Tag: gluteus minimus

The best exercises for your bum!

Priya Tew

A wonderful review of the scientific literature was carried out looking at the research between 1966-2010 on glut activation in certain exercises.

Let’s just recap first, where are the gluteal muscles? Well, they are your bum muscles. Gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the whole body and the one that you think about when you shake your booty. It has attachments on the hip, the sacrum and the coccyx. It inserts onto the IT band and the inner thigh muscles. It’s role is to extend the thigh backwards, such as rising up from a squat.

Gluteus medius is higher up and sometimes I find people confuse this with their lower back because it does attach there. It helps move the thigh out to the side and rotate the thigh.

 

 

Gluts:Posterior_Hip_Muscles_3

 

Poor posture often leads these muscles weak as can too much sitting! So building in some glut activation exercises is important. If you come to one of our pilates classes then you will be working those muscles in a shoulder bridge, an oyster, a squat or swimming for example.

Back to the research. They found the following exercises have the best activation of glut max:

Forward step up
Single leg deadlift
Single leg squat
Wall squat
4 point kneel with opposite arm and leg lift

glute-Max-activation

The glut med exercises giving the most muscle contraction were:

Side bridge to neutral
Single leg squat
Single leg deadlift
Side lying hip addiction (leg lift)
Wall squat

glute-Med-activation

This is not to say other exercises are redundant as sometimes we need to start with lower level exercises and build up. But it does make interesting reading and highlights the role of squats and bridges 🙂 2 of my fav exercises.

If you like to multitask then exercises that worked both gluteus medium and gluteus maximus at once:

Single leg squat, single leg deadlift, wall squat and forward step-up.

 

Here are some good starter exercises to try out:

Step ups, use your bottom step at home and step up and down.

<a href="http://worldartsme.com/">WorldArtsMe</a> Swiss ball or pilates soft ball squat against the wall with the ball behind your back.

Shoulder bridge making sure you squeeze and activate the bum muscles.

Shoulder Bridge End

 

The Top 5 Exercises for a Saggy Bum!

Priya Tew

I’ve fast becoming a bit of a glut fan. If you don’t what I’m talking about then you probably are not in one of my classes, as I talk about these a lot. The gluts are the bum muscles, pretty big global muscles which if they are not functioning properly can lead to a lot of problems. There are 3 gluteal muscle: Gluteus Maximum, Gluteus Medius and Gluteus Minimus. Pretty good names 😉

As you can probably guess, Gluteus Maximum is the biggest of the 3 and it’s one of the strongest muscles in the body, well it is meant to be. When you think of the bum muscles, it is usually this one you have in mind. It works to extend the hip, so you can move your leg backwards and out to the side. It also rotates the hip and extends the trunk.

Gluteus Maximus Muscle. © Sasham | Dreamstime.com - Exercising. Foot Moves Back To The Lower Block Photo
Gluteus Maximus Muscle.
© Sasham | Dreamstime.com – Exercising. Foot Moves Back To The Lower Block Photo

Gluteus Medius runs higher up towards the pelvis and out towards the side of the thigh. It helps extend the leg sideways and rotates it in and out. Glutus Minimus is the smallest of the 3 and it works with Gluteus Medius.

Glut Minimus Muscle
Glut Minimus Muscle © Sasham | Dreamstime.com – Exercising. Foot Moves Back To The Lower Block Photo

If these muscles are weak you may:

1. Have a saggy bum.

2. Have an abnormal walking gait and not optimal balance.

3. Struggle getting up from seated or from a squatting position.

4. Have lower back pain.

How can these muscles become weak? It’s often from postural issues and day to day activites. Sitting is a primary problem. You are not using your gluts when seated and your hip flexors become tight which stops the gluts from working. Other reasons can be having too strong quads from training and lordosis – a curve in the lower back which can lead to the bum sticking out. Common in pregnancy.

Top Exercises to help:

1. Squats done correctly. Try using a ball between your back and the wall.

2. Shoulder Bridge, add a knee fold in if you are strong enough. Make sure you tilt the pelvis and then squeeze the gluts so you are not just using your lower back.

3. Oyster/Clam. This works Gluteus Medius. Add a leg extension in if you are ready for the next level.

4. Plies. Squeeze in your bum and thighs as you come up to the top of the move.

5. Lying glut extension. Lie on your tummy, engage the core, let the pelvis drop into the mat and you should feel the gluts engage. Lengthen the legs and lift them off the ground, one at a time. You should be squeezing in the gluts as you lift and not feeling a pull in the lower back.

There are so many variations on all of these exercises, make sure you can master the technique and feel the gluts working properly before adding in too much fancy stuff 😉

Keep It Simple, Simples.