How To Engage Glutes In Just 3 Steps

Activating your glutes means getting your glute muscles to properly “turn on” and do the work during an exercise instead of letting other muscles take over.

While many people focus on glutes for aesthetics, they’re also key for performance and injury prevention (learn more about glute exercise benefits). The problem? Most people don’t actually know how to use them.

When glutes aren’t firing properly, it often leads to tight hamstrings and low back pain.

Learn to engage them first, then build strength with something like my Glute Guide or dive into how to grow glutes to see real results.

What Are The Gluteal Muscles?

The glutes are a series of three muscles that make up the buttocks.

Broken down, these muscles are the gluteus maximus (the largest part of your bum), the gluteus minimus (on your outer hip), and the gluteus medius (just above the hip and is over top of the minimus).

Learn more about the gluteal muscles and what exactly they do in my blog post: glute training at home

How Do You Know If You Have Weak Glutes?

Below are two ways to determine if your glute muscles are lacking.

Test One

Perform a single-leg glute bridge:

1. Lay on the floor with your knees bent and a feet a few inches out from your bum.
2. Raise one leg up off the floor.
3. Push through the foot, raise the hips off the floor and hold.

Do you feel your bum muscle working? Or do you feel your hamstring (back of the leg). Do you feel your low back?

If you feel this in your hamstring or low back, your glutes aren’t doing their job.

Test Two

When standing naturally, do you find you have a massive low back arch? Low back pain? Pain when your carry a baby?

If your low back is constantly arched and “achy” this is a good sign that the glutes are weak and not pulling your pelvic into a stable, neutral position.

3 Drills To Learn To Engage Glutes

Glute activation exercises (like a glute bridge) are wonderful. However, if you don’t know what it feels like when your glutes are engaged, going through the motions of the activation exercises won’t benefit you.

Instead, use the three exercises below to learn how to engage your glutes.

Lying Pelvic Tilt

This is actually part glute exercise and part deep core exercise. It’s one of the staples when it comes to postpartum diastasis exercises!

1. Lay on the floor with your knees bent and your feet a few inches out from your bum.
2. Arch your back so that your low back raises off the floor.
3. Then, without lifting your head, tuck your ribs down toward your hips so that your low back comes to lay on the floor.
4. Your bum shouldn’t come up off the ground but it should feel engaged.

If you’re struggling with this or want to vary it, try it from a standing position. Stand upright, arch your back, then think of “tucking your tail” under your bum and squeezing.

This is a posterior pelvic tilt and it’s a crucial glute activation exercise.

Sitting Bum Squeezes

The fun part about the glutes is that they actually change shape when they’re engaged! This means that you can both see and feel them change.

2. Sit upright on a bench, chair, or harder table.
3. Squeeze your bum.
4. You should feel your body move upwards a little bit. And if you place your hands on your glutes you’ll feel them change shape and harden.
5. Release the squeeze and try a few more.
6. Then, try to alternate, squeezing one glute and then the other.
7. Get used to the feeling.

Half Kneeling Activation

One of the functions of the gluteal muscles is to stabilize the pelvis in multiple positions and through movement.

1. Come into a half-kneeling position with your left knee on the ground and right foot on the floor.
2. Keep the torso tall.
3. If you need to, place a hand on the left glute muscle.
4. Squeeze the left glute muscle and make sure it’s firing.
5. Then, try to engage the glute as you move the arms up and overhead.
6. Keep doing this until it feels natural to engage the glute and repeat on the other side (you may notice some weakness!).

A good rule of thumb for glute engagement during exercise is that if you don’t feel your bum muscles working after 2-3 exercises, they’re not.

Where Should You Feel Glute Activation?

You should feel glute activation in the back of your hips and upper glutes, with a slight burn or tension. You should not feel it in your lower back or quads, if you do, your glutes aren’t fully doing the work.

Glute Activation Circuit

Once you’ve mastered how glute activation should feel, start using these glute activation exercises in your workouts to strengthen them and then opt for something like glute HIIT workout or a 10-minute banded glute workout to keep progressing your glute training.

Need something quick to get the glutes firing? Use this glute activation circuit 2-3 times per week!

More Glute Resources You’ll Love

Want a simple plan to actually build your glutes? My Glute Guide For Moms shows you exactly what to do at home, with ready-for-you workouts.

Glute Activation FAQs