Strong glutes are essential. They are some of the largest muscles in your body, and having a strong backside is important to all of our foundational movements. This means your ability to run faster, jump higher, and squat heavier are all dependent upon your ability to generate force from your gluteus maximus. If your glutes aren’t strong enough then you will lack efficiency to do thing’s like climb mountains, balance on one leg or squat. Athletes with strong glutes will be faster, more efficient and explosive in their movements.
They consist of three different muscles: gluteus minimus, medius and maximus. These three muscles work together to rotate, abduct and extend the hip.
Developing strong glutes can also reduce your risk for injuries in the knees, lower back, hamstrings and groin. Weak glutes can cause an imbalance in the hip, which may lead to excessive medial rotation of the femur and lateral tracking of the patella, thus potentially causing knee pain.
To understand why this is, you need to understand just how muscle work. Think of muscle as a rubber-band. As you stretch that rubber band you can feel the tension build up in it (potential energy). If you let it go when the tension is fully built up, it will fling from your fingertips across the room. This is based upon the “recoil” principal in physics. Our gluteus maximus is part of continuous chain of muscles and connective tissue that displays this “recoil” effect often during Crossfit WODs. Each time that we take a step during a run or hinge at the hips, we stretch out our glutes and rely on this “stretch-relex,” to move us. This makes our glute muscles part of a powerful engine called the posterior chain.
GLUTE HAM RAISES
THESE EXERCISES FROM BK GUDMUNDSSON WILL SET YOUR GLUTES ON FIRE!
BARBELL GLUTE BRIDGES
SUMO DEADLIFT
FRONT SQUAT
BUILD STRONG GLUTES WITH PAUSED SQUATS
Pausing at the bottom of the repetition allows the elastic energy to drive away while simultaneously breaking your momentum. There is no kept energy to take advantage of, no kinetic energy to use. When you pause, all you’ve got is your muscles to produce the force you need.
Bulgarian Split Squat
Single leg work is often overlooked when it comes to strong legs, but it plays an important role in adding structural balance and identifying asymmetries and weaknesses in an athlete’s movements. Bulgarian split squats are an effective way to develop power, coordination and resolve the above problems.
Strong Glutes – ROMANIAN DEADLIFTS
Unlike the stiff-legged deadlift, which Romanian deadlifts are often confused with, the legs don’t stay completely straight. Instead, the glutes and hips are driven back and the knees bend slightly but the knees never move forward. The barbell glides down along the legs the entire way and never leaves contact with the body. When the hamstrings can’t stretch any further, pull the bar back up and drive the hips forward. The more repetitions you do, the lower your hamstrings will allow the bar to travel because of increases in hamstring flexibility.
KEY POINTS
- Start the lift at the top.
- Maintain a straight lower back at all costs.
- Drive the hips back and chest forward.
- Lower the bar down the legs, touching the legs the entire time.
- Unlock to knees and allow them to bend slightly but don’t push them forward.
- Go as low as your hamstrings can stretch with a straight lower back.
- Bring the bar back up the legs.
- Drive the hips forward.
For more training information, check out this article:
7 Dead Stop Exercises to Develop Explosive Strength and Power
