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Top 4 Glute Exercises Without Resistance Bands ft. Lucy Davis Fit | Masterclass Special | Myprotein
Jan 30, 2025
Personal trainer & online coach, @LucyDavisFit, shares her top 4 glute activation exercises to help you maximise your leg day workouts and to help grow your glutes at home or in the gym.
From how to do your best glute bridge, to glute clams, sumo squats, and side lying hip raises, Lucy Davis will cover it all!
Myprotein Masterclass is here to help you unlock more from your training with expert guidance from the best of the best. In this video, Lucy explains the importance of glute activation before a workout, as well as demonstrating 4 of her go-to glute activating moves for you to make part of your own training.
Ready to really lock in on that mind-muscle connection and get your glutes all fired up? Let’s go.
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0:00
hello my name is lucy davis and i'm an
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online personal trainer and owner of
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the my coach school and today we're
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going to be going through
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glute activation and glute activation
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[Music]
0:14
exercises
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glute activation is i would say
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pretty much absolutely necessary before
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you dive into a glute session now
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i'd never recommend for someone just to
0:26
go straight into a glute workout go into
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their hip frost and
0:28
heavy sumo deadlifts without actually
0:30
activating the glutes
0:32
now the important thing about this is
0:34
more so the mind to muscle connection
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you have to get yourself
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ready to work out like you would warm up
0:39
any other body part you want to switch
0:41
on your mind you want to switch on your
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glutes
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the thing with glute activation what is
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really important to note
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is that you don't want to absolutely
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annihilate the glutes that's not the
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point of it you just want to get them
0:51
ready you want to get them working you
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want your mind to know that you're about
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to train glutes our brains are pretty
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clever
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they need switching on sometimes so with
1:00
your glute activation and with these
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specific exercises
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you can either use a hip circle band or
1:05
you can do body weight
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it is completely up to you the point is
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not to kill yourself off the point is to
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just feel the glutes
1:12
i would recommend doing 10 minutes max
1:15
before a session
1:16
but personally if you feel that's too
1:18
much do a bit less
1:20
if you feel like it's not enough you can
1:21
do a little bit more it's very dependent
1:24
and it's personal on
1:25
you glute bridges are one of my favorite
1:28
glute activation exercises so with a
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glute bridge
1:31
your upper back is on the floor which is
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different to a hip thrust where you are
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lifted by a bench so
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what i want you to focus on when doing a
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glute bridge and if you have a hip
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circle band you can add it on it's
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completely up to you
1:42
with a glute bridge what i want you to
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do is keep your chin tucked now people
1:46
tend to not do this which makes their
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head go back
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and when they actually do a glute bridge
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they will arch their lower back
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so when you're actually doing it you're
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not hitting your glutes at all you're
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hitting your lower back
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which is something we completely want to
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avoid so what i want you to do in terms
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of your foot position
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you want to flare your your toes to the
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sides you're externally rotating your
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feet
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this just means you're going to hit your
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glute max so the big juicy bit of your
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bum you're going to hit that a little
2:12
bit more for me so
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what i want you to do is tuck your
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pelvis under
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you can find it just by going anterior
2:20
posterior neutral have a little bit of a
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play around to find that position where
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there's no gap
2:25
between your back and the mat so now
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your chin is tucked
2:29
your feet are in position your back is
2:30
flat on the floor
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what you're going to do is extend your
2:34
hips up
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so you'll notice i'm not doing this i'm
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not arching my back
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keeping my chin tucked and you'll really
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feel this
2:42
in your glutes really slow and
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controlled
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you don't need to rush it i'd usually
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aim for 15 to 20 reps
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when doing glute activation
