The question of how to use the glutes more during a sprint or vertical jump is paralyzing. It insinuates that some conscious thought or training strategy directly and immediately alters how the body functions during explosive movement.
But we know thought kills speed. And we know that, for starters, it’s simply about driving to your house over and over and over and over. (This is an analogy for doing something for so long that your body instinctively remembers how to do it. In other words, you don’t think about how to squat after a few months of squatting. You just get under the bar and make it happen.) The trick, however, is finding the right house. Every movement is unique. Every movement has it’s own “house.”
Repatterning the glutes to increase their use in explosive movements starts basic, with traditional low intensity activation exercises such as prone leg lifts and hip bridges. Most people “know” this, so they start their workout with these exercises during the warm-up. But because these exercises are relatively “easy” and kind of boring, it’s easy to just “go through the motions.”
Don’t.
Instead, do this:
1. START BASIC…
…with close to no moving parts. For instance, I use a modified bird dog because it’s easier to concentrate on the glute without worrying about balance.
Yes, the bird dog is “too complex” for me.
Crazy, right?
But the goal is to get the glute in gear, not better some random yoga pose.
Use an isometric contraction at the finished, or “top,” position because no matter how slow of a tempo I prescribe, you probably won’t abide by it.
Don’t worry. No many people (including myself) adhere to tempos. It’s too much thinking. It’s much easier to lift, hold for five seconds, and then lower.
Do this exercise everyday for fifty to one hundred repetitions (spread through out the day) for starters. If this seems like a lot of work, that’s because it is.
Changing processes and functions in the body is never easy. Really, you don’t want it to be easy. If humans adapted on a whim, we wouldn’t survive that long.
2. ADD MORE…
…moving parts. Since most movement is upright, I like transitioning into standing exercises from here on out. The go-to for standing hip extension, in my opinion, is the romanian deadlift movement pattern (also known as the “hinge” movement pattern).
For simplicity, work isometric contractions at both the start and finished positions. I use something called the fundamental tip toe position, which is essentially doing a calf raise and contracting your glutes. Hold this for time — one minute is a good starting point.
The opposite end is finding a way to squeeze your glutes in the bottom position. If you have a friend, it’s probably best if they punch you in the buttcheek every five seconds while you’re down there. Again, one minute is good for a set.
Spread four of five sets of both of these through out the day.
3. BRIDGE THE GAP…
…between the fundamental tip toe position and glute beating position, making it smooth motion. This, my friends, is what it feels like to “hinge.”
If your glutes aren’t warm after ten repetitions, be worried. If they aren’t on fire after twenty-five, you’ve done something wrong. That “something” is probably an inability to keep tension on the glutes through out the range of motion. It’s going to sound weird, but you want to “grind” your glutes as you push your hips back during the romanian deadlift motion.
Think about the feel you get when you lower a weight slowly during barbell curls, maintaining a contraction in the muscle as it lengthens. This is “grind.” Finding the “grind” is tough with the hips and the hinge, so you have to work on it.
4. ADD SOME KIND OF LOADING…
…to the movement once you get the grind sorted out. Be sure to keep it slow for now. Regular old romanian deadlifts with a barbell or dumbbells are viable options. The barbell makes it a bit more difficult. Your movement is restricted by the barbell hitting your legs, but you’re going to have to get used to it anyways, so it might as well be now.
5. ADD A LITTLE SPEED…
…with something like kettlebell swings or perhaps hang cleans. Use a manageable weight.
6. ADD MORE MOVING PARTS WITH A LITTLE SPEED…
…by doing something like a lower load power clean. The power clean in itself isn’t a necessary transition, but it’s slow enough (even though it’s pretty fast) to have some control over, meaning you can “feel” things going on during the movement. This is in contrast to a vertical or broad jump, where things happen too fast to have conscious control over.
7. HOPE FOR THE BEST.
Heavier power cleans, vertical jumps, sprints, and other similar exercises will depend on the work done above. You won’t have time to “feel” or “think” during them. Instincts take over.
But if you follow the progression above — or at least extrapolate the principles — you’ll probably end up driving to the right house on a consistent basis. Just know that it takes a lot of time to get there, and you shouldn’t rush the process.
