A Five step formula for waking up the glutes

Get more from the body's most powerful muscle group.

So, your glutes are not firing, or so you have been told? Been for a bike fit and changes were made, but still feel choppy and quads are fatiguing fast? Perhaps you have been to the gym and performed countless “reps” of glute strengthening exercises without feeling that the gains have transferred to the bike?
Well, each of these scenarios are quite common and if one or all applies to you, then read on;
 
1. Get set up correctly. Although bikefit is not, in itself, a total solution for balanced muscle action, it is certainly a whole lot more difficult from a poor setup. Be sure to do some research and read some reviews before selecting a bike-fitting professional. This service is very important to both your health and cycling performance and therefore critical that it is done well.
 
2. Head to the gym. Strength (and strength endurance) training are very important but must be applied using a well-considered, progressive plan. So be sure to seek out some expertise here, whether it is a personal trainer, strength and conditioning coach, physiotherapist or other qualified and experienced professional. Not all strength training plans are created equal and success will be determined by how specific and applied your training sessions are. Many cycling coaches work closely with strength & conditioning practitioners (or exercise physiologists) and this is the preferred model where both experts coordinate the strategy and avoid working counter-productively.
Much of the strength and conditioning focus should be on the following areas:

• Core stability, but more specifically, dynamic core stability applied to cycling posture and in conjunction with cycling movement patterns.
• Gluteal activation, strength & endurance applied to both simple (single joint) and complex (multi-joint) movements.
• Muscle activation awareness (how to turn the muscles on) for pelvic control. This is a tough one and requires expertise, however pelvic stability and control is essential for providing a stable pedalling base and allowing the gluteals to work powerfully.
• Hip flexor strength so that momentum may be generated and held through the top part of the pedal stroke (the section from “10 o’clock to 2 o’clock” on the clock face analogy).
• Hamstring endurance, so that fatigue is resisted in their repetitive up-stroke role.

This is not the definitive list but shows that the process is not straightforward and requires a trainer with experience and specific knowledge.

Note: Dynamic flexibility (stretching) is also very important and should always be included as part of the strength and conditioning plan.

A balanced set up provides the best platform from which to use your cycling muscles effectively

​3. Learn & apply postural / movement cues. This is the critical step for transferring your strength to the motion of pedalling. It is folly to think that just because you are stronger in the gym, you will automatically carry this new capacity to your riding, if only it were that “easy”. Equally, a perfect setup on the bike is not that useful if a poor motor pattern continues, just as a great motor pattern can be eroded by a poor set-up. If you have been fitted by a professional and have worked through an effective strength training plan, it is time to take it to the bike (although the perfect scenario is to apply this step simultaneously with step two).
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Start with developing a routine and some cues that work for you in terms of setting up a position and stable base from which to engage the glutes. From here you will be able to create a postural and movement focus that is reliable and repeatable. These are the key stages:

• Set the pelvis. You need to be able to rotate the pelvis forward or down, rather than bend forward at the lower spine. Once you do this, “press” your hips back towards the rear of the saddle and engage the core to set the pelvis and hips in this position. This is a VERY important step and sets up all that follows. If at any time whilst working through this process, you feel like you have lost the feeling, return to this step and “re-set” your posture.
• Once in a solid set position, be strong and smooth through the “10 o’clock to 2 o’clock” part of the pedal stroke. You should have a sense that at the top of the pedal stroke, you are pushing forward rather than down.
• Always keep your attention around the hip joint and upper leg, not the feet. Try to get a sense of the “relationship” between the thigh and the hip joint, in the up-stroke, through-stroke and down-stroke. This is called maintaining a central focus, like a swimmer keying on body rotation, rather than what the hands are doing. Motor patterns work best when the parts closer to the core of the body determine what happens at the end of the “chain” (the feet), rather than the other way around.
• Much of building a better pedal stroke comes from finding ways to “de-emphasise” the downstroke, given that (for most cyclists) it is so dominant and engrained that it kind of obliterates most of the other parts of the pedal stroke. In the “old days” we used to do this by riding fixies, where all parts of the pedal stroke could be felt with equal emphasis and any laziness in the stroke was immediately exposed.

A good coach can help with each of these things and it will soon be patently obvious that a little time spent in technical practice can pay big dividends.

Anterior pelvic tilt (rotation) is all about pivoting forward at the hip joint, NOT through the lower back. This creates a straighter spine but also sets a much more efficient angle for activation of the glutes during cycling.

4. Use drills. These are used to enhance and solidify the motor pattern for your new pedal stroke. Some examples include:

• The old “single-legged” pedalling drills, which will soon expose a pedalling technique with notable weak points. A word of caution; start with very easy gears and ride flat terrain (or use a stationary bike) as any strain or overload can cause spinal rotation and some pain.
• 30/30s. Often used for anaerobic power training, these are not the same. In this model you simply apply 30sec of pedalling with a strong positional and core focus, then stand up pedal freely before sitting down and re-setting for another 30sec technical effort.
• Pyramids. Find a hill that takes around one minute to climb and is not too steep (4-7% is perfect). Start in an easy gear and complete a seated climbing effort with all your focus on setting your posture, attention at the hip and core engaged. Turn around after a minute and roll down. Then repeat using one gear higher (harder). Repeat the sequence, increasing the gear each time. After four efforts, complete another three, only this time, make the gear easier with each effort. For seven efforts you would increase the gear three times before decreasing it for the final three.

There are many more drills out there and the practice is very common in sports like swimming and golf, where motor pattern repeatability is very important. An experienced and qualified coach will be able to help you with this.
 
5. Be patient and stick to a plan. The bottom line is that building a new and improved motor pattern will take some time. So, make a plan that incorporates a little technical training. Once you have a plan, stick to it diligently and be prepared for moments where you feel progress has become a little stagnated, this is normal. Depending on consistency and skill acquisition rates, you can expect to see / feel some improvement in your pedal stroke in around 3-6 weeks. Of course, a new more dependable technique that holds up under pressure will take a little more time and (here is that word again) patience.
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Technical training / drills are usually best applied during recovery rides / easy spins / stationary bike work.