Why Strengthening Your Butt Matters... And How To

The glutes are my favorite muscle group.

Why? Because they help with everything. Seriously, everything. Lifting, pushing, pulling, walking, swimming, climbing and sitting to name just a few. If you show up at PT with hip, knee, ankle or back pain, I’ll bet your physical therapist will test glutes for strength and mobility. I often test these during telehealth visits too.

It’s very common to move and avoid using the glutes. There are many causes of these “glute-inhibited” patterns. Perhaps we sit too much. Maybe we have pain. Structural changes during pregnancy can even lead to glute avoidance. Regardless of the reason, if you’re not activating your glutes, you’re omitting a very strong muscle group that can help with anything from day to day tasks to sports performance. 

How do you know if you’re avoiding using glutes??

This generally requires a PT or movement expert, but here a few quick tips that key me in to determining when someone is avoiding using the muscles around their hips:
– “Hip Drop”– When hips shift side to side, like the way a model walks on the runway. 
– Pain or pressure on or around the knee cap (yes…the knee!) that did not start from trauma or an eventful injury.
– Knees knock together when standing up, sitting down, squatting or walking down stairs
– Muscles in the back or down the side of the thigh activate more than the muscles in the hips during glute exercises such as bridges or the ones I’m demonstrating below. 


Training The Glutes

A lot of exercises and activities rely on the glutes for optimal performance. But how can we ensure that our body is using this important muscle group? Train it! Here are some exercises that can help teach your body to engage the glutes:

Exercise #1: Clamshells–  Lie on your side with your head resting on your arm or a pillow. Bend knees to about 90 degrees. Start by activating the abdominals to create a solid trunk. Then, lift the top knee up while keeping your feet together. You should feel the muscle in the sides of your hips working (slightly behind and down from where my hand is resting in the photo). Be sure to keep your hips stacked and not roll forward or backward during the exercise.

Exercise #2: Side Lying Leg Lifts– From the same position, lift your top leg straight out to the side. In order to isolate the correct muscle, you may need to rotate the leg so the toes point slightly downward, or you may need to lift the leg slightly behind your midline. Make small adjustments until you feel the glutes working (same muscle/ spot that you felt in the last exercise).

Exercise #3: Hydrants– Start on your hands and knees. Lift one leg at a time and hold the position to activate the glutes. It becomes very important in this position to brace your abdominal muscles so that the movement does not occur at the spine, but rather it only occurs at the hip. To get into position, first lift your leg behind you so the knee is lifted a few inches from the ground. Then, rotate the entire leg as if you’re bringing your knee to the ceiling. (No, it won’t get very high. And yes, this exercise is named after a dog peeing on a fire hydrant). 

Exercise #4: Standing Hydrants– Same as #3 but now while standing. Start with a hip hinge to get into “ready position” or “athletic stance.” Engage the core so that once again the movement is occurring at the hip and not the trunk. From here, lift the leg back first and then rotate it out to the side and hold.

Hold these positions until fatigue or until you feel other areas start to work/ compensate for the glutes. Once you can hold for an entire minute, then get a stronger band or move on to the next exercise in the progression! These exercises are not meant to all be done in the same session. I recommend starting with the first one and once you’ve mastered it, move on to the 2nd and so on. This can take weeks or months to do. Incorporate this exercise progression into a workout routine and perform regularly.

This is not a substitute for medical advice. Ask your doctor or message me if you have any questions! Don’t do these if they cause pain or other symptoms. Sign up for a free consultation here.