By The One on One Team
Last Updated: 11/30/25
Refocusing Your Warm-Up: The Role of Purposeful Glute Activation
A well-designed movement preparation sequence includes four essential elements: tissue pliability, joint mobility, glute and abdominal activation, and gradually increasing heart rate. Each component serves a specific purpose in preparing the body for safe and effective exercise.
Over time, it’s easy for these routines to become automatic. We complete the movements but lose focus on their intent. When this happens, “movement prep” turns into “going through the motions.” This week’s Focus Point revisits one of the most important components: glute activation. We’ll review why it matters and how to perform our key activation exercises with proper form.
Why Glute Activation Matters
The gluteal muscles—gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus—play a critical role in nearly every lower-body movement. They are responsible for extending the hip and moving the leg outward, but perhaps more importantly, they help stabilize the pelvis and femur. This stability keeps the spine, hips, and knees aligned, supporting coordinated movement in daily activities such as walking, climbing stairs, and standing from a chair.
When the glutes are weak or underactive, other muscles compensate. The lower back and hamstrings take on extra work, often leading to tightness or discomfort. Over time, this imbalance can affect posture and contribute to pain in the lower back, hips, or knees. Activating the glutes before exercise helps ensure the right muscles engage when they should, which protects joints and improves overall movement quality.
Key Concepts
Although each glute activation exercise has its own technique, several principles apply across all of them. Keep these three cues in mind when you are performing your glute exercises
- Maintain a neutral pelvis throughout the movement by avoiding excessive arching or tucking. This allows the glutes to work rather than the lower back or hamstrings.
- Keep the knees aligned with the hips and feet. The glute muscles prevent the knee from collapsing inward and activation exercises reinforce the muscle engagement needed to maintain that alignment. Performing the movement in poor alignment defeats the purpose and actually feeds the dysfunction.
- Reach clear endpoints. Each repetition should reach a precise start and end position. Holding these positions briefly reinforces proper muscle activation and prevents momentum from taking over. By taking the extra second to fully engage your glutes, you are supporting the long-term health of your hips, knees, and lower back. It is worth it!
With these principles in place, we can now review proper technique and common breakdowns for our most common glute activation exercises:
Conclusion
Glute activation may seem like a small part of the training session, but it plays a meaningful role in the bigger picture. Exercises like deficit bridges prepare the hips to work the way they are designed to, which improves the quality of the strength work that follows. Over time, that strength supports the movements that matter most like climbing stairs, standing up from the floor, and participating in sports. When viewed this way, these brief activation drills become a meaningful part of supporting long-term mobility and strength.
