Shadowing Practice: How to Become A Glute Dominant Runner - Learn English Speaking with Video
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This is what a glute dominant person looks like when they run, and this is what a non-glute dominant runner looks like.
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Research shows that the bigger and stronger your glutes are, the faster and more efficiently you run.
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But, if your glutes are weak and underdeveloped, they could be the hidden reason you're slow, your posture breaks down, and those nagging injuries never go away.
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In this video, I'll give you the six main reasons your glutes are failing you with every step.
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then provide you with a solution for each one so that you can rebuild glute dominance, run faster, and stay injury-free for years to come.
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But first, I want to prove to you just how important the glutes are for running.
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And to do that, let's take a deeper look at what happens inside the body of a runner with weak glutes.
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When we run, the glutes are meant to perform two primary roles.
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Extend the hips to drive us forward
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and stabilize the pelvis each time we land on one leg because running is essentially a series of single leg stances.
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But when the glutes are weak or inhibited and can't perform these roles, the body uses compensations that hurt performance and increase injury risk.
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For instance, when the glutes aren't doing their job as the primary hip extensor, the hamstrings have to pick up the slack on every step.
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Over time, the hamstrings become overworked, tight, and prone to cramping.
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A similar compensation pattern happens when the glutes aren't able to perform their stabilizing role while we run.
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The body still has to try to stabilize the pelvis each time we land on one leg, so it recruits the lower back and the IT band for extra support.
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But like the hamstrings, when these muscles are forced to dominate a role they were only meant to assist in, they become overworked and strained.
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So if you're a runner and have IT band or lower back pain, once again, weak glutes may be the cause.
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Now, because the lower back and IT band are not designed to be dominant pelvic stabilizers, they also don't perform the role efficiently.
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This makes the pelvis more likely to drop each time you land on one leg.
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And that pelvic drop sets off a chain reaction down the stance leg.
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The hip falls into adduction and internal rotation, the knee drifts into valgus, and the foot and ankle collapse into overpronation.
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It's no coincidence that the knees, ankles, and feet are some of the most common running injury sites.
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One study found pelvic drop to be the strongest predictor of running injury.
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In fact, for every one degree increase in pelvic drop, the odds of injury rose by 80%.
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All of that from the glutes not activating when you run.
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Now that you know the signs of inactive glutes, let's look at those same compensations in a quick science-backed test
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so you can see whether your glutes are actually doing their job when you run.
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Stand on one leg and jump as high as you can, landing back on the same leg.
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Film yourself in slow motion.
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When you review the footage, look for two things.
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Level hips throughout the jump and landing, knee tracking in line with or outside of the foot,
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especially just before takeoff and just after landing when peak force goes through the supporting leg.
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If your hips tilt to one side or your knee collapses inwards at those points, your glutes are too weak or inactive to stabilize your body on every step.
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But don't panic.
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We're now going to cover exactly how you can regain glute dominance.
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There are two paths that pull the glutes out of dominance.
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One travels up from the feet and the other travels down from the spine.
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We're going to walk through both paths, starting at the feet.
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When you walk, you're on one leg 60 to 70% of the time.
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When you run, you're on one leg 100% of the time.
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But you're not just balancing on one leg.
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When you're in motion, each leg is having to absorb forces of up to three times your body weight
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because of gravitational acceleration.
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If the foot as the foundation of that leg isn't solid enough, it collapses under that weight into overpronation.
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A 2007 study found that when the feet collapse into overpronation, the shin and thigh bones internally rotate and the pelvis tilts forward.
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Because the glutes anchor onto the pelvis, if that anchor is tilted, the glutes are pulled out of the optimal position and lose contracting power.
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I tested this connection between the feet and the glutes recently in a university sports lab.
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I measured my glutes activation in the squat with my feet completely relaxed, emulating a weakened foot arch,
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and then again while actively pressing my toes into the ground, which is an arch-stimulating technique called short foot.
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When I actively engaged the foot muscles, my glute activity jumped by 30.1%.
