Activating Glutes Overrated

Don't knock it till you try it: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/posterior-power-5-moves-to-wake-up-your-glutes.html

I think its all about strengthening different parts of your body so that you can be stronger and have better form. Upper body strength is paramount to good form.

I do agree though that activation has been used a lot recently.

So I'm a college coach and I've been struggling for the past few years with the "activating" trend. I spent the past few years researching and looking into what that means. I've gotten tons of different answers. Then I stumbled onto this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMDaY5sQ0Qk

I bought the dvd's did some more research and I've applied it to all our kids on our team. We started working on our kids at cross country camp and they reported immediate results. I had one girl tell me that when she normally feels good for the first mile in a tempo run that after one activation session she didn't feel any tightness come on until after the 2nd mile. I've seen bigger results with our sprinters but the whole point is this. Now that their bodies are functioning better or more optimally our kids are having less IT issues, less knee issues, less ankle issues, basically everything.

We have one of our coaches who is a 1:44 800m runner start applying it to himself and workouts have started to drastically improve. Will he run 1:42 this year? Doubtful, it takes a physical specimen to do that. That being said if it improves his training I expect to see results eventually come out on the track.

I had a multi kid that chronically strained his lead leg hamstring in hurdles. After 2 months with a guy that understood this (long before I did) he came back and set personal bests in every event and went from qualifying for the national meet to being an all american and is currently training professionally with a goal of scoring more than 7800 points this year for his home country and hopefully hitting an A standard so that he can be in the olympics. It's not just a buzz word there is something to it. The key is working through all of the non sense and getting a real answer.

I'm a lifelong runner with 69/2:29 Pr's at the half and full marathons. I've reached the point where i can't run two days in a row if i don't do glute activation stuff before my runs. I'm sure a lot of it boils down to poor mechanics for many years, but I'm a believer in how a relatively small muscle group can have a major impact on your ability to run.

interestingwhat's your glute activation stuff routine like?

GWT wrote:

I'm a lifelong runner with 69/2:29 Pr's at the half and full marathons. I've reached the point where i can't run two days in a row if i don't do glute activation stuff before my runs. I'm sure a lot of it boils down to poor mechanics for many years, but I'm a believer in how a relatively small muscle group can have a major impact on your ability to run.

Mr. V wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMDaY5sQ0Qk

I watched the first part of this about quad strength. His demo was pointless.

The "quad" is four muscles, three of which cross only the knee joint. The way he was pushing that guy's leg, the three Vasti would not have the leverage to resist it without very strong help from the hip flexors.

The only part of the quad that flexes the hip is the R. femoris. That's a bi-articulate muscle that crosses both the knee and the hip. Like the hamstrings, it is alternately short on one end and long on the other, for example when the leg is fully extended behind in running, it is contracted on the bottom and extended on the top. Then when the top contracts, flexing the leg at the hip, the hamstring flexes the knee, lengthening the R. femoris at that joint and allowing the top part to continue to contract with force. A long muscle with plenty of room to contract is strong, a short muscle that's already contracted is weak.

In the video, the subject's R. femoris is shortened both at the top and the bottom, so of course it will not have much strength. But that's not its job. It's not built to flex strongly at the hip while the knee remains mostly extended. If the guy's leg had been bent, it would have been different.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Mr. V wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMDaY5sQ0Qk

I watched the first part of this about quad strength. And since I didn't understand anything of it, I had to make an irrelevant point to give the impression that I know something about this subject.

FIFY

yuuup wrote:

interesting

what's your glute activation stuff routine like?

GWT wrote:

I'm a lifelong runner with 69/2:29 Pr's at the half and full marathons. I've reached the point where i can't run two days in a row if i don't do glute activation stuff before my runs. I'm sure a lot of it boils down to poor mechanics for many years, but I'm a believer in how a relatively small muscle group can have a major impact on your ability to run.

That's me- 45 years of running and I need this stuff but I think it's from the old school running.

Younger guys do more to prevent this.

