How To Warm Up Your Glutes
Before beginning any substantial lower body workout, you’re going to need to prepare your lower body and warm up with some low-impact, low-cardio exercises. You might associate a traditional warm-up with doing some light cardio, but when it comes to strength training, you want to warm up the muscles. In order to warm up the muscles, you need to engage them: in this case, you should perform the following glute exercises before beginning your weight-lifting session. NOTE: Do not lift any weights or use any form of resistance during your glute warm-up. The purpose of a glute warm-up is to prepare your body for weight-lifting, so adding any resistance here would defeat the purpose.
Light Jogging
It’s important to get your blood pumping with a light jog – or any light cardio activity that will increase your heart rate and loosen up those legs and glutes.
Glute Bridges
A glute bridge is an easy, low-impact exercise that you can perform at home or in the gym. While laying on your back with your feet tucked in and your heels close to your bum, lower and raise your lower body while squeezing your glutes.
Squats
We know that you all know how to do a squat by now, but for the newbies in the room we’ll offer some tips anyway:
- Make sure your feet are shoulder-width apart
- Keep your heels on the floor – don’t try to squat on your toes!
- Only squat as far as is comfortable for your current fitness level
- Repeat 10-20 regular squats without resistance for an effective warm-up
Squats (bodyweight only, no weights!) are great for your warm up, as they’re going to mimic lots of the movements that you’ll be making later on during your workout.
Lunges
When it comes to doing lunges for your warm up, again, you want to avoid doing anything too strenuous. If lunges are still difficult for you, leave them out of your warm-up routine and stick to squats. Top tips for an effective lunge:
- Don’t go too low – focus on your form, rather than the depth of your lunge.
- Alternate your sides when lunging, in order to avoid strength imbalance on one side of your body.
- Put your hands together while lunging to help hold your balance.
Fire Hydrants
A fire hydrant is another low-impact bodyweight exercise that can be performed during your glute warm-up. Fire hydrants work the sides of your bum, while also engaging the gluteus medius and thighs.
- Begin on a yoga mat or exercise mat, positioned on your hands and knees with your shoulders and hips aligned.
- Lift one leg up to a 45 degree angle, with your knee remaining at a 90 degree angle.
- Lower and repeat, before beginning on the other side. Complete up to 10 repetitions on each side during your warm up.
Clam Shell
A Clam shell is another simple, mat-friendly exercise that you can add onto the end of your glute warm-up:
- Lay on your right side on your mat, with your knees bent at a 45 degree angle. Your hips should be stacked, and your core engaged.
- Lift your left leg as far as you can, while engaging your core and keeping your feet together.
- Repeat on the other side, up to 10-15 repetitions during your warm-up.
How Long Should a Glute Warm-Up Be?
Your warm-up should be roughly proportional to the length of your workout, as well as your experience level. If you’re going to be doing a workout for 45 minutes, a 10 minute warm-up should be sufficient to warm up your glute muscles and protect you from injury. If you’re trying to fit in a quick 30-minute workout during your lunch hour or before work, a 5 minute warm-up should do the trick.
Why Is Warming Up Important?
Whether you’re doing a lower body bum workout or simply getting some cardio in, warming up your body before exercise is always an important step if you want to get the most out of your workout session. There are a number of reasons why warming up is important:
Prevent Injury
When you perform a warm-up, you’re prepping your body for the heavy workout you’re about to put it through. Letting your muscles get used to the movements will help you to prevent injury – injuries often occur when you begin lifting heavy weights without giving your muscles a short period of time to get ready.
Better your form
The most effective kind of warm-up is a warm up where you perform the exercises that you’re going to be performing during your workout, but simply without weights or less intensely. This will help you to better your form and enhance your performance during your session.
Decreased Recovery Time
Going straight into a strength-training workout can put a massive toll on your muscles, and lead to longer recovery times and delayed results. By adding a warm-up into your routine, you’re minimising this possibility and protecting your muscles.
How Do You Know Your Glutes Are Activated?
You’ll typically be able to feel when your glutes are activated, as when you squeeze or engage them, you’ll feel the muscle contracting. You should be able to feel your glute muscles working while you’re performing your workout, especially if you’re doing intense exercises (such as deadlifts or lunges) while lifting weights.