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While I was expecting some difference between the two conditions, I was surprised by how much the glutes are affected by the feet.
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Now, there are three things that cause the feet to overpronate and limit glute function.
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The first is intrinsic foot muscle strength.
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The intrinsic foot muscles are what hold up the foot arch and keep the foot stable at impact on every step.
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When they are weak, the arch collapses into overpronation under load and the whole leg rotates inward with it.
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The most common reason for weakened intrinsic foot muscles is decades of wearing stiff-soled shoes with built-up arch support, which does the work for the foot muscles.
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A 2020 study showed that just 12 weeks in arch support reduced intrinsic foot muscle strength by 14.7%.
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Now imagine what happens after decades in them.
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The fix is simple.
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Get out of the types of shoes that weakened your feet in the first place.
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That means you need shoes with a more minimal and flexible sole that encourage the intrinsic foot muscles to activate and strengthen.
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A 2021 study on minimalist footwear found that wearing them for just six months increased intrinsic foot strength by 57.4%.
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Now, intrinsic foot weakness is a direct cause of overpronation.
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The next two, ankle tightness and toe misalignment, indirectly cause the arch to lose stability and collapse.
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Let's start with the ankle.
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Each running step needs enough ankle dorsiflexion to let your body pass over the foot into the next step.
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But when the ankles are tight, the only way for the body to complete the step is to spin the foot out like a duck
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and collapse the arch to make up for the missing range of motion.
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So overpronation is the consequence of the foot having to become a second ankle joint when the ankles are too tight.
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Now, there are two fixes for tight ankles.
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First, transition to zero drop footwear.
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When you wear shoes with elevated heels, your ankles are held in plantar flexion and your calf muscles shorten over time.
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Short calf muscles block ankle dorsiflexion.
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Zero drop shoes, on the other hand, puts the foot back into neutral and lets the calves maintain their normal length, so they stop restricting ankle range of motion.
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Second, regularly practice positions that challenge your ankle's full range of motion.
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A deep squat requires in-range ankle dorsiflexion.
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Chair sitting doesn't, but modern life keeps us at chair height, so the ankles seldom bend past 90 degrees.
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And if you don't use it, eventually you lose it.
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The fix?
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Spend 5 to 10 minutes a day in deep squats, even broken into short holds.
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Do these two things and you will drastically improve your ankle mobility over time.
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The second indirect cause of foot arch collapse is toe misalignment.
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When we have good toe alignment or toe splay as we call it, each toe lines up with its metatarsal.
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This widens the foot, which inherently makes it more stable.
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It also places the connected intrinsic foot muscles in proper alignment, where they have the most leverage to generate the force required to hold up the arch.
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But when the toes are misaligned, the base narrows and the intrinsic muscles are pulled out of position, which both affect the stability of the foot arch.
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So it collapses into overpronation on every step.
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That's why multiple research papers show a clear connection between toe misalignment and flat feet.
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And remember, when the arch collapses, the leg and pelvis collapse too, limiting glute contraction.
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But this isn't the only way that toe misalignment affects glute function when you run.
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When your toes are well aligned, it gives them full range of motion to properly extend at push-off.
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Running relies on full extension at the toes, knees, and hips.
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This is called triple extension, and it's what gives the glutes the freedom to drive the hips forward.
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But if the toes can't extend, the knees and hips can't fully extend either, and the glutes are then limited in how much force they can produce when you run.
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I tested greater mobility with the toes in perfect alignment versus out of alignment.
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The difference was 30 degrees of range of motion, which would significantly affect your glutes in each step you take.
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And the fix is really easy to fix toe alignment like
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bunions you have to get out of narrow toe box shoes
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that squeeze the toes together and get them into shoes
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that are shaped like our feet but there's a caveat with wide toe box shoes
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if your feet have been in narrow shoes for years they may not automatically splay out to fill
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that space they can stay stuck in that narrow misaligned shape
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and it shows up in the literature too so
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if you want the full benefit of a wide toe box you also have to retrain the toes to splay properly.
