4 Weak Gluteus Medius Activation Exercises (2024)

The gluteus medius muscle plays an important role in stabilizing your hips. In this post, I’ll show you 11 fantastic exercises to strengthen and activate the gluteus medius to fix any underlying weakness causing pain or pelvic instability.

The Gluteus medius muscle can weaken and cause many hip dysfunctions and injuries.

If your exercise routine lacks frontal plane exercises (side to side), this can contribute to that weakness.

Back to the post! Here’s what this post will cover:

• A brief introduction of the gluteus medius muscle.
• How to identify if the gluteus medius muscle is weak (warning signs).
• 4 Exercises to start strengthening and activating this muscle fast.

This post has been updated to include 11 amazing glute med exercises.

The gluteus Medius Muscle Location And Functions

Gluteus medius location: The gluteus medius is located on the outside surface of the ilium (the upper part of the hip bone) and inserts into the greater trochanter (side of the femur).

Gluteus medius functions: The muscle primarily abducts the hip and stabilizes the lumbar-pelvic hip complex.

When you lift your leg to the side (abduction movement), the gluteus medius is the primary muscle that produces this movement.

In addition, this muscle is also responsible for keeping your pelvis leveled…

When you’re walking, running, or even lifting one leg up, the gluteus medius, in normal conditions, should keep your pelvis in alignment.

When the gluteus medius is weak and underactive, it causes Trendelenburg gait.

This is where the hip drops when walking or running. I explain this more below with an image of what it looks like.

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4 Signs Of Weak Gluteus Medius Muscle(s)

Chronic Muscular Pain

SI joint pain, piriformis syndrome, and groin pain are common injuries associated with weak gluteus medius muscles.

• Recommended program: Piriformis Control for deep gluteal pain.

Knee Valgus (Internal Rotation Of The Knees)

It’s been shown that hip weakness can contribute to foot pronation (flat feet) and knees rotating inwards.

You can test this for yourself by performing the squat. Check if your knee(s) rotate inwards as you’re coming down:

You can also perform the lunge exercise. Another sign of a weak glute med is the knee coming inwards. The knee should always stay forward aligned with your foot during the lunge exercise.

A weak glute med can also affect joints and muscles in other areas of the body and lead to dysfunction (1).

Several studies have found that ankle stability depends on hip balance and control (2). And this is specific to frontal stability.

It leads to an abnormal walking movement (also seen in running) where the hips drop to each side. This is called Trendelenburg Gait…

Trendelenburg Gait

A prevalent sign of weak gluteus medius is Trendelenburg Gait. Not everyone with weak gluteus medius will have this. However, this abnormal movement pattern is caused by weak abductor muscles (gluteus medius).

Quadratus Lumborum Tightness

The Quadratus Lumborum tends to compensate for the lack of stability and control at the hip.

Before you release the ql muscle, make sure you’re also fixing the root cause of this by learning to engage and activate the glute med and avoid postural malalignments.

TFL and IT band tightness: Another muscle that tends to compensate for a weak glute med is the TFL.

This is because one of the main functions of the TFL is to abduct the hip. Below I’ll share some great tips to activate the gluteus medius without compensating with the TFL.

11 Gluteus Medius Strengthening Exercises

Below are 11 effective exercises to activate and strengthen the gluteus medius. I’ve included a video that demonstrates a selection of these exercises.

When you do the exercise, please follow along with me by watching the tutorial video or reading the instructions to avoid compensation with the QL or piriformis muscle.

Compensation will aggravate the above signs of a weak glute med.

Video tutorial:

11 Gluteus Medius Exercises Breakdown

Banded Side To Side Walks

My favorite standing gluteus medius exercise:

• Place a band around your thighs. Keep your feet forward.
• Start walking sideways, maintaining the glute contractions.
• Avoid turning your foot out while walking to avoid compensating with the piriformis muscle.
• Avoid side bending to avoid compensating with the QL muscle.

Hip Drops

This exercise will activate the gluteus medius and stabilize your pelvis.

• Lift your left leg. The right side will tend to drop naturally.
• The glute medius job is to ensure that the hip doesn’t drop and keep the hips level.
• Push the hip back towards the wall, let it drop again, and repeat this movement for 10-12 reps.

