I currently have a client who cannot fire his gluts! We have tried all of the usual exercises, visualization, etc.... and he gets little to no activation. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can help this gentleman? He is quite young, very fit and active. He uses his back muscles for most things rather than gluts. Thank you!

Hey Julianna,

If he has a lot of hip flexor and lower back dominance, it might be beneficial for him to get a few bodywork sessions to support the work you're doing with him in the studio. Sometimes if you can cut the "noise" then it's easier to access inhibited muscles.

Non outside interventions wise, I might try foam rolling the adductors and quads before doing strength work.

You might have already done this, but I'd also use props:

For example,in side leg work, I might putt a towel under the waist to minimize hip hiking + rolling his whole body forward to 45 degrees, while making sure the legs are and stay in line with the sits bones

I'd also try putting him lying prone over a small arc barrel or a BOSU single leg lifts, while emphasizing a gentle posterior tilt and only letting him lift his leg as high as he can without shifting in the hips or letting the pelvis go anterior (e.g lumbar extension).

(see second comment for continued response)

Finally, this piece is a little heady, but I'm taking an educated guess that if he's tight in his erectors, then he's probably got stiffness in the thoracic spine, so before I gave him glute work, I'd do some spinal mobility drills like thoracic rotation (think book openers or bow and arrows), side bending (e.g. tail wags) and finally gentle thoracic extension like mini swans or seated ab preps with a roller at the bottom of the shoulder blades or against a bosu where the pelvis was biased towards a slight posterior tilt (really neutral, but I'd cue posterior since most people go anterior really quickly from that position).

Then I might do a little shoulder stability work to reinforce the "new" posture. I say all this, because mobilizing the thoracic spine will sometimes help decrease tension in the erectors, making for better glute activation, which makes your job a whole lot easier.

Hope this helps!

I saw a PT in Denmark (because I'm an American that is currently living in Denmark on diplomatic assignment with my husband) that was trained by Douglas Heel (http://www.douglasheel.com/) where they used activation methods to literally activate the nerves that turn on the muscles. I walked out of my appointment walking differently and it turned the glutes (max and med) back on. I still have to activate them several times - daily. But you have to re-train the body to use these muscles, rather than the others that were compensating. Perhaps your clients can contact info@douglasheel.com to see where the folks are in the U.S. that have this training. I know they told me there are several in the U.S. particularly in the greater Chicago area. I believe there is also a Facebook page for Be Activated and I understand that the community is very helpful with trying to connect people to providers.

(follow up to my last comment..) For my glute activation, I rub under the ridge of my skull (near the C1). There are nerves there that activate the glute max. Do this for about 20 seconds. Rub and get in there. For glute med - use knuckles to run the front and sides of the hips - in the meaty areas. It's much easier to show than write. But it's worked so well for me that I wanted to at least put this information out there to you. The PT did a test on me during my first visit to test my glutes and they would NOT fire. Then he activated my nerves (I had no idea what he was doing) and then he tested my glutes again and they worked. They were very weak, but they worked. It made it feel like there was no resistance on the second test. I hope this helps!

Wow - these are great comments! Thank you both! Nikki - he is stiff in thoracic spine as well, so that is great information. I'd never heard of the relationship before and will for sure try mobilizing thoracic spine first tomorrow. Hopefully, that helps. He is very motivated to do abdominal crunches, with little of the other planes of motion. :(

Denise....I've never heard of the Douglass Heel method, but am looking it up right away!! I'll play with the c1 activation, too. So awesome!!!

This thread is very informative!

Julianna - Pain or trauma like surgery can cause muscles and certain "zones" in the body to shut off. The activation techniques where you manually activate the nerves can turn them back on. But I should mention that you have to do it SEVERAL times a day. For the glutes, you'd want to activate (by rubbing under the C1 as I mentioned in a prior comment) when you wake up, prior to and during a workout. 3-5 times a day. Once muscles shut off, other muscles that try to take over. It's a matter of re-training the body, so frequent activation is necessary. I had hip surgery for labral tears due to hip impingement. After surgery, I was not getting stronger, despite my pilates knowledge and training. My butt was getting smaller and weaker. I'm sure your client is frustrated in the same way. I started the activation techniques per the instruction of my PT and my butt grew stronger and bigger within weeks. I hope you find something that helps your client!

Great information, Denise! Thinking out loud......I wonder whether the same "shut off" would happen in someone with C-spine degeneration....

Hi everyone! Julianna, wondering if you ever managed to get your client to fire his glutes? I have someone with same issue, one side only and only glute maximus. Glute medius is weak but she can sense it when doing clam. She is firing in low back ipsilateral side and then hamstrings on leg extension from prone. All the comments have been helpful, (along with some on a thread about hamstring dominance). Denise Jones, thanks for info on nerves under the ridge of skull that activate the glute max. Is this still working for you? Did it with her but no gluteal activation She was unable to roll out adductors (unable to access the roller on floor with inner thigh). Sshe is getting frustrated after 4 sessions with no glute activation despite our best efforts. [BTW, anyone know if this is Tiger Woods' current problem - I recall reading it somewhere online, but it could have been 'false news'!] Any suggestions on how to mange this client would be most appreciated. Thanks, Eimear