Let’s get straight to the point:
Squatting is arguably the most important functional movement that humans need to perform.
Therefore, it’s one of the most important things that we can train in order to improve daily functionality, sport performance, and overall health and longevity. Especially as we start moving heavy loads to build lower total body strength and power, ensuring proper form is crucial for both safety and effectiveness.
One of the key muscle groups involved in a stable and powerful squat are the gluteal muscles. These muscles can make or break a lift, but can be a bit tricky for athletes to really use properly.
We often use coaching cues, tips, and tricks to help our athletes engage their glutes and maintain proper form. It’s worth noting that there are many cues–some more common than others–that you may have heard before, but you only need one or two that make things click.
We commonly trial several cues/tips/drills before an athlete accomplishes the desired technique, so we encourage you to do the same with this list. See how each one feels and when you find one that works, roll with it!
Here are some common coaching cues for engaging the glutes and creating stability both from the hips > down and from the ground > up while squatting.
Top Coaching Cues
"Spread the Floor"
Goal Behavior/Movement: Imagine trying to spread the floor apart with your feet while keeping them firmly planted. You can also think about standing on a newspaper and trying to tear it right down the middle, or you are standing on a towel trying to pull the towel apart This cue encourages you to abduct and externally rotate your hips as you descend into the squat.
Importance for Squat Performance: This movement activates the gluteus medius and minimus, which play a critical role in stabilizing the hip and knee joints. By engaging these muscles, you create a more stable base, reducing the risk of knee valgus (knees caving in) and ensuring that your knees track over your toes. This not only prevents injury but also allows you to generate more power and lift heavier loads safely.
"Squeeze Your Glutes at the Top"
Goal Behavior/Movement: At the top of the squat, consciously squeeze your glutes to ensure full hip extension.
Importance for Squat Performance: Achieving full hip extension at the top of the squat is essential for proper form and maximum muscle engagement. By squeezing your glutes, you ensure that your hips are fully extended, which helps to protect your lower back from unnecessary strain and promotes better overall posture and alignment. This also reinforces the habit of engaging the glutes through the entire range of motion, not just at the bottom of the squat.
"Push Your Knees Out"
Goal Behavior/Movement: As you descend into the squat, actively push your knees outwards, keeping them in line with your toes. You can also think “open the hips”, which should accomplish the same movement but may feel different for you.
Importance for Squat Performance: This cue helps to activate the gluteus maximus and maintain proper knee alignment. When your knees stay in line with your toes, you reduce the risk of knee valgus and improve the stability of your entire lower body. This alignment is crucial for preventing injuries and ensuring that the load is distributed evenly across your joints and muscles. Additionally, pushing your knees out can help you achieve greater depth in your squat by allowing for more hip mobility.
"Drive Through Your Heels"
Goal Behavior/Movement: As you rise from the bottom of the squat, focus on driving through your heels rather than your toes. You may also hear “sit back into your squat”. Ultimately, we want even weight between heels and toes, but shifting your focus and a bit of your weight to the back of the foot might be needed.
Importance for Squat Performance: Driving through your heels ensures that the posterior chain, including the glutes and hamstrings, is better engaged. This helps to maximize the use of some of your strongest muscles involved in the lift. Proper weight distribution through the heels promotes better balance and stability, reducing the risk of tipping forward and maintaining optimal form throughout the movement.
"Screw Your Feet into the Ground"
Goal Behavior/Movement: Imagine trying to twist your feet outward without actually moving them.
Importance: This action helps to create external rotation in the hips, which activates the glutes and increases overall stability in the lower body. It also reinforces a strong connection between the feet and the ground, enhancing balance and power. This is one of the best ways to create torque and engage the entire lower extremity with the ground, so make sure you have some good grip!
Other Tips and Tricks
Warm-Up and Activation Exercises
Incorporating specific warm-up and activation exercises, such as glute bridges, standing clamshells, side planks, band walks, and hip circles, can help to activate the glutes and hips before squatting. This prepares these muscles to engage fully as you start to build in weight.
Use Elastic Bands (Mini Bands)
Rationale: Placing a mini band around the knees while you build and even into your early working sets can provide additional feedback and encourage you to push knees out, activating the glutes more effectively. This also helps to reinforce proper knee alignment.
Single-Leg Exercises
Mind-Muscle Connection
Rationale: Focusing your attention on the mind-muscle connection can significantly improve muscle engagement. This can work well for some people, and not at all for others depending on many factors. Regardless, it’s worth a shot to consciously think about squeezing your glutes and hips throughout the whole squat movement.
Controlled Eccentrics and Tempo Squats
Rationale: Emphasizing a slow and controlled descent (eccentric phase), and/or ascent (concentric phase) of the squat can enhance glute activation and overall control of the movement. You may be able to better recognize points of weakness to work on with other drills as well.
Foot Position Adjustments
Rationale: Experimenting with foot positions (e.g., wider stance, toes slightly pointed in or out) can help you to find the most effective position for your squat. Individual anatomy and biomechanics vary greatly, so slight adjustments can make a significant difference in muscle activation and overall comfort.
This is just a small sample of the cues and tips to better engage the glutes to build strength and stability in your squat. Remember that all you need is one or two to make a big impact on your lifting, so don’t try to incorporate them all at once.
Happy squatting!
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