The Best Glute Activation Exercises For Cycling
I’ll let you in on a secret that’s significantly improved my performance over the past couple of years: The pre-ride glute activation routine. It only takes about 10 minutes and has undoubtedly improved my cycling power and decreased discomfort on the bike. The pre-ride glute activation routine consists of some simple exercises to increase low back, core, and glute activation that will get your muscles firing before hopping on the bike.
All credit for this goes to an amazing physical therapist who helped me to solve a nagging knee injury that destroyed my season in 2021. I’m not sure what triggered it, but one day I was out riding and I began to have a pain on the inside of my left knee, but being the stubborn cyclist I am, I pressed on hoping that it would go away.
Around 10 miles later I had to get a ride home because the pain was so excruciating I could literally not pedal anymore. From cryotherapy to chiropractic, and trying every exercise imaginable, for weeks I could not get the pain to go away as I slowly watched my fitness and big summer plans slip away.
It wasn’t until I went in to see a physical therapist that a friend referred me to that I found a solution. After a 15 minute assessment, much to my surprise she told me: “Your glutes aren’t firing, you’re hamstring dominant!”
This definitely surprised me, I thought with all the gym work and bike pedaling that my glutes would be quite strong, but apparently not. Essentially, because my glutes were so weak, I could not laterally stabilize my knee and was placing strain on the inside, which caused it to become inflamed.
The solution? A simple 10-15 minute daily routine. However, this routine didn’t just solve my knee injury, it also helped make me faster on the bike too. Everyone wants to stay healthy and get faster, so I want to share this routine with you!
See Also: Weight Lifting for Performance as a Time Crunched Cyclist
The Purpose of Glute Activation Exercises
Particularly, the glutes have become underutilized muscles for many and I think a lot of people would be surprised to find that they could benefit from glute strengthening exercises. If you have a job where you sit at a desk for most of the day, your glutes simply aren’t being activated much at all.
Why is this an issue for cycling? Well, the glutes are a large and powerful muscle involved in the pedaling motion and if they’re not firing while riding, you’re missing out on a lot of potential Watts. The more muscles you can bring to the party, the more power you can produce.
When the glutes are underutilized while cycling, your body will compensate by recruiting your hamstrings and quads to produce power. The result is that those muscles will fatigue more quickly. You are also more at risk for developing an overuse injury if you become too quad or hamstring dominant.
Should I do glute activation before cycling? With glute activation exercises, you will find you can produce more power but also have greater stability on the bike. Glute activation can also help remediate low back pain by helping you to maintain better posture. Sold yet? Well, give it a shot for a month or two and see how you feel. 10 minutes a day for better cycling performance is worth it!
How To Strengthen Glutes
How do you activate your glutes when cycling?
Prone Glute Activation - I usually do about 3-4 sets of about 10 second holds for this glute activation warm up. The BIG key with this exercise is to contract only your glute muscles and try to not move your legs at all. You will notice in this video that his legs move slightly, but try to minimize this as much as possible. This is actually how my PT diagnosed my glute weakness– when I first tried this I couldn’t recruit my glutes without engaging my hamstrings too. You might be surprised at how challenging this can be at first.
Clamshells - This is a pretty well known glute activation warm up exercise but a lot of people do it wrong by moving their pelvis. Make sure you keep your pelvis static as shown in the video and only recruit your glute muscles. Do 40 slow reps each side.
Monster Walks - You will need a band for this one. Hinge slightly at your waste and go back and forth. This also brings in some good low back activation as well. Try going for 2 minutes and increase as much as you can tolerate. Your glutes should be burning by the end!
Single Leg Step Down - Deceptively challenging. This one is great for training lateral stability while also activating your quads. I usually do 10 reps each side.
That’s it! Ideally, you can do this as a glute activation warm up before you ride or hit the gym, but if that’s not possible due to time constraints, you can do it at any time of day and still get benefits from glute activation workouts.
Glute Stretches For Cyclists – How To Stretch Your Glutes
It’s great to have strong glutes for cycling, but what about glute stretching? Another common issue for cyclists is tight hips and glutes.
While spending hours hunched over a bike, particularly in an aggressive road position, your glutes can get tighter than a middle schooler’s skinny jeans. I remember one time after a 40k TT, my glutes were so sore, it hurt to sit down for days afterwards!
One common issue for cyclists (and an issue that I have also had) is piriformis syndrome. The piriformis is a small deep tissue muscle below the glute muscles. When this gets tight, it can press in on the sciatic nerve which runs down your leg. This can cause a sharp pain that runs down your leg while cycling, numbness, or a burning sensation. It’s VERY difficult to pedal with piriformis syndrome.
Piriformis Syndrome Exercises
What are some ways that you can prevent or remediate piriformis syndrome? If you’re suffering from this, the good news is that if you catch it early, it can be a pretty quick fix if you know how to stretch your glutes.
Lying piriformis stretch – Lie on your back and flex your hip and 90 degrees, grab your knee and pull it towards your opposite shoulder. You should feel a deep stretch in you piriformis.
Seated piriformis stretch – Sit in a chair, then rest your foot on your opposite thigh and lean forward by hinging at your waste while keeping your leg parallel to the ground.
Ball rolling – Use a tennis ball, lacrosse ball, or even a baseball (ouch) and dig in! If you have particularly tight glutes, this can be painful but overtime the muscles will loosen up. You can also use a foam roller for this but I do not find it to be quite as effective or targeted to the piriformis.
I recommend performing this at least a couple of times per week as a preventative measure, but if you are particularly prone to this, every day is probably best!
Other Stretches For Cyclists
One thing that cyclists routinely neglect is daily stretches for cycling. Unfortunately, many cyclists learn this the hard way and wait until they become injured to begin stretching. Don’t let that happen and make stretching a part of your post-ride routine so you can ride strong all year long.
The fact is, cycling is a very repetitive motion and we must take preventive measures to offset this and stop the injuries before they happen. In addition to stretches for cyclists, you also should regularly be doing strength training for cycling year round for injury prevention and performance!
See Also: Top Strength Training Mistakes By Cyclists
Stretching will not only prevent injury, but improve your performance as well. You’ll be able to hold more aggressive positions on the bike and stay more aerodynamic with greater mobility– a handy skill to have when you’re off the front solo.
This short routine is something I incorporate after every ride, it only takes a couple of minutes but does the trick to stretch out all the main muscles that tend to plague cyclists:
Hip flexor stretch - The pelvic tilt as demonstrated in the video is essential to make sure you’re fully stretching out your hip flexors
Quadriceps stretch - Elevate your leg on a surface (I usually use a chair) and lean forward slightly. In contrast to the hip flexor stretch, you should feel this lower down on your leg closer to the knee
Pigeon stretch - If you have very tight glutes, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to lean all the way towards the ground and first. The key with this exercise is to keep your front shin perpendicular to your torso.
Hamstring stretch - I’m sure you’re familiar with many techniques to stretch your hamstrings, but I prefer the one leg-seated method.
A quick note, only do this after riding. Static stretching before riding or weightlifting can potentially decrease power output. I also find it’s best to do it right after riding while you’re warmed up so you can get a deeper stretch.
In addition to this routine, if you notice any other niggles, be sure to address them immediately. This could be doing some piriformis work, or foam rolling other tight areas like the adductors or IT band.
More Content From EVOQ.BIKE
If you enjoyed this content, please share with a friend who might find it useful. We also have loads of content on our blog, podcast and YouTube channel to help make you a faster cyclist!
See Our Training Programs or take advantage of a $39 Power File Analysis from one of our expert coaches.
Author- Landry Bobo
EVOQ Training Plans
Check out our coach built training plans.