HOW THIS SEQUENCING CHANGED MY LIFE
The above process was fine tuned after my “dark years,” which was when I was stricken with debilitating knee pain. Over time, I failed on enough programs and false claims that I finally clawed my way out with my own developmental framework. During the year of experimentation, I learned a lot about movement, but specifically how movement relates to athleticism.
In short, I found out how to create a foundation for athletic movement. This sequence above is the shell of that foundation. It single handedly changed my future. I was entering into a depressive state after being debilitated with chronic knee pain.
A little while ago, I was asked to share my view on fundamental athletic movement as apart of a larger project, Muscle Imbalances Revealed. So for the past month, I worked hard to create a worthwhile presentation and awesome supplementary videos for this product. I’m proud to say that it’s finally available for purchase.
If you have any interest in athletic framework and glute programming example above, you will love my contribution to the Muscle Imbalanced Revealed project. It’s an informal walk-through of my perception of athletic movment and what it takes to form an awesome foundation for future high level skills.
Since you’re an awesome reader of mine, you have access to the early release. And the best part is that if you pull the trigger before Friday, August 10th, you will also get access to a free coaching call that myself and the other contributors will be apart of.
So it’s definately worth checking out. And be sure to get it now under this early screening before access the bonus coaching call ends.
I’ll be back in a few days to give a little bit more information about just what I did for the product.
But I’m happy that I can share this information as it was so instrumental in my personal adventure and turning my life, health, and athleticism around.
Here’s the link one more time. I hope you will check it out.
–> Click here to check out Muscle Imbalances Revealed
+++++
I’ve done enough talking. How would YOU incorporate this information into fixing up a barbell row? Increasing athleticism? Powering a squat from the glutes?
—–
photo credit: Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games
great article again. i know the focus is on feeling the movement pattern, but ive been cutting the reps doing these exercises and using ankle weights for a heavier load. it means i can only get about 8 to 10 reps per set. do you think thats enough reps or is it better to be in the high numbers each set.
andrew
It depends on where you’re at. How long have you been doing the exercises? In general, I don’t think the goal of activation should be overload. So I tend to stick to higher reps and “feeling” the movement. Loading comes later in more complex things.
doing them a couple of years now, modified birddog,prone hip raise,monster walk and lateral band walks. i do all of them 2 sets of 15. i think im not going high enough with the reps though to really teach them how to function more efficently?
You just have to make sure your MIND is in the repetitions. Don’t take them for granted.
Anthony -
Good stuff as usual. Simply incorporating a romanian deadlifting movement into my warmup has reduced [pistol-squat related knee pain. That and also holding the squat position for time as part of my cool-down.
Awesome stuff, Dale.
As I glanced at the pair of twin mounds, a horrible thought crossed my mind: “What if these AREN’T girl butts?”
Anyhoo, thank goodness that you mentioned the tempo issue! I’m used to contracting isometrically at the top of the modified Svend Press for five seconds, so while I was looking at the tempo recommendation in your book, I asked myself why it couldn’t be simple like the upper chest activation work. I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is for me. You’re right. It’s a lot of thinking. I’d be counting and thinking of each phase I’d be in.
But yes, this is good news. You could have possibly made my day. YES. It is 100 repetitions per leg, right? My mind is hoping it is only 50 repetitions per leg, but I know that is too easy.
Don’t laugh, but I actually do one single facial exercise. Curiosity got the better of me. You basically draw your lips together in an “O” shape. You’re supposed to use fingers to provide resistance, but I found a way to do it without using fingers. Here’s a video of a guy doing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXoXlu3RM3g
I find that using isometric contractions at the top really help you activate that muscle you’re using. The point I was making is that isometric contractions at the end of each repetition really do help you think about that muscle more. I saw that it applied to glutes and the upper chest, so seeing that it works with virtually any muscle is pretty cool.
And I can’t even begin to imagine how depressing the chronic knee pain must have been. I was pretty down when I screwed my right leg stretching, so I can’t imagine how horrible it must have felt to have such debilitating knee pain.