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You can do that passively with tools like silicone toe spacers.
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You can also do it actively with exercises
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that strengthen the toe splaying muscles and the muscles
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that prevent the foot from over pronating on each step and collapse into that same narrow forefoot shape.
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For the passive solution, we've put a link to the silicone spacers we recommend down below.
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For the active solution, we built a 21-week fix your bunions protocol in our academy.
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It includes the exercises and education you need to solve this.
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Academy members also get access to our other programs, like our glute re-education and activation program.
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I've linked it down below too.
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Okay, now there's a second path pulling the glutes out of dominance and it comes from above.
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Have you ever wondered why your arms swing when you run?
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The big reason is to activate your glutes.
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Here's how.
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One of the muscles involved in swinging your arm is your lat, and that lat connects diagonally to the opposite glute through a thick layer of fascia in your lower back.
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This connection is called the posterior oblique sling, and it works like a slingshot.
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During the swing phase, the lat on one side and the glutes on the opposite side get pulled apart, stretching the fascia.
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At push-off, the stored tension snaps back, driving a more powerful contraction through the glutes.
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But for the posterior oblique sling to work effectively, you need good thoracic spine rotation.
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It's what determines the range of motion of your arm swing
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and subsequently how much you can stretch the lats and amplify a glute contraction on every step.
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So a tight upper back would be like winding a slingshot only partially rather than drawing it back to maximum tension.
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So what's the best way to improve your thoracic spine mobility.
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Hang on a pull-up bar.
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By hanging, gravity assists in aligning the upper back with the shoulders and hands.
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This is literally nature's free chiropractor.
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The best way to hang is with a supinated or underhand grip
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because this position counters the pronated or overhand posture we often maintain throughout the day,
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which are the positions that cause us to lose our thoracic spine mobility.
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Right, moving down to the core, which is the next area that's limiting your glutes' ability to function optimally when you run.
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The glutes can only fire at max power when they're contracting off a solid base, your pelvis, and it's the job of your core to keep the pelvis steady.
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When the core is strong, the pelvis stays neutral, the glutes can fire harder and force transfer smoothly through the hips and spine.
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But when the core is weak, the pelvis tilts, the glutes lose leverage and the hamstrings have to pick up the slack.
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Research validates the strong relationship between the core and glutes, showing that the glutes are significantly less active when the core is not engaged.
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And that's why other studies show that adding core stability work to glute exercises increases glute activation by up to 26%.
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Now, exercises like planks and side planks can improve your core stability in preparation for running,
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but that doesn't ensure that you will automatically use that core stability during a workout.
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At first, you need to consciously engage those muscles so that over time, core recruitment becomes your default movement pattern.
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And the best way to do this while you run is to belly brace.
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Here's a simple method you can use.
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Before you take your first step, poke your fingers deep into your abdomen, then contract your abs to force your fingers back out.
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You should now be braced and ready to move.
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Try to maintain this contraction throughout the run.
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All right, onto the last step for regaining glute dominance when you run.
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The most common reason the glutes get inhibited when you run is tight hip flexors.
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This is because as the glutes are trying to contract to extend the hips on each step, the hip flexors need to lengthen to allow the hips to open up.
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But when the hip flexors are chronically tight, they don't allow that to happen.
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They block hip extension.
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So the hips stay partially flexed and the glutes never get the opportunity to fully contract.
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A 2024 study tested this directly.
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Women with tight hip flexors showed 60% less glute activation during exercise than women with mobile hips.
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And the primary cause of this dysfunctional pattern is sitting.
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We sit to eat, to commute, to socialize, and to relax.
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Tally it all up, and most of your day is spent with hips flexed in a shortened state.
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So, to combat constant hip flexion positions, we have to spend some time each day practicing the opposite hip extension.
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And my mobility exercise of choice is the kneeling hip extension drill.
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There are multiple levels to this drill.
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You can start off with your shin flat on the ground
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and slowly progress by gradually raising the height of the back foot over time.
