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Gloooots! I get it! You want that booty to fill out your favorite pair of jeans, but there’s so much more to a supple booty than the way your pants fit! Your glutes consists of three major muscles: the glute maximum, glute medius, and glute minimus. This important group of muscles extends the hip (pulls the thigh behind you), abducts the hip (lateral movement to the side), and does internal and external rotation of hip. That’s a tall order, you guys! And this incredibly important muscle system is often weak and underworked. Pregnancy and postpartum certainly add to the weak butt mayhem, as the shift in our center of gravity during birthing years can leave the glutes un-engaged. “Mom Butt” doesn’t have to be associated with a flat, tired ass. #takebackmombutt
Here are four important reasons to dedicate yourself to glute-building exercises!
- Improves Core/Pelvic Health
Did you know that one of the best ways to strengthen your core and pelvic floor is to train your glutes? Now you do! The relationship between the glutes and pelvic floor is a deep and complex one. There is a constant tug and pull going on within our body–a dynamic that you hope is functional and in harmony, but can easily go off the rails. The pelvic floor muscles run between the sacrum (bony bit at end of spine) and the pubic bone. Pelvic floor muscles are like a bowl at the base of your torso. In a perfect world, you want the pelvic floor to be taut and to generate force to keep your organs up and your pee-pee in (even under strain of a sneeze or run). When the pelvic floor is too tight (yes, too tight is bad…even when it comes to the vag region), it pulls the sacrum forward at the bottom and into the bowl of the pelvis. Long story short, this leads to a weakness in the pelvic floor. Your booty muscles attach to the posterior (back) side of the sacrum and make sure that the pelvic floor muscles don’t pull the sacrum too far forward. So literally, your glutes keep the pelvic floor in check, preventing the sacrum from collapsing and providing leverage for the pelvic floor to contract. The secret to a perfect pelvic floor is both strong glutes and pelvic floor!
2) Prevents Low Back Pain
Think about your bum like a base, because, well, it is! As I mentioned, the sacrum sits in your pelvis, which is the base of your spine. You want a stable base, otherwise your body will compensate. Your body isn’t going to let you fall over, after all. And when your booty is being a lazy sack of potatoes, your brain tells your other muscles to compensate. Remember doing group projects in school? There was always that one person who didn’t do any of the work, and the rest of you had to compensate. If you aren’t training them often, have recently had a baby or are pregnant, and/or are sitting a bunch, your glutes become like that moocher in the group project. The term lazy-ass wasn’t coined for nothing! Often, the low back bears the brunt of glute weakness. Have tightness or pain in your low back? I guarantee you could benefit from glute-specific training.
3) Increases Athletic Performance
Have you ever seen someone run or lunge knob-kneed? Well, there is a 99.5 percent chance that person has a weak glute system. On the contrary, that person doing jumping lunges with ease? Well, they have a strong ass! You simply can’t harness your strength if you aren’t utilizing one of the largest muscle systems in the body. Stronger glutes will improve your speed, agility, and jumping skills, and quick side-to-side movements. Every time you take a step, your glute max is like “Hey, pelvis and SI joint, you gonna help me stabilize?” By strengthening those glutes, it is going to ensure that they are doing their job on Team Stability. This will allow you to run further, faster and harder without pain!
4) Improves Posture
It all goes back to the same theme! Balance. Your glutes are major stabilizers and play a fundamental role in spine health and movement. The more stable your system, the more optimal your posture. And guess what? When you have better posture, it helps improve diastasis recti, and pelvic floor health by allowing you to more optimally engage your deep abdominals and pelvic floor muscles.
5) Improves Body Composition
Glutes are the bodies powerhouse. And since it is such a large muscle, when you train them, you are creating a metabolic inferno! The more muscle you have, the more revved your metabolism. So eat up…cause gains!
I recommend doing some gluts-specific training 3-4 days a week. Check out my Instagram feed. I post glute-spefic stuff ALL the time. I also highly recommend you buy some resistance band loops. These are a glute system’s best friend! Cloth ones roll up less and last longer, but are more pricey. Check out these. Rubber ones are more affordable though. Like these.