The Importance of Glute Firing

Sep 21, 2015
2 min read

Ensuring your glutes (your bum) switch on or fire properly is extremely important in exercise, if they aren’t doing their job they cause your lower back, hamstring, ITB and TFL to overwork and therefore become overloaded.

When your hamstrings, ITB and TFL are overworked, this can lead to tendonopathies, pain in and around the knee and hamstring weakness. Whereas overloading your lower back can cause pain here, in the hips and can lead to tight hip flexors which then has a knock on effect to other areas, such as your core. So you can see why it’s important to get the balance right!

There is a little test you can do at home to see which is firing first, your hamstrings or glutes. Lying in your front, place one hand on your bum and the other on that back of your thigh (hamstrings) on the same leg. Now lift your leg, keeping in straight. You should feel either your bum or your hamstrings tense first, it’s not always obvious so you will need to concentrate!

If you feel your hamstrings contract before your glutes, you need to start doing some glute activation exercises. Whilst doing these, place your fingers on your bum so you can feel your glutes contract and make sure they are working.

There are loads of exercises you can do to strengthen your glutes. Here are some examples of really easy glute activation exercises to get your started:

Clam

Lie on your side with your knees slightly bent, ensure your feet are in line with your hips
Keeping your feet together, lift the top leg
Hold for 3s and slowly lower
15-20 reps, twice a day on each leg

Straight leg lift lying on your front

Lie on your front and engage your core/pelvic floor
Keeping leg straight, lift whole leg off the floor as high as possible before feeling it in your back
Hold for 3s and slowly lower
Ensure glutes contract before lifting leg
10 reps twice a day on each leg

Leg extension on all fours (Donkey kick)

On your hands and knees
Hips over knees, shoulders over hands and core engaged so your back is flat
Keeping knee bent, lift leg to 90°
Hold for 3s and slowly lower
Repeat 10 times on each leg twice a day
Do not allow back to bend/hips to wobble – place a small ball on your lower back and do not allow it to roll around