Your hip should touch the wall as you raise it up.

Glute Bridge To Band Pull-Apart

This exercise works the glute max and the glute med providing amazing stability and support around the hip joints.

• Contract your core and glutes.
• Push through your heels to lift your glutes up.
• Pull the band apart to activate and engage the glute med.
• Bring your legs back to the starting positions (without letting the knees cave in) and repeat for 10-12 reps.

Wall Slides

Another fantastic exercise if you compensate during the side-lying leg lifts.

• Start by lying on your side with your back against a wall.
• Slide your leg up as high as possible while maintaining control and stability.
• Pause briefly at the top of the movement, feeling the contraction in your glute medius.
• You’ll avoid rotating your hips forward by keeping your body against the wall.

The most important tip here is to avoid rolling your hips forward. Your heel, glutes, back, and head should stay on the wall.

Focus on doing fewer exercises with proper form, good quality repetitions, being mindful of how your body responds to the exercise, and slowly adding resistance as needed.

Chair Seated Abductions

A great option if you sit a lot at work. Bring your glute band for quick glute med activation.

• With a resistance band looped around your thighs, just above your knees, push your knees outwards against the resistance band to keep your feet grounded.
• Hold the position for a moment, then release and repeat for about 12 repetitions.

Next variation:

Seated Abduction to Calf Raise

• Repeat the above exercise only this time, lift both feet off the ground, then back down while keeping the band out.
• This will increase the time the muscle is under tension and maximize engagement.

Band Hip Thrusts

• Use a bend or sofa for this exercise.
• Engage your glutes and core and push your hips up.
• Squeeze your glutes at the top of the movement, then slowly lower your hips back to the starting position.

Side Lunges

• Start by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Take a wide step to the side with your left leg. Try to land softly on the ground.
• Push your hips back and start to shift your weight to that leg, bending at the knee.
• Make sure you keep your back straight and hips back. Lower as low as you can without compromising form.
• Push your left foot up to starting position and repeat on that same side for a few repetitions.

Floor Seated Abductions

• With the band around your thighs and back straight, open your thighs apart, pushing against the resistance band.
• Then slowly come back to starting position.
• Repeat for 12 repetitions.

Weighted Band Bridges

• This exercise will work the gluteus medius and gluteus maximus.
• Place the resistance band around your thighs, lie down, and add a dumbbell. Raise your hips and squeeze your glutes at the top.
• Focus on the contractions and keep the gluteus medius tension by pulling the band.

Band Bridges

Finish with the banded bodyweight bridges to activate the gluteus medius and gluteus Maximus.

How Long Does Strengthening The Glute Medius Take?

Performing glute medius activation exercises can have an immediate effect on the hips. You may feel relief from pain or hip instability.

I recommend picking 3 exercises that look comfortable and repeating the gluteus medius exercises at least 3 times a week.

After 1-2 weeks, you should feel their positive effects.

Another way to check your strength progress is to repeat the tests above every 2-3 weeks. You’ll be able to see postural and movement improvements.

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Glute Medius Exercises While In Pain?

If you are experiencing deep gluteal pain or piriformis syndrome (side deep glute pain), start by performing a few self-myofascial releases before performing the exercises above.

To reduce the overactivity of tight muscles that can inhibit full activation of the gluteus medius, we start by self-myofascial release.

Release the TFL and hip flexors.

This is an important step that is often overlooked and results in what’s called ‘Altered reciprocal inhibition’.

This is where a tight muscle (short, overactive) affects neural drive and inhibits proper recruitment of its antagonist muscle (the muscle in opposition). For example…

… In our case, to ensure we’re fully activating the gluteus medius, we want to first foam roll the muscles in opposition that can hinder the gluteus medius from fully activating.

These are the adductor muscles (adductor longus, adductor brevis, adductor magnus)

If you’re also activating the gluteus maximus and the gluteus medius, I recommend foam rolling your hip flexors (quads and psoas muscles).

I always notice that I can extend and contract my glutes more when I work on the psoas before my activation exercises.

Related Posts

• Release QL muscle pain (Lower back)
• 9 Hip strengthening exercises you can do at home
• Release your hips flexors
• Hip and back-friendly leg and glutes workout

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