The gluteal muscles. Peaches. The thick musculature that generates the forces needed to run, jump, and propel you forward. It’s an area that receives a lot of attention and people have a lot of opinions on how to strengthen, but how does this muscle group actually work?

When people refer to the gluteal region, they are usually talking about the gluteus maximum, a multi-pennate muscle that is akin to the deltoid of the shoulder- it generates hip movement in a variety of ways, depending upon how the bones are positioned.

Directly underneath the gluteus maximum is the gluteus medius, a muscle that essentially supports the movement of the gluteus maximus. It rotates the femur internally and externally, and like its sibling the gluteus maximus, its muscle fibers also run in more than one direction, meaning that what it does depends on how the bones are leveraged.

Finally, underneath those two muscles is the gluteus minimus. It plays a supporting role in both stabilizations of the hip socket and movement.

You also have one more group of muscles that are worth noting- they are the rotator cuff muscles of the hip and, like the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder, support and provide stability during movement.

While the gluteus maximus is often considered the prime mover of the hip joint, all of these muscles work together during various phases of gait and dynamic movement to keep your joint in the socket and to keep you moving forward.

You may have read somewhere on the internet that these muscles are “off” or they are “inhibited” or they “aren’t working.” The nature of their location means if they aren’t working, you wouldn’t be able to stand up or walk, so as long as you are upright, they work. However, your ability to load them so you feel the sensation of work is dependent upon position.

The Deadlift

To illustrate this, let’s look at the difference between a squat and a deadlift, two frequently taught skills, both of which use the gluteal muscles to accomplish the task of returning to a standing position, but the way the gluteal muscles are used differs because of position.

In the deadlift, the torso is hinged forward, the pelvis is back, and the shins are vertical. In order to return to an upright position, your feet and hips work together to pull your pelvis forward.

Try this: Begin in a standing position. Step your right foot back about 18-20 inches. Let your left knee bend and feel the weight in the left foot (your right foot is on the floor as well, but for the purposes of this illustration, think about your left foot). Lean your torso forward a little bit and reach your hands forward and down, as though you were starting to reach for something in front of you.

Now, keep your left foot firmly in contact with the floor as you pull the left foot towards the wall behind you. The foot won’t move. What does that do to your torso, hips, and right leg?

For most of us, it will move the torso and hips over the left leg and it will bring the right foot to meet the left leg. You “pulled” yourself into a standing position.

This is the same action that occurs during a deadlift. Your pelvis is being pulled forward using the muscles in the back of the pelvis and posterior chain, aka the gluteal muscles and the hamstrings.

In fact, research that looks at EMG activation, a surface imaging technique that measures the electrical activity of skeletal muscle, shows higher activation of the gluteus maximus during the straight leg deadlift and single leg deadlift than of the hamstrings.^1,2

This doesn’t mean the straight and single leg deadlift don’t work the hamstrings at all, it just means the glutes work a little bit harder to move your pelvis back to the starting position.

The Squat

Now, let’s look at the action of the squat. Come into the same position, with your left foot forward and your right foot back, but this time, keep the right heel off of the ground and keep your torso right over your hips. Your left knee will still be bent and your left foot will still firmly be in contact with the floor. Press the left foot straight down into the floor. What happens?

Your left knee will straight and your head will move straight up towards the ceiling. Your torso won’t change position very much. How does that feel?

This more closely mimics the squat position, which is characterized by the torso staying fairly vertical over the pelvis, the shins moving forward of the ankle, and and the torso and pelvis moving back. Instead of the foot pulling the pelvis forward, the foot pushes down to move the body straight up.

The difference in leverage means the muscles work differently to do this action, though the gluteus maximus still remains a key player. The main difference is the muscles associated with pushing are the quadriceps instead of the hamstrings. Research has looked at different torso position during a squatting exercise.³

The researchers found when the torso was flexed to 30 degrees, hamstring recruitment went up and quadricep recruitment went down, which should make sense when you think about the pushing and pulling actions—the more forward the torso, the more work it is to pull it back over the pelvis.

I said there are muscles beneath the gluteus maximus that stabilize the femur in the socket. Another way to think of this is they allow for a little bit of internal rotation of the femur and a little bit of external rotation of the femur, depending upon what the other joints are doing.

If the pelvis is internally rotated, the tibia is in internal rotation, and the foot is everting and pronating, the femur will be internally rotating as well, which means it will look like the leg is pointed relatively straight ahead. This is what happens during the lowering down phase of a single leg squat—a series of subtle rotations inwards.

