Why You Should Train Your Glutes

Why you should train your glutes

Yes, aesthetically speaking stronger glutes tend to look better. But there’s a lot more to why having a strong rear end is important. Let’s dive in.

If we think about it, our glutes are surrounding our hips. Our hips are the connection between upper and lower body. Therefore, the benefits can be seen all over the body.

1)      Reduce back pain: The glutes help you with hip extension, as in when you are standing up or picking something up from the ground. When your glutes aren’t firing properly or aren’t strong enough, your back can take come of the load causing a lot of stress.

Once you learn how to properly activate your glutes and build enough strength, they will take on most of the load and reduce the stress on your back.

2)      Reduce knee pain: Weak glutes allow your upper leg to go inward, causing buckled knees. Over time and with walking or running, that can lead to discomfort on the knee or ankle due to excessive force. Once again, strengthening and firing your glutes are going to prevent your upper leg from rotating inward, and thus reducing the force being applied to the knee and ankle.

3)      Increase power and athletic performance: As we said above, your glutes help with hip extension, which helps you in forward propulsion. Strengthening them will make your explosive and efficient in things like jumping, accelerating or lifting weights.

Those are just a few examples on how beneficial it is to have strong glutes. Here are some exercises to get you started.

·       Banded clams

·       Fire hydrants

·       Banded side steps

·       Monster walk

·       Clamshells

·       Glute bridge and variations

·       Hip thrust and variations

·       Reverse hypers

·       Deadlifts

·       Squats

·       Reverse lunge

·       Glute hypers