THE 9 BEST GLUTE ACTIVATION EXERCISES: GET THE BOOTY READY

Let’s face it, everyone desires a firm, lifted, and powerful posterior. Yet, attaining it can be complicated.

You can perform numerous squats and lunges and wish for favourable outcomes. However, for tangible progress, it’s crucial to integrate glute activation routines into your regimen immediately, ensuring maximum benefit as we transition to more comprehensive exercises.

This piece delves into glute activation, significance, and top-notch exercises to ignite those glutes. Let’s dive in!

What is Glute Activation?

Glute activation involves exercises that warm up and prepare the glutes for more intense workouts. These exercises aim to awaken the glutes and prime them for our glute-building routines.

The glutes consist of three muscles: the gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus. Weakness or inhibition in these muscles can lead to various issues, such as lower back pain, poor posture, and hip discomfort. Glute activation exercises are performed before heavy lifting to ensure the glutes can handle the workload.

Many individuals need to pay more attention to the importance of glute activation exercises, resulting in neglect. However, integrating these exercises into your fitness regimen can enhance performance during other workouts and prevent injuries.

Examples of glute activation exercises include bridges, clamshells, lateral band walks, and donkey kicks. These exercises can be part of a warm-up routine or a comprehensive workout plan to enhance glute strength and activation.

Why is Glute activation essential?

Due to sedentary habits or prolonged sitting, many people have weak glutes that struggle to engage effectively during activities requiring greater glute strength. This weakness can lead to compensatory actions by other muscle groups, resulting in discomfort and injury.

Weak glutes can also contribute to poor posture, exacerbating back pain or leading to further complications. Thus, activating the glutes before exercises like squats, hip thrusts, and deadlifts is crucial to prevent issues and injuries.

Proper glute activation enables us to confidently progress to more challenging exercises, knowing that our lower body is prepared for the workload.

Moreover, as the largest and most potent muscles in the body, the glutes significantly impact sports performance. Therefore, athletes must prioritise activating and strengthening their glutes to enhance performance.

How do you get your Glutes Firing?

Getting your glutes activated is more challenging than just doing a couple of squats or lunges. To get those glutes firing, we need exercises targeting all three glute parts – the glute maximus, medius, and minimus.

Each of these muscles is important in helping you move smoothly and effectively.

The gluteus maximus, the biggest of the three, extends your hip. It’s what helps you walk, run, and climb stairs.

The gluteus medius, found on the side of your hip, helps with moving your hip outwards and rotating it externally. This muscle stabilises your pelvis when walking, running, or jumping.

The gluteus minimus, situated beneath the gluteus medius, also assists with moving your hip outwards and rotating it inwardly. It works alongside the gluteus medius to keep your pelvis steady during movement.

To activate your glutes effectively, we need to target these three actions: hip extension, abduction, and external rotation.

We recommend a 5-10-minute glute activation routine before any workout focusing on your lower body. This ensures your glutes are primed and reduces the risk of injuries.

Below, we’ll go over some excellent glute activation exercises you can add to your routine.

Bonus tip: When doing these exercises, concentrate on your glutes! It might seem silly, but focusing on the muscles you’re working on can improve the connection between your mind and muscles, leading to better results.

The top glute-activating workouts

Many practical glute activation exercises utilise a resistance band, so it’s wise to have one handy before you begin.

Since the maximus is the most significant glute muscle, it’s essential to prioritise activating it. The initial five exercises concentrate on the gluteus maximus, followed by four exercises to engage the gluteus medius and minimus.

1. BANDED DONKEY KICKS

This exercise primarily targets the glute maximus, priming it before other exercises. The resistance bands intensify the workout, enhancing the mind-muscle connection.

HOW TO PERFORM BANDED DONKEY KICKS:

• Wrap a resistance band above your knees.
• Position yourself on all fours, maintaining a neutral spine with hips aligned with knees.
• Raise one leg towards the ceiling while slightly bending the knee.
• Lower the leg slowly once you feel the glutes engage and resistance band tension.
• Complete 10-15 repetitions on each leg.

