You might hear it all the time from your Osteopath, Physiotherapist, or Chiropractor. 

1.    Your glutes don't fire.

2.    Your glutes don't work.

It is all good and well telling you this, but have they given you exercises eliminate or minimise these issues More importantly, have they given specific exercises that work all the fibres of your glutes? I'd be willing to put money on it that they haven't given you much. 

This is an important group of muscles because without them working how can you ever expect to increase your lifting potential? Or more importantly, how are you going to protect your low back when your gluteal muscles ain't working to their full potential. 

Anatomy

When talking about the gluteal muscles we need to understand that there are three: Gluteus maximus, Gluteus medius and Gluteus minimus. The functions of muscles include extension, abduction, external rotation and internal rotation. Another important note, these muscles support the extended knee through the iliotibial tract.

As you can tell there are multiple different movements that the glutes take part in. So the problem with many gluteal activation exercises is that they only address one plane of movement and do not incorporate all movements that the gluteal muscles do. Planes of movements is an interesting topic and I'll talk about this at a later stage as to the importance of multi-diverse movements in planes. However, for now, we will move onto the important stuff that you come to read every week. 

The important stuff

Before we touch on anything further, it is important for you to understand what you are trying to achieve with the exercises that I am about to provide you with.  The gluteal muscles do multiple different movements as talked about earlier so in order to activate these muscles appropriately you must target all of the fibres. 

Hip Thrusters

Hip thrusters are an easy exercise to start off accessory gluteal strengthening. Lay your supple thoracic spine on a bench or raised surface, just like the letter "T".  As you lay there thrust you hips towards the ceiling, while focusing on squeezing your gluteal muscles, then returning towards the floor. If you find this easy place a barbell or a weighted plate onto your hips and try this again. 20-30 times will work the gluteal muscles appropriately. 

Remember last week’s post about the thoracic spine, if your thoracic spine is taut then press the button below.

Side-Lying Clams.

Lay on the ground with both feet on the wall, just like the letter "T".  The wall will be the top of the "T". Push your feet into the wall, you should feel the hamstrings muscles engage. From this position you are going to slide the top leg’s foot along the wall just like the letter "C", however, you must still be pushing into the wall with both feet. This exercise can be difficult to coordinate because you are pushing your feet into the wall and moving one foot up along the wall. To increase the intensity you can use a small resistant band tied around both ankles. Doing this exercise 20 - 30 times will give your glutes a good accessory work out.  

McGill side bridge. 

The position that you are going to be in is a lateral (side lying) side bridge also known as a side plank. However, you will not be holding yourself up in the air. To make it harder instead of stacking your legs on top of each other you can have your leg that is on the top just behind you. For this post we are going to start off in the stacked position and elbow on the floor, the underside of your body (the side closest to the ground), just above the ground. From here you are going to lift your hips forwards with a neutral spine. Hold this for 10-15 seconds and return back down towards the starting position. 

Take home message.

Work your glutes effectively   


This is not medical advice and if issue continue, go see your trained medial practitioner.