Ever been told your glutes are “weak” or “aren’t firing”?

Been prescribed countless glute ‘strengthening’ exercises to clear up your back pain — but still not seeing long-term results?

Let’s break it down properly.

Muscles aren’t weak or strong in isolation.

Muscles respond to joint shape and position.

They’ll become long or short, concentric or eccentric, depending on the joint orientation around them — not because they’re inherently “weak”.

What about in lower back pain?

If someone has persistent lower back pain, their body is likely:

  • Compressed front to back at the joints

  • Lacking relative motion

  • Unable to rotate efficiently

  • Struggling to relax and yield certain tissues

Think of this as a “pancaked” pelvis — a shape that is locked up and restricted.

So what happens when they’re told to “squeeze their glutes”?

Going away and:

  • Squeezing the glutes more

  • Extending or arching the lower back

…will be catastrophic.

Your glutes may feel “weak” or “non-existent” because they are already squeezed, already concentric.

What they need isn’t more tension — they need to relax and yield.

The goal: Create space, not compression.

We need to:

  • Open up space between the sacrum, sit-bone, and femur head

  • Avoid compressing this area further

  • Stop using lumbar extension as a stand-in for real hip extension

Common glute exercises — are they helping or hurting?

Let’s take a closer look:

Glute bridges

  • Commonly prescribed to improve hip extension

  • But often performed with lumbar spine extension instead

  • The top of the bridge includes a glute squeeze — which only compresses the pelvis more

Multi-hip machine kickbacks (e.g. at Station Mill)

  • As you kick back, you’ll often see your lower back arch in the mirror

  • This is not hip extension — it’s the pelvis compressing front to back

  • Again, this diminishes range of motion, rather than improving it

Banded clams and lateral walks

These exercises are often thought to:

  • Target the anterior glute medius

  • Promote internal rotation of the pelvis

  • Open up space between the sacrum and sit-bone

However — this is rarely the case.

Most people are actually using the posterior glute medius, which drives external rotation and further reduces mobility and range of motion.

So what should you be doing?

When it comes to your training, rehab, or movement practice, consider the following:

  • More lumbar flexion, less extension

  • Less symmetrical movements, more (slightly) asymmetrical movements

  • Teach the body to land and absorb, rather than only jump or push off

  • Focus on lengthening glute tissue, not squeezing or tensing it

Summary:
The answer isn’t to strengthen your glutes — it’s to understand why they feel “weak” in the first place. The shape of your pelvis and spine dictate how your glutes behave. Improve joint orientation, restore relative motion, and you’ll find that the strength was there all along — it just had nowhere to go.