Hi there, are you dealing with nagging lower back pain that just won't quit? You've tried everything, you've worked your core, but it just persists? It might not be your back at all. So in this post, we're shining a light on an often overlooked culprit, the gluteus medius, right in the side of the hips. When this small but mighty muscle stops pulling its weight, your back ends up doing the heavy lifting, and that's when the pain kicks in.
So to start with, I'm going to show you how to do a quick test to see if it's working, and if it's not, give you 5 glute medius activation exercises that strengthen and fire that glute medius back up.
Let's have a look, so we can get stronger, not just for now, but for decades and decades to come.
Watch: Fix Lower Back Pain by Strengthening this Glute Muscle
Ready, let's jump into the '5 Glute Medius Activation Exercises that Strengthen' lesson:
So let's do the test and see how well your glute medius is working right now.
QUICK Glute Medius Test
So I want you to think about putting your hands on your hips.
- Can you feel your hip bones there
- And I want you to stand on one leg
- Do you feel really unstable? Do you feel like you need to pop your other foot down, or are you kind of leaning to one side so that your pelvis tilts?
- Or are you able to stand there with your pelvis perfectly straight and everything's fine?
For many of us, we will get really weak glutes in all the areas of our glutes, and these gluteus medius are one part of those glutes that when they're not working, we will often feel that in our back.
We could have done all this core work and have a great strong core, but if our glutes are not working for us, then nothing works.
We could have done all this core work and have a great strong core, but if our glutes are not working for us, then nothing works.
So let's have a look at some ways that we can strengthen these gluteus medius.
EXERCISE 1: Standing Hip Abduction
So in this glute medius activation exercise we're simply going to be taking a leg away from the other leg. Find somewhere where you can be stable. It could be a wall that you've got here. I've just got a pole holding me stable.
I am also going to use a TheraBand in a moment to make this a little harder for myself, but for now let's look at doing this exercise without.
- The aim is to stand nice and tall
- Trying NOT to take these hips out to the side
- And we are simply going to take the non stationary leg, NOTE: that you will have a slight lean in the stationary leg as you head into this, but not a big lean
- So then from here, you're just taking this leg out to the side and bringing it back in
- So you're not trying to lean too far away from that, trying to isolate into the working leg side butt as we take it out. So into our hip here, into our glutes on the side, as we take that leg out and bring it back in
- NOTE: Not trying to lean forward or back, trying to stand up nice and tall
Now the way to make that a bit harder is that we can take a TheraBand that we've tied a knot in at the end. So I've just tied that knot in.
So I'm just going to take this over my legs and up above my knees, and then I'm going to be doing the same thing again.
- So standing tall, and I'm just going to take that out to the side
- Bring it back in
- Right now I can feel this glute working quite hard
- But I can also feel the glute on my other side because that's got to hold my body up
And that TheraBand is also going to work that glute medius quite a bit hard. And obviously when you do one side, you'll do the other.
Exercise Repetitions: Try and do maybe about 10 to 15 reps on each side. Have a rest, go away, do something and maybe repeat that two to three times.
EXERCISE 2: Clamshells & Reverse Clams
So I've got a band around my knees, but you can do this without a band. We're just going to come down onto the floor.
- We're going to stack our hips and stack the knees on top of one another, feet on top of one another, heels are together. You may want to put a pillow underneath
- Don't need our knees up too high, probably at a 45 degree angle, slightly higher
- And then what we're trying to do from here is a slight roll forward so that we're not wanting to lean back each time we lift
- And from here, keep those ankles, heels together, and we're just going to bring one knee up
Now you, as I said, you can do this without a band, but everything's under control. And we're not trying to roll each time we lift. We're trying to stay in that forward position. And as you go along, you'll feel the side glutes, the gluteus medius doing quite a bit of work.
Exercise Repetitions: So with these glute medius activation exercises, I would do maybe 10 to 12 reps and do two to three sets of these. Probably have a break in between. When you've done the other side, have a break, do some abdominals or some other work that you're doing, and then come back to these just to give them a bit of a rest.
Reverse Clam:
- So we're going to bring this top knee up about there, but against the resistance of the band
- And then from there, I'm just going to rotate my foot up
- Then bring it back down to touch the other heel and then rotate it up again.
- So you're actually maintaining this knee in the air, but you're just bringing that heel up.
So again, we're not trying to roll with this. It's all isolated movements. And I can certainly feel that in my outer glute, my gluteus medius as I take that up and down.
And when you do one side, you'll do the other side as well.
EXERCISE 3: Fire Hydrant
So we're going to look at a fire hydrant now. This is what dogs do when they wee on something.
- We're going to keep our knees under our hips. We're going to keep our forearms stacked underneath our shoulders
- And we're simply going to just take this knee out to the side.
- NOTE: You're just going to isolate. We're not trying to rock. We're not trying to move
- We're just trying to take that knee out to the side and that foot comes out as well. So just trying to lift out.
- NOTE: You can do this without a band. You can have a band on, but you'll also feel your glute on the floor because it's got to hold you up
- So, out to the side and back down
- VARIATION: So from here, we're going to bring that knee out to the side, straighten the leg fully
- And then bring it back in and then back down.
- Out to the side, straighten, back in and down
So you may want to do those without a band. If that's too hard, try it without a band. But this band certainly adds resistance.
EXERCISE 4: Wall Squat Press Outs
- In this next glute medius activation exercise, I've just got a rolled up towel. I'm going to put it beside my leg on the wall and I've got a band over my knees. Again, you don't have to use a band
- I'm going down into a part squat
- And I'm simply going to take out my outer knee out and in while I hold in this squat
- NOTE: So what I'm trying to do here, I'm trying to press my knee that's on the towel against the wall. So I've got a little press of that knee against the wall. It's sitting just on the side of my knee, staying slightly down in a squat. And then this band is over the top of my knees and I'm just taking this knee out to the side
- I can certainly feel my gluteus medius working nice and hard.
Exercise Repetitions: We're just going to hold in that position, do a few outs and ins, 10 to 12 reps. And then we're going to swap around to the other side. And you'll feel not just the glute here working, but also the one by the wall.
EXERCISE 5: Side Plank with Abduction
The last one that we'll be doing here is a side plank with an abduction.
- So we're going to be on our side with knees bent and elbow on the ground
- Don't have knees too far forward
- Don't have them too far back
- About 45 degree angle is good
- The elbows stack straight underneath our shoulder.
- We're going to lift up here
- You can have a hand there if you want to
- Try not to roll too far forward with this
- So we're trying to stay on our side and we're simply going to lift a leg straight up and out
- VARIATIONS: You can play around with a few positions here if you want to take the extended leg into various positions
- Bring it forward
- Take it back
- Lift it higher
Exercise Repetitions: Holding up for about 10 seconds if you can, coming back down again before we take it up.
So you will find that not only is your glute on the top part working, but your glute on this bottom knee is also working quite hard.
Also doing some shoulder work here as well. So there's a lot of work going on with all of the different parts, but certainly that gluteus medius will be working extra hard while we're up here working both parts of the bottom.
Final Thoughts
Well, I hope you've enjoyed these glute medius activation exercises.
Try them out at home. I think you'll be surprised when we get those glutes working and functioning well, how much it takes away from back pain. I've seen it happen again and again.
So enjoy trying out the exercise and please let me know how you go. Have a good time trying them out.
