Have you ever been told your glutes are going to ‘sleep’ because you are sitting too much?
This idea is that your glutes don’t ‘turn on’ properly so they have become weak. You would be told that you need
to ‘activate’ your glutes and that they would never be strong unless you learnt to switch them on properly.

There is neither good evidence nor a reasonable explanation for this. In fact, if your glutes were not firing
properly, it would mean you either have something like a spinal cord injury or a neurological disease. You would
struggle to get up from a chair or walk up stairs! You would walk in a very awkward ungainly fashion!

Why is this even an issue?
Some people argue it is a harmless explanation and results in people just doing more glute exercises, which you
would think is good. Right? Wrong!

Instead of empowering people and encouraging them to improve their health and fitness, it causes people to
overly focus on one muscle group, rather than focussing on compound movements involving multiple muscle
groups and functional movements of the whole body.

Most people are short on time and I have seen many people spend their whole workout in gyms on activation
exercises from their physio, rather than compound exercises, which will strengthen multiple muscle groups at
the same time. These exercises have more positive effects on your body such as improved bone density,
coordination, balance and overall functional health.

Being told you have a weak glute, especially if on one side only, can be adding to a list of issues that you may
already have when they leave a healthcare practitioner. Physios can be very good at finding biomechanical faults
and on the whole this is a good thing but saying your glutes aren’t firing is not a scientific evidence-based
observation and can actually have a negative impact causing fear and even pain.
So if you are struggling to strengthen your glutes because you’ve been told they are weak, ask your physio about
doing total body strengthening exercises, which will include all of your buttock muscles but no single small
muscle in isolation!