So, if I can show you something super simple that you could do every single
day to build not just stronger glutes but better-looking ones, and also,
we could correct a lot of disfunction from the inside out, that leads to a lot of hip,
a little back pain. Would you be interested? You bet your ass I would.
What's up guys, Jeff Cavaliere, Altheanx.com. I want to help you with your glutes today
because I know how important it is to develop them, not just for how they look,
but how they function. And what I'm going to talk about here is actually not the glute max, because
this is the muscle that you might be focusing on or you might have paid a lot of attention to
and for good reason, because when it's developed, it has a certain look, let's just put it that way.
But I'm talking about the muscle underneath. It's the Glute Medius. It's the one that doesn't really
get lumped in too much when we talk about the glutes. And if you're doing that, you're making
a big mistake. So, I'm going to show you this for simple moves. You're all going to have to do two
of them, either two, on the ground or two here and standing that everyone is going to be able to do
no matter what your ability level is, and you're not going to need any equipment at all to do them.
So that being said, let's meet me on the ground, I'll show you exactly what to do.
So, as I said, the Glute Medius is where we're going to put all of our focus, because
if you're lunging, squatting, dead lifting or leg pressing right now, you're hitting your glute max,
I promise you, you are. But what we are missing is the frontal plane abduction that
we get from the glute medius and the rotary component that we get from the glute medius,
that we just don't get from the glute max, or as well as we get from the glute medius. So,
what we do is we get down here on the floor and all I'm going to have to do is get in
your side like this. These are really simple. And again, you could do these every single day.
You get down here and the first thing we do is we realize that when the leg is in front of the body,
here, that we want to have internal rotation if we want to get the glute medius. So that means take
your toe and try to stab it into the ground, okay. Get it about 30 or so degrees in front
of your body and try to point your toe straight down into the ground. From here, all you're doing
is keeping a nice, stable upper body and you're going to lift your leg up as high as you can into
abduction at the hip. You should feel it light up right here in this area of your leg, that's when
you know you're getting the glute medius. And all I'm going to do is come up and create every single
contraction as a very purposeful, meaningful one. I don't care--I'm not looking for this, it's not
a race. I'm looking for good quality contractions, as many as you can until you can't stand the burn
anymore. And if you've ever heard the term "light your ass up" this is actually where
it started right here. So, you do that now. Now, once you're done with that, we've got to
get the back side here in a different angle. And that's when we put our hip into extension
behind the body. When it's back here, now, what we want is extra rotation at the hip. So instead of
pointing the toe down, we point it up towards the ceiling. But because I'm falling this way
when that happens, if I lift my leg up and probably get more hip flexor instead of the
abduction I'm looking for. So, what I want you to do is just lay a little bit more like this, okay?
Lay flatter to the ground, leg goes back behind midline of the body here,
turn the toe up and now lift up. Oh my God, right up to the sky. See, I can't do a lot of these
and neither will you. But it doesn't matter, it's the good quality contractions that count.
So we do as many as we can, once a day is fine for me. You're going to accumulate better activation
of these muscles just by doing these routinely and regularly, and that's going to pay big
dividends in the long run. I'm going to show you now what you can do in standing as an alternative
if you don't want to do these laying down. Let's say you're at work and you don't want to
lay on the floor, do your exercises. It doesn't give you a reason to get out of doing them for the
day. Again, you can do this really, really simply. The standing version is an alternative. I will
tell you this, the standing version is actually maybe a slightly better alternative. Because
any time you can get in a weight bearing situation in a closed chain feet on the ground situation,
I like the activation better that you get through the muscles of the hip and low back and glutes
by doing it this way. So, what we do is we try to create the same
idea as what we had down there on the ground. But the benefit is we get two legs working at once.
So, we get in this position and I square off in front of the bar and all I'm going to do is
take my leg, keep it in front of my body, this is midline right here. Keep it in front of my body,
turn the toe in. And then I'm going to do is going to bring it out to the side into that abduction
again, like a leg swing. But what happens is, as I swing this up, this hip on this side comes over.
So, I let it drop and then I let it come over, I let it drop and I let it come over. So, what you
see is a leg coming towards you, but I've dropped the hip out and now I swing it in front and over,
out and over. So, this leg thing in front toes pointing down as much as I can.
And what it does is, it works this side through that flexion, abduction, internal rotation,
and it works this side through that sliding hip over. You'll feel it both ways. Now
I will hit that backside to where we bring our leg back behind the body. In this case, we angle
towards this wall here at about 45 degrees. Then what I do is, I'm going to take the leg from right
about right behind my heel, I'm turning it out to the side here so my toe is pointed out this time
instead of pointing in. I'm still going to try to create this, but what I do is I turn my body
towards the wall or the post or whatever you're holding on to so,
I'm getting rotation through here. I come out, I rotate and I'm kicking my leg up just like that.
Rotate, kick it up towards the ceiling as long as this leg stays back behind this midline here,
then I've got it in the same position as it was on the ground. Turn
and kick up and again, quality repetitions, I feel this hip squeezing, I feel this hip squeezing,
both glute medius working together. So that rotation just to open it all up.
Either way, guys, maybe you'll have a hard time initially feeling these muscles contract because
the mind muscle connection is so dormant because you haven't done anything for a
long period of time. In that case, I like the ones laying down on the ground because you get
that instant connection. Once you've got that no transition to standing for that extra benefit.
So there you have it guys, two exercises, you're choice which ones you pick.
They're going to help you to build that all important and overlooked glute medius to get
you on the right track. If you're looking for programs guys, we have a whole--
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, holy smokes, Jeff, that really
lit my ass up. I feel like I'm on fire. That's because you actually are, Jesse.
Oh, oh, oh! Stop, drop and roll, buddy, it works every time, I promise.
Speaking of working guys, if you're looking for programs that work,
we have them all laid out for you step by step over at Athleanx.com. If you haven't
already done so, guys, make sure you click Subscribe and turn notifications,
so you never miss a new video. And as always, guys, leave your comments below, tell me we want
to see in a future video and I'll do my best to bring it to you. All right guys see you soon.