The reverse is true when the knee begins to extend during a single leg squat. Everything rotates just a little bit externally, including the femur, again, giving the illusion that nothing has changed and the leg remains straight ahead.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that during single leg squats, in addition to lots of muscle activation in the gluteus maximus, quadriceps, and hamstrings, the gluteus medius also works noticeably hard to create the right amount of stability and movement.^4,5

It’s a balancing act, literally and figuratively, between the muscles in the glute region, the muscles in the torso, and the muscles in the rest of the leg to accomplish the act of standing on one leg and moving, repeatedly, without falling over. (There are other factors at play, too, but I promised myself I wouldn’t talk about the brain during this article, so strict muscle talk it is).

Footwork is Everything

Altering foot position during a regular squat can also increase muscular activity in the gluteus medius. If you change the position of the bones, you change the way load is received from the skeleton, which means the muscles will be loaded differently.

A study of lower limb muscle activation with ballet movements⁶ found two ballet movements, the demi-plie, and the releve, resulted in higher amounts of muscular activation in the gluteus maximus and medius, gastrocnemius, rectus femoris, and adductor longus, than an isometric heel raise and an isometric squat.

Let me interpret all of that technical jargon for you. When you place the heels together, turn the toes out, and lift up your heels coming on to your toes, the muscles in your bottom, inner thigh, outer thigh, front of the thigh, and calf work really hard to support you. If instead of lifting up your heels, you bend your knees, keeping the knees pointing over the second toe, those same muscles continue to work really hard.

Don’t worry. I am not suggesting you give up the weight room in favor of a barre class. However, if your goal is to load your peaches in a variety of ways, embracing horse stance or sumo squats might not be a bad idea.

The gluteus medius and minimus (along with other muscles), are also well positioned to move the femur into internal rotation which, as I mentioned above, occurs when you walk.⁷ If you rotate at all by changing directions, you need internal rotation to control the changing position (8). What this means is don’t just do sumo squats or Cossack lunges- play with curtsy squats or bowler squats once in a while to maintain strength and mobility during internal rotation.

It is easy to get into the habit of only working your legs one way. However, the strength and mobility of the hip joint is dependent upon the femur being able to withstand load in a variety of positions.

Take the time to assess what positions you struggle with and ask yourself why are you stuck. Is it a mobility issue? A motor control issue, i.e., you just don’t know how to do it? Or is it something else? You can’t seem to control your pelvis position or your foot position? Be honest with yourself and begin addressing your sticking points for a fully functioning, powerful derriere.

For different squat ideas, check out the video above. You will notice my leg is working hard to stabilize because of the surface I am on- that’s okay. In the gym, on a hard, flat surface, I have a lot less knee play.

One of the benefits of strengthening the hips in a variety of ways is the tissues can tolerate controlled knee valgus because the muscles in the hip are strong. Training for tissue resilience and motor control intelligence makes new environments a lot less scary and more interesting.

References:

1.McKurdy, K., Walker, J., & Yuen, D., (2018). Gluteus maximus and hamstring activation during selected weight-bearing resistance exercises. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 32(3), 594-601.

2.Distefano, L.J., Blackburn, J.T., Marshall, S.W., & Padua, D.A., (2009). Gluteal muscle activation during common therapeutic exercises. Journal of Orthopedic Sports and Physical Therapy, 39(7), 532-540.

3.Lee, T.S., Song, M.Y., & Kwon, Y.J., (2016). Activation of back and lower limb muscles during squat exercises with different trunk flexion. Journal of Physical Therapy Science, 28(12), 3407-3410.

4.Mausehund, L., Skard, A.E., & Krosshaug, T., (2018). Muscle activation in unilateral barbell exercises: implications for strength training and rehabilitation. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, (4).

5.McCurdy, K., O’Kelley, E., Kutz, M., Langford, G., Ernest, J., & Torres, M., (2010). Comparison of lower extremity EMG between the 2-leg squat and the modified single-leg squat in female athletes. Journal ofSport Rehabilitation, 19(1), 57-70.

6.Kim, M.J., & Kim, J.H., (2016). Comparison of lower limb muscle activation with ballet movements (releve and demi-plie) and general movement (heel rise and squat) in healthy adults. Journal of Physical Therapy Science, 28(1), 223-226.

7.Neumann, D.A., (2010). Kinesiology of the hip: a focus on muscular actions. Journal of Orthopedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 40(2), 82-94.

