5 Red Flags for Weak Glutes (FIX THIS!)
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Weak glutes are one of the most common muscle weaknesses exhibited. The irony is, the muscles of the hips and glutes are designed to be the strongest in the entire body. Given their location around the pelvis and their influence on the center of mass and spine, they are designed to be incredibly strong and capable of providing stability in all three planes of motion. As you’ll see in this video however, many of us are walking around with very weak glutes and I’m going to show you how to figure this out quickly.
There are five tests that you can easily perform to determine the status of your glutes. The first is the simple quadruped kneeling leg extension test. Here you want to get on all fours and straighten one leg out behind you. Make sure the knee is straight and that your hips are squared up to the ground. From here, attempt to squeeze your glutes on one side and lift that leg up towards the ceiling. Do you feel an intense contraction in the glute muscles?
If so, that would be a good sign that you have the ability to activate your glutes. That is not enough however. From here, you now need to bend the knee to further shorten the hamstring and put more of the emphasis on the gluteal muscles to perform the same activity of lifting the leg towards the ceiling. Squeeze again and see if you are able to reproduce the same discomfort. If not, that is your first red flag. Be sure to test on both sides as imbalances are common between the right and left legs.
Next you want to perform the bridge test. Lay on your back and press your heels into the ground with a bent knee position. Lift your hips as high as you can. If you already start to feel some cramping in your hamstrings on either side this would be an early red flag that you are dealing with weak glutes. If not, then proceed to lift one leg in the air and see if you can hold your trunk and pelvis up throughout the test without sagging. Once again, if you feel cramping here or if the pelvis is unable to be kept lifted then you will need to address the weakness in your glutes.
The third test is the lunge test. Here you want to see what the strength of your glute medius is in the frontal plane. Take whatever weight you would normally use for a set of 12 to 15 reps of dumbbell lunges and then combine that weight into one hand. So if you used 25lbs for example in each hand, you would hold a single 50 pound dumbbell in one hand for this test. Lunge out with the leg that is opposite the hand holding the dumbbell and try and maintain an upright torso without fallling towards or leaning to the weighted side. If you can’t, then you have a major red flag for glute medius weakness.
The fourth test is actually more of a detection of a symptom. Do you have low back pain that is pin point located just to the right of the bony prominence on your pelvis called the PSIS. If so, this could be coming once again from weakness of the glute medius muscle. I did an entire video on this topic that you are going to want to see as it shows you how to fix this problem instantly by using a myofascial technique.
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Finally, the complicated and difficult dragon flag ab exercise is actually much more easily performed if you allow the glutes to do their part. I show you how the lack of glute activation is a tell tale sign in the poor performance of the exercise and if you can’t activate them to improve the way you do this movement then you definitely should be alerted to the red flag pointing to the weakness.
As you can see, the glutes are a major and important muscle group in the body that cannot be overlooked regardless of whether you are a high performing athlete or an average joe dealing with the repercussions of having weakness in this area. If you are looking for a complete program that overlooks nothing when it comes to training every muscle in the body, be sure to head to and get the athlean-x Training System.
For more videos on how to get stronger glutes and the best glute workouts and exercises, be sure to subscribe to our channel here at and turn on those notifications as well.
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Why is it that camera men don't like to film below the knee? This is a vid about legs and glutes, but camera doesn't show the WHOLE body movement, it cuts the feet out of the frame. Look at 4:19 – 4:21. IT's soo annoying. Please, tell the camera man to focus on whole body movement and the body parts being discussed. I don't care to look at this man's face when he is talking: I care about looking at what he is POINTING at.
Thank you, Athlean-x, for your valuable instructions. Just talk to the camera man. 🙂
my glutes aren't that weak after all and i don't even really work out 😀 just yoga when i can and dancing
Yes if you are working out you need to hit every muscle, you can't just do your favourite exercises. You will definitely cause serious imbalances that way.
Ok
My biggest question: Is it possible that you can squat moderate weight like 225 and still have weak glutes?
