4 Reasons You Need To Fix Your Weak Glutes

Weak glutes are probably the most common cause for joint pains, muscle, postural, and movement imbalances. Before I share with you the five reasons you need to fix your weak glutes, and how, I should probably provide you with a small anatomy and physiology lesson.

What are these “glutes” I speak of?

The term “glutes” aka your butt, refers to your gluteal muscles. Your gluteal muscles are composed of your gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus…creative, I know. The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the human body, so keeping them strong and functional is extremely important. In conjunction, the main functions of the gluteal muscles are:

• Stabilize lumbo-pelvic hip complex

• Decelerates tibial internal rotation via IT band

• Eccentrically decelerates hip abduction and external rotation

• Concentrically accelerate hip abduction and internal rotation

All you should gather from that list is that your glutes are responsible for most thigh movements (abduction, adduction, rotation, extension), walking, running, and pelvic stabilization (aka posture and weight shift). In short, your glutes are pretty damn important. This unfortunately isn’t reflected in how poorly we treat them.

Our sedentary lifestyles promote more, if not constant, sitting. We’re sitting at work, at home, in the car, on the train, at the restaurant, and some of us even sit at the gym (yeah, I said it smh). This constant sitting causes your glutes (and other muscles) to become less mobile, inflexible, and weak. In tightening your hip flexors and lengthening (weakening) your glutes, sitting can cause gluteal amnesia. Gluteal amnesia is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: your body forgets how to properly activate your gluteal muscles.

Here are the 4 reasons you NEED to fix your weak glutes, and HOW to correct it:

1) Knee Pain

You’re probably scrolling up right about now to make sure you clicked on the right article. Yes, your weak glutes may be causing your knee pain. When diagnosing knee pain look toward the hips or ankles; in this case we’ll look towards the hips. I mean think about it, if you think of your legs like a chain of, your hips, knees, and ankles, serving as the links. If your hips are the top of this chain, I’d argue that its alignment is fundamental to the function of the chains (joints) below it, the knees and the ankles. If there is any sort of imbalance in the hips, that very well be seen in knees via pain or pronation, or the ankles via immobility or instability. If the hips are immobile (and the glutes are weak), the knees cannot be stable, no exceptions.

2) Low Back Pain

Low back pain is another common symptom of weak glutes. Since the fundamental function of the gluteal muscles is pelvic stabilization, when those muscles fire incorrectly, it’s your lower back that takes on the burden. A great way to see this play out is in a traditional plank. More often than not, when I ask a new client to perform a plank, they complain of lower back pain. This is due to both weak glutes and weak abdominals. A simple way I remedy this complaint with clients is by telling them to squeeze their glutes and if they don’t know what that means, I kindly tell them to pretend I put a Benjamin in between their butt cheeks and to SQUEEZE! That alone will usually alleviate the pain; it also makes the plank that much more difficult. Also I’d like to add that if you are executing a plank properly, you should struggle to make it to 60 seconds, you need to be squeezing your whole body; the plank is NOT a passive movement.

3) Inhibited Athletic Performance

This is probably self explanatory, but if your glutes are weak, your missing out on some insane athletic ability and performance. Like I said earlier, your gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the human body. With weak glutes you’re not only missing out on some stability and functionality, but you’re also missing out on some real power. Whether your goal is to run faster, squat more, or jump higher, strengthening your glutes can only bring you closer to your goal. Look at the glutes of the highest performing athletes (get your head out of the gutter). Think: Serena Williams, Mat Fraser, Shelley Ann Fraser Pryce, and so on.

4) Poor Posture

Anterior pelvic tilt is one of the most common muscle imbalances I see as a coach. Tight hamstrings, weak glutes, tight hip flexors, and weak abdominal muscles. In this case, your hips are a real driving force and strengthening your glutes can fix the entire issue. Although poor posture is a symptom of weak glutes, it’s the cause of many other issues, such as, poor circulation, arthritis, and sexual dysfunction (yeah, I know that caught your attention.)

How To Fix Them:

• Focus on strengthening the glute maximus and medius. The maximus is primarily responsible for hip extension, the medius, lateral hip rotation. You can see then how important their strength is to knee stability. Weakness in these muscles cause knee valgus, also known as “knock knees.”

• Mobilize your hips. As great as static stretching is, I believe improved mobility is best found in dynamic warmups and strength movements. Dynamic warmups not only get your blood flowing but it also prepares your body for a range of motion that will be required and/or challenged in your workout. Static stretching could be beneficial in the morning or before rest. Strength movements are often overlooked as a way to improve mobility. A great way to mobilize your hips is to strengthen your hip flexors through full range of motion. Kettlebell swings and psoas marches are great movements to consider.

• Sit Less. Now this one might seem obvious but you’d surprised at how many people ignore it. Look, you can’t out stretch or out strengthen blatant lack of movement. If you continue to sit you’ll but undoing all of your hard work, just like if you’re trying to lose weight but after every gym session or run you eat a snickers bar or even a healthy salad. If you eat back the calories you just burned, you essentially just wasted time.

• Foam Roll Everyday. I know that this one might be controversial but I’ve found myofascial release to be extremely beneficial to me and my clients…in the long run. It is going to take time to get you back to balance but it’s worth the wait. There’s no need to foam roll for 30 minutes everyday. Completely unnecessary and potentially injury inducing. 10 minutes in total should suffice. Focus 5-6 of those minutes on the muscles of the hip (rectus femoris, psoas, gluteal muscles, adductor muscles). There will and should be discomfort, tough through it.

Top 5 Exercises:

• Kettlebell Swings (strengthen posterior leg muscles and get hips into extension)

• Psoas March (strengthen and mobilize iliopsoas)

• Wall Sit w/ Banded Hip Adduction (activate and strengthen gluteus maximus and medius simultaneously)

• Glute Bridge (strengthen gluteal muscles collectively)

• Hip Thrust (strengthen gluteal muscles collectively)

3 BONUS Exercises:

• Reverse Nordic (mobilize quadricep muscles, allowing for posterior/anterior muscular balance)

• Isometric Deep Squat (mobilize hips)

• Reverse Crunch (strengthen lower abdominals and stabilize core)