Glute training: the best exercises for your butt!
Desiring a firmer and shapelier backside is something that most women in a gym can attest to, and something that most men should prioritize a little higher as well. Glute training is not only important to make your favorite pair of jeans look and fit better, but it is also very important for proper hip function.
Glutes for function
From my experience, Glute weakness is related to a few common types of injuries.
1. Lower back injuries – The glutes are responsible for the lockout (extension) of your hips, together with the hamstrings. Using the deadlift as an example, when we perform the deadlift and we have weak glute muscles, our hamstrings and erector spinae (lower back muscles) have to take up the slack. Technically, your low back muscles should not be working to extend your hip fully but when we have poor glute strength, we cannot lock our hips out and in order to reach an upright position we must hyperextend our lower back. This places huge strain on the lumbar discs and leaves your highly susceptible to lower back injuries.
2. Hamstring injuries – From previous articles we know that interval training is superior to long slow cardio for fat loss. During these intervals, bouts of sprinting can be required and weak glutes can lead to hamstring strains and tears. Similar to above with the lower back, the glutes and hamstrings must work together during a sprinting stride in order to propel the body forward during an explosive hip extension. When the glutes are weak, the hamstrings must compensate and attempt to provide more force and this is when those tears will occur. Strong glutes will take some strain off your hamstrings during sprinting.
3. Knee pain – with the majority of people spending a lot of their day sitting behind desks and in offices, the prevalence of tight hip flexor muscles (particularly the tensor fascia latae/TFL) and weak glutes has become the norm. This tightness in TFL and weakness in the glutes causes an imbalance at the hip joint which translates to medial rotation of your femur and lateral patella tracking, thus causing knee pain. Strengthening the glutes will correct the medial rotation of the femur. Combine that with some ITB and TFL foam rolling, some hip flexor stretches and your knee will be pain free in no time.
So now which exercises are best for developing the glutes?
Ab, butt and thigh classes are very popular in gyms due to the desire for firm bums. The problem with these classes is that they generally focus on floor based, isolation exercises. While these exercises will provide some benefit for the glutes, there are far better exercises to develop these muscles.
Full squat
Most people will suspect that the squat is the best exercise for developing the glutes, however many of us are not performing the squat low enough to make massive recruitment of the glutes possible. Research has shown that performing a full squat (bum to ground) requires the body to recruit twice as much muscle from the glutes, than when performing a partial or half depth squat. The lunge and split squat are also great exercises for glute development, however when performing a squat, more weight can be lifted. Greater weight = greater training intensity = greater results!
For great results, try a 1 ¼ squat. This is when you drop into a full squat, come back up a quarter of the way, then squat all the way back down, before coming all the way back to upright.
Deadlifts
The deadlift is my personal favorite exercise, not only for the glutes, but for the entire body. Deadlifts are great because they activate both the lower body and the upper body. Deadlifts will recruit muscle from the glutes, upper quads, hamstrings, lower back, upper middle back and traps. They give the best bang for your buck for any single exercise, and if you are after a firm, shapely and strong backside then you simply must be performing deadlifts. Before performing deadlifts, be sure to gain proper instruction as there is a risk of low back injury if performing the deadlift incorrectly.
Glute-Ham raise
The glute-ham raise is a great exercise because it works both the hip extensors and knee extensors simultaneously and is a much more natural movement than the isolation exercises that are common in these butt firming classes and videos. This exercise is best performed on a special bench designed for the exercise but can also be performed with a partner holding your feet.
Your butt is not only important for looks, but also for injury prevention. Get out there and rip in to these exercises plus some walking lunges and split squats, and you will have the butt you are after in no time.
Drew
