your butt is home to the largest most powerful muscles in your body it basically acts as a support system and shock absorber for the entire body and it plays a major role in generating power and force in many movements not only that though but well-developed glutes they just look good on both men and women and yes for the guys out there we do have insider confirmation that girls do take notice of your butts the problem nowadays though is that we tend to sit a lot and for prolonged periods of time which is a great way
to potentially forget how to use your glutes especially if you don't take action to counteract this and for some individuals due to this glutes inhibition and excessive sitting this can often lead to lower back and or hip pain this then worsens the whole problem since research has shown that your body will tend to avoid using the glutes in response to any lower body pain or injury that it has as a protective mechanism and what often happens is that even after the pain or injury is resolved the body still remembers this pattern and will continue inhibiting
the glutes world-renowned spinal researcher dr stewart mcgill has looked into this topic extensively and he terms this phenomenon as gluteal amnesia now the main problem here is that as you forget how to use your glutes due to disuse or pain your body will compensate so now when you're squatting deadlifting or doing any hip extension movement where your glutes are supposed to be helping out other muscles will take over instead and oftentimes it's the hamstrings and lower back that take that extra load which not only inhibits your glutes development but it's also why we commonly see
this pattern of weak glutes tight hamstrings and lower back pain it can even get to the point where simple tasks that involve hip extension like walking or jogging will cause lower back discomfort because the glutes are essentially just turned off so long story short your glutes are important and to find out if your glutes may indeed be needing some more attention there's four key indicators that we can look at first if you just generally have a hard time feeling your glutes working or contracting them during the lower body exercises and your lower back and your
hamstrings just tighten up instead then this is a good sign that the glutes aren't activating how they should be second perform a single leg loop bridge like so with one leg straightened and the other leg bent on the floor hold this position with your hips in the air now if you feel your hamstrings your lower back or your quads more so than your glutes then this is another indication that your glutes aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing during hip extension third if from the side you exhibit an anterior pelvic tilt posture then your
glutes are likely failing to pull your pelvis into its neutral position due to weakness and lastly if you sit for most of the day and have what i'll just call flat butt syndrome then chances are your glutes can use some work so if you've tested positive for one or more of those four indicators or you just like to see better results with your glutes training then it's time to start awakening those glutes and to do so in this video we're gonna go through a four step plan where with the use of just a few daily
exercises we'll be able to gradually get your glutes firing harder and harder to the point where you'll be actually using your glutes whenever you walk move and perform your lifts instead of having your lower back or other muscles compensate and work overtime as a result so the first thing we want to do here is just get you to understand what a glute contraction actually feels like and to get your brain to actually connect with the muscle so to start just sit down and place your hands under each butt cheek then take turns contracting each of
your glutes with your hands you should be able to feel those glute muscles firing as you contract them one at a time then once you're able to do that we'll progress this by going into a kneeling position this time engage your core and place your hand on the glute at the down leg and try to flex it as hard as you can you should feel the contraction with your hand and your glute changing shape as you do so keep working until you can establish this then after you've run a few sets of each of those
and you can actually really feel your glutes contracting in each of those positions we want to then progress into some exercises where your glutes are working against gravity which is where step two comes in to do so we'll use two simple exercises that dr stewart mcgill based on his 30-plus years of extensive lab and experimental research found are the best options to getting those glutes firing again so based on your research what exercises have you found are best to just help re-establish that connection with the glutes and individuals who suffer from gluteal amnesia or just
can't seem to activate their glutes very well in general well over the 30 years of probing this we found that two exercises were superior at reintegrating the gluteals and they both came from the great czech neurologist vladimir yonda that is the back bridge and the show good coaching and mindfulness is essential we've measured that those who treat these exercises trivially do not re-establish the gluteal patterns that are required so the coaching cues in the way that we've described ensure appropriate gluteal activation so proper execution with these two exercises is absolutely essential here and luckily dr
stewart mcgill was kind enough to spend the time to personally guide me through each of these exercises to explain the setup and various cues that he found based on his several years of research tend to work the best to maximize glutes activation i'll summarize them as i go through each exercise the first move the glute bridge will target the largest of your glute muscles the gluteus maximus for these first lay on your back with your knees bent while keeping your core brace and without arching your lower back squeeze your butt muscles to get them engaged
first and then lift up while keeping your glutes contracted at the top squeeze your glutes as hard as possible for about five seconds before coming back down now if this alone doesn't activate your glutes very well and you feel it more so when you hamstrings then you can experiment with the following cues first you can think about as if you were holding a hundred dollar bill between your butt cheeks so to keep that hundred dollar bill constantly squeeze your glutes throughout each rep to prevent that bill from dropping another helpful cue is rather than thinking
