The glutes are the most powerful muscles in your body, and for most people they’re also among the most underused. We sit on them for hours a day, and the result is a set of muscles that have, in effect, forgotten how to do their job — a phenomenon sometimes called “gluteal amnesia.” It sounds almost comical until you realise how much trouble it causes: weak glutes are a hidden driver behind a huge amount of knee pain, lower back pain, and tight hamstrings. The fix isn’t just doing glute exercises — plenty of people do those and still have weak glutes, because other muscles sneak in and take over. The real skill is teaching the glutes to actually fire.
Key takeaway: Weak glutes — usually from too much sitting — are a hidden cause of knee pain, lower back pain, and tight hamstrings. Strengthening them starts with activation (feeling the muscle work in bridges, clams, and leg lifts) before progressing to loaded work. The mind-muscle connection matters more than the rep count early on.
To strengthen weak glutes, begin with activation exercises that teach the muscle to fire — glute bridges, clams, and side-lying leg lifts — focusing on genuinely feeling the glute work rather than rushing. Once the connection is reliable, progress to loaded movements like single-leg bridges, step-ups, and squats. Avoid letting the hamstrings or lower back take over. Sophie Mercer, PMA-certified clinical Pilates instructor, builds this activation-to-strength progression into her 8-week Runner’s Knee protocol of 34 exercises, where glute strength is central to relief.
How do you actually strengthen weak glutes?
The progression matters, because skipping the first step is why so many people’s glutes stay weak.
Step one — activation. Before loading anything, the glutes need to learn to switch on. Start here:
- Glute bridges: lying on your back, knees bent, lift your hips by squeezing your glutes — not by pushing through your lower back or hamstrings. Pause at the top and genuinely feel the glutes working.
- Clams: on your side, knees bent, open the top knee while keeping your feet together, feeling the deep glute on the side of the hip.
- Side-lying leg lifts: for the gluteus medius.
Quality is everything here. Slow, deliberate reps where you feel the right muscle beat fast, sloppy reps every time.
Step two — loaded strength. Once they’re firing reliably, progress to single-leg bridges, step-ups, and squats, where the glutes work against real load and in the standing positions you actually use them.
What are the signs your glutes are weak?
Weak glutes rarely announce themselves directly — they hide behind other complaints:
- Lower back pain, especially after sitting or standing for a while
- Knee pain that’s worse with running or stairs, often with the knee caving inward
- Chronically tight hamstrings that overwork because the glutes aren’t pulling their weight
- An anterior pelvic tilt and poor single-leg balance
If a couple of those ring true, your glutes are very likely part of the story — even if the pain shows up somewhere else entirely.
Why does sitting weaken them so much?
When you sit, your glutes are lengthened, switched off, and bearing your body weight passively for hours. The body, efficient as ever, stops recruiting them well and hands their job to the hamstrings and lower back. Over months and years, that becomes the default pattern. It’s not that the muscle is gone — it’s that the brain has stopped calling on it. That’s actually encouraging, because with focused activation work the connection comes back relatively quickly.
The knee and back payoff
This is why glute work is so central to what I teach. The glutes control how your thigh bone and pelvis move, so when they’re weak, the knee drifts inward under load — one of the biggest drivers of runner’s knee — and the lower back is left compensating for the lost power. Strengthen the glutes and you correct the alignment at the knee and relieve the load on the back at the same time. It’s one of the highest-return things you can do for the whole lower body.
How the Runner’s Knee protocol helps
Sophie’s 8-Week Runner’s Knee Program puts glute strength at the centre of knee pain relief — taking you from activation through to loaded, running-specific strength across 34 exercises. If your knees (or back) are paying the price for sleepy glutes, this is the structured path to waking them up and fixing the alignment underneath the pain.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. If you have persistent knee, hip, or back pain, please consult a physiotherapist or doctor before starting a new exercise programme.