Dispelling the Glute Myth

Here's what you need to know...

1. You've been lied to. Squats and deadlifts aren't the best exercises for building bigger, stronger glutes.

2. Most people can contract their glutes harder during body weight glute activation exercises than during their max in squats and deads.

3. The movements that target glutes the best will activate them with little to no weight. Follow a gradual progression for best results.

4. The glutes are sleeping giants: Dormant and underused, but having tons of potential.

5. Bodybuilders, models, and athletes need to be training their glutes based upon their specific needs.

Since 1995 I've read almost every study, article, and book ever written on the glutes. I've also developed several new glute exercises, which are more effective than what most people have traditionally been doing for their glutes. What I've learned will shock you.

Glute Gauges

Early in 2009, I was trained to use electromyography (EMG) software that measures and records the muscular activity of exercises. I suspected that the methods and exercises I developed in my gym were more effective than what the typical fitness publications were printing.

So after performing thirty straight leg workouts and experiments with wires and electrodes attached to me so I could measure and record the glute, quad, hamstring, and adductor activity of over a hundred different hip extension exercises, it became clear that the glutes have been the most wrongly-pegged muscle group in fitness.

I tested common and unique body weight, dumbbell, band, barbell, and machine exercises, and then tested three other individuals with varying anthropometry or body segment lengths to make sure the results I saw weren't atypical.

Knowing that the fitness population would seek scientific explanation to lend support to my data, I knew what my next step needed to be. Fourteen years after reading my first book about glutes, I wrote my own.

The Glute Guy

A colleague nicknamed me "The Glute Guy," and it stuck. I'm certain that I've done more research on the glutes than any other person on earth. My research made me realize two things:

1. Most experts don't know shit about the glutes. Despite the fact that the gluteus maximus muscles are without a doubt the most important muscles in sports and the fact that strength coaches helped popularized "glute activation," no one has a good understanding of glute training. Bodybuilders, powerlifters, and physical therapists think they do, but they don't. In fact, the experts are so far off the mark that their best glute exercises can only activate half as many fibers as the glute exercises I'm about to show you.

2. Athletes' glutes are pathetically weak. Even people who think they have strong glutes almost always have weak glutes in comparison to how strong they can get through proper training.

Follow the Logic

Let's keep it brief. Here are the facts:

• The lower gluteus maximus is involved in three distinct actions; hip extension, hip hyperextension, and hip transverse abduction.

• The upper gluteus maximus is involved in five different distinct actions; hip extension, hip hyperextension, hip abduction, hip transverse abduction, and hip external rotation.

• These motions are the most important in sports and include sprinting, leaping, cutting from side to side, and twisting.

• The strongest joint action at the hip is hip extension/hyperextension.

• The hip can hyperextend ten degrees with bent legs, twenty degrees with straight legs, and thirty degrees when forcibly pulled back.

• Hip hyperextension is safe and occurs naturally during walking, running, sprinting, grappling, throwing, lunging, and hip flexor stretching.

• Length tension relationships dictate that a muscle contracts best when it's at resting length, which means that the gluteus maximus muscles contract the hardest from zero to twenty degrees of hyperextension.

• Hip flexor flexibility allows for hip hyperextension and is an absolutely critical component to maximum glute activation; tight hip flexors prevent hip hyperextension and maximum glute activation.

• A vertical jump involves maximal vertical propulsion. A sprint involves maximum horizontal propulsion.

• A sprint activates 234% more mean gluteus maximus muscle than a vertical jump.

• Due to the increased glute activation, sprinters commonly experience "butt-lock." Repetitive vertical jumpers experience "quad-lock."

• In resistance training, there are two distinct types of hip extension exercises: those that mimic vertical jumping and those that mimic sprinting.

• Hip extension exercises that mimic vertical jumping have vertical or axial directional load vectors and include squats, deadlifts, and static lunges.

• Hip extension exercises that mimic sprinting have horizontal or anteroposterior directional load vectors, involve hip hyperextension, and include reverse hypers, back extensions, hip thrusts, pendulum quadruped hip extensions, and pull-throughs.

• Hip extension exercises that mimic jumping will be referred to as hip extension exercises. Hip extension exercises that mimic sprinting will be referred to as hip hyperextension exercises.

• The propulsion phase of a vertical jump involves simultaneous hip, knee, and ankle extension, whereas sprinting involves hip hyperextension.

