I'm suspicious of this "Glute activation" fad
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ijsantos2005 wrote: »
Hmm weird. I didn’t know that. How does that even work?
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.
I've suffered from this issue for several years. The symptoms (calf or hamstring cramping, etc.) only show up during longer efforts, such as during the run split of a half iron distance triathlon. My physical therapist believes that the problem is triggered by the hip flexors being engaged so heavily during the bike split (roughly 3 hrs) that when I jump off the bike to run, the hip flexors remain engaged and my brain is not sending the signal to the glutes to engage for running. The result is that the other muscles pick up the slack and get over worked in the process.
She demonstrated the symptoms of "pulling the leg forward" rather than using the glutes to drive the rear leg. While lying on my back with my feet flat on the table and knees raised, she asked me to do a single leg bridge using my right leg. Instead of lifting the body by engaging the glute, I was curling my toes first as if to grab the surface of the table and pull my body forward to get the lifting job done. It has taken many months and daily "hip extension followed by glute activation" work to bring this under control.
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It's very similar to back/lat activation...done to help other bodyparts from taking over for a movement (ex) lat pulldown - not using biceps/forearms). Apparently not engaging the quads & hamstrings as much is important for some womens' goals...taking a page out of a bodybuilder's book on how to alter one's physique
This trend definitely seemed to coincide with the introduction of the bikini division in the IFBB.4 -
Interestingly, I focused on engaging my glutes while walking into work this morning. I upped my walking pace by focusing on driving my rearward leg back and through instead of focusing on trying to step further/faster with my forward leg.
The difference in power and stability for a given effort level was actually quite noticeable. Maybe I'll start playing with it during my runs.2 -
Interestingly, I focused on engaging my glutes while walking into work this morning. I upped my walking pace by focusing on driving my rearward leg back and through instead of focusing on trying to step further/faster with my forward leg.
The difference in power and stability for a given effort level was actually quite noticeable. Maybe I'll start playing with it during my runs.
Yeah. I started focusing on my glutes on walks last summer, trying to feel them working with each step. Without trying for it, this automagically shortened my stride, and increased my speed (per Garmin, over a 4 mile or so walk, from 3.8-3.9mph to around 4.1mph).3 -
You don't need to feel muscles to know they're working.
YES YOU DO!!
It's called the mind-muscle connection in the fitness world and it is CRUCIAL to ensuring you're using proper form that is safe and that actually works the muscles you're trying to build.
If you're really looking to build your glutes, do you need a gym? Almost certainly. You need to be able to add weight, and buying one set of dumbbells isn't the answer because you need to add more and more weight as you get stronger.
Do you need fancy accessories and glute-specific products? No.
I do like the resistance bands made to go around the thighs because they can be used to add resistance against your gluteus medius during exercises that otherwise target only the gluteus maximus, giving you more bang for your buck. But that's not "activation," that's actually engaging a whole new muscle group.7 -
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Interestingly, I focused on engaging my glutes while walking into work this morning. I upped my walking pace by focusing on driving my rearward leg back and through instead of focusing on trying to step further/faster with my forward leg.
The difference in power and stability for a given effort level was actually quite noticeable. Maybe I'll start playing with it during my runs.
Focusing on using my glutes while walking and especially going up stairs has made a huge difference in reducing knee pain for me.5 -
It might currently be a fad, but it's not a useless or misinformed one. A lot of people compensate for weak or lazy glutes by using other muscles (like hamstrings) to do the glutes job, making the workout less efficient and also increasing the risk of injury and further muscle imbalance. I have lazy glutes, and I'm working on correcting that to improve my running and to make sure I don't lose my a** as I lose weight.5
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I don't know. I do know that conscientiously working on them helped me with running just as concentrating on engaging my lats while doing certain lifts helped with back pain.
I used to have terribly tight hip flexors and it caused a lot of pain. Once I started incorporating glute focused work and becoming conscientious of engaging them, the pain disappeared.3 -
This thread has been so helpful. I've really been paying attention to the way I walk and I wasn't using my glutes at all.
I'm going to incorporate some glute exercises from here on out.1 -
This is a really interesting thread, but I'm not sure I'm understanding it entirely.
Also, this may not be exactly related, but I'd been doing the same lifting program for ~5 years, just four main lifts bench, ohp, squat, and deadlift, going to failure every session except for deloading week. While I continued to see very slow (but steady) progress on all lifts, this past January I started to add some more body building type stuff focusing on glutes (a lot of the same stuff @sardelsa mentioned above). And then suddenly my deadlift jumped by about 40lbs.
So while I can't definitively say it was "activating glutes" that did it, it obviously added something that I needed. Interesting that deadlifts were the only one that saw a major boost from the accessories. I wouldn't expect them to help upper body, but my failure point on squats is only moderately going up.2 -
Activation exercises help immensely. I have a bad big toe and it somehow caused my biomechanics to shift and bear most the work for my left leg into my quad. That leg is an inch bigger around the thigh . It lead to an extremely tight left hip flexor which lead to a bad pelvic tilt. I was literally incapable of doing or feeling some stuff with the left glute until I started the activation exercises - which yes can literally be called "warming up". Once I was able to get the feel and start low , that left quad is actually going down and loads are more evenly distributed because both my glutes are "working appropriately" now .
I wouldn't say the muscle is useless or not working , or "deactivated" necessarily, but your body adapts and finds the path of least resistance sometimes. Just like mine learned to walk wrong because I have zero flexion in one of my big toes , we can learn how to leave glutes out of most the work for maneuvers that traditionally would be predominantly glute based . Like going up the stairs. It wasn't until I started doing lots of glute activation work that they'd put a lot of effort into stairs , my quads would do it .
I tried so hard to get my glutes to contribute to things before . I feel like a lot gets lost in translation but I definitely do think a lot of people have hindered biomechanics and are just so used to to whatever they're doing .4
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