8.Ventura, J.D., Klute, G.K., & Neptune, R.R., (2015). Individual muscle contributions to circular turning mechanics. Journal of Biomechanics, 48(6), 1067-1074.

The post Working Towards Powerful Mobile Glutes appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The term “functional training” has never acquired a strong definition. We know what maximal strength, power, speed, and many other physical qualities refer to, but functional training seems to be a rather vague umbrella term. Most people define functional training as “training that relates to real life.” This is a wonderful philosophical definition, but it does little to clarify the methods, programming, and use of functional training.

A great example of this challenge of understanding human function can be seen in the popularity of “glute training.” First, we have to clarify training the “glutes” versus “glute.” Most people use the terms interchangeably, but there is a big difference. The glute complex involves the glute maximus, medius, and minimus. Each has a different role in movement. While most people focus on glute maximus, all three are very important.

Your lateral athleticism is influenced by the strength of your posterior. [Photo courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography]

A Complex Group of Muscles

You may expect me to move into a discussion of what the muscles do individually, or a short functional anatomy lesson. While most would tell you, for example, the glute maximus is a hip extensor and external rotator of the hip, the reality is that things can be more complex in real life movement.

A 2006 study in the Journal of Experimental Biology found that the role of glute maximus may be a bit more complex:

“The major functions of the gluteus maximus during running are to control flexion of the trunk on the stance-side and to decelerate the swing leg; contractions of the stance-side gluteus maximus may also help to control flexion of the hip and to extend the thigh.”

This statement reflects the researchers’ finding that glute maximus activity was relatively low during walking and much higher during running. What is also interesting is the role of glute maximus in controlling and preventing trunk movement and deceleration.

The glutes work synergistically to create force and stability during our most fundamental human pattern: running. Understanding their role in what our body is designed to do makes us realize that the complexity of our movement is far higher than what we typically see in the gym. Getting stronger or more active isn’t the whole story when it comes to glute training for real life.

Do Your Glutes Work?

Fortunately, the overall awareness of glute training and its value for better movement has improved. People now understand the the idea of gluteal amnesia, which has helped change the focus of a lot of training programs.

But gluteal amnesia may not just be a function of strength, but proper coordination as well. Leading spine expert, Dr. Stuart McGill, breaks down the cause of gluteal amnesia into three categories:

1. Pain
2. Positioning
3. Lack of Use

Pain is a whole science in itself, and we are just starting to learn more about it. Many times, pain will cause movement alterations that cause a series of new issues to develop. As Dr. Heller states:

“Any pain that lasts more than 48 hours begins to alter function. That means trigger points begin to develop, the pain spreads up and down the chain, and key stability muscles shut down….Once the smaller local muscles go ‘offline,’ they no longer are stabilizing the joints. The joints begin to move too much, which is instability, and this creates more pain.”

While one could argue the exact science of pain, working in the clinical setting I have seen many similar situations as Dr. Heller outlines. Pain will often, but not always, create alterations in posture and movement. Therefore, we have to know if pain is the reason the glutes have shut off, and that may change our plan of attack.

We can think of positioning as more of a postural concept. Renowned physical therapist, Dr. Vladamir Janda, has proposed the idea of “crossed pelvis syndrome,” which is characterized by weak glutes and abdominal wall with tight hamstrings and hip flexors. What Dr. Janda found in his work was that people often created compensatory movement by altering the pattern in which muscles functioned. Instead of just purely looking at an individual muscle’s strength, he investigated how the muscles worked in synergy to create movement.

While we may debate the phrase “tight and weak” that Dr. Janda mentioned in his earlier work, the disruptive pattern in hip extension became evident. In fact, Dr. McGill relays the same concept:

“Measuring groups of men with chronic back troubles during squatting types of tasks revealed that they try to accomplish this basic motion and motor pattern of hip extension emphasizing the back extensors and the hamstrings. They appear to have forgotten how to use the gluteal complex.”

Lack of use is rather self-explanatory. Our sedentary lifestyle of sitting and inactivity has made our bodies rather lazy. Due to the artificial support of our modern lifestyle, important muscles such as the glutes have simply “turned off” because there is little need for them to work.

So what do you do?

Simple Functional Glute Screens

In any good physical therapy screen, one would not just isolate glute activity, but look at more functional tasks. There are two screens that I believe offer greater feedback into the functional ability of the glutes than isolated testing.

The first test is a single-leg stance test. As the name implies, to complete the test you simply stand on one leg for 20-30 seconds. The goal is to evaluate whether you can hold this position without the other leg touching down, as well how stable you are in this position. Do you sway? Rotate? Use any type of obvious compensations to maintain your posture?

