Top 5 Glute Max Exercises According To The Research ⎹ Ep 141

In todays episode, Dr Lisa breaks down the top 5 exercises for muscle activation of the glute max and why these exercises are important for runners to add into their strength routine

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Research:

Contreras B, et al. An electromyographic comparison of gluteus maximus activation during common strength exercises. Journal of Applied Biomechanics. 2015.

 Boren K, et al. Electromyographic analysis of gluteus medius and gluteus maximus exercises. International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy. 2011. 

 Distefano LJ, et al. Gluteal muscle activation during common therapeutic exercises. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. 2009. 

 Reiman MP, et al. A systematic review of gluteus maximus and gluteus medius activation during rehabilitation exercises. International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy. 2012. 

 Neto WK, et al. Systematic reviews comparing hip thrusts, squats, and other resistance exercises for gluteal activation and hypertrophy.

Transcript

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Welcome back to the Rehab for Runners podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Lisa, and today we're talking about the glute max, the famous glute max that everyone wants to strengthen. And it makes sense because the glute max is the strongest muscle in the body. It can produce the most force and the most power, but there's a couple things to consider when strengthening the glute max. And I think a lot of the time, you know, you see people chasing after that glute burn with resistance bands and certain exercises. But today I want to dive into what the research actually says are the top five exercises for the glute max. And this is according to EMG data. And this sort of data measures electrical activity or muscle activation. This isn't necessarily for strength or hypertrophy directly, it's more for what exercises are going to have the strongest electrical activity. So these are things where, you know, you still want to do them, obviously, if they're the top five exercises. But keep in mind that activation exercises don't equal muscle growth. So if you want like a bigger butt, then these might not be your exercises for you. But if you want to really improve that muscle, uh muscle brain connection, then these are definitely the exercises that you should be doing. I tend to rotate through these exercises myself. And it's one of those things where, you know, think about like if you're sitting in a chair and you squeeze your butt muscles together. Now, this is like an activation type exercise. This isn't necessarily going to grow your glutes, but you're gonna feel your glutes contracting and they're contracting by shortening. So it's one of those exercises where you know you really feel that muscle burn. And again, this does not directly correlate into hypertrophy. This is muscle activation. Now, another thing to keep in mind this type, these types of exercises are missing a lot from runner strength programs. And the reason behind this, maybe they're you know, they might be in the program, but the cues on what to do in order to really increase that muscle activity might not be there. And the whole reason behind this is because a muscle, you know, muscles in general, not just the glutes, but muscles in general, have to lengthen before they can contract in order for the contraction to be really strong. So think about like a deadlift where you're only going down 25% of the range compared to a deadlift where you're going through the entire range. So if you're going through the entire range of motion, you are into more hip flexion. And the glutes do, you know, the glute max says hip extension. So that means you have to get into hip flexion so you can get into hip extension. This is gonna allow you to go through that full range. So, I mean, you think about it, like obviously you're gonna have a stronger contraction of the glute max when you go through a full range of motion of the deadlift versus if you're only going down one-fourth the way. You can kind of visualize that and see that play out. But it's the same idea with, you know, if we're trying to improve the glute contraction when we're running, the glutes are going into a hip extension, hip external rotation. The gluteus medius is going into hip abduction. All three of these are happening at the same time, which means that we also have to go into hip flexion, hip internal rotation, hip adduction in order to get through this full range of motion. That is how you're gonna get that strongest contraction. So if a joint is stiff or if there's compensations happening and you're not going through that entire range of motion, the contraction's not gonna be as strong. So let's go through these five exercises and keep in mind, and I'll talk you through how you're gonna go through the entire range of motion in order to really, you know, feel the glutes. Runners love to feel their glutes and really activate the glutes or have that strongest contraction. I'm gonna start with number five and work my way down to number one. So, number five, there's actually a tie of exercises. You have a single leg RDL and you have a step down. So with a single leg RDL, think of this, you know, I think of RDLs as hip hinges because with, you know, a deadlift is gonna be a little different than an RDL. An RDL, I want you to think of, and I'll talk through like the biggest mistakes that runners make with this, but you want to think about keeping your knee slightly bent the entire time that you are going down into hip flexion. So at when you're bringing the weight down, and as you come up, that knee. So a big mistake runners make, that knee is not bending and straightening as you're doing an RDO. That is going to reinforce that the knee is going into extension before the hip goes into extension, which is a big no-no when we're running. We want the hip to go into extension first, and then the knee to go into extension as you're pushing off the ground. So, in order to like reinforce that really good movement pattern, next time you do a single leg RDL, and you will feel this light up your booty and your hammies. Do so start with your knee slightly bent, go down into that RDL, keep it slightly bent, the same amount of bend, and as you come up, keep it that same amount of bend, even as your trunk is all the way up. Just basically don't straighten your knee. Just keep it that slight bend the entire time. That is how you really perfect. You know, there's a couple other things to perfect with a hip hinge, but that is one of the biggest mistakes. So that is gonna really light up your butt and obviously work on single leg stability and control, which we need for running. Now, with this step down, I want you to think that your foot is on a plyo box or chair or a step, and you are slowly lowering the other leg down behind you. So this is a great way to work on that eccentric control as you're slow, you know, slowly lowering down. So eccentric control, and then you're coming back up. So think about the tempo. You're bringing that back leg down one, two, three. It touches the ground behind you, and then you step up with a tempo of one second. So that's gonna really reinforce that single leg stability. All right, moving to the fourth exercise. So we did number five, now we're going to four. This is the fourth top exercise is a deep squat. Now, don't think of a deep squat as, you know, as to grass. Think of a deep squat as just getting