Why Don’t My Glutes Activate?
If you feel like your glutes aren’t activating, you might be suffering from a little-known condition called glute amnesia, or sleepy bum syndrome! Glute amnesia occurs when the glute muscles remain inactive for long periods of time, resulting in the glute muscle lengthening and being unable to engage and fire as normal. Glute amnesia can be caused by sitting down for long periods of time (for example, at the office), infrequent exercise, or even by doing regular exercise without engaging your glutes (for example, running, jogging, various forms of cardio.)
How To Warm Up Your Glutes
Before beginning any substantial lower body workout, you’re going to need to prepare your lower body and warm up with some low-impact, low-cardio exercises. You might associate a traditional warm-up with doing some light cardio, but when it comes to strength training, you want to warm up the muscles. In order to warm up the muscles, you need to engage them: in this case, you should perform the following glute exercises before beginning your weight-lifting session. NOTE: Do not lift any weights or use any form of resistance during your glute warm-up. The purpose of a glute warm-up is to prepare your body for weight-lifting, so adding any resistance here would defeat the purpose.
Light Jogging
It’s important to get your blood pumping with a light jog – or any light cardio activity that will increase your heart rate and loosen up those legs and glutes.
Glute Bridges
A glute bridge is an easy, low-impact exercise that you can perform at home or in the gym. While laying on your back with your feet tucked in and your heels close to your bum, lower and raise your lower body while squeezing your glutes.
Squats
We know that you all know how to do a squat by now, but for the newbies in the room we’ll offer some tips anyway:
Squats (bodyweight only, no weights!) are great for your warm up, as they’re going to mimic lots of the movements that you’ll be making later on during your workout.
Lunges
When it comes to doing lunges for your warm up, again, you want to avoid doing anything too strenuous. If lunges are still difficult for you, leave them out of your warm-up routine and stick to squats. Top tips for an effective lunge:
Fire Hydrants
A fire hydrant is another low-impact bodyweight exercise that can be performed during your glute warm-up. Fire hydrants work the sides of your bum, while also engaging the gluteus medius and thighs.
Clam Shell
A Clam shell is another simple, mat-friendly exercise that you can add onto the end of your glute warm-up:
How Long Should a Glute Warm-Up Be?
Your warm-up should be roughly proportional to the length of your workout, as well as your experience level. If you’re going to be doing a workout for 45 minutes, a 10 minute warm-up should be sufficient to warm up your glute muscles and protect you from injury. If you’re trying to fit in a quick 30-minute workout during your lunch hour or before work, a 5 minute warm-up should do the trick.
Why Is Warming Up Important?
Whether you’re doing a lower body bum workout or simply getting some cardio in, warming up your body before exercise is always an important step if you want to get the most out of your workout session. There are a number of reasons why warming up is important:
Prevent Injury
When you perform a warm-up, you’re prepping your body for the heavy workout you’re about to put it through. Letting your muscles get used to the movements will help you to prevent injury – injuries often occur when you begin lifting heavy weights without giving your muscles a short period of time to get ready.
Better your form
The most effective kind of warm-up is a warm up where you perform the exercises that you’re going to be performing during your workout, but simply without weights or less intensely. This will help you to better your form and enhance your performance during your session.
Decreased Recovery Time
Going straight into a strength-training workout can put a massive toll on your muscles, and lead to longer recovery times and delayed results. By adding a warm-up into your routine, you’re minimising this possibility and protecting your muscles.
How Do You Know Your Glutes Are Activated?
You’ll typically be able to feel when your glutes are activated, as when you squeeze or engage them, you’ll feel the muscle contracting. You should be able to feel your glute muscles working while you’re performing your workout, especially if you’re doing intense exercises (such as deadlifts or lunges) while lifting weights.
Why Don’t My Glutes Activate?
If you feel like your glutes aren’t activating, you might be suffering from a little-known condition called glute amnesia, or sleepy bum syndrome! Glute amnesia occurs when the glute muscles remain inactive for long periods of time, resulting in the glute muscle lengthening and being unable to engage and fire as normal. Glute amnesia can be caused by sitting down for long periods of time (for example, at the office), infrequent exercise, or even by doing regular exercise without engaging your glutes (for example, running, jogging, various forms of cardio.)