• Hip extension exercises are usually performed while standing.

• Hip hyperextension exercises are usually performed in the supine, prone, or quadruped positions.

• Hip hyperextension exercises can be performed with bent legs or straight legs.

• Straight-leg hip hyperextension exercises maximize hamstring contribution.

• Bent-leg hip hyperextension exercises place the hamstrings in a shortened state which limits their contribution and maximizes gluteal contribution.

• In order, the hip extension exercises with the highest glute activation are the kneeling squat (67%), deadlift (55%), sumo deadlift (52%) and Zercher squat (45%).

• In order, the hip hyperextension exercises with the highest glute activation are the single-leg bent leg reverse hyper (122%), hip thrust (119%), pendulum quadruped hip extension (112%), bent-leg reverse hyper (111%).

• Hip abduction, transverse abduction, and external rotation exercises often maximally recruit the upper gluteus maximus muscles to a much greater degree than hip extension or hip hyperextension exercises.

• A well balanced gluteal routine involves hip extension exercises, hip hyperextension exercises, hip abduction exercises, and hip external rotation exercises.

So Here's The Myth

Most people think they have strong glutes but they don't. They're the ones who believe squats, deadlifts, and lunges are the best glute exercises, and they've spent years getting very strong at these.

Squatting, deadlifting, and lunging, can make the glutes sore but they don't strengthen the glutes much. They target the quads and erector spinae. Even box squatting, walking lunges, and sumo deadlifts don't activate much glute in comparison to the exercises below.

If you study glute activation, you'll be blown away by the data. Most individual's glutes contract harder during body weight glute activation exercises than from one-rep max squats and deadlifts.

It's not that people don't know how to use their glutes or don't adhere to proper exercise form. It's just that the glutes aren't maximally involved in squatting, lunging, and deadlifting. They're only maximally contracted from bent-leg hip hyperextension exercises.

Just because someone's glutes are big, it doesn't mean that they're strong. In addition to training around three hundred "normal" clients over the past few years, I've trained elite athletes, from NFL players to powerlifters, sprinters to figure models. I taught each the exercises below, and I almost always had to start them off with their own body weight for resistance.

Although one of the powerlifters could do raw squats and deadlifts with over three times his body weight, when he first performed hip thrusts, he had to start out with two sets of twenty reps with his own body weight. We initially tried using 135 pounds on the hip thrust, which was roughly a third of what he squatted and deadlifted, but he could barely budge the bar.

The NFL players were both 350-pound offensive lineman who'd do hip thrusts for two sets of twenty reps as well. When you weigh 350 pounds, body weight exercises can be very productive! Both linemen mentioned that the hip thrust was the best posterior chain exercise they'd ever performed and remarked about how they loved the fact that they didn't have to wrap their knees or wear a belt to perform the exercise.

The Olympic sprinter had the best relative glute strength of the bunch, easily being able to perform twenty single-leg hip thrusts on his very first workout.

Exercise Progressions

Strength gains for the new exercises come very quickly. I started off using 185 pounds for ten reps on the hip thrust and within a year I could do 405 for five.

The following plan will get your glutes much sexier, stronger, and speedier. Since everyone possesses varying ranges of glute strength, I'm going to provide four phases, which become progressively more challenging and difficult.

If you belong at phase one and start off at phase three, you'll just end up increasing your existing dysfunctional patterns, which will lead to a pulled low back, hamstring, or groin muscle. Play it safe by starting in phase one, then spend two to three weeks in each phase.

I included an array of exercises, some can be performed at your local gym or garage gym, and some will require specialized equipment. The equipment below should become staples in glute training and sport-specific training. They effectively train the sprint-vector and maximize glute activation.

Don't stop performing your squat, lunge, deadlift, and back extensions movements. Do these on your regular leg day and perform two weekly glute workouts on separate days. The workouts will be brief and won't get you very sore. Always begin each glute workout with a simple warm-up consisting of hip flexor stretches and a couple bodyweight glute activation exercises.

Phase One:  Hip Flexor Flexibility and Glute Activation

You must possess adequate hip flexor flexibility in order to open up the hips and maximally activate the glutes. And you must be able to control your own body weight in order to learn how to contract the glutes properly before you begin adding weight.

Perform two sets of hip flexor stretches for sixty-second static holds, progressing deeper into the stretch as time ensues.