Weakened glutes can have a big impact on the strength and flexibility of your hips. Weak glutes can impair the general athletic abilities and increase the risk of injuries. Here are some of the most common symptoms of weakened butt.
- Chronical pain in the knees;
- Loss of strength in the ankles;
- Low mobility in the knees and hips;
- Tight or spastic hip flexors.
If you want to check the condition of your glutes, you can try to test yourself with the so called “Chair of death” invented by Jay Dicharry, who has written books on the topic, including “Anatomy for Runners”.
This is what you need to do to perform this test: Stand in front of a chair, making sure your feet are under it and your knees are touching it. With your arms extended in front of you try to squat. It is crucial that you don’t push into the chair with your knees.
If you move or hit the chair with your knees this means that the muscles in your glutes are not the ones working the squats. You are squatting with a wrong mussel group, such as the quads, which adds unwanted pressure on the knees.
Plus, if your glutes are not performing normally, you probably won’t be able to finish these tests correctly.
What you need to do:
- Romanian deadlifts at around 80% of your maximum dip when squatting
- Barbell lunges with 100% of your bodyweight, several repetitions
- Up to 15 consecutive kettlebell swings with 50% bodyweight
- 10 single leg curls on each leg on a stability ball with the hips being elevated
Do this test and see if your glutes are weak. If that’s the case than it means you have to work out hard to have them in the desired condition. The next 10 tips will help you get back the perfect function of your hips and glutes improving your performance in the process.
Focus on the stretched and contracted positions
When you work out, make sure you make full motions of the mussels in order to gain the maximum out of the exercise and shape your body correctly. Here are the exercises that you can try:
Cable pull-through
This exercise is done horizontally so that impacts the function of your glutes directly. The great thing about this exercise is that achieves maximum tension in both stretched and contracted position.
You can also perform an isometric at the bottom position with a short break at the top.
For the posture
One of the key things for healthy physiognomy is having a good posture. Proper alignment is the most important thing for good flexibility and proper mobility. Poor posture can have a big impact on health. It can cause pain in the back, legs, arms even head.
Kettlebell swings
Kettlebell swing is the perfect exercise for gaining strength and improving the posture. You need to do this exercise with higher weights for a medium to high repetitions in order to build strength in the hip and butt area. Increase the weight as you become stronger and avoid jumping around when performing the exercise.
Avoid inward collapse of the knees
Often, when exercising we place our knees inwards. This mistake can result in inward rotation of the hip. When this happens the muscles in the hip area lose the ability to contract correctly.
In order to avoid this try putting your knees a bit outwards when exercising. You can also perform a plate squat.
Windmill plank
In order to perform this exercise you need to have a strong upper torso. You need to activate all this muscles to work together in order to perform an intensive movement.
This exercise is great for stabilization of the muscles in the hip area. Start with your legs in parallel and slowly lift the upper leg up. Do it slowly – it is great for the core.
Single leg hinges
Every single leg exercise is great for gaining strength and stability in the glute area. For the start, you can do single leg Romanian deadlift. They are perfect for building power and stability.
This exercise will give you strength and improve your posture. This will also help you gain some flexibility in the hamstring muscles which can positively impact the function of the glutes.
Correct strength imbalances
Very often, people that exercise have a stronger side and a weaker side. In order to correct this you need to determine which side is the weaker one and add more work to it. You can do it with single leg workouts on that side.
Also when doing both sides simultaneously, make sure you push and pull with both sides equally hard. Having stronger and weaker side happens really often and it’s nothing to worry about, but it’s important to stay focused when exercising.
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A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.