Gluteus Medius strengthening exercises
Senior Physiotherapist, Founder and Director · Registered with the AHPRA (PHY0002060505)
Sports Rehabilitation · Musculoskeletal Problems · Sport Injuries · Neck pain, headaches, dizziness, jaw related neck pain
Kenny is a physiotherapist with over 18 years’ experience in musculoskeletal and sports rehabilitation. He has a focus on identifying the contributing factors behind pain and treating complex presentations including chronic spine pain, neck and headache disorders, jaw dysfunction, and persistent sports injuries. His approach combines manual therapy, dry needling, and active rehabilitation with strong emphasis on education and patient outcomes. He is also a GEMt dry needling teacher and demonstrator. As an endurance athlete with experience in marathons, Ironman, CrossFit, basketball, and ultra endurance events, he brings a performance athlete's perspective to rehabilitation and load management.
Last reviewed: 20 August 2025
3 exercises to improve your pelvis stability and to strengthen your Gluteus Medius muscle. It is very important for active people to have good hip and pelvis stability, which may help reduce the risk of injuries such as lower back pain or ITB issues. The gluteus medius is a muscle we need in all weight-bearing activities like walking, running, jumping.
1. Abduction in sidelying
Laying on your side on a mat, try to bend your lower leg in order to have good stability. Your upper leg is straight. From this position, try to raise your leg and hold this for five seconds.
Make sure your leg is raised straight up, don’t compensate with bringing the leg forward. Also try to keep your leg internally rotated, don’t compensate with rotating the leg outwards. Do this between ten and fifteen times, three sets.
2. Pelvic drop
Use a step (or a few books) and stand on top of that with 1 leg.Then try to drop your other leg down until your foot is below the other level while keeping your knee straight, and coming back up. Try to do fifteen of those, if possible three sets of fifteen.
If it's not challenging enough, you can use a weight holding in the opposite hand.
3. Side plank with lateral raise
Laying on your side on a mat and go into a side plank position. Lean on your elbow and on your feet. Make sure there is a straight line from your shoulders until your feet. Then, try to do a lateral raise with the upper leg and hold for at least five seconds.
If you can't raise your upper leg, that's fine, just hold for five seconds in a plank position, then come down again. Do this for at least ten to fifteen times, if possible three sets.
Strengthening the gluteus medius muscle may help reduce the risk of ITB problems or patello-femoral problems. Definitely in running, it's very important to keep this one strong and stable.