webstranger
New member
This post is for ladies who are having difficulties firing glutes, or feeling the mind-muscle connection in dat butt.
Note: I am not a professional trainer, simply just a girl who has done self-study and personal research into getting some glute gains. After over a year of hip thrusts, RDL’s, hip abductions, froggy pumps, step ups, cable kickbacks, Bret Contreras, etc...I still had saggy cottage cheese butt in the most beautiful, undesirable SQUARE shape, because I could not, for the life of me, get my glutes to fire.
The lightbulb flickered when, one day, I was doing lunges, looked in the mirror, and observed that my entire torso was leaning forward at a slight angle, meaning that there was something wrong with my form. While doing the exercise, I had always concentrated on the front foot and the forward motion and the quad of the front leg. On a whim, I tried to put my energy into the BACK foot and also the GLUTE of the back leg as well as stretching open the HIP FLEXOR of the back leg.
Voila, my posture had straightened and opened up years of tight hips that I had never even knew about. It was like discovering a pile of mold behind your mattress because you had never bothered to even look underneath. I was leaning forward in the Lunge because of tight hips, or basically APT.
This led me to research more about the connection between tight hips and the inability to activate the glutes, and I wanted to share a few videos that I thought could help out any other gal out there who has “gluteal amnesia” whose glute exercises still aren’t building any desired results. All of these are anecdotal, of course, but even after a week of these smaller, isometric exercises, I already notice a more popping effect and perkiness of my glute muscles, AND I can feel the side glutes that I never felt before.
Here are the videos:
Hip Flexor Stretches:
Glute Activation Exercises:
https://youtu.be/-LUPDIiZgK0
https://youtu.be/grYGaod_ePw
I’ve pretty much avoided the “InstaFitnessGirl” channels and going more towards the physiology/physical therapist route of approaching glutes now. I’ve always been fascinated by how pretty and fit and fashionable the Insta/YouTube Fit Chicks are, but sometimes they don’t know everything! More for the eyes and the motivation instead of the actual science.
My tip: For anyone who has been lifting heavy but not seeing results, go down to body weight or light resistance and really focus on the mind-muscle connection and activation. You will be very surprised to see how sore your glutes can get without heavy weights but by simply being mindful, working the muscle SLOWLY with intention, taking care of abdominal/pelvic form and stretching out the hips.
Another tip: To figure out if you’ve truly got the glute activation, stand in front of the mirror and see if you can squeeze a butt cheek on its own and if you can, it will visually jiggle. Seriously, try it. Then it means you can control that muscle. Think about the Friends episode where Bruce Willis is in the cabin, looking in the mirror, flexing individual pecs. It’s the same for the butt cheeks.
I hope this helps anybody else out there!
Note: I am not a professional trainer, simply just a girl who has done self-study and personal research into getting some glute gains. After over a year of hip thrusts, RDL’s, hip abductions, froggy pumps, step ups, cable kickbacks, Bret Contreras, etc...I still had saggy cottage cheese butt in the most beautiful, undesirable SQUARE shape, because I could not, for the life of me, get my glutes to fire.
The lightbulb flickered when, one day, I was doing lunges, looked in the mirror, and observed that my entire torso was leaning forward at a slight angle, meaning that there was something wrong with my form. While doing the exercise, I had always concentrated on the front foot and the forward motion and the quad of the front leg. On a whim, I tried to put my energy into the BACK foot and also the GLUTE of the back leg as well as stretching open the HIP FLEXOR of the back leg.
Voila, my posture had straightened and opened up years of tight hips that I had never even knew about. It was like discovering a pile of mold behind your mattress because you had never bothered to even look underneath. I was leaning forward in the Lunge because of tight hips, or basically APT.
This led me to research more about the connection between tight hips and the inability to activate the glutes, and I wanted to share a few videos that I thought could help out any other gal out there who has “gluteal amnesia” whose glute exercises still aren’t building any desired results. All of these are anecdotal, of course, but even after a week of these smaller, isometric exercises, I already notice a more popping effect and perkiness of my glute muscles, AND I can feel the side glutes that I never felt before.
Here are the videos:
Hip Flexor Stretches:
Glute Activation Exercises:
https://youtu.be/-LUPDIiZgK0
https://youtu.be/grYGaod_ePw
I’ve pretty much avoided the “InstaFitnessGirl” channels and going more towards the physiology/physical therapist route of approaching glutes now. I’ve always been fascinated by how pretty and fit and fashionable the Insta/YouTube Fit Chicks are, but sometimes they don’t know everything! More for the eyes and the motivation instead of the actual science.
My tip: For anyone who has been lifting heavy but not seeing results, go down to body weight or light resistance and really focus on the mind-muscle connection and activation. You will be very surprised to see how sore your glutes can get without heavy weights but by simply being mindful, working the muscle SLOWLY with intention, taking care of abdominal/pelvic form and stretching out the hips.
Another tip: To figure out if you’ve truly got the glute activation, stand in front of the mirror and see if you can squeeze a butt cheek on its own and if you can, it will visually jiggle. Seriously, try it. Then it means you can control that muscle. Think about the Friends episode where Bruce Willis is in the cabin, looking in the mirror, flexing individual pecs. It’s the same for the butt cheeks.
I hope this helps anybody else out there!
thank you for sharing! The program P.volve also focuses on this idea and has awesome workout videos to open up the hips and activate the glutes too! I also find personally that doing donkey kick variations before every leg workout helps tremendously.