- Today we are focusing on the bottom.
In particular, the group of gluteal muscles
that give your booty it's shape and functionality.
Yes, believe it or not,
your bottom isn't purely there as an aesthetic feature,
it actually plays a very important role
in walking and running.
In actual fact, there's a positive correlation
between strong, correctly firing glutes
and running economy.
So stick with me to find out why,
and, of course, how to strengthen your glutes.
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Your glutes work to keep your hips level
every time your foot strikes the ground,
and they also work for forward propulsion
when you're running and walking.
Now, if your glutes are firing correctly
it's going to make you more efficient
every time you hit the ground,
so you're able to run for longer,
and they're also going to reduce
any chance of injuries,
so, allowing you to train for longer
and making you more efficient;
it's a win win.
And, talking of the propulsion phase,
well, that is really important;
especially when you start running faster.
So, what exactly are they?
Well, you might well have heard of
glute max or gluteus maximus,
that is the largest of the three muscles
and one that makes up the bulk of your bottom,
and also is obviously the most well known.
But, we mustn't forget gluteus minimus and gluteus medius.
I'm not going to bore you too much with in depth anatomy
but we've got a bit of an animation here
to just help explain how the three fit together.
Glute min, or gluteus minimus,
being the smallest and the deepest,
sits underneath glute med
and partly in front of it,
but both are towards the side of your hip.
And then, glute med, or gluteus medius,
is the next layer,
and, as you can see, it covers a larger area
and sits slightly further back
but more superficially.
And then, there is the big one,
glute max, or gluteus maximus,
like it's name suggests it's the largest,
as well as being the most superficial,
and it sits more posteriorly.
All three of these muscles work together
to control the movement around your hip,
and combined they allow your leg
to move outwards and in,
so abduction and adduction.
They allow for hip extension,
which is when your leg moves out behind you,
as well as internal and external rotation,
basically rotating your whole leg in and out.
But what does this actually mean
when it comes to running?
Well, having strong and stable hips
is going to allow you
to be much more efficient as a runner,
and also stay injury free.
And, talking of injuries,
if you ever have been to the physio
with some sort of lower limb injury,
I can pretty much guarantee you will have,
at some point, been told that you need
to strengthen and activate those glutes.
For example if your glutes aren't firing properly
then you might find that your knee
or your foot is rolling in slightly,
that's causing your patella,
or your kneecap, to not track,
and then, as a result, you end up with runners knee.
But, if you want more info on runners knee,
we've actually got a video on that,
so I'd suggest checking that out on our channel,
and, whilst you're there,
why not give us a like and a follow.
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There are two issues at play
when we talk about our glutes not working correctly.
One is their firing and the other is their strength.
And it's a good idea to address activation first,
and there are a couple of really simple tests
you can do to find out if your glutes
are actually working properly.
You've probably guessed,
for this test you need to start
lying face down on the ground.
And you're simply going to place one hand on your glutes
and on that side you're going to try and lift your leg up
in a backwards extension style of movement.
And, hopefully, you'll feel your glutes
actually tense underneath your hand.
But, it isn't necessarily always so,
because our bodies are very clever at compensating,
and you can actually do that movement
by using the majority of your hamstring
instead of your glutes,
and ideally you want your glutes firing first
and doing most of the movement.
This test can actually be turned
into a nice activation exercise.
So, keeping your hand on your glute
to check that it's firing properly,
just, whilst lying still,
squeeze your glutes really hard
and once you've got that contraction, keep squeezing
and then lift your leg up and lower it back down.
Repeat this 10 times and then onto the other side.
And you can play around with it a little bit,
because some people find it easier
to actually activate their glute
by having your leg or your knee bent,
and then still doing the same extension movement
but there's a slightly less of a long lever.
This next test will flag up malfunctioning
glute med and glute min, as opposed to glute max.
So, simply start by standing in front of a mirror
with your hands on your hips,
check that their level
and they're on that anchor point
and from there you're going to transfer your weight
onto one side and then take the other knee,
that's not got the weight on, up to 90 degrees.
And the key point here is to look at the level
or the position of your hands in the mirror
and they should remain level.
If you're finding that the lifted side
is actually dropping, so the knee that's lifted,
is dropping that way,
then it shows that your glutes
on the opposite side aren't firing correctly.
Well you can then turn this into an activation exercise.
So, once you've got that control of the nice slow movement
you can make it more dynamic
and more relevant to running,
so you can add it in with an arm drive,
as though you were running
and you're simply going to be pumping your arms
with your knee.
So, if you do this 10 times you'll find that
that dynamic movement really makes it a little bit harder
and gets that glute firing even more so.
And then repeat it on the other side as well.
Well now you know whether your glutes are firing properly
or not you can go about working on how to strengthen them
and get them really activated.
And the two tests that we've just done
can be developed further
with the use of something like this, a physio band.
So, if you look at the prone lying exercise
you can simply put this around your knees,
so, you need it a little bit tighter than this.
But you want to make sure that you keep
your knees hip width apart,
so as you then extend your hip,
you'll be firing glute max,
but also some of glute med as well
because you're going to have to resist
that pull inwards as well as that pull backwards.
And then, when it comes to the...
standing leg lift
you're going to place it simply around your feet,
so you're stood on the band and then
you'll feel that resistance
as you pull your knee up into hip flection
but you'll also be resisting that inward rotation pull,
so again it'll be firing all of the glute muscles.
