The famous Instagram “Butt Workout” has been a pretty overpopulated topic when discussing fitness but mainly for women. Working out your glutes is not all about just building a nice looking backside but the function in everyday life has some major carry over. Before getting into what these carryovers are we have to know what muscles we want to be working.
The gluteal muscles are made up of three main parts; the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. These three muscles perform the actions associated with your backside but mainly assist in actions with the hip and thigh. All three muscles have different specifics associated with them but all these muscles work in conjunction to perform movements. The glute max is the largest of the three and performs extension of the thigh (at the hip), lateral rotation of the thigh (at the hip), and abducts the thigh (at the hip). The glute med assists in these functions but also secures the pelvis and the same goes for the glute min. These two smaller muscles also function as major stabilizers for this region.
WHY YOU SHOULD BE WORKING YOUR GLUTES!!
The world we live in today has in increase in sedentary lifestyles. Whether this is in relation to technical careers becoming more common or advances in our world that promote less activity. Whatever the case may be, as humans, we have been decreasing our activity levels and tend to sit down much more than recent generations. All of this sitting deactivates the muscles in our glutes and forces us to use other muscles when called upon. This can lead to hip-dominate movements, tension in the knees, and lack of mobility in the ankles. I am not writing this piece to help people grow their butts (which I could do in a future piece), I am writing this to get people to activate muscles that may have been under-activated in everyday life.
Being able to activate your glutes is something that many people who sit for extended periods of time should be doing on a daily basis. I would advise people to do small exercises (which I will list) multiple times a day to break up the times they may be sitting. This can be done periodically throughout a work day or even when sitting on the couch watching TV.
SO WHAT EXERCISES SHOULD YOU DO?
- Standing Hip Abduction
This can be done with or without a band. I think it is much more effective with a band and it takes less reps to be able to feel it.
2. Standing Hip Extension
This can be done together and this is another movement that can be greatly enhanced with a band.
These exercises are quick, easy, and effective. They can be done many times throughout the day and can help in relieving tension in the hips and the knees. Another great exercise that I am going to list is something that, if you have access to exercise equipment, can be done before doing squats or leg presses for maximum effect. By doing them before squats you are creating a signal to your brain that the muscles that have just been targeted (the glutes) should keep being targeted when moving to the compound movement such as the squat. This will take some of the tension off the quads and transfer it to the glutes.
4. Lateral Band Walks
This exercise can be done with a larger hip circle right about your knees or with a latex band around the ankles. Get yourself in a squat-like position and take a large step to one side and meet your trail foot back to the lead foot while keeping tension on the band throughout. Take 10 steps each direction.
5. Banded Monster Walks
You only need one band for this exercise but once again, stay in a squatted position and keep your legs slightly wider than should width apart and keep taking steps forward.
All these exercises will help activate the glutes and in many cases relieve pressure on other joints that may be compromised due to under-activated glutes in everyday life. Hope this can help some people!
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