Signs of Weak Glutes & How to Strengthen Them

Many of us would be lying if we said we hadn't tried a workout in the pursuit of a beautiful backside. Truth is, aesthetics aside, having strong gluteal muscles, or glutes, are crucial to our movement.

"Most people do have some form or some level of a glute weakness because it's not something that they work on," says Dr. Larry Balle, an orthopedic sports medicine specialist at Houston Methodist. "And you know, I hear from patients saying, 'I work out my glutes all the time.' And I'll say, 'OK, but an Instagram influencer workout where you're doing hip thrusts on the floor is not what we're talking about when we talk about strengthening weak glutes.'"

So how do we know if we have weak glutes, and what can we do about it?

What are the gluteal muscles, or glutes?

The gluteal muscles, or glutes, are the muscles we associate with our buttocks. There are three gluteal muscles: the often-mentioned gluteus maximus, the gluteus minimus and the gluteus medius, which Dr. Balle calls "the workhorse." You have three on each side of your body, and they are some of the largest and heaviest muscles in the entire body. They function a lot like shock absorbers do in a car, controlling and stabilizing movement.

Whether you're standing or sitting, your glutes are crucial to keeping you upright with good posture.

"They help provide hip stability and hip strength as far as abduction," Dr. Balle says. "So when you're walking or when you're climbing stairs, these muscles are some of the main stabilizers and drivers that keep your hip and your body in the appropriate location."

What does it mean to have weak glutes?

When muscles are weak, they tell us. People often experience tightness, limited range of motion and pain in the areas where they're weak. Since the glutes support the back, hip and pelvis, symptoms can often appear in these areas.

"Functional pain is when you're not having pain from a structural issue, you're having pain because you can't use the right muscles with movement, and that makes other things hurt," Dr. Balle says.

Often, with glute weakness, Dr. Balle says that the tell-tale sign is in the hips.

"Most of the time, it's the gluteus medius that's the biggest culprit," Dr. Balle says. "The main sign is that a person's hips will dip when they're walking, it looks like the hips are swaying. That's actually a sign of hip weakness, and particularly, the gluteus medius being weak."

Issues that can arise from having weak glutes

Our body is an extraordinary machine — when one body part is injured or weak, another part of the body steps up to keep us moving. The imbalance caused by having weak muscles may not be cause for concern right away. But the body keeps the score: as you continue living life and staying active, the area that's compensating for the weak muscles or body part typically will experience pain or injury at some point.

In addition to keeping our back, hip and pelvis aligned, the glutes are important to our stride when walking or running. When these muscles are weak, our hips compensate, and our knees, lower back and ankles take on extra force since our "shock absorbers" can't do their roles effectively.

"Weakness is on a spectrum, and even something that's super mild as far as glute weakness can cause patellofemoral syndrome [runner's knee], which is the way the kneecap rides on the thigh bone," Dr. Balle says. "I'll talk to patients, and they will say, 'You're talking about my hip, I'm talking about my knee,' and I tell them 'Well, the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone is connected to the hip bone, right?'"

Other conditions, such as IT band syndrome, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis, or Achilles tendinopathy, as well as patellar tendinitis can also be attributed to weakness in the glutes. These conditions can affect distance athletes, such as marathon runners, more than other populations.

Dr. Balle says when we're engaged in the same activity for extended periods, people are more likely to fall into misalignment. With weaker glutes, this can lead to injury — so proper cross-training is crucial for these athletes.

RELATED: What's Causing My Foot and Ankle Pain?

"People can have more significant changes like hip arthritis, or they have a lack of hip internal rotation, which is often associated with femoral acetabular impingement or FAI," Dr. Balle says. "When you start to see these, more commonly, it's mechanical in nature, rarely is it a true glute injury."

Tears can occur in the glutes, but those types of injuries are rare in active individuals and are more often associated with accidents such as falls in older populations.

How do I know if I have weak glutes?

The Trendelenburg's sign test is a classical nerve test for the posterior hip, but it can also be used as a strength test to see if someone's abductor muscles, the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus, are paralyzed or weak, according to Dr. Balle.

"To do the test, have someone stand, then bring a single leg up to the position where their knee bends, basically parallel to the ground," Dr. Balle says. "If their knee comes up and their hips tilt, or they lean because the hips are dipping and they're trying to keep their balance, that's usually a sign of glute weakness."

