Glute imbalances are very common – much more common than you’d imagine. Out of all of the email inquiries I receive from my readers pertaining to the glutes, the topic of imbalances comes up the most often. If you comb the web, you won’t find much good material on this topic. In fact, a Google search of the term “glute imbalance” yielded several links on the front page to threads from some of the most popular strength & conditioning forums – yet no comprehensive answers could be found. The reason why strength & conditioning experts shy away from this topic is because the answer is complicated. In this article I will first discuss the reasons why you may have a gluteal imbalance, and then I’ll discuss potential solutions.
Causes of Gluteal Imbalances
1. Asymmetrical Human-Nature
By nature, we are asymmetrical beings. Our anatomy itself can be asymmetrical, for example right to left pelvic and hip asymmetries and leg length discrepancies are common. Perhaps more important is the fact that daily movement is markedly asymmetrical. We tend to shift to one side when standing for prolonged periods, and we develop comfortable, asymmetrical patterns for common daily tasks.
In sports, it’s natural to rely predominantly on one side during a particular pattern. If we kick, most right-handed people kick with their left leg. For this reason, most right-handed individuals are actually more stable on their left leg and therefore are initially better on their left leg compared to their right leg when learning single leg exercises. In rotational sports, most athletes swing or throw from the same side, which uses the rear glute to a much greater degree than the front glute. As you can see, one glute or some region of the glute may be more coordinated and stronger than the other.
Gluteal imbalances that are not significant should not be considered dysfunctional. Significant imbalances greater than 15% should be addressed.
2. Inactivity
When considering the human body, we know that some muscles are more prone to inhibition than others, and the glutes are one of these “easily-inhibited” muscles. Several decades ago, physical therapists such as Vladimir Janda noticed that the glutes are quite prone to inhibition, and in the last decade strength coaches for professional teams began to notice that their athletes’ glutes were not functioning optimally.
There are several reasons that the glutes might shut down. Gluteal activation can be affected by neural and mechanical inhibitions involving opposing muscle groups. For example, tight or shortened hip flexors may lead to what’s been coined “reciprocal inhibition” of the gluteals. There may even be inhibitory consequences to excessive sitting, as compression slows down vascular function and interferes with nerve function. We’ll learn below that pain inhibits muscle contractility and is a major player in glute inhibition. Gluteal inhibition can also negatively impact posture. Poor posture can further inhibit gluteal function, creating a downward spiral.
However, probably the biggest reason why the glutes shut down is due to inactivity. If you fail to consistently activate a muscle, and you fail to regularly activate a muscle to high levels of capacity, it will inevitably quit working properly.
You will learn how many muscles activated from everyday activities if you study electromyography. The quads are activated when you get up from a chair or pick up a box from the ground. The erectors are highly activated when bending over to move furniture or perform yard work. The triceps receive sufficient stimulation when posting up to get up from a prone position or to push open a heavy door. The calves get activated when climbing stairs and the abdominals when sitting up from a reclining position.
However, the gluteus maximus fails to achieve high levels of activation during each of the aforementioned everyday movements. In fact, the nervous system only activates the glutes to around 10% of maximum capacity during the sit-to-stand, especially in the manner in which most sedentary individuals rise from a chair, and gluteus maximus activation is even less during gait at normal walking speeds. The gluteus maximus is activated by only heavy or explosive movements such as deadlifting, deadlifting and lunging, running, jumping, swinging, jumping, and hip thrusting. The problem is that most people fail to perform any of these activities on a regular basis in the modern-day world.
If we were to examine the muscle density achieved via maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) of 100 sedentary individuals, it is likely that 95 of them would be able to produce significant tension in their quadriceps, calves, abdominals, and triceps musculature, to name a few. However, perhaps only 33 of these individuals would be able to achieve high levels of tension in their gluteus maximus. This is why strength coaches and physical therapists alike have gravitated toward prescribing simple, low-load glute-activation drills to their athletes and patients. They are seeking to counteract the natural tendency of the glutes to shut-down and to teach the glutes to fire fast and hard when needed during functional movement.
3. Pain, Prior Injury, and Structural Issues
I mentioned above that pain is a huge inhibitor of the gluteus maximus. This is a huge deal. Research has shown that the glutes can become infected by almost any lower-body or spinal injury. How Many readers will have stubbed their toes. This can cause problems with the glutes. How Many of you may have broken an ankle. Glute Inhibition Do you hurt your knees or hips? Have you pulled a groin, or hammy? Have you fallen on your tailbone? Are you suffering from sciatica? Tweaked your low back? These injuries all decrease glute activation. Does this make it a problem?
