Strong glute muscles aren’t just important for a shapely behind. They can prevent back pain and injury, and offset hours of sitting at your bench.
Do you have lazy glute syndrome? Months of judicial sitting and lockdown living means more time sitting on our backsides. Our fitness coach, Malcolm Hood, warns that a side effect of this spiralling inactivity is that the biggest muscles in our body are being woefully deconditioned. “Not all muscles waste away quickly,” he says. “But the gluteal muscles in our buttocks lose significant strength and mass when they aren’t used as much, and it can happen within weeks.”
If you think a loss of butt bulk may be a good thing, think again. As the body’s powerhouse, our glutes are relied on to improve movement and balance, posture, and performance. They act as a support for the entire body and as a shock absorber during exercise. “Our gluteal muscles are not switched on when we are sitting on them so they start to atrophy when we sit a lot,” physiotherapist Sammy Margo says. “When we stand up, walk, jump, or run, these large muscles are used to stabilise our pelvis and drive our movement, so it is incredibly important to keep them strong. Since they are involved in knee alignment, people are more prone to knee pain when their glutes aren’t strong,” Margo says. “Back pain is also more common.”
From our 30s onwards, we are prone to lazy glute syndrome through too much sitting. “Glutes have been largely overlooked by the fitness industry in recent years in favour of core abdominal muscles, and so they are not as strong and efficient as they could be,” Zana Morris, a personal trainer, says. This doesn’t mean glutes lie dormant, just that they aren’t being recruited as often as they need to be to stay strong. It’s also outdated to suggest that there is a faulty firing pattern between underdeveloped glutes and the back muscles that can be corrected by glute activation exercises. It’s important to include gluteal exercises, such as squats and lunges, before a workout to warm up the muscles and prepare them for activity.
Professor Jonathan Folland, an expert in neuromuscular performance at Loughborough University, says the glutes underpin efficient human movement. “Even in sedentary people, the gluteus maximus is the human body’s biggest muscle, and there are evolutionary reasons it developed that way,” Folland says. “Our ancestors needed to be able to run fast for their own survival, and fast running depends on the ability to power from the hips to drive our legs forward, snapping down the lead leg to push hard against the ground so we move quickly — all of which is largely dependent on gluteal strength.”
Quite how much glutes affect the way we move was shown in a recent study by Folland that was published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. He discovered that how fast people can run is influenced not only by diet, technique, and genetic make-up, but also — and perhaps more significantly — by the size of their buttock muscles.
For his trial, Folland set out to measure the sizes of 23 muscles in the lower bodies of 42 male sprinters (all of whom could run 100m in between 9.91 and 11.25 seconds). His results showed that the size of the gluteus maximus is key for achieving fast running speeds, and the glutes were 45 per cent bigger in elite sprinters than non-elite sprinters. Even for the non-speedy, it is likely the results matter.
“We don’t know if this is down to nature or nurture, whether the athletes developed big glutes as a result of training or were born with them,” Folland says. “But increasing the size and strength of the gluteus maximus in particular would be expected to improve running speed in anyone.”
Even if we don’t need to move quickly, developing glute strength will pay off. But how? “Anything that involves a pushing-through motion with your legs will engage your glutes,” Margo says. “Running and walking uphill are supremely effective, but there are many ways to work your glutes.”
Cycling is an option, but not if your saddle is set in the wrong position. “You won’t activate the glutes if you set your saddle too high or low,” says Phil Burt, a cycling coach and author of Strength and Conditioning for Cyclists. “Set your saddle to be level with your hip bone.”
The best ways to tone up glutes
Squeeze your glutes as you sit or stand
You may be spending more time sitting than ever before, but as far as your glutes are concerned you can offset some of that time with simple glute-squeezing.
In a 2019 study published in PeerJ, the journal of life and environmental sciences, exercise scientists at Wichita State University asked volunteers to perform either 15 minutes of gluteal squeezes, which involved sitting up straight and squeezing their gluteal muscles as hard as they could for five seconds before relaxing and repeating; or 15 minutes of glute bridges, in which you lie on the floor and squeeze your glutes to raise your hips so that your body forms a straight line from knees to shoulders, every day for eight weeks.
Their results showed that the glute squeeze matched the glute bridge in hip extension improvements as well as increases in jump and endurance tests. However, the squeeze group had a more significant increase in glute size after the eight-week trial, meaning there are clear “clinical and aesthetic reasons to perform gluteal squeezes”, the researchers said.
Perform squats — with or without weights
Start with bodyweight squats before adding any weights or kettlebells. Maintain good technique with the feet shoulder-width apart, and sink into a squat by bending your knees and lowering your bottom until thighs are at least parallel to the floor, before driving back up through your heels. Start with three sets of 10 squats and adding more repetitions as you can comfortably manage them.
Do deep lunges
Step forward as far as is comfortable with your right leg and bend both legs to 90 degrees, keeping your back straight, and engaging the abdominals. Push down on your front heel to help to maintain good balance, but also to really engage the glutes. Allow your back knee to brush the floor. Return to the start position and do 10 repetitions on the same leg before switching sides.
If you have enough room, deep walking lunges are an option. Push through the front heel to step forward with the left leg and repeat in a walking motion for ten steps. Do three sets of 10 deep lunges, standing or walking, on each side.
Do daily step-ups or extra stair climbing
If you struggle with squats, try repeated stair climbing either using a machine at the gym or simply by walking up a flight of stairs. The upward movement and acceleration of each step is a great way to strengthen glutes.
Or try the step-up exercise, which has the same outcome. In a study conducted at the University of Wisconsin, exercise physiologists used electromyographic analysis to measure the muscle recruitment patterns of common gluteal exercises compared with the traditional squat, and step-ups were found to be a good alternative.
To do them, stand behind a tall step or box and put your left foot on top, transferring your weight to that leg. Push down with the heel of your left foot and straighten your leg to come up on top of the platform. Repeat on the same side for 12-16 reps and then change legs. As you get stronger, add weights.
Walk or run uphill
Walking or running on an incline is one of the best ways to work the glutes. Hillwalking replicates the muscle engagement of lunges and the gluteus maximus works with the hamstrings to extend the thighs every time you push off with another stride. Include a range of gradients, starting with gentle inclines until you get stronger.
Find a slope or hill 60–80m long and walk up and down it six to eight times, clenching the glutes as you push off with each stride.