Let’s talk about the glorious and powerful booty… other than being the easiest way to distract someone, the booty is often underdeveloped, undertrained, and underutilized. The glutes, (glute medius, minimus, and maximus) are the largest and strongest muscles of the body that are used together to abduct, rotate, and extend the hips. But let’s face it, most people just do not know how to use those all-powerful buns. Many people cannot even correctly fire their glutes without first undergoing some teaching or simple activation. Many people who spend the majority of their day sitting down do not utilize those muscles.

So why are our posteriors so inactive?

There are numerous reasons but quite simply put; it is because people do not use them due to their lifestyles (IE sitting down for most of the day) or just inactive due to poor mechanics.

So what made you make a blog about the tooshy?

Recently I listened to a podcast by the world-renowned Glute Guy AKA Bret Contreras. Bret has a Ph.D. in making a strong booty…No this is not an exaggeration; He has a Ph.D. in sports sciences, a CSCS, inventor of the HIP thruster, creator of the Glute Lab, several published articles about the glutes and hip thrusts and the list goes on and on and on. In his podcast, he talks about the importance of having a strong rear not just for aesthetics but for performance and for proper motor control.

So why glutes?

Well, speaking from personal experience, if you do not have strong glutes, your entire lower body alignment may fall out of balance causing several problems such as shin splints, runners knee, valgus knee, IT band Syndrome, etc.. When the glutes are not strong enough to do their job of extending the hips and pushing the body forward, the body has to compensate using muscles that are not as well designed for such things.

The glute maximus produces an enormous amount of power and is the PF flyers of the muscles; you can run faster, jump higher, be agiler, and be stronger with having this muscle well developed. Having a strong glute group makes deadlifts and squat numbers rise!!

The glutes also support the back. As crossfitters, we are guilty of not adequately preparing the glutes for exercise, and when we have the high volume of squatting, our low back tends to hurt; this is because of weak firing glutes or inefficient glute activation. Not all back pain can be attributed to glute activation, but it could be a contributing factor.

So how do I make my money maker stronger?    

Here are a few exercises you can do to get that caboose strong

Glute Bridge- 3 sets of 10-20 reps – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bbE64NuDTU

Barbell Hip Thrust- 3 sets of 6-8 reps – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETqwCnOf6Ls

Clamshell-3 sets of 10-15 reps each side- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG5_gXcfozw

Give these exercises a go when you are warming up or at home to build that donk and keep yourself healthy and strong!!

 

Matt Neid

CF-L1, MS