APT=no glute activation!

W

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!
 
@webstranger Great sources and what a great lightbulb moment for you!

I have super lazy glutes, and I've found that activation is just absolutely key for me. Monster walks get my glutes activated but don't dip into my tank too much to be able to perform well. I think it can be a fine line when you're trying to activate your glutes--you don't want to do so much activation that it takes away from your lifts, but you gotta wake those glutes up! And as you mentioned, staying away from Instagram models and their glute activation routines was the best thing I did for my performance. I was doing way too many kickbacks, band-abducted movements, etc to be able to perform well once I got to my actual lift. Now, what I do are some standing glute squeezes, and about 2 rounds of 30 steps in each direction Monster walks with a band.

For those who hip thrust--a key component I was missing was the chin tuck WITH keeping my torso in one position. I was hinging too much off of the bench to get a larger range of motion, but when I shorted the ROM by keeping my chin tucked and torso stable, wowoooowowww I really felt it in my glutes. Keep in mind that your bench hight is sooo important, if it's too tall for you, you'll inevitably hinge your torso too much, and your hamstrings will end up taking a lot of the glute work.

Also, keep in mind that torso lean is very individual. For me, I have to lean forward a bit in my lunging, and my rear foot elevated split squats. I'm short and have a short torso and I find that if I'm not leaning a little forward, I'm not feeling it in my glutes.

Play around with your foot placement, bench height, use a band to really push out with your knees, and it's okay to drop the weight a bit and up the reps to really get those glutes firing. I find for me, the sweet spot for glute growth for me is at the higher end of the rep range for hypertrophy--12 to 15 reps. I do make sure that the final 1-2 reps are very challenging to complete to make sure I'm selecting the correct weight, and don't forget the biggest rule of all, progressive overload.

Happy glute building, ladies!
 
@webstranger THANK YOU. I needed this. I struggle with activating my glutes more often than I’d like to admit esp when people visibly notice my intense workout sessions- but man is this insightful. Appreciate u
 
@rdean61 I totally feel you. I was doing 22kg sumo squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, tons of cable pull-throughs and kickbacks, lifting as heavy as I could manage, trying to burn out the glutes...but absolutely no gains in the butt. Although I focused on hip hinge motions, my hip flexors were so tight that even THOSE motions weren’t making a difference since the flexors were semi-permanently in a shortened position. I’m glad it can help others!
 
@webstranger This is so important!! 👏🏼 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.
 
@webstranger r/flexibility is a good resource as well, since it's a lot of people trying to be able to get into the splits and the like, so plenty of talk about hip flexors, APT, posture, squaring the hips, proper form, etc.

Strangely even though I do hip thrusts, bridges, and squats, my hikes have a great effect because I go heavy, long inclines and also lots of climbing (stairs but also steps cut into hills that are 18-24" high). I squeeze my glutes with every step (on Sunday alone I squeeze my glutes 15,283 times according to my stepometer. 6+ miles of hiking). Even on my regular walks I squeeze my glute with each step. I do glute squeezes while sitting in my chair or at the traffic light, just to keep it going. I also saw a cool technique that helps me fire things up is to strongly tap the area in question to let my brain know I'm going to work that part. I've noticed when I do that, the muscle almost always fires.

Things like chair pose also help, you should be feeling it while also able to lift your toes (sitting back on your heel).

Great tips! There's no way your post won't be incredibly helpful to a lot of folks.
 
@fishmox Thanks, will look into that sub! Over 15k of glute squeezes - wow! You must have some sick glutes haha

I did try lightly punching my glute in the glute squeeze exercise and it does seem to bring some consciousness into it...sort of like bringing the elephant into the room, make it known that it's there!
 
@webstranger Holy fucking shit

You have just unlocked my biggest fitness frustration; why I have plenty of leg strength yet squats remain SO HARD and nothing ever seems to activate my glutes

My mind is blown
 
@webstranger Thank you! I have tight hips and trouble firing up my glutes - I'm a runner, not so much a lifter, and often I feel like my glutes are stuck in place and just bouncing around along for the ride. I'm trying to get better at doing glute activation prior to running (and to give my booty an extra pop)!
 
@webstranger My fellow square butt thanks you for your research and solid explanation!

The only way I can get really into my glutes is with Romanian dead lifts or using the leg extension machine as a hip thrust bar. I'm excited to try this out and see if I can open up to more moves!
 
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