Your glutes are among the most important muscles in your body. If you’re a runner, they give you stability. If you’re a volleyball player, they give you power. Even if you’re just walking down the street, you need functional gluteal muscles to keep your pelvis in line. When these muscles are not firing properly, your body is unable to perform at its optimal capacity and is susceptible to injury.
Anatomy Brief
The gluteal muscles consist of the gluteus maximus, medius and minimus. The gluteus maximus is the large muscle on which you sit and is used to swing the leg backward (hip extension). The gluteus medius and minimus, smaller muscles that lie beneath the maximus, help to steady the pelvis during walking and running. They are involved in hip adduction and abduction.
Trouble in the Rear
While many factors can lead to faulty glutes, having tight hip flexors is the most common culprit. When you sit for long periods of time, your hip flexors become shorter and tighter. Your hip flexors act as an antagonist to your glutes, which means it is impossible to activate both muscles at the same time. Thus, tight, overactive hip flexors prevent your glutes from doing their job, and other muscles, such as the hamstrings and low back, are forced to take over. Ongoing compensation can lead to a variety of injuries, including patellofemoral syndrome, pulled hamstrings and low back pain.
Fire up Your Butt
To test whether your glutes are firing, lie on your back and assume a bridge position for 20 seconds. Try to squeeze your glutes. If you feel more tension in your hamstrings than in your butt, your glutes are not functioning as they should. Your goal should be to reactivate them, but this is not always easy. Here are three tips to get you started:
- Relax the antagonist. Before performing glute exercises, stretch the hip flexors. Use a foam roller for a deeper stretch.
- Pre-exhaust the synergist. Remember the bridge exercise, in which your hamstrings were doing all the work? By first fatiguing your hamstrings, you force the glutes to do the work, says Jennifer Ince, a fitness trainer and instructor at the National Personal Training Institute in Chicago. Do a set of hamstring curls just before performing bridges and other exercises that work the glutes.
- Concentrate on only using your glutes. The moment you feel the need to recruit other muscles, stop the exercise, says Stuart Yoss, a chiropractor who practices Active Release Techniques at Poliquin Performance Center in Northfield, Ill. Quality is better than quantity.
Get to Work
Perform the following exercises to activate and strengthen your glutes.
Donkey kicks on resistance ball: Lie prone over a stability ball with both feet on the floor. Keeping your abs tight, extend one leg at a time, tighten your glutes and hold for five seconds. Do three sets of 12 on each side.
Clamshells:Tie a resistance band around your thighs. Lie on your side, keeping your knees bent at a 90 degree angle and hips flexed at 30 degrees. Keeping your feet together and your entire body stable, raise your top knee in an abduction motion. Do three sets of 12 on each side.
Supine bridges: Lie on your back with your knees bent, pressing your heels into the floor. Raise your butt off the floor, squeeze your glutes and hold for 10 seconds. Do three sets of 12. For a challenge, try lifting one leg at a time.
Nicole Adamson - A lifelong athlete and fitness enthusiast, Northwestern University graduate (‘06) Nicole Adamson has been writing about endurance ...