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[Music]
2:59
[Music]
3:03
glute clams are going to work your glute
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medius a little bit more now this
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is just your middle glutes and this is
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smaller than your glute max but bigger
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than your minimus and it just sits
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underneath your glute max so we are
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going to be on our side
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whatever's most comfortable for you
3:19
would suggest going on a
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mat because you're going to be resting
3:22
either on your elbow
3:24
or on your side i personally prefer
3:26
lying on my whole site takes a bit of
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pressure off
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what i want you to do is just to bend
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the leg that is underneath so the leg
3:33
that you're on
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have your knee in front have your hip on
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the floor and this whole side of your
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body on the floor for me
3:39
and then the leg that is on top is going
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to be your working leg
3:43
now what i want you to do is actually
3:45
flop your foot down so we're internally
3:47
rotating the foot
3:48
in this just means that we are going to
3:50
hit the glute medius
3:52
a little bit more if this is too much
3:54
for you that is no problem just put your
3:55
foot back forward for me
3:57
so all you're going to do get in a
3:58
really relaxed comfortable position
4:00
pop your hand on your hip for me so
4:02
where your pelvis is so we're not
4:04
arching
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and you're in a straight line up and
4:06
down your whole body now what i want you
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to do is just abduct
4:10
so lift up that leg until you can feel
4:13
it in your
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glute medius so you can feel it more so
4:15
in the side of your glute to this little
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pocket here
4:18
and then you're going to go all the way
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to the floor and all the way back up so
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you really want to focus on getting full
4:23
range of motion
4:24
you can do it with a band however i
4:26
wouldn't really suggest it because it'll
4:28
be super restrictive
4:29
and you probably won't get a big enough
4:31
range so with a glute clamp obviously
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you want to work both sides for me and
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i'd recommend
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10 to 15 or 10 to 20 reps and do it
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about two times per side
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[Music]
4:47
sumo constant tension squats now this is
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a great activation exercise if you also
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don't have a band now
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what i want you to do with the sumo
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stance is just adopt a wide stance it's
4:57
as simple as that
4:58
i personally do go pretty wide just
5:00
because i feel it more into my glutes
5:02
and i can
5:03
sit back into the movement a lot easier
5:05
what you want to do as well
5:06
is just point your toes out to the side
5:08
for me slightly so you're just
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externally rotating the feet
5:11
like with a lot of glute activation
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exercises it is with your foot position
5:15
as well
5:16
what i want you to do in terms of
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constant tension so this basically means
5:20
you're not going all the way down and
5:21
all the way extending back up
5:23
you're staying relatively low into the
5:25
squat so with a constant tension
5:27
it's a really slow and controlled
5:29
movement and you're not bouncing really
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quick
5:32
you're just nice and slowly dropping all
5:34
the way down
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full range of motion and focus on
5:38
sitting back into the movement so don't
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lean over
5:41
have your chest up and sit back into the
5:43
heels you might feel like you're gonna
5:45
fall over but
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you won't i promise you so envision
5:48
yourself sitting back
5:50
going onto those heels adopts a nice
5:52
wide stance for me
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[Music]
6:00
side lying hip raise now this movement
6:04
is
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a tiny little bit more complex but it
6:07
doesn't need to be complex so all you're
6:08
going to do
6:09
is pop yourself on to your elbow
6:12
your hip your knee and your ankle so
6:14
it's just these points here that i want
6:16
you to focus on
6:17
now what you're going to do you're
6:19
simply going to pop your hand on your
6:20
hip
6:21
and this is an exercise that you're
6:22
significant significantly going to feel
6:25
in your glute max and also your glute
6:26
medius now what i want you to do i'll
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just do a demonstration you're going to
6:30
push up so all that is left on the floor
6:33
is your elbow
6:34
your knee your foot and then a little
6:36
bit of the side of your shin
6:38
so all you're going to do is really
6:40
really extend up and you want to push
6:42
through with your hips
6:43
and push through with your pelvis so
6:45
you're instantly in a flat position with
6:48
the top leg
6:49
you really really want to get full range
6:51
of motion and really reach up for me so
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these legs actually
6:54
separate as you extend so big squeeze up
6:58
all the way back down to the floor big
7:01
squeeze up again keeping everything in
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line
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making sure as well that you are keeping
7:06
your core nice and tight
7:07
with this exercise you won't need to be
7:09
doing 20 reps
7:11
that'll completely kill you off before a
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workout you want to aim for around
7:15
eight to ten two sets per side
7:17
[Music]
7:28
have a go at these glute activation
7:30
exercises
7:31
next time you do your glute workout make
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sure you comment below what else you
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want to see and subscribe to the my
7:36
protein youtube channel
7:48
you
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