"Your glutes are asleep." You have probably heard it at the gym, and maybe someone even sold you a remedy for it. The truth is simpler and a little less spectacular: glutes don't sleep. The idea of a muscular amnesia that is cured with a few exercises before training has no solid basis.
What does actually happen, and is useful to know, is that at the start of a session, recruitment is less efficient, and a few minutes of targeted work improve it. It is not a wake-up call: it is a specific warm-up.
⚠ Important: read this first
The exercises and advice in this article are general guidance and may not suit your situation. Everyone has a unique clinical history: what works for others could be counterproductive for you.
What this work is really for
Three concrete things, which need no mythology:
- It raises the temperature and blood flow in the muscles you are about to use.
- It lets you practise the movement at very low load: when you then do the squat, the hip already knows what it has to do.
- It gives you a moment of attention on an area that, during the big exercises, tends to be replaced by the lower back and quads.
It is useful before squats, deadlifts, lunges, running and sports with changes of direction. Five minutes, not twenty.
The five exercises, with dosage
| Exercise | How to do it | Dosage |
|---|---|---|
| Glute bridge | Lying down, feet on the floor: lift your hips by pushing through your heels, squeeze your glutes at the top for 2 seconds | 2×12 |
| Clamshell with band | On your side, knees bent, band above the knees: open the top knee without rotating the pelvis | 2×12 per side |
| Monster walk | Band above the knees or around the ankles, half squat: take side steps keeping the tension | 2×10 steps per direction |
| Fire hydrant | On all fours: lift the knee out to the side keeping the pelvis still | 2×10 per side |
| Donkey kick | On all fours: push the heel upwards without arching the back | 2×10 per side |
The test for whether you are doing it right: you should feel it in the glute, not in the lower back. If you feel it in the lumbar area you are compensating with the pelvis, and the remedy is to reduce the range, not to add repetitions.
The two mistakes I see most often
The first: doing too much. This is warm-up, not training. If you reach the squat with your glutes already fatigued, you have made the session worse, not better. Two short sets are enough.
The second: thinking it is enough. Activation does not make you strong. Glute strength is built with progressive loading in the big exercises: squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, step-ups. These five movements prepare the ground, they do not cultivate it.
If something hurts
Muscular discomfort during activation is normal. These are not:
- sharp pain in the groin or hip that appears at one specific point
- pain running down the leg with tingling
- painful clicks in the pelvis, different from the simple noise
In those cases the problem is not solved by more activation, and pushing on usually makes it worse.
Sources
- Examining the Influence of Warm-Up Static and Dynamic Stretching, as well as Post-Activation Potentiation Effects, on the Acute Enhancement of Gymnastic Performance: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis, Journal of sports science & medicine, 2024
- Does pre-exercise static stretching inhibit maximal muscular performance? A meta-analytical review, Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 2013
Sources last checked: September 2026.
Do you need a consultation?
Start with the questionnaire on Ri-Hub. A few questions about your case, you register, and you see who will follow you: a physiotherapist on the official register, whom you can write to in chat whenever you like. If you would rather talk it over by voice, the first consultation is free, lasts 20 minutes and commits you to nothing: they arrive having already read what you wrote, and together you decide whether and how to go on.
