Three Yoga Poses to Strengthen Your Gluteus Medius

If you have a leg length discrepancy (LLD), scoliosis, or various back, hip, or leg conditions you could have gluteus medius weakness or asymmetry. For some people, strengthening or balancing out these muscles will reduce pain, improve balance, and promote body symmetry.

What is the gluteus medius?

The gluteus medius is the middle gluteal muscle—located between the gluteus maximus and minimus. It spans from the back (gluteal) side of your ilium to the greater trochanter of your femur (the widest part of your hip).

Anatomography, CC BY-SA 2.1 JP <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.1/jp/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons

It is key in leveling and stabilizing your pelvis, abduction (moving your leg away from the midline), and thigh rotation. Because of the muscle’s significant role in your hips’ movement, if the muscle is weak or the sides are asymmetric, you may notice pain in your back, hips, knees, or buttocks itself because other muscles will compensate to keep your body stable and balanced.

This stabilization is most important in walking. If you have scoliosis or a LLD, your body is working harder to maintain stability in the pelvis when there is a structural imbalance. In these instances, it is likely your gluteus medius muscles are asymmetric, with one side working harder to maintain evenness in your hips as you move.

Test it

Stand up.

Lift one foot off the floor and hold it for a couple seconds.

What happened? Where did your weight go? What muscles were activated? Did you lose balance?

Now try the other foot and ask yourself the same questions.

This is known as the Trendelenburg sign or Trendelenburg test.

Your gluteus medius has a role in stabilizing you in these asymmetric body positions and if you noticed imbalance and differences between your sides, you may need muscle strengthening and repatterning. You can also see this asymmetrical weight shift in yoga poses or exercises you do (for example, squats or lunges). In these positions you may see your knee rolling in, for example, instead of staying aligned with your hip and second toe.

What can be done?

Here are three exercises you can do to strengthen your gluteus medius muscles.

One-Legged Mountain Pose (Eka Pada Tadasana)

1.      Standing evenly on both feet, bring your right hip against the wall.

Wall art and photo by my five-year-old daughter plus olaf the cat

2.     Press down into your left foot and on the exhale bend your right knee and lift your right foot off the floor. Bring your right knee in line with your right hip.

3.     Avoid letting the right hip sink down.

4.     Strengthening the left leg, press the right hip into the wall.

5.     Stay for about 30 seconds before lowering the leg.

6.     Now externally rotate your left foot (turn toes away from the midline), raising your right knee, and repeat steps 2 through 5.

7.      Now internally rotate your left foot (turn toes toward the midline), raising your right knee, and repeat steps 2 through 5.

8.     Switch sides, bringing your left side to the wall, and repeat the full series.

This pose works the standing leg and gluteus medius muscles. I particularly like doing this pose because it strengthens and improves your balance with more alignment than you would get without the wall. I also borrow the feet positions (forward, externally rotated, internally rotated) from my time in physical therapy from lower back pain and SI joint disfunction.

Butterfly Pose (Baddha Konasana)

1.      From a seated position, bring the bottoms of your feet together, dropping your bent knees out to the side.

Notice my knees and shoulders—one is higher than the other;
Wall art and photo by my five-year-old daughter

2.     Bring your feet in toward your groins.

3.     Ground your sitting bones and lengthen your spine up toward the ceiling.

4.     Holding your feet or ankles, activate your glute muscles to further externally rotate your thighs. Your knees should move a little closer to the mat.

5.     After about 30 seconds release the pose, bringing your knees back to center and extending your legs out in front of you.

Often this pose is more passive—rounding your back as you fold over your legs or using your arms to increase the stretch in your inner thighs. This variation is not about the stretch; hence you aren’t bending over your legs—it is about strengthening your glute muscles (particularly gluteus medius) to abduct and externally rotate your thighs. If this pose bothers your lower back, check out this post on what to do.  

Side Plank Pose (Vasisthasana)

1.      Start in Plank Pose with your shoulders aligned over your wrists and your legs extended behind you.

Wall art and photo by my five-year-old daughter

2.     With your core and leg muscles engaged, roll your heels to the right and stack your feet while picking the left hand off the mat and raising it toward the sky.

3.     Press down through the bottom foot and leg, which helps activate the gluteus medius, and into your right hand to lift your body away from the floor.

4.     Find support from the base leg and active abdominal muscles. If you feel stable, raise your top leg; this abduction will strengthen the top leg as well.

5.     After about 30 seconds, lower your hips to the ground and switch sides.

This is a challenging pose because it requires significant strength and stability in the sides of your body. A less challenging variation is to keep the bottom knee bent on the mat, but you will have to work harder to make sure your gluteus medius is working. Press down into the mat from the outside of your knee and focus on the center of your glutes activating.