3 of the Best Glute Strengthening Exercises for Triathletes

Your backside is home to some of the most important (and largest) muscles for athletic performance. They help you extend, stabilize, abduct, and rotate the hip. They play key roles in stabilizing the low back and integrating the core with the lower body. For optimal performance, it’s important to integrate glute strengthening exercises into your strength training routine.

Each of the three triathlon disciplines use the glutes for the functions listed above, however they don’t necessarily develop them to their potential. The risk of creating muscle imbalances in the body is high, especially in endurance sports, and one of the muscle groups that often suffers from these repetitive, low-intensity movements is the glutes. So, what are they exactly?

The Glute Muscles

If we’re going to prescribe ourselves glute strengthening exercises, we better first know what the glutes are, where they are, and what they do…Let’s take a look at the three main muscles that make up this phenomenal group of muscles.

Gluteus Maximus

Gluteus maximus muscle. (Image credit: Adobe Stock)

Gluteus maximus is the bulk of tissue that makes up your butt. It is in fact the largest and most powerful muscle in the body, and has a primary function of extending the hip (i.e. bringing your leg behind you when running).

Gluteus Medius

Gluteus medius muscle. (Image credit: Adobe Stock)

Gluteus medius is found on the outer surface of your hip. It helps move the leg away from the midline of your body, called abduction. This muscle also has the important function of maintaining a level pelvis during walking, running, and single-leg balancing. 

Gluteus Minimus

Gluteus minimus muscle. (Image credit: Adobe Stock)

Gluteus minimus is the smallest of the glute muscles, and sits just beneath gluteus medius on the pelvis. It assists with hip abduction in conjunction with the gluteus medius, and also contributes to hip internal rotation.

Function of the Glutes in Triathlon

A good indicator of athletic ability and general health is the development of a person’s glutes. It’s one of the reasons we’re so attracted to it. Glutes signify power, speed, and overall strength. By understanding their role in swimming, cycling, and running, we’ll quickly see why it’s important to do glute strengthening exercises in addition to the three sports of triathlon.

Swimming

Glute contribution is minimal during swimming. They help you extend the hip while kicking to assist in propulsion, and also stabilize the hip during strokes. Interestingly, studies have found that swimmers develop an altered activation pattern of gluteus minimus compared to non-swimmers, possibly predisposing them to injury during weight-bearing activity.

Cycling

Most of the power in cycling comes from your quadriceps. Sitting on the bike actually has an inhibiting effect on the glute muscles, making it hard for them to contract. While they do help extend the hip during a downstroke, the contribution is small. In fact, the body prefers to use your hamstrings (secondary hip extensors) to extend the hip and save energy while pedaling. 

Running

Of the three sports, the glutes are most active while running. The gluteus medius/minimus have high levels of activation every time you land. They stabilize the pelvis and keep it from dropping on the swing leg. Gluteus maximus doesn’t get as much activation as most people think, as propulsion is largely created through the lower leg until top sprint speeds are reached.

This woman’s hips are level as she lands on her stance (left) leg while running, indicating that the gluteus medius and minimus on her left side are contracting effectively to stabilize the pelvis. (Image credit: Adobe Stock)

While the glutes are certainly working and performing important functions, triathlon doesn’t paint a complete picture for this set of muscles. The stimulus is lacking in one or more areas, and the tendency to develop muscle imbalances and injury rises as a result. To promote balance in this area, we need to include glute strengthening exercises in our other training sessions.

3 of the Best Glute Strengthening Exercises for Triathletes

These exercises are borrowed from our strength training routines here at Dynamic Triathlete. We have hundreds of professional follow-along video workouts that can be done in 30 minutes or less! Different sections focus on mobility, injury-prevention, strength training and more. Try us out for 7-days FREE by clicking here. We can’t wait to have you as part of the community!

Single-Leg Deadlift w/Dumbbell

Instructions:

1. Stand balanced on one leg
2. Hold a dumbbell on the side of your free leg (right leg, right arm, pictured above)
3. Take a deep breath in and engage the core by drawing the belly towards the spine
4. Keeping a neutral spine and a slight bend in the knee, lower the dumbbell down towards your planted foot
5. Raise your free leg at the same time while keeping it relatively straight and squeezing your glutes
6. Go as far as your balance, strength, and flexibility allows
7. Exhale and return to the starting position
8. Repeat for 10 on each side, rest 30 seconds, and repeat for 3 sets total

Modifications:

• Reduce the range of motion and/or weight if you can’t maintain your balance
• If you can’t balance on one leg at all through the movement, you can do the same exercise in a staggered stance with both feet on the ground (one foot forward), however, the goal is to quickly progress to single-leg balancing, as this is where you get the most glute muscle activation

Jumping Lunges

Instructions:

1. Step into a lunge position, keeping your chest up tall, hold your hands out in front as a counterbalance
2. Lower into your first lunge until both legs are at 90°
3. Explosively jump into the air, switching your legs so the back one is now in front
4. Land in a lunge on your other leg, lowering yourself down to the bottom position
5. Jump again, repeating the switch, and lowering into another lunge
6. Repeat for 30-45 seconds, rest, and complete again for 3 sets total

Modifications:

• If you are a beginner or have any kind of knee pain, try first just stepping into a lunge position, going as low as you can, and then switching legs
• Build up to full lunges before you attempt to add the jumping in between, for it significantly increases the intensity of the exercise

Wide Stance Hip Bridge

Instructions:

1. Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet pointing out and in a wider than hip width stance
2. Roll your pelvis backwards, flattening your low back on the ground and engaging the core, hold this position in the torso throughout
3. Press your hips up into the air by squeezing your bum
4. Only press until your hips are extended to a natural range, pressing any further will cause your low back to arch, disengaging your core
5. Return to the bottom position, breathe, reset your core, and repeat
6. Perform 10 repetitions, rest, then repeat again for a total of 3 sets

Modifications:

• To make this exercise harder, you can wrap a mini band around your knees to increase activation in your hips
• You can also hold a dumbbell on your hips to increase the amount of force your glutes need to produce to lift your hips off the ground

Written by Eric Lister – Certified Personal Trainer & Corrective Exercise Specialist