But it’s not. The major propulsion muscles of the glutes are the hamstring muscles. They can produce strong locomotion. Inhibiting the glutes will cause an individual to slow down so they can heal. Back in the day, you would not have survived long if you were forced to hobble around for the rest of your life due to injury. This is an intelligent strategy for evolutionary survival.
The problem is that the glutes don’t necessarily turn back on automatically. You must activate, strengthen, and reintegrate them into daily movement and activities. How many people sprain their ankle, and upon healing, perform glute activation drills and utilize a progressive approach to reintegrate their glute into functional, high-force, and high-velocity movement? Most people don’t.
Following injury, most folks simply keep on keepin’ on, and their movement patterns suffer. Rather than experiencing proper glute function during movement, they rely on other muscles to get the job done. This is why you see pelvises dropping to the side and knees collapsing inward during gait, backs rounding over during lifting tasks, and an over-reliance on the hamstrings for hip extension. The body is resilient and will find a way to prevail, and people can become very fit despite using the wrong muscles or displaying faulty movement patterns. Next time you go for an early morning drive, pay attention to the joggers. You’ll notice that not many of them appear athletic or possess good running posture. Sadly, most look like they’re “speed-limping.” But even advanced athletes often have faulty glute function. A study of strongmen revealed that those who were the most skilled used their glutes when lifting weights, while those who were less skilled relied on their back muscles more.
Finally, we must consider morphological structural issues that could contribute to diminished glute function. To list some examples, let’s say that you have lost the natural arch in your right foot, or you have bone spurs in right hip, or you have scoliosis, or you have excessive anterior pelvic tilt, or you damaged the lateral meniscus in your right knee. Glute inhibition could be caused by any of these. To confuse matters, some of these could have been caused by glute inhibition (remember the downward spiral I referred to earlier?). Gluteal inhibition can also cause structural changes.
But don’t be alarmed – these conditions don’t guarantee glute dysfunction. Any of these conditions can be fatal to an athlete, but they will not prevent them from having healthy glutes. In fact, perhaps the best pound-for-pound deadlifter in powerlifting history had severe scoliosis, and a majority of sprinters have “excessive” anterior pelvic tilt.
Solutions for Restoring Gluteal Imbalance
As we noted above, glute imbalances can be caused by dysfunction brought upon by pain or inactivity and are therefore a “dysfunctional consequence.” However, they can also be caused by everyday life and sports and are therefore a “functional consequence.”
I do not know why YOUR glutes are imbalanced. Let’s say that we had a consultation and I learned your entire athletic and injury history – at best I could only speculate as to why you have a glute imbalance. Maybe when you were in high school you hurt your left knee, which caused your left glute to shut-down, and since you never rehabilitated properly, your body memorized sub-optimal movement patterns and has been relying on faulty motor control ever since. Maybe in your twenties you quit playing sports and quit going to the gym and pretty much sat on the couch for 3 years. During this time, perhaps you rarely used your glutes, and the only times you did anything that used the glutes to any substantial degree, you relied predominantly on the left leg, causing the right glute to shut down while keeping the left strong. Maybe your favorite sport was highly asymmetrical and you swung a club or threw right handed, strengthening your right glute to a much greater degree than your left.
Whatever the case is, it usually doesn’t matter as the solution is often the same. During the “re-education” process, it’s important to have proper perspective. You might have been walking around with a gluteal imbalance for over a decade, therefore it’s going to take some time to rewire your motor circuitry. If it takes a few months for the problem to normalize, so be it. Each session you’ll be a little bit closer to your goal so be patient. Also recall that we want to strengthen the “neuromuscular” unit. There’s a neural and muscular component to fixing the issue. Right now your dysfunctional glute is weak and doesn’t want to activate. You need to get it easily-excitable through neural reeducation, and then you can focus on increasing strength and hypertrophy.
Wait for Pain to Subside
When pain exists during movement, the brain is trying to shut down the glutes, so this is not a good time to try to be teaching the glutes “motor learning.” There simply will not be much learning going on in the gluteal motor. So wait until pain subsides to start attempting to fix the dysfunctional glute.
