How to Activate Glutes Before Running: Connecting Your Feet to Unlock Length

Are you struggling to feel your glutes during your runs? If so, you’re not alone! Many runners deal with “sleepy glutes,” which can hinder performance and lead to imbalances. Instead of relying on traditional glute activation exercises that may just tighten the tissue, it’s crucial to focus on finding length in your glutes first; glutes need to lengthen in order to load. This approach not only engages your glutes effectively but also connects to the mechanics of your feet. In this article, we’ll explore how to activate glutes before running by emphasizing the importance of foot positioning, pronation, and proper alignment, ensuring your glutes are primed to power your strides. Let’s dive into the fundamentals that can transform your running experience!

The Connection Between Your “Sleepy Glutes” and Your Feet

The first thing about the glutes (and muscles in general) is that they need to lengthen to load. Glutes that are chronically squeezed or clenched are not strong glutes!

Tell me, have you noticed yourself squeezing or clenching your glutes when you are standing? Resting the front of your hips on the edge of the counter when doing dishes or prepping dinner? That’s an unconscious strategy to help create stability where you don’t have it. It’s super common postpartum, but so many women do it without thinking.

If you’re struggling with how to activate glutes before running, continuing to pull them tighter with booty bands and clamshells in the name of glute activation probably isn’t helping this situation either- you need length first!

I talk a lot about that length specifically IN your glutes in this blog post.

Often, to be able to actually find that length in the glutes, you need to look further down at your feet; length in the glutes requires length in the foot (also known as “pronation").

Both of these actions happen together at midstance in your stride in order to help you put force into the ground (and manage the force the ground is putting into you).

At midstance, your center of mass is organized over your stance leg (in other words, truly standing ON one leg) through:

• Internal rotation at the pelvis and length in the glutes
• Maximum TRUE pronation

How to Activate Glutes Before Running: Check In With Your Feet

If you’ve done all the things to try to find that length in your glutes and you are still struggling to “wake them up” and bring them to the party, pay attention to what’s happening at your feet.

The strategies discussed below can be used with any of your standing exercises where you need a little more help feeling your glutes: hinges, squats, split squats, etc.

First, check to see if you are gripping the ground with your toes.

Gripping the ground with your toes is analogous to clenching your glutes. You aren’t going to find any length that way!

If you do this, here are two things to try to help take gripping with your toes off the menu and really load into your whole tripod foot:

1. Float your toes off the edge of a book or a step.
2. Place a folded up mini band, sock or wedge under just your toes, letting the whole ball of your foot stay in contact with the ground.

Next, learn to truly pronate through rotation.

We have a huge focus on this in The Foot Fix, but here are some strategies you can use in your strength training, specifically to integrate this with finding length in your glutes.

The two keys to integrating this true pronation with your strength work are:

• Bending your knee over your midfoot.
• Connecting with your medial heel.

Knee flexion is an important piece of true pronation.

With that knee bent forward, you still want to be ground into your full tripod foot with a “triangle spread” (shown in the image below) on the ground. While doing this, take extra care to really sense that point number 2 shown in the image, which is your medial heel. This is that pronation that happens through rotation in practice.

I find it helpful to start my athletes off with an added reference to sensing that part of the foot. Take a sock or a rolled up mini band and place it under the arch, on the inside of your foot, just in front of that heel.

Check out this Staggered Stance Hinge Drill for an example of how to apply these two pieces.

Knee over midfoot (think knee over laces), sense the medial heel, and watch out for those grippy toes.

Bottom Line

You don’t have to do a whole bunch of drills and extra exercises to wake up your sleepy glutes. Just nail the basics with some of these important little details!

• Knee over midfoot (think knee over laces), sense the medial heel, and watch out for those grippy toes.
• Load the system (glutes and feet) and give it no option but to contract and propel you forward.

Last but not least, check out The Foot Fix.

Learning how to activate glutes before running is only the start. Especially if you are experiencing the following foot symptoms on top of your sleepy glutes, getting to the root of the issue could be the key to unlocking your most efficient stride: plantar fasciitis, numbness and burning, Achilles issues, or chronically tight ankles and calves.

Next on Your Reading List:

Better Glutes = Better Movement. How to Exercises to Grow Your Glutes

No More Pancake Butt! Glutes Workout at Home for Stability and Power

Runners, Save Your Feet: How to Heal Plantar Fasciitis Quickly