I admire that you were able to stand up and come up with such a kick-ass program. Major props to you. It’s like someone commented a while ago, people should post your ebook on every lantern in town. Hopefully you’ll get a lot more exposure with the project above. I’m actually trying to get my dad to do it with me. His knees are like Rice Crispies. So it’s actually my duty to bring this to him.
I hope your work gets all the exposure it deserves.
Thanks, as usual. And get your dad in on it for sure. I’m sure he will benefit from it.
And lip exercises, haha? Weirdly cool.
What’s the thought behind the facial exercises?? Can you get cheek hypertrophy haha?
Nah, the area seems to gain a little definition. Lol, cheek hypertrophy. I had a little puffiness in that area. I like to think it did something to help. But what happened is that I can more readily call upon the muscles in that area.
It actually gave me insight as to why girls do the duck face. As you draw your lips together, you pull on the skin below the cheekbones, which seems to pump up the cheekbones by contrast. It was a cool experiment.
So I got that effect without having to draw my lips together into a stupid face.
Jujimufu Deris Face.
Hah. I didn’t even know that was a face! Lol, and yeah bro, remember, you gotta hit them cheeks from 99 angles if you want them super pumped. U mirin my facial aesthetics?
Almost went full bro there, man.
Quite alright.
My cheeks are getting jacked, bro.
I always feel my glutes sored when i do squats, lunges and deadlift variations, and i also feel them working but, i don’t know why they’re are never a hard muscle, they’re always a bit soft. When i touch other muscles in my body i feel them hard, but getting my glutes hard are something really though for me, even doing sprints. What do you think might be the cause?
The glutes are usually surrounded by body fat. Need cushion for the sitting and whatnot. Unless you get sickly lean, they will always have some poof to them.
Thanks Anthony
Thanks for the reply! So it is 100 repetitions per leg?
Yessir.
Thanks! And thanks for the isometric contraction tip. Maybe you could put that in your ebook because the slow tempo thing seemed highly tedious by comparison.
Perhaps. That’s what revisions are for, I guess.
Great as usual Anthony.
I recently noticed that I have a rather big pelvic tilt even though I had a chiropractor fix my back. Is it possible that my left leg is a lot shorter than the other, or could it be that the muscles involved has adapted to the a pelvic tilt from before and that the pelvic has tilted again? Do you think I should try to balance out the muscle imbalance or just leave it?
Strange and hard question and I don’t even know if this is your area of expertice, but I thought it was worth a shot.
Thanks
It depends. You probably aren’t going to fix much of a pelvic tilt in everyday life. You just have to make sure you correct it under a load or during exercise. I’d say this depends on what kind of tilt you have (you didn’t specify).
Hmm, may be mixing up english words with swedish (and maybe even body parts?). Sorry about that.
Anyway, when I am standing up and looking at myself in the mirror my right side of my hip is higher than the left. Kind of like this: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/01/health/adam/19466.jpg, except without the “uneven shoulders” and “curve in spine”.
Thanks for your patience with my stupid questions and bad knowledge
Have you been checked for leg length differences?
Nope, have only thought of it as a hip problem and never really about leg lenght. Do you think I should do it?
Lately I’ve been trying multiple glute activation exercices, taken from both you, Bret, and other stuff randomly found on the internet. One of those are kneeling squats. I find them really good to work on the lockout to bottom position (to work on the “grinding” portion you mentionned). I find it easier to focus on the glute when the hamstrings are taken out of the equation, as in the BW RDL I find it’s really a thin line between loading the glute and loading the hamstring.
What are your thoughts about the kneeling squats ? After I do 20-25 reps I definitely feel a great burn in my glutes, which is kind of the point, I think.
They’re good for general activation and can be a step in the overall squat repatterning program to use your glutes more. I don’t know if they’re much else than that though. Good for general activation.
Hey Anthony,
I’m still having a hard time engaging the glutes in the exercises you recommend here. I find my hamstrings ALWAYS take over in any movement that I’m supposed to be engaging the glutes ie glute bridges, RDLs, and even your modified bird-dog. Should I just keep at the exercises or are there more stretches, activation, cues that I could use?
My knee pain book (http://anthonymychal.com/kneepain) works on the issue from the bottom up. The fundamental tip toe position helps.