Glute Activation: Power, Protection, and the Muscle Everyone Forgot How to Use
You can tell a lot about a person by how their glutes work.
Or don’t.
Modern life has given us incredible tools, but it’s also created an epidemic of weak, underactive glutes.
We sit at desks, in cars, on couches — and the longer we sit, the more the body adapts to that shape. The glutes — the biggest, most powerful muscles in the human body — grow long, dormant, and unresponsive.
Then we stand up, head to the gym, and wonder why our knees hurt, our hips ache, or our sprint speed has disappeared.
At FIT, glute activation isn’t just a buzzword. It’s one of the cornerstones of performance and injury prevention, second only to ankle mobility in importance. Because when the glutes are asleep, nothing above or below them works right.
The Modern Weakness: Long and Underactive Glutes
Both adults and athletes live in flexion.
We sit all day — hips bent, glutes stretched, quads shortened.
Over time, the nervous system learns that position as “normal.”
The result?
The glutes forget how to fire properly.
The hip flexors tighten and take over.
The hamstrings and low back start compensating for missing hip drive.
This is why so many adults struggle with back pain and why so many athletes rely on their quads for every movement — the glutes aren’t contributing.
Think of your glutes as your body’s powerhouse. We’ve got numerous blog posts specifically on these muscles!
When they’re active, energy flows efficiently from the ground up. When they’re offline, you’re running the whole system on backup generators — smaller muscles working overtime and burning out fast.
Why Glute Activation Is Non-Negotiable
The glutes do two critical jobs:
Produce force — hip extension, abduction, and external rotation.
Control force — stabilizing the pelvis and knees during dynamic movement.
That second job is where most people fail. You can have “strong” glutes on paper and still move poorly if they aren’t active during movement.
When your glutes aren’t firing, your knees and hips lose stability. Every squat, jump, or change of direction becomes riskier because your body isn’t controlling the position of your femur (thigh bone) relative to your pelvis.
The ACL Connection: Weak Hips, Big Problems
Research has consistently shown that weak hip external rotators and abductors — in other words, weak glutes — are one of the strongest predictors of ACL injuries.
Here’s why:
When your knees valgus (collapse inward) during landing or cutting, it’s not just a knee problem. It’s a hip control problem.
The glutes — particularly the glute medius and glute maximus — are responsible for:
Keeping the knees from collapsing inward (resisting adduction and internal rotation).
Maintaining hip alignment under load.
Controlling deceleration forces during landing.
When they’re weak or inactive, the chain reaction looks like this:
Hips internally rotate and adduct.
Knees collapse inward.
Tibia rotates excessively.
The ACL — which prevents that forward and rotational shift — takes the hit.
For athletes, this means a greater chance of catastrophic injury. For adults, it means nagging knee pain, hip discomfort, or that recurring low-back tightness you can’t quite stretch away.
In both cases, the fix starts with teaching the glutes to fire again — to stabilize, control, and generate power like they’re designed to.
Why This Matters for Everyday MVPs
You don’t have to be an athlete to benefit from glute activation.
Every step you take, every time you stand from a chair, every time you bend down to pick something up — your glutes are supposed to be leading the charge.
When they’re not, smaller muscles step in to do big jobs they weren’t built for:
The low back tries to extend the hip, leading to chronic tightness and fatigue.
The hamstrings overwork, leading to cramps and poor posture.
The knees track inward, creating strain and inflammation.
Most “tight” lower backs and “bad” knees aren’t the result of bad luck — they’re the long-term consequence of underactive glutes.
When you retrain your glutes to fire, suddenly your hips move smoother, your knees track straighter, and your low back can finally relax.
How We Fix It at FIT
Every FIT warm-up includes targeted glute activation — not random band work, but intentional movement designed to wake up the entire posterior chain.
You’ll see things like:
Glute bridges and hip lifts to reestablish hip extension.
Monster walks and lateral band walks (personal training) to fire the glute medius and improve hip stability.
Single-leg work to reinforce control in real-world patterns.
Rotational activation to prepare for multiplanar movement.
We don’t just “warm up” the glutes — we prime them. We teach them to stabilize, resist rotation, and deliver force efficiently through every rep and every stride.
Because when the glutes are active, every other muscle gets to do its job properly.
From Power to Protection
Strong, active glutes make everything better:
Stronger lifts — more hip drive in squats and deadlifts.
Faster sprints — better ground force and stride power.
Safer movement — reduced risk of ACL, hip, and low-back injuries.
Better posture and alignment — hips neutral, spine stable, knees tracking cleanly.
Make you more attractive - yes you read that right.
Your glutes aren’t just your powerhouse — they’re your anchor.
They stabilize every link in the kinetic chain, from your ankles to your shoulders.
When they’re strong and responsive, you move like an athlete.
When they’re weak, everything else suffers.
Bottom Line
If ankle mobility is the suspension of your movement vehicle, glute activation is the engine.
Without it, power leaks, control fades, and the body starts compensating in ways that eventually lead to pain or injury.
So whether you’re a weekend warrior or a varsity athlete, make it your mission to bring your glutes back online.