The most commong reason is that most people sit for long periods of time. The glute muscles tend to stop firing due to a lack of oxygen and tightened hip flexors. This, in return, puts more strain on the lower back, hamstrings, and knees, that imbalanced and stiff feeling when you head out for a run.
The real reason that your glutes won't fire is NOT just that they forgot how to work, but also that they are positionally inhibited. This means they are in a bad position and just mechanically can't do their job.
Gluteal muscles
Having dormant or inactive glutes could be the reason that they aren't growing. An indication of your glutes not being activated is if after completing a squat your back or quads end up being sore and you're not feeling anything in your glutes.
The more you sit, the less you use your glute muscles. This can make it more difficult to activate them during a workout," he explains. In fact, "it's possible that you're squatting without actually activating your glutes," he says, and if your glutes aren't activating, they're not getting stronger.
Gluteal amnesia, or dead butt syndrome, can happen if you spend too much time sitting in a chair or do not engage the glute muscles enough. You can fix dead butt syndrome with exercises that activate and strengthen the glute muscles. Examples include lateral lunges, marching glute bridges, and side-lying leg lifts.
With many people sitting down for large portions of their day, glute activation is reduced, and these muscles become weaker than they should be. For more active people, reduced glute strength and poor activation can result from an over-reliance on other muscles during athletic or everyday movements.
Sitting for a long time can make your glutes weak, so be sure to take a lot of movement breaks when you have to sit a lot. Working glute-strengthening exercises into your fitness routine can also help.
Researchers found that those who performed gluteal squeezes increased their hip extension—or glute—strength by 16 percent compared to an 11 percent increase in those who performed glute bridges. Gluteal girth also increased in the group who performed gluteal squeezes.
What Causes Muscles to Deactivate? Muscles can “switch off” if the demand placed on them is too intense. This can occur through overtraining or under use, such as extended periods of sitting. Stress is another contributing factor to muscle inhibition, as is physical trauma.
Not feeling sore after a workout is actually a good thing.
Feeling ache-free following exercise typically means your body is already used to the workout you performed. “This adaptation can happen when the muscles are no longer being stressed in a way that causes damage,” Ranellone explains.
It may indicate that you need an additional exercise. The reasons behind your particular lack of burn will depend on your unique profile. For example, guys and gals with short femurs will likely activate their quads significantly more than their glutes.
Piriformis syndrome. Piriformis syndrome is pain and numbness in your buttocks and down the back of your leg. It occurs when the piriformis muscle in the buttocks presses on the sciatic nerve.
Retraining the gluteus maximus with bridging variations and retraining the gluteus medius with a variety of mat exercises such as clamshells and closed chain (weight bearing) exercises. Maintaining hip range of motion and flexibility with stretches that target the psoas (hip flexor), piriformis (butt muscle) and groin.
During the early stages of your recovery, your hip may not tolerate much walking. But as you recover, walking can become a helpful tool to build your gluteal tendons' tolerance to weight-bearing and prepare them for a return to running. Walking can help prepare your gluteal tendons for getting back to running.
Bridges, planks, squats, and leg lifts may all be done while lying down to keep your glutes in the greatest shape possible. Adding a band or an ankle weight for further resistance can be advantageous in some cases. If you have to sit for a good portion of your day, at least switch things up a bit.
Kneading is a technique where muscle tissues within the buttock region are pulled and squeezed. Kneading is used to improve blood flow and loosen muscle tightness. The pulling and squeezing actions performed during kneading encourages an increase in blood flow to the buttock region.
“Many people have weak or inactive glutes due to sedentary lifestyles or improper training techniques,” Adrian adds. Sitting for hours generally tightens your hip flexors and lower back, and weakens the opposing muscles, your abs and glutes.