How to strengthen glutes for running

If great posture is the key to great running… strong glutes are the key to great posture!

Along with deep abdominal strength, powerful glutes keep us upright and provide a stable core centre, so the upper and lower body can function with more ease.

This central connection to the glutes and core is what gives us great posture and maintains it as we run – allowing us to run further, faster and easier, feeling lighter and staying injury free.

In today’s video, I’m going to explain the key roles of glute max for us as runners, and show a couple of great yoga exercises we can do to connect and strengthen up glute max.

After you’ve watched, I’d love to hear from you – have you spent much time considering your butt strength?! Or is this an area that you’ve overlooked? 🤔 can you fit more Bridge/ Single leg Bridge lifts into your life?!

Related Running Exercise Videos

My Strengthen Lower Glute for Runners class

My Best Glute Exercises for Runners video

If you enjoy these classes join my Spring Challenge for runners at runbetterwithyoga.com/easy

You can also join our growing community of runners here on FB 🙂

How to Strengthen Glutes to Run Better Video Transcript

Are you ready to run with the transformational effects of strengthening and connecting to glute max? Let’s learn how!

Hi, I’m Helen Clare, this is the Run Better with Yoga show, helping you to run injury-free and move with more ease and joy.

Why is glute max so important?

Firstly, it’s the biggest and strongest muscle in the body, so we need to maximise its potential for extending the hip back, working with the hamstrings to lift the heels, and to prevent the knees from collapsing inwards.

Secondly, a strong Glute max, keeps us upright. With the core muscles, it plays a huge part in aligning our pelvis, and keeps our upper body aligned and connected with the lower body.

As you hopefully know by now, the key to running well and staying injury-free is great posture. Without enough strength in glute max, you’ll tip forward and overstride. Overstriding breaks our core connection, meaning neither the core or the glutes can fire properly and everything else is affected.

So now you know why they’re so important, are you ready to learn how to get stronger glutes and feel the transformational effects in your running? Let’s get into it

Regularly do super simple Bridge lifts – but go slow, focus on lifting from the muscle around your sitting bones and relax around your sacrum. Keep the pelvis as steady as you can.
Then, see if you can stay just as steady and level in Single Leg Bridge lifts
Then, inverse that action on hands and knees. Stabilise the shoulders by pushing, stabilise the pelvis by synching in the belly. Lift the leg with the knee bent, without moving anything else.

Effectively connecting to the strength of this powerful muscle is crucial if you want to continue running for life and maximise your running potential.

Try those poses, and let me know how you get on! Share your thoughts in the RBY Community group on facebook, or on the blog at rby.com. You can find us on social @runbetterwithyoga and tag me a in a video of you doing your glute work!

Now get ready to bound into Spring, with our brand new, free challenge starting this month! We’ll focus on how yoga can get you to that place, where running has never felt so easy. So sign up now to be part of it, over at runbetterwithyoga.com/easy

Find the links to everything in the show notes.

Here’s to running with more ease and joy – see you next time.