2. BANDED STANDING GLUTE KICKBACK

.HOW TO PERFORM BANDED STANDING GLUTE KICKBACK:

• Stand with feet hip-width apart and place a resistance band around your ankles.
• Elevate your left foot while keeping the right foot grounded.
• Kick your left leg backwards, focusing on squeezing the glutes.
• Maintain a slight knee bend throughout.
• Return to the starting position without resting your foot on the ground.

 3. BANDED GLUTE BRIDGE

This exercise effectively activates the glute maximus.

HOW TO PERFORM BANDED GLUTE BRIDGE:

• Lie on a mat with bent knees and flat feet.
• Wrap a resistance band loop around your thighs just above the knees.
• Ensure hip-width spacing between your feet and maintain a neutral spine with arms beside you.
• Lift your hips off the ground by pressing your heels into the mat and tightening your glutes while exhaling. Your body should form a straight line from chin to knees, resting on shoulders.
• Inhale to lower pelvis back to starting position.
• Repeat for desired reps.
• For added difficulty, elevate your feet on a platform, as shown in the example.

 4. LYING KICKBACK (WITH BAND)

Similar to donkey kicks but performed lying down, this exercise targets glute maximus activation.

HOW TO PERFORM LYING KICKBACK (WITH BAND):

• Lie on your stomach with a resistance band around your ankles.
• Kick one leg back while keeping the other close to the ground.
• Squeeze your glutes as you kick back, maintaining a slight knee bend.
• Return leg to starting position.
• Complete reps on each leg or alternate.

5. REVERSE HYPEREXTENSION

A lesser-known but influential glute activation exercise, ideal for inclusion in your routine.

HOW TO PERFORM REVERSE HYPEREXTENSION:

• Lie on your stomach with your hands by your sides, either on the floor or a bench.
• Keep feet together and lift legs backwards.
• Maintain leg alignment and squeeze glutes at the top.
• Lower legs and hips to ground/bench, returning to start.
• Repeat 10-15 times for effective glute activation.

 6. SEATED LEG LIFT (WITH BAND)

This exercise primarily targets the gluteus medius. The medius is responsible for moving your leg outwards, which this exercise focuses on.

HOW TO PERFORM SEATED LEG LIFT (WITH BAND):

• Sit on a surface with hips and knees at approximately 90-degree angles.
• Wrap a resistance band around your thighs just above the knees.
• Simultaneously, both legs move outward to the side, feeling the resistance band tension.
• Squeeze your glutes, hold for a moment, then return to the starting position.
• Repeat 10-15 times for optimal results.

 7. BANDED SIDEWALK

Targeting the medius and minimus, this exercise effectively activates the upper glutes.

HOW TO PERFORM BANDED SIDEWALK:

• Secure a resistance band around your legs above the knees.
• Maintain a neutral spine and stand with feet shoulder-width apart.
• Walk sideways, keeping tension on the band and toes facing forward.
• Maintain control throughout the movement, avoiding letting the band pull your legs.
• Return to the starting position while inhaling. Perform 8-12 reps in each direction.

 8. CLAMSHELLS (WITH BAND)

Similar to seated leg lifts but with a twist.

HOW TO PERFORM CLAM SHELLS (WITH BAND):

• Lie on your right side, either on the floor or on a bench.
• Place a resistance band above your knees and extend your right arm along the floor while resting your head.
• With your feet together, bend your knees slightly towards the torso.
• Lift your left knee towards the ceiling, keeping your feet together.
• Hold when you feel tension in the band and glute engagement, then return to start.
• Complete ten reps on each side.

 9. PUPPY PEE (WITH BAND)

Focusing on engaging the glute medius and minimus, the puppy pee is an efficient exercise to prepare the glutes for intense workouts.

HOW TO DO PUPPY PEE:

• Begin on all fours with hands in front of shoulders and knees below hips.
• Position the resistance band above your knees.
• Raise one leg to the side, keeping it bent at a 90-degree angle, and exhale during the lift.
• Lift until you feel the glutes activate and resistance band tension.
• Return to the starting position slowly.
• Complete 10-15 reps on each side.

CONCLUSION

Incorporating glute activation exercises into your fitness routine can improve outcomes, reduce injury risks, and enhance overall health and fitness.

We engage in our preferred glute-focused exercises to enhance and strengthen these muscles. Neglecting glute activation before heavy lifting may result in other muscles, like the quads and hamstrings, compensating, diminishing the load on the glutes.