your thighs. Like I like to think like you don't need to get into like a catcher's position, but I want you getting your thighs a little bit past that parallel, um when your thighs are parallel to the ground. So like a little bit past that. This is a really good one too for your pelvic floor, I will say. And your pelvic floor is connected to your hips and your glutes. So that might be also why this is such a good one for the glute max. But I like to do this one with a like holding a kettlebell or holding a dumbbell um in a goblet position in front of you, and then you're gonna go down a little bit past thighs parallel to the ground. Now, obviously, this is a great one too for the quads and hamstrings. So a lot of these are like, you know, you're not just isolating the glute max, which is amazing because we don't do that when we run, but that is a top exercise. All right, moving on to the third top exercise. This might be one that you might not be doing, so I highly recommend it. And that is split squats. Split squats are really, really, really good for glute mead and glute max. And I'll throw in glute min because why not? So, with a split squat, I like to think of think of a split squat. If you're not sure what it is, think of it as like a static lunge. One foot is in front of you, and you're just bending your knees and your pelvis is moving up and down. You're not moving your feet, you're not taking a step forward or a step back, you are just in that static position. And if you want to also um take it to the next level, you could think of a Bulgarian split squat where the back leg, so instead of the back leg being on the ground, now the back leg is on a box or a bench, it's elevated. And this is gonna really allow the momentum to be a little bit more forward, which is gonna help load the glutes. This is also really good for, you know, obviously quad strength. You feel it burning in your quads, but pelvic control. This is really good for pelvic control too. And your glute max also, you know, we think of it as a powerhouse muscle, but it's also a stability muscle too for the pelvis and the hips. Okay, moving on. So add in those split squats. You can also do it with a, I like to do it too, with like a barbell on my back. Um, that's a really good way. You can do it with a dumbbell, you can do it with one dumbbell in one hand, you can do it with two dumbbells, you can hold it the dumbbell with a in a goblet position. Multiple ways that you can change up your split squats, but really, really good for um, oh, another good way to do it is if you have your front leg elevated or front foot elevated on a block, like even like a yoga block or something just a little bit raised. Now you're going into more of a deficit split squat, but this is gonna allow you to get more range, which is a great thing. Okay, moving on to the second top exercise, and that is a Romanian deadlift. So, Romanian deadlift, very similar to that single leg RDL. RDL is Romanian deadlift, so but this is a double leg one. So um think of it as a normal deadlift, except you're doing the same thing with your knees, where you're not just bending and straightening your knees. This is not a squat. We are keeping the knees slightly bent and you are bringing the weights down, the knees are still slightly bent, your sit bones are going straight back, and that's gonna allow you to load the glutes. So I will say with deadlifts, if you are trying, and there's no like, you know, it's really like what do you want to focus on with a deadlift? If you want to focus on more hamstring loading, then you want your sit bones to come up towards the ceiling. If you want more glute max loading, you want your sit bones to go straight back to let's say a wall as a reference. So if your sit bones go straight back, it loads more glutes. If your sit bones rotate up, then you're loading more hamstrings. So you're gonna control this by how much bend you have in your knee at the start. Because remember, we're not bending and straightening the knee. We are keeping the knee bent at the same degree the entire time as you come up and down. So even at the very top of that deadlift, when you're just, you know, about to go down, your knees are still slightly bent. You are reinforcing hip extension before knee extension, which we need in order to run. That is really important for getting that glute max contraction and hamstring contraction when running. All right, moving on. So you can do this one with a barbell, you can do it with dumbbells, um, the whole idea, you know, you're controlling it down, but just please bring your butt, you know, bring bring your butt back and make sure you're not just leaning forward at your trunk and make sure that those knees stay slightly bent. And if you find, if you're like, huh, that's a that's a maybe I need to see if I'm, you know, bending or straightening my knees, and you find that you are, and you tweak that, please message me and let me know how it goes because I guarantee you are gonna walk away from that workout being like, wow, my glutes are on fire, which you know, you're welcome. So moving on to the top exercise for the glute max, and that is a hip thrust. And the reason that this is so good, I think of a hip thrust too as a hip hinge, because the whole idea with a hip hinge, it could be, you know, a hip hinge could literally be a bridge too, like a double egg bridge or single egg bridge. It could be an RDL, it could be a deadlift, it could be a hip thrust, because you're going into the whole idea is you're going into flexion, hip flexion, and then extension. So this is that, you know, bringing back that idea that we have to go through the full range of motion of hip flexion and then hip extension in order to really have that high activation of a muscle, and more specifically here, the glute max. So when you're doing a hip thrust, you want to bring your butt all the way down as far as you can to the ground before you thrust your pelvis up to where it's in line with your knees. So you don't want to just go halfway down, halfway up. You want to bring it all the way down, control it down at that tempo, nice tempo, like one, two, three down. You're in hip flexion. You're making like a V with your from your shoulder to your hip to your knee is like a V because you're in hip flexion. And then as you thrust up, your shoulder is in line with your hip and in line with your knee. So you can imagine hip flexion, and then as you come up, you're moving into so basically you're moving into a hip extension position. You're not in actual, you know, hip extension where the knee is behind the hip. Just to make that clear, you're moving into hip extension, which is still, you know, the glutes are still contracting because you're moving into hip extension. You're not actually like in hip extension when we're running, where like the knee is behind the hip. You're moving into hip extension, and you do that by starting into hip flexion. So I hope this was helpful. Um, if you're looking for a running specific strength program, I do recommend going through the runner's complete program. I think that's gonna be pretty eye-opening for you if you're used to just a general strength program and you want to make it more specific to running, you want to work on that unilateral strength, you want to work on these high activation exercises so you actually see carryover into your running. I highly suggest going through that program. So I will link that below. And then if you try these tips, please message me, let me know how it goes, and I will talk to you next week. Bye.