He says you could try the test at home, using a mirror to see your movement — you can use the waistband on your pants or your belt as a reference point as it either stays parallel or slants is an easy way see the sign.

"After bringing up your right leg, if you lean or have to keep putting your foot down, that's usually a sign of a glute weakness, too," Dr. Balle says. "So it's either you're compensating and trying to position yourself, or you just don't have the strength to pick up your leg."

Dr Balle adds that the test is best done in front of somebody.

If you have serious concerns about your glutes or mobility, Dr. Balle suggests reaching out to your doctor.

How to strengthen your glutes

Dr. Balle says that strengthening the glutes isn't "spot training," as it is often marketed. Working the glutes can be, and is, a full body workout.

1. Work on hip stability with leg exercises

"To treat weak glutes, you have to do a lot of hip stability exercises," he says. "Single leg exercises are a good example. If you're doing a single leg exercise and every time you pick up the weight, your hips are rocking back and forth or anterior to posteriorly rotating, you're not really going to get much out of it. But if you can do a single leg exercise and keep your hips and pelvis relatively level, you'll work out those appropriate muscles."

2. Work on your core strength

If the fact that the dreaded leg day is needed to strengthen your glutes sounds frustrating, more bad news is ahead. Core work is also extremely crucial to glute strength.

"Dynamic core strength is also a big part of all of this," Dr. Balle says. "Teenage boys love to tell me like, 'Well, I've got an eight-pack.' Their mothers usually laugh because I tell them, 'There's a difference between having an eight-pack and knowing how to use an 8-pack.'"

One of the easiest exercises to illustrate how dynamic core work benefits the glutes are kettlebell exercises, such as kettlebell swings.

"As you're doing a kettlebell swing, you have to use your core, otherwise you fly all over the place," Dr. Balle says. "So a kettlebell swing is usually an easy way to start recruitment of dynamic core strength."

3. Focus on hip abduction

Working on hip abduction — moving your leg away from the midline of the body at the hip — is another crucial part of strengthening the glutes. A common hip abduction exercise is often referred to as a monster walk, where someone walks from left to right, or right to left, in a squat position, with or without a resistance band.

"For a lot of the band work in physical therapy, they tie a band around a person's distal thighs, then have them squat," Dr. Balle says. "And the goal with that is to keep their knees from coming together because you have to abduct your hips. So that's a dynamic strength, meaning that while you're moving, you have to keep your knees apart, so your knees don't come together between the band. And then they'll do abduction exercises, bands on their knee, and they'll step out one direction, step out the other direction."

Dr. Balle cautions that there is a level of overdoing it where the gluteus medius becomes too large. When this happens, other kinds of pain develops because instead of having balanced strength, there is only one muscle that's strong.

How to evaluate a glute workout

If you're looking for a workout to help strengthen your glutes online, Dr. Balle says your best bet is evaluating the credentials of the person offering the plan.

"I have this question from younger patients all the time because they tell me like, 'Oh, I can just watch Instagram and YouTube,'" Dr. Balle says. "And I tell them, 'If the person does not have a doctor of physical therapy (DPT) or master of athletic training (MAT) designation after their name, then I would say whatever they're suggesting is probably not appropriate.'"

Dr. Balle suggests that any quality plan on social media with a credentialed doctor of physical therapy will include a thorough explanation of the area's anatomy, instruction why an exercise is appropriate for a certain pain point and how to do exercises correctly.

"An influencer is different than a physical therapist," Dr. Balle says. "The influencer is somebody who might have a day job doing personal training or, say, a day job in marketing, and then they just go to the gym and set up their iPhone and film their workouts. So that would be my first consideration before I even dig into the actual workout — what is the credibility of the person giving this workout?"

What to do if you're experiencing pain

If you notice any lingering pain after exercise or activity, you should see a doctor to understand the cause.

"If you're in pain or sore after some kind of exercise — and we're talking only a few days for younger populations under age 21— it needs to be evaluated," Dr. Balle says. "But if you're older and sore for longer than five to seven days, and it doesn't go away, we also probably need to look at it to figure out why.

"The window is not necessarily the same and the amount of time is not necessarily the same for everyone. You know your body best, but if pain or soreness is lingering, it needs to be evaluated."