Ah.. the glutes.. my favorite muscle(s) to train inside KORE | KINECT for a multitude of reasons. You can’t talk about glutes without talking about the hip joints and you can’t talk about the hip joints without talking about the glutes. Why? Because the glutes are some of the muscles that surround the hip joint and when they engage, the femur (leg) bone moves in the hip socket and therefore mobilizes the joint. If the glute muscles are dysfunctional, the hips won’t move well, and if there is limited mobility in the hip joint, the glutes will have a hard time firing properly. In other words, you cannot strengthen what you cannot access. Here are three essential biomechanical actions of the hip needed to be able to engage all fibers of the glute muscles.
EXTERNAL ROTATION
The hip action I see lacking in most glute programs is rotation in general, but especially external rotation. If you look at the graphic below, you’ll see that the glute muscles fibers run horizontally, whereas the hamstring fibers (and quad fibers for that matter) run vertically. So, right off the bat, we might conclude that what trains the quads and hamstrings might not be the same best exercises for training the glutes.
We know that muscles contract from their insertion towards their origin. Most of the glute muscles insert around the greater trochanter and originate around the sacrum, meaning the leg bone needs to externally/laterally rotate to achieve the most optimal contraction/shortening. This tells us that exercises like squats, lunges and deadlifts are not nearly enough to make up adequate glute programming. In addition to those exercises, think of exercises that emphasize rotation: clams, fire hydrants, reverse hypers (i.e., Pilates grasshoppers), butterfly bridges, etc. I even suggest adding rotation to traditional weight training exercises - try swapping regular squats for sumo squats and standard lunges for curtsey lunges or lunges that add a twist and watch your glute strength improve.
HIP HYPER EXTENSION
We usually associate the term “hyperextension” with a negative connotation. But, unlike some other joints, hyperextension in the hips is a perfectly normal (and necessary) function. In fact, the STRONGEST joint action at the hip is hip extension/hyperextension. Hip hyperextension occurs naturally during walking, running, sprinting, throwing, lunging, and hip flexor stretching. The hip can hyperextend 10° with bent legs, 20° with straight legs, and 30° if forcibly pulled back. Of course, a good majority of people are hyperextending from their lumbar when they reach the leg backwards, so we need to make sure the action is truly coming from the hip (but, we’ll save those details for another post).
Think of it this way: jumping is vertical and is more dominated by hip extension, whereas sprinting is a horizontal action and emphasizes more hip hyperextension (when the femur/leg bone moves behind the pelvis). Exercises that mimic jumping are done mostly standing and include traditional lunges and squats. Exercises that mimic sprinting and (therefore include hip HYPERextension) are exercises that are usually performed in the supine (on the back), prone (on the stomach), or quadruped (on all fours) positions. Truthfully, squatting, deadlifting, and lunging don’t strengthen the glutes very much. They target mostly the quads and the spinal erectors (back) because they don’t involve hyperextension, not to mention they don’t take advantage of gravity to help load the glutes.
Ironically, according to some studies, most individuals’ glutes contract harder during body weight glute activation exercises than from squats and deadlifts using heavy weight, simply because there are frankly better exercises that put the glute muscles in a better angle to successfully contract than squats and lunges. So, if you want to maximize your glute potential, make sure you are training in supine, prone, and quadruped positions.
LENGTH
The glutes also need LENGTH! This might seem counterintuitive since we’ve spent the last two bullet points discussing contracting the muscles through external rotation and hyperextension, which are both shortening actions of the glute muscle fibers (stay with me here). In order to adequately SHORTEN the glute muscles to contract, they first need to be able to LENGTHEN. After all, the movement has to come from somewhere, right? Image a bicep curl, for example. You wouldn’t only do bicep curl pulses where your hand is close to your shoulder the entire time. You would fully extend the elbow so the arm goes straight and the bicep lengthens, and then bend the elbow fully so the bicep contracts/shortens. The same goes for the hip (it’s just a slightly more complex joint than the elbow). In order to lengthen the glutes, you need to adequately be able to move the hip into both hip flexion and hip internal rotation.
This is why we incorporate a focus on joint mobility into every KORE | KINECT class. Instead of keeping strength training and mobility work separate, we marry the two together. We’re constantly working on movements/exercises that either move the hip on the pelvis or the pelvis on the hip to help the brain understand how to dissociate the two during movement. This greatly improves hip mobility and therefore allows the glutes to move from internal to external rotation and hip flexion to hyperextension with ease.
CONCLUSION
To wrap up, remember that a well balanced glute routine will involve some hip extension exercises (like squats and lunges), hip hyperextension exercises, hip abduction exercises (lateral movements), and hip external rotation exercises. The hips also need to be able to move within their full range of motion from one extreme to the other in order to maximize the full potential of their power output. Some of my favorite tried and true exercises for the glutes that include ALL of these essential functions include any variation of bridges/pelvic lifts, side lying work, quadruped exercises, and prone reverse hypers (shown in the photo above). One thing you can be sure of - you can trust that you are getting the absolute best programming for glute strength (and hip mobility) inside the KORE | KINECT online studio. Better glutes = a better functioning body and we love a muscle group that does BOTH.
As always, train smarter, not harder.
In good health,
Kourtney
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