if i can find a video i just watched recently about it12
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"Your glutes need activating": Fad or fact?
It just seems somehow like a typical fad the fitness industry pushes on us to make us feel bad about ourselves and spend more money on gyms, coaching, equipment etc.
You don't need to feel muscles to know they're working.
Surely if you're not using your glutes, you'll fall over?
At the recreational level of exercise that most of us perform (both quantity and performance-wise) it's not hugely necessary to focus on firing the glutes unless you have pain, recurring injury, or some other factor that requires you to examine your form.
More serious endurance athletes or higher level competitors would likely want to pay attention as a strict focus on form can help with injury prevention and performance improvement.2 -
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Surely if you're not using your glutes, you'll fall over?
I don't know if there's a fitness industry push or not, but I've run into a number of issues that were traced back to a lack of glute activation. Just as @Jaydedmiss notes, my other muscles took over. Specifically, my tight hip flexors "shut off" the glutes, forcing other muscles to pick up the slack. A typical negative consequence for me is sustaining an overuse injury to the calf muscles while running since my glute muscles weren't firing.
So I guess that I am admitting to "lazy *ss" syndrome.
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Great way to phrase it when talking to others, especially those not into working out - "ya, I've got lazy *ss syndrome, makes my workouts more difficult".
Just leave them wondering.8 -
Speaking rather generally... you can do exercises (i.e. complete the movement) with less than optimal technique, and thus not see all the results/benefit. So while the statement is true, it's probably significantly over-hyped.
I agree with this.
I incorporate glute activation before my workouts, kind of a glute warmup to get them pumped and ready to go. I can feel them better and my lifts improve when I do it vs. when I leave it out. But I am sure not to overdo it, if the glutes become too fatigued the exercise can suffer.
I would say though, form has to be #1.. you can do all the activation in the world but if your form isn't right then you won't see optimal results and risk injury.
I found the stronger my glutes became, the more they worked during lifts, even non-glute dominant lifts. When they are strong and powerful, they will work more and it will be less likely that other muscles take over. In order to get them strong I did very glute focused/isolation work and built them up.9 -
I'm not sure if you or anyone else cares, but I think the same can be said about your core muscles... or most muscle groups that are secondary muscles in a given exercise. Stronger muscle groups can potentially take over, minimizing the role of weaker, secondary muscles.
Think about something like squats or deadlifts. If you're not sufficiently activating your core (bracing), you're setting yourself up for problems. You might be able to complete the lift, but at some point, it's going to catch up to you. How consciously you have to be when doing this depends on the person, but the point holds.10 -
The same can be said for 99% of the buzz words used on social media and youtube type vids.
Glute activation is a improper terminology. Most people that claim to have a lack of GA, really mean they don't feel like they are using their glutes while in reality it really comes down to improper form or lack of experience of what the movement should feel like. Show a person proper form and through repetitions they will eventually understand what is happening.
It's way overblowned much like the thought of ATG squats are more beneficial than parallel squats or bands can replace free weights for sufficient stimulas of the muscle where it's more of a training tool when used solo. In other words research & don't believe everything you hear or read and be skeptical of people who use these buzz words unless it's backed by data.
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in powerlifting, there is a HUGE focus on muscle engagement , including glute activation. Watch the powerlifters go through their little routine to activate every muscle prior to the lift. They aren't doing it because its fad, they are doing it because it harnesses strength.12
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I really don't mind it; seems to get more women into weight lifting (good) & help diminish that stereotype that lifting weights will bulk a women up into some kind of juiced up she-hulk juiced to the gills with androgens3
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"Your glutes need activating": Fad or fact?
idk . . . somewhere in between? i guess my own annoyance with most of those 'fad' things isn't exactly a fad problem. it's more like the knee-jerk-answer problem. that does annoy me. i suspect people who insta-produce whatever the new thing is of sloppy thinking. and possibly condescension. falling hair? loose tonsils? impacted wisdom teeth? your glutes need activating. or core, or toenails, or whatevers.
no demonstrable cause-and-effect between those two things? no credible explanation of how it's a thing for whatever took me in there? never mind, we'll say it anyway because hey, active glutes \o/ or toenails, or core or whatever it is.
it annoys me in that sense. and i guess to me it's mostly a credibility thing. i don't CARE if i come out of an engagement with 'active glutes' if what i went in there for was something else. i resent/suspect it in that kind of way.
side note: i have the same crankiness about the eat-broccoli fad of a decade ago. *kitten* broccoli.