Assuming pain is gone, there are six strategies that you may choose to employ. Depending on your situation, you may want to stick to just some of the strategies, or you may employ all six simultaneously. It all depends on what your situation is. Here are the six strategies:
1. Isometric Contractions for the Weaker Glute
The first thing you want to do in order to try to fix a gluteal imbalance is perform a bunch of extra work for the weaker glute. What you need to do is establish a solid mind-muscle connection (MMC) with the dysfunctional glute. One great way of going about this is to perform isometric contractions. Here is a good series to perform on a daily basis:
- 10 sets of 3-second maximum contractions with the weaker glute from a standing position
- 10 sets of 3-second maximum contractions with the weaker glute from a seated position
- 10 sets of 3-second maximum contractions with the weaker glute from a prone position
* Rest 5 seconds in between isoholds
You can do these isometrics anywhere as they don’t require equipment. In fact, you can even do them while you’re at work. It’s unlikely that anybody will notice, unless the person is staring right at your butt. Don’t be afraid to perform these multiple times throughout the day.
2. Low-Load Dynamic Drills for the Weaker Glute
In addition to the isometric contractions, you want to perform a variety of dynamic movements for the weaker glute so you target all the glute fibers through their multiple roles. The goal is to choose very simple exercises that aren’t challenging. This way, you can steer the neural flow to the gluteus maximus and prevent it from flowing excessively to the hamstrings or other synergists. You do not want to go to failure when performing sets of these exercises. Five to seven days per week, you want to perform a 5-10-minute motor-learning routine for the weaker glute consisting of:
- 2 sets of 10-20 reps of side lying abductions with the weaker leg
- 2 sets of 10-20 reps of side lying clams with the weaker leg
- 2 sets of 10-20 reps of quadruped hip extensions with the weaker leg
- 2 sets of 10-20 reps of single leg glute bridges with the weaker leg
* Rest 30 seconds between sets
* Perform the exercises in circuit fashion; first the abduction, then the clam, then the quadruped, then the bridge, then repeat
* Don’t do any of these drills for the stronger leg/glute
Remember, the focus is on quality muscle contractions. You want to feel these movements as much as possible in the gluteus maximus of the dysfunctional side. Tinker around with your form and figure out how to maximize gluteal recruitment during these movements. Positioning for maximum gluteal recruitment varies from person to person so I can’t give you the exact recipe here – you need to figure it out for your body. Don’t add load in the form of bands or ankle weights, don’t perform more challenging variations, and don’t perform more than 20 repetitions. You’re not going for progressive overload – you’re aiming for gluteal reeducation.
3. Low-to-Medium-Load Symmetrical Bilateral Movements
You don’t need to completely shy away from squatting, deadlifting, hip thrusting, or back extensions. Just don’t worry about load for a while and instead focus on symmetrical movement and feeling the glute muscles work equally on each side. You’re going to be blending your newfound increased glute activation into your motor programs for each movement, so this is an important element to your success.
Your problem will not be solved by strengthening your glute. Your neural circuitry is wired to allow for asymmetrical movement patterns as well as muscle recruitment. It has built a “motor engram,” or a memorized movement pattern, and you’re trying to rewire the circuitry. You need to learn to activate the weaker glute, you need it to be stronger, and you need to build up its hypertrophy, and you’ll do this by hammering the weaker side. This alone won’t solve the problem.
You still need to learn to perform bilateral movements properly. Each repetition of deadlifts and squats with proper symmetry, while feeling your weaker glute activate properly, is a plus. Every repetition of deadlifts and squats you do that are not symmetrical in movement or activation is a MINIMUM. It’s up to you to learn your loading threshold and stick to loads that allow for proper motor programming. For some, this equates to bodyweight loading, and for others, 70% of 1RM might be okay. However, even if your imbalance is not that significant, you definitely want to shy away from anything above 90% of 1RM for at least a month.
When you go too heavy, your body WILL find the path of least resistance in order to get the job done. Your glutes are weaker than your other. If you push the limits, your body will find a way to work around it.: shifting to one side, rotating at the hips). Remember: Good reps will propel you forward, while bad reps will cause stagnation and take you backward.
Gradually increase your loading over several months. If you ramp up too soon, you won’t progress as you’ll just confuse the weaker glute and prevent reintegration. You may wish to start off with easier variations such as goblet squats and RDLs. Be patient and take your time.