I'm not sure younger guys do more to prevent this. My son in HS may do more warmup exercises, but most on his team think of them as a way to avoid actually running or a time to talk with their friends. (They don't run enough on their own to be in good enough shape to talk while running) There are a few that have parents who have told them otherwise (can't say if they listen) or maybe the kids that do other sports might have developed good habits.

The thing is when you are young your body is pretty balanced. The problems come when you focus on only one exercise. People that do manual labor may not have problems until later but people in most chair bound occupations really need glute work.

gluteus2themax wrote:

...

Your not in the middle of a 800m saying hey nows the time to activate my glutes. You should be practicing in the weight room what you should need for your races.

Done Deal.

That's exactly what those "guru's" say. So what's your point man?

Show me a guru that says you should activate them in the middle of a 800. Difficult huh. Yeah, because there are none to be found.

GWT wrote:

I've reached the point where i can't run two days in a row if i don't do glute activation stuff before my runs.

Yep, I'm there too. Over a year of chronically strained hammy tendons/QL/piriformis (or other little butt muscles) about 50% resolved with 2 x 15min sessions of practicing correct form with hip hinges, very slow prone leg raised with my hand on my butt to make sure it's working and not just my hammy, and jumping squats and lunges. 3 rounds of PT did nothing because I was still "cheating" and using my hammies and low back to compensate for my glutes not firing. It really came down to a few functional movements that forced my glutes to fire. Grateful I found relief with such a simple concept, frustrated that it IS this simple and I missed the mark and wasted 12 months.

But to agree with the OP, the terminology is getting old, especially when it's thrown around by people who don't really understand the related biomechanics and physiology.

gluteus2themax wrote:

Literally what is up with activating glutes. I feel all these gurus have started using the "activation" phrase just to make money. Your not in the middle of a 800m saying hey nows the time to activate my glutes. You should be practicing in the weight room what you should need for your races.

Done Deal.

Only if you are in a gimmick race that requires you to run while carrying weights.

Mr. V wrote:

We have one of our coaches who is a 1:44 800m runner start applying it to himself and workouts have started to drastically improve. Will he run 1:42 this year? Doubtful, it takes a physical specimen to do that. That being said if it improves his training I expect to see results eventually come out on the track.

Cool story! Who is this coach? Nick Symmonds? Centro? Sowinski?

gluteus2themax wrote:

You should be practicing in the weight room what you should need for your races.

Done Deal.

Ironically, this is one of the best methods of achieving exactly what you are lambasting - glute activation. Are you sure you are not a jealous weightlifting guru who is competing with glute activation gurus?

I have found good results with Jay Johnsons Lunge Matrix and working on strides. I'm a hack by letsrun standards but glute activation does really help. It's not going to solve all of your problems but it is a tool in the toolbox.

I would second that all of us office jockeys could really benefit from stronger glutes....

Running with your glutes is something the best runners have always naturally done when running fast. It's hard to run

The simple reason for the necessity of glute activation is that you have been sitting down (or sleeping) for 80% of your life. That is no in itself a bad thing...we get an education sitting down, many of us earn a living sitting down, and sometimes it is nice to just sit down. But if you go 80% of your life without ever needing to use your glutes (and hamstrings for that matter) then it shouldn't be a revolutionary idea that we would have to work a bit harder to wake them up (Kenyans by contrast live a more active lifestyle and don't need as much of this).

This is one of the reasons for the "anterior pelvic tilt" described well by Jay Dicharry. Since the posterior chain is not working the way it was designed, we have generations of runners that are not in proper alignment trying to swing their limbs vigorously from an unstable platform.

Having said that, there is a lot out there that is "for profit" yet not ultimately profitable for the runner...buyer beware.

yuuup wrote:

interesting

what's your glute activation stuff routine like?

GWT wrote:

I'm a lifelong runner with 69/2:29 Pr's at the half and full marathons. I've reached the point where i can't run two days in a row if i don't do glute activation stuff before my runs. I'm sure a lot of it boils down to poor mechanics for many years, but I'm a believer in how a relatively small muscle group can have a major impact on your ability to run.

I'd also like to know.

Kenyans sit on their butt all day...

Kevin works with our middle distance kids. No it's no one from Oregon. I think we would all be pleased to see him run 1:46 or faster this year.