Glute Activation Journey...for funsies

[ClimberTrav]

I just had my first workout ever in which I was able to split squat 2x50 dumbbells, all the while my knee tracking perfectly, and not wavering. For me, this was huge.

I started with a 95# squat and 315# deadlift. In hindsight, I can say that my deadlift was straight leg; after correcting deadlift form, the number just went up. I'd been to PT 3 times over 10 years, for various things, and they all said the same thing, "Your knees are valgus, because your glutes are weak." I'd always read that deadlift was primarily a glute exercise, so this always puzzled me how they could be so weak. What number did they want?!

So, I practiced "glute activation." Again, in hindsight, I can say that what I was actually doing was sphincter activation--well, you live you learn.

Just this year, I learned how to truly activate my glutes and what a difference it made to my squats. Heavy weights instantly became light. I would activate and my body and the weight would just accelerate upwards with seemingly no effort. Whoa! Because of covid, I'm rebalancing left and right, and finally got the left split to be rock solid. Squat/Dead is now 235#/380#.

Did my squat just become quad limited now? Do you feel it more in your glutes or quads, after cracking the code?