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The general rule of thumb is to spend a minimum of
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one minute doing the stretch per day for every hour you spend sitting.
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It's such an important drill for maintaining hip and good function
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that we actually program it into our daily workouts for all our members at the Barefoot Strength Academy.
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Just like I showed you in this video, we take a holistic approach to rebuilding function back into the body.
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And all the things I've mentioned are just some of the ways we do it.
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So if you want strong glutes and feet that can support you in running and almost every other activity you do, then come join us.
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Inside, you'll learn exactly where your weaknesses are through our full body screening.
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And you'll gain access to all our daily workouts to fix them one by one.
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You can find our academy at bfs.fit or by following the link in the description below.
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Can't wait to see you there.
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Cheers.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “How to Become A Glute Dominant Runner”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: glute, foot, hip, toe, muscle. This video has 174 sentences and 2660 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:19. The speaker talks at a natural 174 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 77% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| glute noun | /ɡluːt/ | A gluteal muscle. |
| ankle noun | /ˈæŋ.kəl/ | The skeletal joint which connects the foot with the leg; the uppermost portion of the foot and lowermost portion of the leg, which contain this skeletal joint. |
| arch noun | /ɑɹt͡ʃ/ | An inverted U shape. |
| collapse verb | /kəˈlæps/ | To break apart and fall down suddenly; to cave in. |
| pelvis noun | /ˈpɛlvɪs/ | The large compound bone structure at the base of the spine that supports the legs in hominids. |
| intrinsic adjective | /ɪnˈtɹɪn.zɪk/ | Innate, inherent, inseparable from the thing itself, essential. |
| toe noun | /təʊ/ | Each of the five digits on the end of the human foot. |
| overpronation noun | The act of pronating excessively. | |
| alignment noun | /əˈlaɪn.mənt/ | An arrangement of items in a line. |
| dominance noun | /ˈdɑmɪnəns/ | The state of being dominant; of prime importance; supremacy. |
| spine noun | /spaɪn/ | A series of bones situated at the back from the head to the pelvis of a human, or from the head to the tail of an animal, enclosing the spinal cord and… |
| mobility noun | /mə(ʊ)ˈbɪlɪti/ | The ability to move; capacity for movement. |
| contraction noun | /kənˈtɹækʃ(ə)n/ | An act of incurring debt; also (generally), an act of acquiring something (generally negative). |
| flexor noun | /ˈflɛksə(ɹ)/ | A muscle whose contraction acts to bend a joint or limb. |
| hamstring noun | /ˈhæmstɹɪŋ/ | One of the great tendons situated in each side of the ham, or space back of the knee, and connected with the muscles of the back of the thigh. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. |
| hold up verb | To wait or delay. |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
| push off verb | To go away; to get lost. |
| back out verb | To reverse (a vehicle) from a confined space. |
| break down verb | To stop functioning. |
| build up verb | To erect; to construct. |
| go away verb | To depart or leave a place. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Let's start with the ankle.
- I've linked it down below too.
- Have you ever wondered why your arms swing when you run?
- Here's a simple method you can use.
- Can't wait to see you there.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are meant · are forced · are not designed |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have been · we've put · I've linked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | ground, which is · core, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 29 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, can't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thoracic /θəˈɹæsɪk/, strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/, smoothly /ˈsmuːðli/, thigh /θaɪ/, thumb /ˈθʌm/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: contraction /kənˈtɹækʃ(ə)n/, activation /ˌæktəˈveɪʃən/, fascia /ˈfæʃə/, flexion /ˈflɛk.ʃən/, slingshot /ˈslɪŋʃɒt/
- Long words — get the stress right: mobility /mə(ʊ)ˈbɪlɪti/, activation /ˌæktəˈveɪʃən/, posterior /poʊˈstɪɹ.i.ɚ/, inherently /ɪnˈhɛɹəntli/, indirectly /ˌɪn.dɪˈɹɛk(t).li/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like glute, ankle, arch.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.