Author: Laura B Cornely , NASM Certified Personal Trainer.
As an athlete, you may sometimes underestimate the importance of glute activation in daily activity and exercise. Strong glutes are not exclusively pursued by female athletes, they help every athlete more efficiently perform any exercise such as running, jumping, squatting and more. Our glutes are part of an integral chain of support for our lower body. Whether taking a step while jogging or running, going up and down stairs, doing box jumps or any type of movement targeting the upper or lower body while standing, our glutes help us keep our balance and extend through our legs to complete a motion. You may be surprised by how properly strengthening your glutes can improve your work out intensity and overall body mechanics. Knowing how to activate these muscles will allow you to see remarkable results in your lower body and even your core.
What Exactly are your Glutes?
So, our glutes are actually made up of three different muscles; the gluteus minimus, the gluteus medius and the gluteus maximus. Along our hips and and back, there are other muscles that help our glutes fire, but they in no way shape or form should replace the function of your glutes. Based on where on your glute each muscle is located, its function can be clearly determined.
The gluteus minimus is located deep in the middle and outside of your glute and controls rotation of the hip. The gluteus medius is at the top and side portion of your glutes and controls the outward and side motion of your hip. Lastly and furthest from least, our largest glute muscle, gluteus maximus is in the middle of the glute covering the other two muscles and controls the backward movement of the hip and leg.
Try to think of any exercise you can do standing up without the ability to rotate, bring out or pull back your hips….right, it can’t be done. You need strong glutes to stabilize your lower body while doing upper body exercise and of course to facilitate lower or full body exercise.
What causes our Glutes to be weak in the first place?
A lot of us, although athletic and may lead seemingly active lifestyles may have a job where we spend most of our time sitting. Basically when we sit for extended periods of time, we indirectly train the muscles that work alongside our glutes to stay tight, which in turn limits how our glutes can stretch and contract.
Even if we may not sit for long periods of time throughout the day, many of us just don’t know how to activate or contract our glutes without moving our hips. If we don’t know what it feels like to use our glutes in isolation, how can we use them properly? And as mentioned earlier, we have a bunch of muscles in our hips and back that support the main functions of our glutes and if we don’t know who to correctly use our glutes, these muscles can try to replace their function causing pain, muscle imbalance and increased glute weakness.
To help train your glutes to fire, practice lying flat on your stomach and squeezing your glutes together without pushing your hips forward or down into the surface you’re lying on. You can also try standing against a wall with your rear touching it. If when you try to squeeze your glutes you are pushed forward from the wall, you’re on the right track.
Why does this Matter?
Believe it or not, strong glutes help with many things such as good posture, increased fat burn and decreased likelihood of pain and injury. When your glutes are strong, your hips are aligned and your spine is stable and balanced. Our glutes are widely accepted as one of the strongest muscle groups in our body.
That being said, the best way to burn fat is through muscles with the greatest strength potential because there’s a metabolic benefit to lean muscle burning calories even while we’re at rest! This is why the best results are gained from this who do cardiovascular exercise and strength training. So the greater the strength potential of a muscle, the greater fat loss we gain from exercising it.
And of course, when we know how to use our glutes, our other muscles don’t have to work over time picking up the slack. This means we avoid movement patterns that become detrimental to our bodies and cause low back, hip or knee and joint pain. No one wants to deal with aches and pain. Being mindful of how and when we use our glutes will help us find relief and get better results as we exercise and gain strength.
Here’s what will Help
Our different muscles work together and therefore, if you suspect you may have weak glutes or tight hips its important to address each of those muscle groups, not just your glutes. Chances are very high that if your glutes are weak, you may need to stretch your hips. One helpful stretch you can do is called the half kneeling hip flexor stretch.
You can perform this stretch by getting into a lunge position, resting your back knee on the floor and doing what I like to call ‘The Michael Jackson Tuck’. You would bring the bottom of your hips and groin forward while kneeling and lean into your front leg just a little bit for a stretch in the front upper part of your back leg. If you’re more flexible, you can also try sitting on both knees and leaning back onto your legs.
Strengthening and Recovery
One way to strengthen your glutes is to do a leg raise on your side. You would begin laying down on one side with one leg over the other. Then you would bend your knee so your bottom leg faces behind you and keeping your hips in line with your torso, raise your top leg up and back at a 45° angle without over arching your low back.
Doing exercises like these will target those muscle groups that will lead to better and healthier movement patterns as you continue to exercise. Foam rolling, your glutes and hip muscles regularly will also help your body recover after intense exercise and maximize your workout potential. Other forms of recovery include massage therapy and stretching while taking deep breaths. You’ve got a super muscle behind you, don’t be afraid to use it.
Disclaimer: All information published on this site is for educational purposes only.
Do not attempt without your physician’s clearance. If you are in pain or injured, see your physician.
Sources
- https://www.elitas.co.uk/the-importance-of-glute-activation/
- https://www.google.com/amp/s/inspiyr.com/5-surprising-benefits-training-glutes/amp/