4. Bilateral Movements with Resistance Bands Around the Knees, Ankles, or Feet
Bodyweight squatting and bridging patterns with resistance bands around the knees are very effective for gluteal reeducation and should be performed during warm-ups. You can also do a variety of band walks. These are known by different names such as x-band walk, sumo walks and monster walks. I recommend placing bands at the mid-foot and performing upright and crouched walking movements. I also recommend performing these walks both forward and backward as well as from side to side. You can choose a few band exercises and do 2 sets during warm up. Again, don’t go for PR’s and progressive overload, go for activation. Consider QUALITY over quantity.
5. Single Leg Movements and Core Stability Drills
Here’s the deal. You don’t want your strong leg to get weaker, and you don’t want the glutes, hamstrings, adductors, and quads on the good leg to shrivel up. What you do want is for the glute on the weaker side to catch up as quickly as possible so it matches that of the stronger side. Performing low-to-medium load bilateral movements will prevent the hip and thigh muscles on the dominant side from experiencing significant atrophy, and you won’t lose appreciable amounts of strength either. Let that be a comforting thought.
However, you can still perform some traditional single leg work (think Bulgarian split squats, step ups, reverse lunges, single leg RDLs, single leg hip thrusts, and single leg back extensions) or core stability work (think Pallof presses, side planks, and band hip rotations) with two caveats:
- Don’t go too heavy to the point where you no longer feel the weaker glute doing the brunt of the work. If you can’t accomplish this with bodyweight loading, then don’t do them – they’re too advanced for you and will prevent you from progressing. These movements should feel good to the weaker side of the glute. You can still incorporate them into your programs, provided that the second form fails or the time the glute stops working.
- Do twice the volume for the weaker side compared to the stronger side. If you do 10 reps for the weaker side, stick to 5 reps for the stronger side. This will also prevent strength and hypertrophy losses for the dominant side while allowing the weaker glute to catch up.
If you play an asymmetrical sport that’s in season, I advise you to not do any work for the dominant side as it’s getting plenty of work during the sport and practices themselves.
6. Self-Myofascial Release (SMR) and Static and Dynamic Stretches
It is very important for your hip mobility to be symmetrical. Your hip flexibility should be tested for each leg. You want to test your hip flexion, hip extension, hip abduction, hip adduction, hip internal rotation, and hip external rotation flexibility for each hip. If you have a marked asymmetry in any of the motions, then you should attempt to restore balance as quickly as possible. Strengthening movements are great for this purpose, but some stretching and SMR will help you speed things up. Hip rotation imbalances can often be found (external or internally). If so, you will benefit from performing a combination of foam rolling, static stretches, and dynamic stretches to help achieve balanced flexibility. Stick to 5 minutes of SMR and flexibility work for the affected side.
Automaticity is the Goal
Your goal is to eventually reach automaticity and quit having to “think glutes” all day long. Sure, any good lifter has to remind him or herself to squeeze the glutes on maximal hip extension exercises such as when locking out a deadlift. Both of your glutes should fire when you extend your hips or do any movement that relies upon them. Within six-months of gluteal reeducation, you should be able to balance out your strength and movement patterns – hopefully even quicker.
You eventually want to be able to perform high-load movements such as maximal squats and deadlifts and explosive movements such as jump squats, power cleans, kettlebell swings, plyos, and sprints, with symmetrical and properly functioning gluteals. As you progress in your gluteal reeducation you will begin to ramp up in loading and perform more challenging exercises. As this occurs, you will begin to wean yourself off of isometric contractions and low-load glute activation drills. This process may take up to 4 weeks for less severe cases of glute imbalances. The process can take up to 3 months for more severe glute imbalances. It’s impossible to tell. Just be consistent and diligent and you should be able to restore proper function.
Conclusion
I hope that this article has shed some light on gluteal imbalances and provided you with solutions to your problem. In summary:
- Don’t train in pain
- Perform lots of extra work for the weaker glute in the form of isometric and low-load dynamic glute activation drills
- Perform lighter bilateral movements such as squats and deadlifts with perfect symmetry
- Utilize resistance bands placed around the feet, ankles, or knees to perform squats, bridges, and various walking movements
- Perform extra volume for the weaker leg when busting out single leg and core stability work such as lunges, single leg RDLs, side planks and Pallof presses, and
- Perform SMR and flexibility work if you have hip flexibility imbalances.
You should always think about quality rather than quantity. In time, you should be able to solve your problem, reach automaticity, and possess a balanced booty.