about driving your heels into the ground which tends to activate the hamstrings more instead think about pushing your feet away from you so actively push your feet forwards as if you were trying to perform a knee extension and you can even perform this against the wall if you need something to push against what this does is it will activate the quads and then through a concept called reciprocal inhibition will as a result decrease the activation of the hamstrings so that the glutes are now forced to do the work and finally if needed you can add
a mini band around the knees which can help boost activation since your knees will actively have to use your glutes to keep them spread apart as you perform the movement so experiment with these various cues and use them as needed in order to maximize your glutes activation next are clamshells which will be used to target another important glute muscle the gluteus medius for these lay on your side with your knees and hips bent use one arm to make a pillow for your head and then with your other hand place your thumb on the bone in
the front of your hip and then wrap your other fingers around over top the upper part of your butt this muscle is a glute medius and you want to feel this muscle working as you do the following movement next while keeping your feet together and core braced open up your top knee like a clam shell so that the knee of your upper leg rises towards the ceiling avoid rotating your hips as you do so by maintaining that abdominal bracing again you should feel the glute medius contracting with your fingers as you perform each rep and
as for sets and reps of these exercises dr stewart mcgill recommends three sets of ten reps but with each rep performed mindfully and with a strong activation of the glutes now once you do get back to a point where your glutes are firing and you're feeling a lot more relief in your lower back and your hamstrings you want to then start progressing your glutes with more and more resistance and load and training them in different movement patterns and to do so there are three exercises that dr stewart mcgill recommends our best so student now once
we do get back to a point where our glutes are back on so to speak what should we then progress to in order to further challenge the glutes with more resistance and our load and just to get them reintegrated with our other lower body muscles number one lateral step up it challenges the gluteals in hip extension but also in ab duction or frontal plane strength which is glute media so it's an outstanding exercise to stimulate to a very high level the glutes but it's a very mild exercise so it's easy on the body [Music] second
exercise goblet squat it targets the glutes and with the coaching cues that we use it really stimulates all of the neuromuscular compartments in the gluteals [Music] do [Music] the third one the cable pull through really sets up squats deadlifts and some of the more power type of exercises that some of your listeners will be very passionate [Music] at the end of this uh training progression the idea is to have full integration of hamstrings now as dr stewart mcgill suggested these exercises are essential to just get your glutes back in the habit of knowing how to
properly fire and work with your other lower body muscles then eventually you'll be able to do your more demanding exercises like split squats barbell squats and deadlifts and gradually load them with more and more weight but this time with the glutes actually doing what they should be doing as opposed to having other muscles compensate instead until then however focus on these progressions now lastly although you will likely have success with the previous steps it's important that we don't overlook a potential root cause of all this too much sitting and inactivity which is where step four
prevention comes in you want to avoid prolonged periods of sitting where you just aren't using your glutes at all and instead get up and take a walk or have a stretch at least between every 30 minutes of sitting and even better during your breaks perform what i'll just call a wake up exercise for your glutes for example one great mindful exercise is toe raises where you point your toes outwards squeeze the quads and then rise up to the balls of your feet while squeezing your glutes as hard as possible hold the top position for 5
seconds and then come back down and repeat for a total of 10 reps this will just serve as a quick exercise to keep your brain in the habit of knowing how to properly fire and use your glutes throughout the day so as a summary here is the action plan perform the two activation exercises the glute bridge and the clam shell every single day at least once a day with the following reps and sets then in addition to this you want to add in one wake up exercise like toe raises that you can do throughout the
day to break up your periods of sitting as your glutes activation improves and you've had success with these progression exercises eventually you're going to reach a point where these daily glute exercises for the most part just will no longer be needed since you'll be able to activate strengthen and grow your glutes to a much greater degree through your main lower body exercises but to get to that point it's absolutely vital that you stay consistent with the plan that we've outlined and for a step-by-step program that uses science to show you not only how to properly
train each of your muscles week after week but also then shows you how to best fuel them for recovery and growth so you can build lean muscle and strip off that in the most efficient way possible then simply head on over to buildwithscience.com and take the analysis quiz to discover what program will be best for you and your specific body also big thank you to dr stewart mcgill for his help with the video his wealth of knowledge is truly incredible and he really is a blessing in the industry i'd highly recommend that you check out
his work and some of his books as well which you can view at backfitpro.com anyways that's it for today everyone thank you so much for watching please don't forget to show your support by giving the video a like leaving a comment down below as to what you'd like to see me cover next subscribe to the channel and turning on notifications for the channel as well as this all really does help me out thank you so much everyone i'll see you next time [Music] you
