Side effects from "activating the glutes"

You mentioned 'sciatic nerve pain. Was this on both legs? If not, then perhaps you should concentrate on your spine, and not muscle strength or 'glute activation'.

Splitsquat lunges. See kneesovertoesguy YouTube.

RyecorDone wrote:

You mentioned 'sciatic nerve pain. Was this on both legs? If not, then perhaps you should concentrate on your spine, and not muscle strength or 'glute activation'.

If you mean it comes from the spine, it does not. It comes from a periodically tight piriformis. Maybe I am unlucky with how the nerve passes the piriformis

Lhotse wrote:

Splitsquat lunges. See kneesovertoesguy YouTube.

That looked promising. Stretching like that already feels nice so doing dynamic stretching and strengthening lunges is something I will try.

Actually, I did observe my hips when I get good leg extension such as when running fast. Obviously the front hip flexibility is low to the degree it pulls the hip into a forward (anterior) tilt and also a dip to the side of the extended leg. Not strange that creates tension on the glute area. I need to increase flexibility here. How, I do not know, but I guess the splitsquat is a good start

Romanian deadlift should help (don't load heavy, focus on balance and technique. Also, one of my favorites, don't know what it's called, but it goes like this: stand a foot away from a table or stable surface facing away. Bring your foot up and hook the top of the foot on the table so most of your weight is on the other (supporting) leg. Now bend the supporting leg and lean back to achieve the greatest amount of flexion of the hooked leg. If you are flexible your buttocks will be against your heel. You should feel the stretch in your hip flexor, and the muscles around the knee of the supporting leg should be engaging strongly in the "stance" position you have while running.

This is the closest pic I could find to it but I am standing with knee bent 30-45 degrees (running stance position), and torso upright leaning back somewhat to stretch the hip flexor and activate the supporting leg.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/heqIqJvaPak/maxresdefault.jpg

Thanks both, I will try out both. Actually the irritation eased down a lot since I hurt my rib cage and cannot do weight training. I did deadlifts on friday/saturday and hurt my ribs on Sunday. I did hill sprints and flat sprints Monday where I felt the irritations, but it has basically dissapeared now. This is complex matters and I know that heavy strengthening will tense up the muscles so they can be too irrated and need recovery, but I have been doing this for some weeks so this should pass away. I will try to do more dynamic work to extend my flexibility. As I tilt and dip slightly in the pelvis if I extend a lot, I can check the progress easily.

Glute activation should come more naturally if your running biomechanically sound, which is easier said than done if you have to make adjustments for this. Forward lean from the ankles/feet, not the trunk, run "tall" (not squatty), early knee drive forward with the one leg while simultaneously a strong push-off into good knee and hip extension with the other (like trying to leap out), quickly reciprocating this motion with each stride. Keeping trunk and pelvis longitudinal axis in line with the propulsive force of your extending leg (like a one legged partial squat coming back up) and your recovering foot during knee drive in line with your pelvis (think of a guy running and pushing off one foot to do a layup with that other knee driving upward).

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Half a Hammie wrote:

Glute activation should come more naturally if your running biomechanically sound, which is easier said than done if you have to make adjustments for this. Forward lean from the ankles/feet, not the trunk, run "tall" (not squatty), early knee drive forward with the one leg while simultaneously a strong push-off into good knee and hip extension with the other (like trying to leap out), quickly reciprocating this motion with each stride. Keeping trunk and pelvis longitudinal axis in line with the propulsive force of your extending leg (like a one legged partial squat coming back up) and your recovering foot during knee drive in line with your pelvis (think of a guy running and pushing off one foot to do a layup with that other knee driving upward).

how to forward lean from the ankles?

George213 wrote:

Half a Hammie wrote:

Glute activation should come more naturally if your running biomechanically sound, which is easier said than done if you have to make adjustments for this. Forward lean from the ankles/feet, not the trunk, run "tall" (not squatty), early knee drive forward with the one leg while simultaneously a strong push-off into good knee and hip extension with the other (like trying to leap out), quickly reciprocating this motion with each stride. Keeping trunk and pelvis longitudinal axis in line with the propulsive force of your extending leg (like a one legged partial squat coming back up) and your recovering foot during knee drive in line with your pelvis (think of a guy running and pushing off one foot to do a layup with that other knee driving upward).

how to forward lean from the ankles?

It requires the entire body to be in the right alignment at footstrike and propulsion so that the striking foot is under the forward moving pelvis really quickly, rather than lagging out in front, and the pelvis has to the get ahead of the foot quickly and in line with the foot, leg and trunk so propulsive force being generated by the glute is aligned with the axis of this propulsion in a forward lean ( like coming up from a partial "squat" but with the body in a forward lean from the foot and ankle, although the weight shifts forward to the forefoot rather quickly as approaching toe-off with ankle extension like the layup basketball layup analogy (running tall). The other leg has to whip forward quickly with knee driving (like the leading leg in the layup) to be prepared early enough to repeat this action for the next stride. This repeats alternatively on each lower extremity with every stride.

