Weak Glutes and How They May Be Impacting Your Pain

What are your glutes?

Your glutes are a group made up of 3 muscles: gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. They make up the largest group of muscles in the body and are incredibly important for everyday activities such as walking, going up and down stairs and keeping you upright.
Although the muscles are used constantly every day, they are extremely lazy and this is where problems can crop up!

Without the proper use of your glute muscles, other areas begin to compensate and become super overactive. Did you know that anything from your joints, other muscles and tendons/ligaments can feel the strain from an inactive glute muscle?!

Could this be an aspect of your back pain?

Maybe this is what is causing your hip or groin pain? Or maybe even this is why your knees hurt?

The glutes have an impact on parts of the body, even far away from their location.

Imagine it in a real life scenario: if you’re playing in a sports team of 10 people and five people decide they don’t want to play anymore. How would the rest of the team feel after that match had finished? Overworked and not happy would be my guess!

This is what happens when your glutes don’t work properly; every other structure around them such as your joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments, end up being overworked and strained.

Why would my glutes become inactive?

One of the most common reasons for inactivity is sitting, and unfortunately we average 11 hours of our day sat down! You can’t use the muscle if you’re sat on it, so get up and get moving!

Additionally, imbalance within the body can cause inactivity. For example, an anterior pelvic tilt posture (pushing your bottom out) switches the glutes off.

Well what can I do to fix this problem?

Activation is the most important part of your glute muscles. Most of you may have had a therapist talk to you about glute activation. Activation is essentially the “switching on” of muscles so that they do their job properly.

But the problem with switching on muscles, is that they can just as easily switch off! Therefore it is imperative to keep the activation up on a regular basis!

The 3 main exercises I recommend to get your glutes activated again are:

Clam (with or without resistance band)

Lie on your side, with both knees bent, and place an exercise band around your thighs (just above your knees).

Keeping your feet together, squeeze your deep abdominal muscles by drawing the belly button inwards.

Open your knees, like a clam, hold, and return to the start position.

If you find the exercise too tough, go back to the clam without resistance, or lengthen the exercise band.

This is a good strengthening exercise for your gluteal (buttock) and outer thigh and hip muscles.

Repeat this 12 times for 3 sets on each side, 3 days a week and definitely before doing anything at the gym involving the lower body!

Straight leg abduction with internal rotation (without or without resistance band)

Lie on your side, and tie an exercise band around your thighs.

Lift your leg upwards against the resistance of the band, whilst turning your leg in slightly so your toes are pointing the floor. You can hold this position, or move your leg up and down in controlled movements.

Difficulty can be increased by placing the band further down towards your feet.

Repeat this 12 x 3 on each side, 3 x a week.

Monster walks

Standing in an upright position, squat slightly. Again, this is another variable element that will affect the difficulty (and results) of the exercise.

For a good place to start, imagine yourself perching on an invisible chair with straight posture and slightly arched back.

Keep your knees bent and your hands on your hips, or crossed over your chest so that you are not tempted to use your arms to balance or propel yourself.

Walk with a diagonal step, moving ahead and outwards, as opposed to side to side.

Repeat 6 steps on each foot, for 3 sets. 3 times a week and as a warm up before the gym/running.

If you would like any additional support then feel free to book online here for a consultation appointment.

Alternatively contact me on ellie@tivolichiropractic.co.uk if you have any questions and queries.

Happy glute activating!