Gluteal Activation - exercises and on bike?

[patchsurfer]

Hi,

I have a dodgy back - spondy - and get episodes once or twice a year. Recently my osteo pointed to an imbalance between my hip flexors / quads and hamstrings and glutes, and gave me a load of gluteal activation exercises to do - as well as telling me to get a standup desk. Obviously, loads of power to be had from unlocking my glutes - any on bike exercises or bike fit tools to help me with this?

Cheers,

Simon

[11.4]

Best done off the bike. You're not unlocking your glutes; you're teaching them to activate when needed. Start with planks and reverse planks, add some kettle bell work if you want to do this at home at minimal cost or intrusion, or ideally start doing deadlifts.

There have been a host of threads about this lately, here and on other forums.

[patchsurfer]

Thanks! I've been directed to doing bridges and one-legged bridges too, for anyone else's reference.

[latsride]

Go run some hills up and down! Seriously.

[Dagger9903]

May not be helpful / relevant to you, but I recently had a bit of an epiphany on glute activation while cycling so figured I'd share:

- Was climbing on the tops and started to feel like I was dragging a$$
- Switch to the hoods to change it up a little, as well as leaned forward slightly naturally
- I noted that as I slightly unweighted my hands, it forced my core to activate a bit more to hold my upper buddy at the same, constant angle
- All of sudden, I felt my glutes engaging in a way that I had never previously consciously recognized
- My theory is that the angle of my body + the firmer platform (i.e. my core) gave my glutes more to "push on" and therefore could be engaged. AND/OR, that forcing a tighter core somehow cross-activated my glutes
- I've confirmed this effect on the trainer as well. Really helps when you're doing 20 minute threshold sessions for the last 7 minutes or so =)


The second thing I've done to complement this is pretty simple: kettleball one-legged pistol squats. These are a total pain and may be too challenging for you (I have no clue what your fitness is), but you can also grab something to stabalize and unweight yourself a bit. One-legged is great for stability, the depth is great for the glutes. If that's also too hard, you can start with easier one-legged drills and work up to the pistol squat.

Hopefully this helps!

[DanW]

I think in the early stages certainly, it is a case of trying a few different things and seeing what works for you. For me it was a single leg toe touch and single leg squat with perfect form which woke up the glutes and then almost straight away transferred to the bike and daily activities. Things the physio initially suggested like bridges, planks, side lying clam type exercises didn't seem to affect my glutes too much. I think cyclists are built quite poorly with some very strong superficial muscles and not much else so it is quite easy to do the more subtle movements very poorly from a form point of view and very difficult to get the "feel" for the exercise. With the single leg toe touch and single leg squat giving a feel for what I was aiming for it made these more subtle movements easier to do correctly.

[bungis]

Planks seems to make a big difference for me.

In fact I stopped doing them awhile back because I hated them and then wondered why I'm all of sudden all quads/calves/hammies when pedalling until I started them again thanks to this thread.

[KWalker]

Go see a PT that works with athletes for an evaluation. The glute has multiple muscles and sometimes activation is not necessarily due to a muscular weakness, but something within the joint and/or an opposing muscle.

[User Name]

What's the best time to do the light glute exercises, such as planks or rear leg-raises?
A typical hard week for me is hard rides on 3 days, usually on Tues, Thurs, then either Sat or Sun (occasionally both).
So, should I do them the night before hard rides......etc,....when?