Half a Hammie wrote:

Glute activation should come more naturally if your running biomechanically sound, which is easier said than done if you have to make adjustments for this. Forward lean from the ankles/feet, not the trunk, run "tall" (not squatty), early knee drive forward with the one leg while simultaneously a strong push-off into good knee and hip extension with the other (like trying to leap out), quickly reciprocating this motion with each stride. Keeping trunk and pelvis longitudinal axis in line with the propulsive force of your extending leg (like a one legged partial squat coming back up) and your recovering foot during knee drive in line with your pelvis (think of a guy running and pushing off one foot to do a layup with that other knee driving upward).

Yes this is not easy. The good thing about irritated glutes and hamstrings is that one gets immediate feedback if the running form is good or bad for the problems. Acc to what you say and that I have pinpointed I both tilt and dip in the pelvis through the gait, I am at least not following all you say. So good extension without tilting and dipping the pelvis down to the extended leg. Knee drive also seems to help ease it. thanks

Trying to change the way your body wants to move is a bad idea. Fast/strength running improves form subconsciously. The best you can do is strengthen weak areas.

How long have you been at it? Like with many changes to running form it can take significant time to fully adapt. Properly engaging your glutes is a much more involved process than something like increasing your cadence by 5. It took me a good 3 months before i could feel my glutes naturally being involved in running, and a couple months later i still alternate technique to emphasize/de-emphasize them.

Be careful. The combo of regular strengthening & the overutilization that could come from forcing a change technique could lead to an injury. Ease into it. Consider alternating everyother .25-.50mile switching back&forth from your preferred/comfortable technique to the new one focused on glute activation.

I really like the mobility drill where Standing you swing one leg back&forth like a pendulum. Focus on the backswing and relax your hip flexors to allow as much hip extention as possible. Most people show this done balancing on your own which is great, but holding on to a doorway/chair allows you to Really nail that backswing.

Also, search youtube for "James Dunne Stage 1 (Mobility & Balance)" The exercise at the 8:00min mark is Gold. Teaches you to simultaneously activate glutes & relax hip flexors. Do this 1-2x/day. May feel awkward at first but after a couple weeks will click and feel very natural.

Stop. Just Stop. There is no such thing as "activating the glutes". That's PT and personal trainer talk for "Make me more money".

You move your joints through s specific range of motion and if that motion requires contraction of a muscle then that muscle contracts.

Don't be stupid.

Alan

Runningart2004 wrote:

Stop. Just Stop. There is no such thing as "activating the glutes". That's PT and personal trainer talk for "Make me more money".

You move your joints through s specific range of motion and if that motion requires contraction of a muscle then that muscle contracts.

Don't be stupid.

Alan

Stop Alan, stop. Dysfunction can occur for many reasons whether it be sedentary lifestyle (sitting too much and or incorrectly), trauma, disease, past injuries. Muscle imbalances and recruitment can become compromised. This can result in some muscles being overactive or underactive relative to one another and how it helps a joint move.

It isn't necessarily that the muscle isnt working, its that it's not contributing what it needs to contribute. In these cases activation of certain muscles and inhibition of others may be advised.

Think of a team working together, sometimes one of the members of the team isn't contributing enough.

Runningart2004 wrote:

Stop. Just Stop. There is no such thing as "activating the glutes". That's PT and personal trainer talk for "Make me more money".

You move your joints through s specific range of motion and if that motion requires contraction of a muscle then that muscle contracts.

Don't be stupid.

Alan

I agree. This phase "activating the glutes" has just been around like 5-8 years.

I can't say that I really know anyone that has really made changes to their running form or stride. Sure you can think about it while you run, little reminders to keep from getting sloppy but generally, we run how we run.

The best thing you can do (as mentioned earlier) is to do some actual fast running. Strides after a during week, hill reps, and I think drills do help to hit these areas, but in the end you run how you run.

look at the pro's , there's a reason they almost all look the same from the waist down.. they have smooth efficient strides. knee drive, high back kick, and the foot just paws at the ground.. all of 'em pretty much look the same.

Runningart2004 wrote:

Stop. Just Stop. There is no such thing as "activating the glutes". That's PT and personal trainer talk for "Make me more money".

You move your joints through s specific range of motion and if that motion requires contraction of a muscle then that muscle contracts.

Don't be stupid.

Alan

Hi Alan, I intentionally used quotation marks to term it. I have of course read about activating glutes, but I would of course want to have a balanced use of all muscles that can help me run faster. If that means I need to change the way I run or changing the strength of the "glutes" I will try to do that. Now it is easy to activate the glutes by running a certain way and I know more on how to strengthen hamstrings and glutes.

It is much more complex with many different muscles and how and when they contribute in the running.

I have received good advice though and can share my experiences for those having their own problems.

The biggest change i did approx 10 years ago was to switch to zero drop shoes and experience I reached too much in front of me when landing. I had trouble with irritation and stiffness of the hamstrings in both legs which bothered me when running more than an hour. I shortened the gait (or actually landed more under my body) and the trouble dissapeared in 2 days. I do not have the same problems today, but I am 10 years older and run very little from 2017-2019. things might have changed, for example hip mobility that gives me new problems.

The most overlooked remedial exercise in the game is walking and jogging backwards, eventually on an incline or against resistance. Strengthens all of the supporting antagonists considerably in a holistic fashion relative to forward running.