How to increase glute activation

If you don't have glutes, you definitely aren't gonna be activating them.

Make sure you have good hip mobility (i.e. your hip flexors aren't super tight and you're not in anterior pelvic tilt)

Squats, Bulgarian Split Squats, Single Leg Glute Bridge, Side Leg Raises.

Do some of these 2x per week for a year, then you'll have the muscles to activate, and the neurological pathways established. Your body mechanics might mean you'll never naturally be using your glutes unless you specifically train them.

Learn to snatch, out of all the lifts I have found that has opened up the hips the most which leads to better glute engagement

twerking

Keep vigorously moving them with your hands while running as if your rear is on fire, and you will soon be running like it really is.

Already said

Twerking

This is poor advice: a good twerker needs to relax the glute muscles so that they can flap about effectively.

In my experience, people get it wrong by thinking they need to vigorously strengthen their glutes, when they actually need to stretch their hip flexors.

Definitely do some glute s&c, particularly ones that target the glute med, along with glute max, but look into various deep hip flexor stretches - and do them regularly as part of your pre-run activation routine.

Have an online visit to The Glute Guy...

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I have a hip injury and the following is one of my rehab exercises. I'm sure it activates the glutes because they're burning after three sets.

Stand with a support to your left side with a resistance band around the support and your right ankle. Keep the right leg straight and lift it to the side 5-10 times. Lift it diagonally to the back 5-10 times. Turn to face the support (bar) and lift the right leg behind you 5-10 times. Turn to face away from the bar and lift the right knee 5-10 times. Once the knee is up, you can modify this one by straightening the knee to get more quad action. Do three sets on each leg. (You can also stand with the bar to your right side and with the band on your right ankle with the leg extended to the right side and then pull the leg back in to exercise the adductor.)

I also do this as leg swings before every run, but without the resistance bands and I only do one set.

sheeeeeeeeeesh

I usually have someone activate them for me ;)

Glute bridges with alternate legs straight out out is good. I noticed on side was week - actually my stronger leg side. If you keep your hands on your hips it helps spot if one side is dipping weakness. I had hamstring problems for years and it was actually my weak glute on one side causing the problem.

Make sure to tense up just before going into position this is the activation bit

Why do you feel like you need more glute activation. It is a misnomer created to sell personal training.

Alan

Keep your weight on your heels when doing squats.

Before you run, do some exercises to fatigue your quads. Even static stretching will help. The idea is, since quads and glutes are agonists, inhibiting the use of your quads will force you to use your glutes more.

There is no such thing as 'glute activation'....your glutes always work....

Alan

glute activation is so overrated/misunderstood

primary contraction that contributes to running is eccentric; not really something you need to consciously activate

yes, you can make the glutes stronger and that will help with stabilization, but the muscle that has the potential to contribute most to a greater ceiling and is often underdeveloped among distance runners tends to be the adductor magnus. it's peak force is expressed during a concentric contraction, which is what we typically associate with the conscious mind having control of, whereas eccentric contractionos at impact are more reactive/sub-conscious

post above may have been confusing without making it clear i was talking about the glutes in the second sentence

Alan, yeah, the phrase activate your glutes has always puzzled me. I have taken it to mean that another muscle group is taking up the slack for the glutes perhaps as a compensation for weak hip muscles. But that's just a guess on my part. What do you think? I always do a set of dynamic drills to warm up the leg and hip muscles and move them through a wide range of motion before doing an interval workout. I can tell a significant difference when I skip these drills, but I think the term glute activation is a misnomer for What's Happening Here.