How do you activate your glutes? How can you be sure your glutes are activating?

Just ask your girlfriend.

I showed her how to do it.

it's easier to activate the glutes if you avoid running on your toes while going uphill

ihaveaquestion wrote:

While running, I can feel my calves become sore while I feel nothing in my glutes. What exercises can I do to ensure my glutes are activating? How can I tell if they are activating?

Do you run on tiptoe while barely bending your knees?

Well, I run with the "marathon shuffle" during my easy runs.

and Tyler too wrote:

ihaveaquestion wrote:

While running, I can feel my calves become sore while I feel nothing in my glutes. What exercises can I do to ensure my glutes are activating? How can I tell if they are activating?

Do you run on tiptoe while barely bending your knees?

Sounds like your windlass mechanism is not being taken advantage of, so your calves over-work. Yes, your glutes underperform , but it starts at the ankles/feet. This is just bad form. Good form means anchor windlass is working and triple extension too, especially at running speed (vs. jogging speeds). You feel like it is your running speed because with bad form the effort is high. Same as with swimming, it is often said the bad swimmers get lots of exercise at slow paces.

I

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

ihaveaquestion wrote:

And the issue for me is that my running is currently dominated by the calves, which is unsustainable.

Running is primarily a calf/hamstring activity.

Don't believe the nonsense about quads and glutes. There is an exercise form that targets exactly these two muscles instead of calves and hamstrings - it's called cycling (and glute activation in cycling is a huge thing, I just can't do it but look at pro riders it's the biggest muscle and they derive so much power from it).

Cycling uses glutes? News to me. I tore my glute muscle once. Running was impossible, even hiking. However I could mtn bike hard with no pain. Glute wasn't even engaged while mtn biking.

"I tore my glute muscle once."

ouch!

verticular wrote:

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Running is primarily a calf/hamstring activity.

Don't believe the nonsense about quads and glutes. There is an exercise form that targets exactly these two muscles instead of calves and hamstrings - it's called cycling (and glute activation in cycling is a huge thing, I just can't do it but look at pro riders it's the biggest muscle and they derive so much power from it).

Cycling uses glutes? News to me. I tore my glute muscle once. Running was impossible, even hiking. However I could mtn bike hard with no pain. Glute wasn't even engaged while mtn biking.

That's because you weren't using your glutes while cycling. They were weak/underdeveloped (maybe that's why you tore them?), and bike fit is also important for it. Also, you can't just mentally activate them - you need to work them in the gym.

Look at pro cyclists, male and female. You will see bulging quads, and a BIG butt with very small waist. In runners, you usually don't see either unless they spend a lot of work in the gym.

Glute activation comes from cycling, where it actually does matter a lot. In running, I think it's overrated. Form is incredibly important in running, but it's more about the stride, relaxed shoulders, and being very economical, not about getting a very big, powerful butt that can't be used in the same fashion like in cycling anyway. Even arm movement is more important than "glute activation" in running.

ihaveaquestion wrote:

Well, I run with the "marathon shuffle" during my easy runs.

You do that in your faster runs too.

The primary function of the glute is hip extension. Is hip extension more prevalent in running or cycling?

tldr:

- calves produce MUCH more force than glutes for running

- glutes become important at sprinting speed, but are pretty much irrelevant for distance runners (look at female sprinters vs distance runners, I can provide examples as necessary)

- in the gym, training calves would be much more beneficial for running than training glutes

Training glutes specifically is like training the biceps - it will make them stronger, but probably won't translate to faster distance running speed. Lunges are good because the movement is somewhat similar to running (compared to squats) and strengthen a lot more than just the glutes.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

https://jeb.biologists.org/content/215/11/1944

tldr:

- calves produce MUCH more force than glutes for running

- glutes become important at sprinting speed, but are pretty much irrelevant for distance runners (look at female sprinters vs distance runners, I can provide examples as necessary)

- in the gym, training calves would be much more beneficial for running than training glutes

Training glutes specifically is like training the biceps - it will make them stronger, but probably won't translate to faster distance running speed. Lunges are good because the movement is somewhat similar to running (compared to squats) and strengthen a lot more than just the glutes.

How did lunges work for you?

You have no clue what you are talking about. In fact, really good runners do have something most slower people don’t have- nearly optimal running form. What’s actually a myth is that everybody runs with good form naturally, if you run a lot you will automatically achieve good form, and you can’t change it anyway.

Reality is that it’s usually not automatically optimal, you CAN change it and it’s really hard to change and takes a long time.

Google a RW article from years ago, “It’s all in the hips” by Jonathan Beverly.

coach wrote:

Admittedly if I'm sitting for too long I'll do some glute bridges and band walks for a couple of minutes especially before I workout.

I've also found out this helps a lot. Usually I go for my main run after some office hours, sitting on my ass. Doing some glute bridges or lunges makes a difference. I also do some simple core activation like scissors. Just a very quick, warming up activation. I don't know why or how it works, but it just feels better.

ihaveaquestion wrote:

While running, I can feel my calves become sore while I feel nothing in my glutes. What exercises can I do to ensure my glutes are activating? How can I tell if they are activating?

You have to go to the Apple Genius Bar to get your glutes activated.

(I’m only half facetious.)

I'm a slow old runner. A few weeks ago I tried running even slower, and also keeping my posture straight, head up, shoulders down, and all of a sudden my glutes were noticibly involved in the stance phase. But as others have pointed out, unless you're a sprinter, or you are a high cadence runner, your glutes are pretty much only transiently used for bracing upon landing.

Again as I've said it before......

Your gluteus maximus is your primary hip extensor. Hence runners and especially sprinters have well defined and strong gluteus muscles.

Stand on one foot. Raise you knee. Now extend your hip by simply kicking back (swing your bent leg to the rear).

Glute activation is trainer speak for give me money.

Alan

Runningart2004 wrote:

Again as I've said it before......

Your gluteus maximus is your primary hip extensor. Hence runners and especially sprinters have well defined and strong gluteus muscles.

Stand on one foot. Raise you knee. Now extend your hip by simply kicking back (swing your bent leg to the rear).

Glute activation is trainer speak for give me money.

Alan

Or, framed the opposite way, stand on one foot, bend your other leg's knee. Now forcefully kick that bent leg forward, like you do when you are accelerating in a sprint. That forward kick can't happen unless the standing leg's hamstrings and glutes brace for it. You think you are kicking back, actively extending your hip. But that is an effect, not a cause. The acceleration comes from the forward kick, and the braced rear leg just goes backward passively as the front leg kicks forward. The hip extension follows, aligns with, the rear leg. But hip extension isn't the driving force. Its the forward leg flexion that creates and maintains the acceleration. Newton's 3rd law.

If you are a jogger, you just try to keep up with pendulum action, swinging your front leg just fast enough and taking advantage of gravity to keep from falling down, you stand for a longer time on one leg. If you don't flex your hip (pelvic thrust), and don't bend your upper body forward at the waist, you can easily notice your glutes activating - bracing. If you accelerate, you will feel it even more, but it is transient. If you don't brace with your glutes, you'd be sitting down. That bracing support for the forward leg kick doesn't have to work hard after the front leg is fully extended., unless you artificially try to extend your toe 'paw back' contact time, under the mistaken assumption that it is the rear kick that propels you.

But, I could be full of b.s. Alan is the expert around here. Just offering the converse version.