Crab walks have become more popular recently
and you might well have spotted people doing it in the gym,
for this you simply need a physio band of some sort,
and you want to plop it around either your ankles
or just above your knees.
And then, for your starting position,
you want your feet, hips, and knees all facing forward.
Sort of hip width apart or so,
there's tension on the band
and then you're going to get into a demi squat position
so a nice bend in the knees.
And simply from that you're going to carry on
facing forwards,
so making sure that your hips stay nice and level,
and you're going to take side steps to one side,
and once you've done 10
you're going to turn around and go in the other direction.
And the whole time during this
you want to really focus on keeping them smooth
and making sure your head doesn't bob up and down too much.
And once you've done 10 in both directions,
take a rest, and you complete it once more,
or maybe twice,
and you really will start to feel the burn in your glutes
and maybe you don't have enough space in your gym
to do 10 steps in one direction and back again
or you simply want an alternative.
Well, you can do this static and if possible,
again, I would suggest doing it in front of a mirror.
So, you're going to have the same starting position,
into that demi squat
and then from here it often helps
if you put your hands on your hips
to just check you're doing it correctly
you're going to transfer your weight onto one side,
and from there you're going to just take your leg
simply out and away from you in that direction.
And I can feel that straight away,
that's actually quite tough,
it's more intense than the side steps,
and you can do that five to 10 times, on each leg.
And if you're feeling up to it,
repeat it once or even twice more.
There is another variation to this exercise,
that will start to activate glute max a little bit more.
So, still the same starting position,
weight transferred onto one leg
with the band still around your ankles.
And from here, instead of just taking your leg
purely out to the side,
we're going to take it out and back
in a diagonal movement and this,
with this backwards extension
as well as that abduction movement,
will fire up all three of the glutes.
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Obviously those previous exercises
were aimed at activation,
but they are going to cause some strengthening as well.
So, choose a selection of those,
and you want to do those first
before you move on to
these following exercises which I've got,
which are purely on strengthening.
And, again, you'll want to select a few from here.
You can use a specific hip extensor
or back extensor machine,
or even a physio ball,
and you want to secure your feet,
or at least have them on the ground.
You're simply going to be folding in half,
so basically at your hips.
And once you start in that folded position
you just want to rest your hands lightly
either side of your head.
And really think about engaging your core
and keeping your spine in a nice neutral position.
Because all of the movement should be happening
at the hips, not in your lower back.
And, yes, it will engage a little bit
of your back muscles
to keep you there,
and it's going to be engaging your hamstrings as well,
but ultimately you want to really focus on your glutes.
So, once you're in your starting position,
think about squeezing your glutes,
firing them up,
and then predominantly using them to extend.
So bringing your body up against gravity
until you're in a straight line,
from your hips, your shoulders and your knees.
And making sure that you really are careful
not to over extend.
And I would say,
that if you've got any back issues
I would avoid this exercise
or at least go and do it with a professional,
so that they can make sure you're doing it correctly.
Start off with this exercise as purely body weight,
cause you are working against gravity,
and aim for three lots of five reps.
Increase the number of reps each week
until you reach 10
and then you can think about adding in additional weight.
Simply hold this weight close in to your chest
and keep the rest of the movement exactly the same.
And this exercise will work a combination
of your lower back and glutes,
like I mentioned,
but both of which are needed to work together
when you're running.
The weighted hip bridge is another exercise
that seems to be gaining popularity in the gym,
and that's probably for the aesthetic reasons,
but it has also been long practiced by track runners
as it seriously helps with running efficiency,
as it will engage your glutes and your hamstrings.
And it's basically a step up from the very simpl
and standard hip bridge.
Lie on your back with your knees bent,
feet hip width apart.
Engage your core and push your hips
up towards the ceiling until there's a straight line
from your shoulders to your knees,
focusing on keeping your hips nice and level.
You can then progress this to single leg hip bridges,
really concentrating on keeping your hips parallel
in this position.
Start with three sets of five reps,
and you can then either increase the weight
or increase the number of reps as you progress.
This one's actually harder than it looks
and it will work you hamstrings
and your glutes simultaneously.
So, you need a physio ball
and you're going to start by lying on your back,
rest your heels on the top of that ball,
and then lift your hips up towards the ceiling,
so you have a nice straight line
that runs from your ankles all the way
through to your shoulders.
And once you're stable in that position,
you can start to activate your muscles
and you're going to simply pull your heels
towards your bottom.
All the time, trying to keep your shoulders
and your torso nice and still,
so really engaging those,
and then you're going to push away
with the same amount of control.
If you find this easy, then you can progress it
to do single leg action.
So you're going to simply,
lift one leg off the ball
and then one leg will be pulling back
towards your bottom and away again.
And this occasion you really want to make sure
that your hips stay nice and level,
all the way through the movement.
I want to finish with a little bit of a disclaimer,
we aren't here trying to get a Kim Kardashian
or a J.Lo shaped derriere,
we are, however, trying to get fully functioning glutes,
that are going to enable us to put all of our energy
into simply moving ourselves forwards faster,
more economically.
And there are huge variation of exercises out there,
if you're unsure as to whether the ones you've chosen
are activating your glutes,
don't be afraid to simply have a feel.
So, put your hands on your bottom
when you're doing the exercise
and you'll soon know if it's tensing underneath,
then you should be getting that burn anyway.
Well do let me know what your favorite glute exercises are,
you can do that in the comment section below,
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