By: Liz Moore
Glute Activation and Strengthening Exercises
Today we’re talking about Glute activation and strengthening exercises! In other words, what exercises can you do to strengthen your BUTT.
Having strong glutes is so important because a strong glute prevents hip, back and knee pain. I see new clients coming into the gym with these types of pain or injury and the first thing I think of is that we need to work on glute strength and make sure the glute is activating properly. Injury can occur with weak or underactive glutes.
My favorite glute strengthening exercise is the Bridge. Let’s start with the basic bridge and then progress to different styles of the bridge:
1. Glute Bridge
a. start by laying on your back on the floor, knees bent, ankles under or just in front of knee
b. Activate pelvic floor and Transverse Abdominus
c. Create a Neutral spine (back not excessively arched)
d. Push heels into the ground and lift up with the hips. Inhale before you lift, exhale as you lift
e. Hold at the top of the bridge for desired time. I recommend starting with one to two seconds, and increasing hold times as you get better at the movement.
f. Lower down, core activated.
g. Repeat for 10 reps, three times through
h. See progressions below:
2. Glute Bridge with Band under knees
3. Single Leg Glute Bridge
4. Exercise ball Bridge
Glute strength is so important for many reasons, but mainly to prevent hip, back and knee pain or injury. The glute is connected to many muscles and joints and needs to be working properly and engaging during our lifts in order to work effectively. Even if you already have strong glutes, these exercises are great to do before more advanced movements like squats or deadlifts to activate the glute before the lift.
Comment with Questions, we’d love to hear from you!
