Everyone wants to have great glutes and these muscles are important not just for improved form, butt also for function.
The bottom line (pun intended) is that these powerful muscles need to be worked properly and intensely. I’m going to give you a link to an article by the “Glute Guy” that shows a simple progression for bodyweight exercises to target this area.
I said simple, but not easy. Start off with the single leg glute bridge and perfect this exercise on the floor before trying the advanced exercises shown in the video. Make sure that your glutes are doing the work and not your low back. Your low back muscles should be working to help stabilize (assisting) but not the primary movers.
Yesterday my morning group finished off their leg and hip workout by dragging a tire through the alley. Why might I torture my clients this way?
Because its a great way to challenge their muscles AND it can be fun to do some new exercises. By “fun” I mean really difficult, so they get good results from their workouts and its fun to train outdoors sometimes.
I’ve pushed a weighted sled before but the tire is a little easier to use for my studio’s particular setting. I’ve got a normal sized tire and then I add sandbags for extra resistance. This way, people of different sizes can all do these exercises.
In this video you will see a woman who competes in fitness pageants pulling a large tire. Notice the nice leg development that she has. Instead of a harness I have a rope with 10 foot handles attached to the tire. She is getting really low to the ground, which really gives you a nice leg workout.
I had Deandra, Jenni, and Pete a little higher up and pushing through the heel to hit their glutes, which they all told me they were feeling! A week ago, I pulled the tire for 20 minutes, working for 30 seconds, resting a minute and repeating.
I definitely felt it in my backside the next day, which was the idea. The rest of my legs were feeling it, too. I then finished with 10 minutes of tire rows for a short but highly efficient 30 minute workout.
Also wanted to congratulate Pete and Kim on getting married Saturday. Pete will be headed to Afghanistan in the near future and I’ve enjoyed having such a hard worker in the studio. Pete’s had some good results with this type of training.
I had the wonderful experience of flying to LA last week. In the airport I’m always looking at peoples bodies. I can’t help it. I look at everyone as if they were an athlete or a client. The one thing I notice over and over again is that practically no one has glutes any more.
World-renowned low back expert Stuart McGill coined the term gluteal amnesia a few years ago. I don’t think it’s amnesia, I think the real term is gluteal abduction. It looks like a group of butt rustlers swept down and stole everyone’s ass.
Sir Mixalot said it best in his landmark musical work Baby Got Back. “I like big butts and I can not lie”. In truth, any glutes would be great. I can’t tell you how many pants pockets I see hanging where someone’s rear end was supposed to be. It’s sad, not only from an aesthetic standpoint but, from a physical standpoint.
The absence of what should be the largest muscle in the body means that you are on your way to a bad back. It also means you are not much to look at. Those gluteless wonders will always bend from the waist and flex the spine. The loss of glute strength, glute size and consequent hip mobility is in my mind the leading cause of low back pain.
To quote Sir Mixalot again, “you can do side bends or situps but please don’t lose that butt”. Please, add some bodyweight squats to your routine if you go to the gym. Squat deep. Place a milk crate on the floor and sit back to it. Measure the quality of your workout by how sore you can make your rear end. Your back will thank you.
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I love reading Coach Boyle’s blog or the many articles and videos on his membership site. You can train your glutes with a barbell or dumbbell, or you can do bodyweight exercises like multi-direction lunges or step ups with a high step (box). This is a great way to start if you haven’t been working them much.
Something simple that you can do is this bridge series on your back. If you’ve been sedentary for a while than start with 10-30 second holds, gradually progressing to the more demanding single leg versions. If you feel it more in your back than your glutes than place your hands there to make sure you’re contracting the right muscles. Also, make sure to push through the heel.
The glute bridge is a great way to add some protection for your low back and work your hips at the same time. All you need for resistance is your own bodyweight – which can make this exercise more challenging, depending on your size.
The glutes are important both to sports performance, as well as providing stability to your pelvis and thus, your low back. This simple progression can be used by most anyone. Some people may make it to level three in a few weeks and others may take a few months or more, depending on your current strength.
My suggestion would be to add in single leg exercises like split squats, lunges, and step-ups if you are looking for increased fitness or sports performance, adding resistance as you get stronger.
If you are older and/or have had some back issues, take your time going through the progressions. I have recently seen the basic two leg bridge done with a padded barbell across your hips for extra resistance.
If you have had back problems before I would suggest working through the three levels first, before considering adding weight to this exercise. Otherwise, holding a dumbbell or weight plate across your torso might work, too.
Do runners need to do any core training? Will it make you a more efficient runner? Most definitely.
This topic of training for the core has gotten a lot of publicity in recent years, with good reason. Proper stability in this area is necessary for preventing low back pain as well as increasing performance.
Everyone seems to have a different definition of the core and how to train it, but it is much more than your abs and just doing plenty of crunches and situps. It also includes your low back and the muscles of hips.
One key area that runners need to focus on is your glutes! These muscles stabilize your hips which obviously will add to your running efficiency. If your hip joint is not stable your body won’t properly absorb shock or generate adequate muscle force.
I was at a seminar a few years back and a physical therapist was reporting about an injured triathlete who came to see him. During the evaluation he asked the man “where is your (butt)?” Apparently, he had no glute development and that was part of the problem.
By spending a lot of time training his glutes the man greatly increased his age group ranking while spending less time running and such. If you want to reduce the risk of IT band injuries and other lower leg issues, you need some focus on stability.
Single leg bridges are a simple way to train your glutes. Keep your knee bent about 90 degrees and push through your heel. Pause at the top for a second or two and slowly lower. Make sure you move through your hip, the low back is just “along for the ride,” holding still.
Single leg exercises like step ups and multi-direction lunges are excellent. Start with your own bodyweight and then add dumbbells or sandbags for extra resistance. Lunges and squats with sandbags are a great way to train your abs and low back, also.
Most crunches and sit-up variations will have minimal positive impact and could increase your risk for back pain. Bridges and planks in different positions will provide more stability. For more resistance, push/pull exercises with resistance bands will challenge your core, as will sandbag exercises.
