by Kerry Taylor
Not too long ago, towards the middle of a training session with a client, I was asked, ”Why do we train our glutes so much?” So I figured I would use this blog to briefly touch on why it’s important.
Training your bootay or glutes is more than just making them look good in a pair of jeans. Even though that’s what most set out to mainly do. They do also play an important role in everything we do in movement. The fact that we spend more time sitting than ever before, there is no wonder why we have an increase in back, knee and hamstring injuries. Not to say it is all from weak and underactive glutes, but they do play a role in it. The glutes’ job is to stabilize, rotate the hip and abduct the leg, (lift the leg away from the body). If we cannot activate the glutes properly, then we have to compensate and use other components of the body to make those actions happen which eventually lead to injuries. To make sure we get the most out of our training sessions, we must spend some time getting them to turn on properly in our warm ups before getting into the meat and potatoes of your workout.
Performing drills like:
Banded Glute Bridges
Lateral Band Walks
Fire Hydrants
Side Plank Hip Thrusts
Then you can start to build strength with drills like these:
Curtsy Split Squats
Hip Thrusts
Kickstand Rotational RDLs
Curtsy Lunge With Rotation
RFE Split Squats
The above are just some drills you can perform that you may not already have in your training, but there are many to choose from with slight variations to increase the intensity or hit the glutes in different ways. I did not include the basic squats, split squats and deadlifts, but they are a key component of this as well. There are many variations. If you haven’t tried these before, give them a shot.
If you are someone who suffers from back pain or any of the ailments i mentioned above, it may not be your back that is the problem. It could be the area just below your back that may be the cause of the issues you may be having. Your glutes may be shut off. Try working on waking them up and getting them strong enough to do their job again to relieve some of that pain you may be experiencing. Until next time, continue to live life 1 degree above the rest.