Been working to increase my glute strength.
Don't have that sideways failure, at least not until everything else is failing.
But my glutes are still a weak point for me.
Activation test I can feel in the right glute, weak contraction but can't feel any contraction in the left looks like hamstring and hip are doing the work.
God damn it, I have arthritis in both knees from a boot camp injury. So many exercises assume that your knees can actually do things. Sucks! Sucks real bad!
Im a deadlift monster 550 lbs but got a weak ass lmao.
I struggle with 315lbs squat and 225 lbs hip thrust
Jeff it would really be a great imagine for you to show us your glutes so we can get the proper imagine on how our glutes should look
🙏🙏
is a BIG bum one sign?
Ooooh, I was so impressed with myself until the one-legged bridge. Hamstrings all the way, baby…
Thank you, Jeff.
What if one side is weaker than the other?
this man is great
that thumbnail 🙂
It’s really helpful note I well do I tomorrow u
ok so my left side has red flags but its my bigger glute. How is it that the bigger glute is weaker????
literally every video from Jeff…. i feel ATTACKED 😛 in a great way! this man is amazing!!! damn!
Can we have a video on which exercise to do to fix this? I’ve tried all the lower body workouts and can not for the life of me get my glutes to activate much. I have lower back pain like no other and feel every exercise in my lower back or quads. Frog pumps, hip thrusts, barbell floor bridges, lunges, BS squats, rdl, sidekick Rdls ect I don’t really feel my glutes burning. I’ve had 5 hip surgeries and have had my IT band release and my psoas tendon release not sure if this is the cause for my issue.
Your the shit Jeff 🤙🏾
The videos u and your team provide are greatly detailed
If there is a specific plan to help people with safe and effective weight loss while having a previously injured back, and weak knees
I'll pay, if not just keep up the good work
I'll be here
Where are the muscle markers?
The thumbnail looks half human, half baboon.
I thought I knew everything about working out and bodybuilding until I started getting older and getting injured a lot more just going to the gym. Started watching Jeff’s videos and applying what I’ve learned and realized I knew hardly nothing about working out. He is truly a genius in his field and it’s incredible he gives this knowledge away freely on YouTube. I plan to eventually watch every video he has on YouTube. My low back already feels a lot better from one of his exercises he’s shown in another video.
This is one of the most best things I’ve seen … really targets ONE of my biggest problems. Thank you for helping me find a resource to improve.
What should I do if I fail test #1? On the right side, the right-lower back gets tense and sore.
If Jeff says I have weak glutes, I believe him.
okay so i literally can’t feel my glutes in ANY of these, i know i have weak glutes and a not very good mind muscle connection. i feel bridges above my knee (i think in my quads) i’ve doing glute activation before my lower body days but its not gotten better, i can never feel my glutes in hip thrusts or any glute focused exercise. i really need help i have no idea what to do!
I just came here to say that the thumbnail looks like a prison-rape comedy picture haha
Jeff, while your doing lunges around 4 minutes in, it looks like perhaps your knee collapses medially. May be your camera angle, or perhaps a glute medius issue….? I'll leave it in your capable hands to investigate 😉 Thanks for your good content, Cheers!
Jeff, thanks so much for all the insight related to back pain issues and correlation with gluteus muscles. I do seem to have an issues with my right gluteus medius and also suffer with anterior pelvic tilt- all of which I have been gradually working over the past 6months ( had to take esi to block my L4 as well). My trouble is everytime I try to do the specific glut medius exercises, it makes my pain worse at my SI joint. Not sure what I am doing wrong but some direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for all the videos!
This is an older video so I'm not really expecting a reply but when I do the bridge test, it's fine until I lift 1 leg. My pelvis does want to drop but I get strong activation in my quad, not hamstring. What do I need to work on?
Thanks for the info Jeff!
Enjoyed this video! I have a tight groin causing me to limp. I’ve been to a doctor. I don’t have any tears. I’m just looking for suggestions on rehabilitation.