Wake Up Your Glutes: The Real Deal on Glute Amnesia and Why It Matters

If you sit for long periods, struggle to feel your glutes during workouts, or deal with hip or low back pain, there's a good chance you're experiencing something called glute amnesia. Sounds like a fitness myth? It’s not. It’s a real phenomenon, and it could be holding you back from better posture, stronger lifts, and even pain-free movement.

What is Glute Amnesia?

Coined by strength coach Dr. Stuart McGill, "glute amnesia" refers to your glute muscles (primarily the gluteus maximus) forgetting how to activate properly. Sitting too much, lack of hip mobility, and poor movement patterns can cause your body to compensate by overusing your lower back, hamstrings, or quads instead of the glutes. This can lead to issues like tight hip flexors, anterior pelvic tilt, chronic low back pain, and reduced power in athletic movements.

Why Should You Care?

As I often say during my lectures on hip health and movement mechanics: "Your glutes are your engine. If they’re asleep, you’re running on fumes."

Weak or inactive glutes affect more than your aesthetics. They influence your gait, your squat depth, your hinge pattern, and even your spinal integrity. Athletes, seniors, and weekend warriors alike can benefit from giving their glutes a wake-up call.

How Do You Fix It?

Here’s the good news: you can reverse glute amnesia with targeted activation, mobility work, and smart movement cues. During my strength and mobility lectures, I stress the importance of building a strong hip hinge, not just for deadlifting, but for everything from getting out of a chair to picking up your grandkid.

Top Glute Activation Exercises:

• Glute Bridges (Bodyweight or Banded)

• Banded Lateral Walks

• Bird Dogs with Glute Squeeze

• Single-Leg Glute Bridge

• Frog Pumps

• Quadruped Kickbacks

These should be done before your workouts as part of your warm-up or daily mobility routine. Consistency here will retrain your neural pathways and help bring those glutes back online.

Resources and Further Learning

Want to go deeper? Here are a few killer reads:

• Back Mechanic by Dr. Stuart McGill

• Becoming a Supple Leopard by Dr. Kelly Starrett

• Health or High Water Podcast — where we dive into real conversations about optimizing health, movement, and performance.

If you’re tired of spinning your wheels in the gym or dealing with nagging back pain, it might be time to assess your glutes. Wake ‘em up, build better movement patterns, and watch everything else start to click into place.

Stay moving, stay powerful.

— Tripp Parks Genetic-Based Program Designer | Ascend Performance Training