u/kgformvp21

So normally i hear that your glutes pull your pelvis back, but mine don’t. They push me forward. They will flatten the back but will make me grip my entire back pelvic floor which obviously is not good and i will spare the tmi of how that messes up bathroom trips lol. But today i noticed i can only activate glutes one way. By cranking them and pushing them underneath me. Which splays my feet externally and makes it hard to do a lot of movements when i am trying to lift. I do have an anterior tilt, its not extremely bad and I know that many of us have a curve in our pelvis. When i use my glutes they take away any tilt at all. I actually look like i have no but at all when i activate them.

I am assuming i have been using them incorrectly my entire life. Any advice or tips would be awesome.

My glutes don’t pull me back. They actually push my entire pelvis forward? Does anyone know why? Usually i hear glutes put you into an posterior tilt. Mine do a little bit but its most because they are pushing my tailbone underneath me but im not being pulled back, im being pushed forward. Does this make sense? Its like i don’t have full control of them.

So I’m in my mid 30s and I’ve had a lot of pelvic problems and weird things with my posture the last five years and I thought it stemmed from surgery that I had. Prior to five years ago, I was in great shape, lifted a lot ran three marathons and kept trying to go back, but always kept running into weird problems with my pelvic floor and developed a weird posture that looked like anterior pelvic tilt. Not a normal tilt but and extremish version.

So I would stretch hip flexors work, my glutes, but the problems always came back and nothing changed. But then today I went to the gym and something hit me my entire life. I thought my glutes were meant to gripped together to make my back straight and pull my pelvis under me.. I also noticed that I couldn’t hinge properly. So today, I felt my body going into hip extension and normally when I would do that, I would have to clench my glutes, but it did it on its own and then I realize something in my glutes fired in a different way it kind of kept my pelvis, the same but kind of wrapped around the sides and stabilized it so it wasn’t clenching. It was like pulling me down.

I felt the weird sensation in my pelvis, like things were opening up, and I also saw that arch in my back go away, which I could never do without clenching my glutes forward and my tailbone under me.

My question is to you guys who have been lifting a long time I know there’s a time for you to clench your glutes, but did I discover something that my glutes are supposed to do naturally and I’ve just been using them to cause flexion in my hip instead of bringing them into extension?

Because my glutes have always been strong, if you have med do a hip thrust, I can do a ton of weight, but something I was never able to do was a hinge properly. And then I would read information about how your glutes are supposed to help you hinge along with your hamstrings and for the first time today I felt a sensation in my glutes that I’ve never felt which actually worked with my hamstrings to keep my spine and extension and not push it underneath my pelvis.

I’d really love to know from some of you lifters if I’m discovering something about my glutes cause so many people just tell you to squeeze your glutes together to use them, but I’m starting to wonder if there’s a part of the glutes I never realize we’re there to help me and it’s not meant to force me forward. It’s more like there to create stability in my spine region, while letting all of my other muscles in my core and my legs help with my glutes instead of the glutes doing the whole movement.

Can someone let me know if this is a thing? Like did I discover something about my glutes that not a lot of people talk about when they talk about using your glutes? Because I feel like I had a very Eureka moment today at the gym.

Seriously, any comments or questions about this would be so grateful. My goal is to run marathons again without getting knee pain and I feel like this is a huge step in the right direction. I tell everybody I just want to run one more marathon before I die and I have notebooks and journals about how my body Works and it’s just taken up a huge part of my life the last five years so I’d love for any feedback!