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It's certainly overstated.. like the need for exercises for your "core" (which has incorrectly become a synonym for "abs").
If you have good form, your glutes are automatically working properly, regardless of whether you feel them. It's sort of like how if you're driving your car, you can be sure the engine is working, even if you don't feel or hear it.
All it takes to "activate" the glutes is to squeeze your buttcheeks together while standing - no complicated movements on the floor are needed.
This should be in the Debate forum.
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As someone who went from nearly 250 to 170 at my lowest and jogged/ran for four years, I can tell you that not activating your glutes isn't very attractive. My wife certainly wasn't a fan of the no butt look!! Now, I do around 500 heavy KB swings a week and low and behold, I have a butt again. I've also switched to rowing from running, something that (at least when you sprint) also uses your glutes a bit. Long distance running uses practically no glutes. Sprinting and biking do but distance running doesn't. Like others have mentioned, if it doesn't cause imbalance issues, it will eventually just start to look pretty unattractive.
It's another muscle, that's all. I think it's a lot more useful than biceps. That old "curls for girls" saying years ago was an old high school football coach saying which meant curls aren't very useful for athletics but make you look better. I'd argue that working glutes (deadlifts, hip thrusts, heavy KB swings and lunges) are a lot more functional than curls. Glute activation is the female (mostly) version of curling over and over for larger biceps.3 -
"Your glutes need activating": Fad or fact?
It just seems somehow like a typical fad the fitness industry pushes on us to make us feel bad about ourselves and spend more money on gyms, coaching, equipment etc.
You don't need to feel muscles to know they're working.
Surely if you're not using your glutes, you'll fall over?
It's a very real thing. I had sepsis which among other things saps your strength. By the time I was hospitalized, I had back pain to the extent I couldn't walk. Talking to a therapist afterward he explained due to the muscle weakness, my glutes weren't firing (doing what they were suppose to do) and trying to use all the other muscles to try an compensate caused the pain.0 -
Cherimoose wrote: »It's certainly overstated.. like the need for exercises for your "core" (which has incorrectly become a synonym for "abs").
If you have good form, your glutes are automatically working properly, regardless of whether you feel them. It's sort of like how if you're driving your car, you can be sure the engine is working, even if you don't feel or hear it.
All it takes to "activate" the glutes is to squeeze your buttcheeks together while standing - no complicated movements on the floor are needed.
This should be in the Debate forum.
I don't know if I'd necessarily equate glute activation to the need for a strong core. The core IMO truly is the foundation for all movement and the stronger it is, the better for performance and injury prevention in all situations. One simply can't work around a weak core.
Glute activation is a bit more suspect. There's no doubt it can be useful but the magnitude of the benefit is definitely in question. Given our bodies' ability to compensate, it wouldn't seem to be entirely necessary.2 -
Huh, I didn't even know this was a "thing" - clearly my lack of time on instagram has blinded me to what's faddish and what isn't. I guess it makes sense to me that part of strength training is learning muscle awareness, and it makes sense that the body would sometimes lean towards efficiency rather than effectiveness, if that makes any sense at all. I certainly feel stronger and am lifting more (with less knee pain) and running faster after integrating a little regular core and glute work into my strength training, and that's good enough for me. If you don't feel like you need it, don't do it? 2
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"Your glutes need activating": Fad or fact?
It just seems somehow like a typical fad the fitness industry pushes on us to make us feel bad about ourselves and spend more money on gyms, coaching, equipment etc.
You don't need to feel muscles to know they're working.
