The glute muscles are a very important muscle group as they hold the pelvis stable and act to counter tight thighs muscles that almost everyone has these days from sitting at our desks, driving our cars or watching TV. Certain muscles have a tendency to fall asleep on our body, the glutes have this problem. A sleeping muscle means that when the body should use the muscle group it will only activate a certain percentage of its possible strength and instead use other muscle groups or distort your posture to get the job done.
To activate the glutes you can use one of more the following methods –
1) Release the Tension in the thighs – The thighs when tight are selected to be used more than the buttock muscle with all things being equal. To counter this use the foam roller or similar device to release tension in thighs followed by stretching them.
2) Release the tension in the lower back – The lower back often ends up doing the work of the glutes. The result is each stride you take when walking or running is coming from the back which is bad news for your spinal health. Releasing the tension in this area through massage, tennis or golf balls can allow the glutes to work again.
3) Wake the Glute muscles up – If you punch yourself in the buttocks you will trick the nervous system into using the glutes more. There should not be much pain on punching yourself, if so, use your fingers over your fist.
4) Re-align the sacrum – If your sacrum is slightly twisted it will immediately shut down the one side of your buttocks if not both. To realign it you will nee to release tension through the pelvis area. This can be done by a professional or helped through using a tennis ball to release the spasm on the one side of the glutes.
5) Re-align the hip joint – If the hip joint is slightly out of place in the socket it will also shut down glute muscle activity. This can be realigned through a professional or pulling the joint back into itself on certain stretches.
Conditioning the glute muscles when awake.
The above methods should increase the glute muscle activity both in the short term and the longer duration if the root cause has been addressed. When your glutes are awake you should ten condition them to work through using 1 legged squats and heel wall pushes.
Over time the above in combination will mean your glutes wake up and therefore can be strengthened / toned as you desire.
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