Is Your Butt Letting You Down? Activating Your Glutes Effectively...

Why Weak Glutes - Not Just a Weak Core - Might be the Real Cause of Your Back Pain

If you have been dealing with ongoing lower back pain, upper back tension, or even neck pain, yet no amount of core exercise seems to help, activating your glutes effectively might be the missing piece of the puzzle. Perhaps you have indeed been told your pain is due to your lazy glutes (your bottom muscles!). Yet no matter how many bridges, squats, or lunges you do, your pain continues, and your glutes seem lazy as ever. I hear you loud and clear. I commented in my first blog a few weeks ago that I am witnessing a growing number of clients, of all ages, who have poor glute activation despite every effort in the gym, Personal Training sessions, or even Pilates classes. "So how do I get my glutes activating?" I hear you ask. Read on to find out how you can achieve glute activation like never before!

Why Are the Glutes So Important?

Your glute muscles, gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus, are powerhouse stabilisers.

They: -

• Drive powerful and efficient movement - the gluteus maximus is the main muscle for hip extension, essential for walking, running, climbing stairs, and standing!

• Stabilise your pelvis - the gluteus minimus and medius keep the pelvis level and the hip from dropping during single-leg activities like walking or running

• Spinal support - by stabilising the pelvis and sacrum, the glutes indirectly support the lower back and help maintain appropriate posture during static and dynamic postures.

• Force Transfer - acting as a conduit to transmit force between upper and lower body efficiently during movement.

  
  

When glutes don’t activate correctly, your body calls looks elsewhere for gain stability: lower back, hamstrings, even neck muscles… and they’re just not built for the job. Over time, compensation leads to dysfunction, poor patterns of movement and eventually pain.

What I see in Clinic: Glutes or core that is causing my pain?

During my physiotherapy training and well into my practicing professional life, I was always led to believe that your core strength was the key to preventing and recovering from low back pain. However, over the years, as a physiotherapist, I have assessed countless clients with back pain, and more often than not, it is glute weakness or poor activation at the root of the issue. Core does play a role in supporting the back, but its weakness or failure to activate correctly is rarely the sole cause. In my experience, the majority of people who have back pain have poorly activating glutes more often than a weak core. Some do have weakness in both, but more often than not, it is the clients' weak glutes alone that are the main cause of low back and hip pain.

Bridging - the common mistake

Bridging is one of the most prescribed glute exercises; it is easily replicated at home without equipment and can activate all of your glute muscles. I imagine it being a favourite amongst those working in rehabilitation. However, the correct technique to enable the glutes to activate effectively is often overlooked, resulting in poor client outcomes. What I frequently observe when clients are bridging is bracing of the abdominals, either consciously or unconsciously. This has a two-fold effect. Bracing of the outer abdominals prevents the deeper core muscles from working and also prevents the glutes from doing the work they are meant to do. Essentially, you are lifting your pelvis and lower back with your abdominals instead of your core and glutes.

From the Research to the Clinic: How I Discovered the Trick to Power Up the Glutes

In early 2019 I completed a JEMS® Movement course (Joanne Elphinston Movement Systems) led by Joanne Elphinston titled ‘The Art and Science of Beautiful Movement’. My biggest takeaway? Learning how to activate the glutes through a new, refined approach to bridging without clenching the buttocks or over-bracing the abs. This became a staple in my clinical practice and Pilates work. Since then, I’ve taught all my clients how to activate their glutes with the stomach completely relaxed, producing profound results on clinical outcomes. It’s not easy, as most people brace their abs, even unconsciously, but it is critical.

Are you relaxing YOUR abs when you bridge?

Go on! Try it! Complete a bridge and feel your stomach with your hands or fingertips. Stomach rock hard? Now try it again this time keeping your stomach soft and feel the difference. Finding it difficult to relax your stomach? Not always as easy as it sounds...

Activating Your Glutes Effectively!

How to achieve a relaxed stomach and the perfect environment to get your glutes firing!

Relaxing your stomach sometimes requires breathwork. Deep focused abdominal breaths can help relax your abdominals and allow your glutes and core to fire appropriately during your bridge. Follow your abdominal breaths with gentle pelvic tilting (flattening and then arching your lower back into the floor) with a relaxed stomach. Once you feel it is easy to tilt your pelvis with a relaxed stomach, progress the pelvic tilt into a full bridge, by rolling your spine and continuing to tilt your pelvis towards you as if your pelvis were a cup you were tilting to take a drink from (rather than just "lifting' the pelvis). At the top of your bridge, take a couple of breaths to ensure your stomach is soft before rolling down again. With this method, clients finally feel their glutes do the work, not their abs or back. It is truly a lightbulb moment for many and incredibly rewarding for me.

My takeaway message...the bottom line...!!

If you’ve been told to strengthen your core, that’s not bad advice, but it may not be the full story. Your glutes play a vital role in stabilising your spine and preventing overuse of your lower back, even your neck. The good news? The fix is often simple. Get your glutes working, move more efficiently, and notice how your pain changes.

Still not sure if your glutes are firing? Can't relax your abdominals?

Don't hesitate to contact me or Book online to get personalised support. 

Feel free to call/text/WhatsApp me with questions on: 0494 039 736

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Feel good. Moove Well.