Surely if you're not using your glutes, you'll fall over?
True random story about “glute acitivation” and muscle imbalance— I have a coworker who has been seeing PTs and chiropractor specialists for 6 months. They diagnosed her with muscle imbalance and “week glutes”. She did their PT treatments religiously before running a half marathon. She continued running after the pain set in because she felt it was her fault that the muscles were imbalanced. In other words, she did too much of what she loved and not enough of what they told her to do exercise wise.
It was terrible to watch. She has arthritis and a meniscus tear in two places. She had surgery last week.
Moral of that story? If you have bone pain see an actual ortho doctor and don’t ignore it. Your body is trying to you something. Listen to it!3 -
I feel like this tread is mixing up glute strength and glute activation (the process of “waking up the glutes” prior to lifting).
Yes, building glute strength is good
No, you don’t need to wake up your butt.11 -
ijsantos2005 wrote: »I feel like this tread is mixing up glute strength and glute activation (the process of “waking up the glutes” prior to lifting).
Yes, building glute strength is good
No, you don’t need to wake up your butt.
"Waking up your butt" actually is a thing that some people recommend for distance runners since it's so easy for the body to compensate for the glutes with other muscles when running at non-sprint speeds. Basically, it's entirely possible to run without engaging the glutes.
Glute activation can help you to become a better runner (speed) and to run more miles without injury (volume), but most recreational runners neither run enough miles for it to matter, nor chase a performance bar that would require a focus on absolutely perfect form.7 -
ijsantos2005 wrote: »I feel like this tread is mixing up glute strength and glute activation (the process of “waking up the glutes” prior to lifting).
Yes, building glute strength is good
No, you don’t need to wake up your butt.
I definitely find it helps. I have done it with and without, and going into my hip thrusts they go up like butter and get less fatigued when my glutes are warmed up and activated. To each their own I guess.15 -
ijsantos2005 wrote: »I feel like this tread is mixing up glute strength and glute activation (the process of “waking up the glutes” prior to lifting).
Yes, building glute strength is good
No, you don’t need to wake up your butt.
i also think its mixing up Glute Firing . When i hear "glute activation" i think of conscious glute firing or engagement that happens immediately before and during the lift. Its that term "Squeeze your glutes" .
and i do think you need to wake up your butt and your whole body before your workout, i think thats more commonly called warming up.9 -
ijsantos2005 wrote: »I feel like this tread is mixing up glute strength and glute activation (the process of “waking up the glutes” prior to lifting).
Yes, building glute strength is good
No, you don’t need to wake up your butt.
I definitely find it helps. I have done it with and without, and going into my hip thrusts they go up like butter and get less fatigued when my glutes are warmed up and activated. To each their own I guess.
I’m curious. Maybe you can elaborate on what you do to activate your glutes.4 -
ijsantos2005 wrote: »I feel like this tread is mixing up glute strength and glute activation (the process of “waking up the glutes” prior to lifting).
Yes, building glute strength is good
No, you don’t need to wake up your butt.
"Waking up your butt" actually is a thing that some people recommend for distance runners since it's so easy for the body to compensate for the glutes with other muscles when running at non-sprint speeds. Basically, it's entirely possible to run without engaging the glutes.
Glute activation can help you to become a better runner (speed) and to run more miles without injury (volume), but most recreational runners neither run enough miles for it to matter, nor chase a performance bar that would require a focus on absolutely perfect form.
Hmm weird. I didn’t know that. How does that even work?5 -
I think this is actually called “warming up” and it’s not new lol. Although I have noticed on Instagram a bunch of “Instagram fitness stars” post all these videos of themselves working on their butts. Which I think is kinda funny.7
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ijsantos2005 wrote: »ijsantos2005 wrote: »I feel like this tread is mixing up glute strength and glute activation (the process of “waking up the glutes” prior to lifting).
Yes, building glute strength is good
No, you don’t need to wake up your butt.
I definitely find it helps. I have done it with and without, and going into my hip thrusts they go up like butter and get less fatigued when my glutes are warmed up and activated. To each their own I guess.
I’m curious. Maybe you can elaborate on what you do to activate your glutes.
Before I start my workout, I am actually aiming for a bit of a pump before I start so I include various moves in my warm-up where I squeeze the glutes and make sure to feel them with each rep (it's almost to remind me, oh yea that's what I need to do/feel). Usually consists of a combination of bodyweight/banded glute bridges, donkey kicks, band squats, lateral band walks, standing hip abductions, band hip hinge abductions. I do many one round of each, keep the resistance minimal, again just aiming to feel the glutes and aim a bit of a pump.
I also try to do glute activation exercises daily, either at night or while I'm cooking I will do standing hip abductions, standing posterior pelvic tilt thrusts, "bodyweight" deadlifts (I really love this one, you add mental resistance and push down as hard as you can)
What I love is how I can do super heavy hip thrusts YET I can still feel my glutes burning with the bodyweight ones because of how I can control my glutes.8 -
ijsantos2005 wrote: »ijsantos2005 wrote: »I feel like this tread is mixing up glute strength and glute activation (the process of “waking up the glutes” prior to lifting).
Yes, building glute strength is good
No, you don’t need to wake up your butt.
"Waking up your butt" actually is a thing that some people recommend for distance runners since it's so easy for the body to compensate for the glutes with other muscles when running at non-sprint speeds. Basically, it's entirely possible to run without engaging the glutes.
Glute activation can help you to become a better runner (speed) and to run more miles without injury (volume), but most recreational runners neither run enough miles for it to matter, nor chase a performance bar that would require a focus on absolutely perfect form.
Hmm weird. I didn’t know that. How does that even work?
Not really that weird - people been doing it for ages.
By using your hamstring mainly instead of your glutes. It's already engaged anyway, just using it more.
Again - I'm not sure why so many of the comments expressing disbelief think it's a matter of all or none.
This is a matter of barely using them when some workout/effort/run could/should be easily using them, and for good form/proper engagement should be mainly using them.
It's exactly the same reason why some people run and overstride landing heavily on the heel.
That's the way they started doing, that's the way they've done it, and unless they realize that ain't best and focus and change something - that's the way they will keep doing it.
You can run and have minimal engagement by glutes, just wears out the hammies more. Now, perhaps when some have gotten to that point the glutes finally are called upon to assist, or the person's form just breaks down more.
Had the end of a triathlon with very hilly ride where I did such a great job focusing on using glutes for the hills to not wear out the quads, that near the end of the run the glutes had it and I could focus on using the hamstrings. Which frankly didn't take long to lose it either at that point.10 -
Cherimoose wrote: »It's certainly overstated.. like the need for exercises for your "core" (which has incorrectly become a synonym for "abs").
I don't know if I'd necessarily equate glute activation to the need for a strong core. The core IMO truly is the foundation for all movement and the stronger it is, the better for performance and injury prevention in all situations. One simply can't work around a weak core.
If someone has a weak core, the rest of them is probably weak too and needs strengthening. On a good full-body program based on compound lifts, the need for direct ab/core exercises is minimal for most people.ijsantos2005 wrote: »No, you don’t need to wake up your butt.
I tell myself this every morning.
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ijsantos2005 wrote: »
Hmm weird. I didn’t know that. How does that even work?
From what I gather based solely on internet knowledge, unlike a sprint or something where your body will naturally engage the most powerful muscles for the purpose (the glutes in this case), in distance running many people use their quads, hamstrings, or other leg muscles to initiate motion instead of the glutes because the body isn't calling for explosive power.
In essence, instead of engaging the glutes to drive the rear leg, create a stable launching platform, and thus propel everything else forward, distance runners with poor glute activation will use other leg muscles to 'pull' the forward leg instead.
Dynamically, in extreme terms it's like the difference between walking on tiptoes and doing single leg bounding leaps. One focuses on the forward pull while the other focuses on the rearward push.3
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