This represents what notable physical therapist, Diane Lee, refers to as the lateral system. The lateral system requires hip abductors and abbductors to work with the opposing quadratus lumborum to maintain posture with large frontal plane forces acting upon the body. If this sounds confusing, just think about when you climb up stairs, run, or do any dynamic real-life activities where the body maintains alignment.

Another great tool to measure functional gluteal ability is the Functional Movement Screen’s (FMS) Y-balance test. This test allows you to evaluate differences from side to side, as well as strength in different planes of motion. The information can be extremely valuable and gives us a more specific means of understanding where weaknesses lie.

3 Drills for Functional Glute Strength

What I want people to take away from this article is not just great glute workouts or more exercises, but rather, a system of looking at how you progress training. Much of this is from our Dynamic Variable Resistance Training system (DVRT), where we look at progressions outside of simply load and volume.

Body position plays an important role in this progression. Starting on the ground may be necessary for those who are in pain or who need to re-pattern and remove some of the challenge posed by being upright. Even though we are starting on the ground, this stable position is simply a means of teaching and not where most of your work should be performed.

3 Drills for Functional Glute Strength: 1. Glute Pull Apart Bridge

The addition of the sandbag in this exercise might seem somewhat random. But what we are trying to accomplish is not only simply glute activation, but also teaching the glutes to work with the core and lats to build a strong kinetic chain. In real-world activity, the lats, core, and glutes work together to create motion. This is known as the posterior oblique system.

Pay attention to how you walk. You will notice that your body works with opposing limbs to create motion. As you create hip extension, the opposing arm swings back and activates the lat as well as the core to create stability and force.

Isolating the glutes in training is an inefficient way of training them, because it does not train these natural chains. The sandbag provides a necessary activation of the entire kinetic chain. It isn’t simply the act of pulling apart, but the load wanting to sag down vertically as well that lights up this entire system.

As Dr. Liebenson explains:

Many exercises ‘isolate’ problem areas, but don’t mimic the way muscles are used in the patient’s functional activities. Such exercises may be important stepping stones in training, but they are not ends in themselves.

3 Drills for Functional Glute Strength: 2. Moving Deadlifts

Deadlifts are a great way to lay a foundation for functional glute training, but just going heavier and heavier isn’t always the best answer. While doing these variations, you’ll notice it is easy to lose the pattern of the hip hinge and begin to create compensatory movements to counteract the more challenging patterns. That’s because the glutes not only produce force, but are also key in providing stability in motion. We want to use exercises that accomplish both goals.

3 Drills for Functional Glute Strength: 3. Rotation Training

We can learn a lot about what a muscle does just by looking at its anatomy. Looking at the glute maximus, you will quickly notice the muscle doesn’t run just up and down, but fans out the pelvis. Such a design is meant to reflect that the muscle does several actions at once, versus a more linear set of muscles like the biceps.

We can think of the glutes as being “tri-planar,” meaning that they do work in all planes of motion, often at once. They also help develop great force in rotation. If you are looking to develop high levels of athleticism or functional movements, you need to properly progress through rotational drills. Most leave out rotation because it raises the complexity of movement. In other words, most people just aren’t very good at it.

While many may believe rotation occurs through the core, it actually should come from action of the hip. Looking at the structure of the body, we see the ball and socket joint of the hip is designed for a lot of motion, while the lumbar spine is quite limited (you can read my article about this subject here).

The series in the video will progress your rotational training by moving from more stable, slower environments to more explosive and reactive-based training.

Are Your Glutes Functional?

I hope this article gives you a new understanding of glute training for purely aesthetic purposes, as well as life and sport. While many strategies can help in developing “stronger glutes,” the overall goal of any good functional program is not to just make a muscle stronger, but more integrated with the body’s entire system.

Ready to Fire Up Your Posterior?

Want a Great Butt? Train Like an Athlete

Coaches: Keep Your Athletes Healthy For the Long Haul:

5 Injury Prevention Exercises to Build Bulletproof Athletes

References:

1. Daniel E. Lieberman, David A. Raichlen, Herman Pontzer, Dennis M. Bramble, Elizabeth Cutright-Smith, “The Human Gluteus Maximus And Its Role In Running,” Journal of Experimental Biology 209(2006): 2143-2155.

2. Lee, Diane G. The Pelvic Girdle: An integration of clinical expertise and research, 4e 4th Edition, Churchill Livingstone, 2010.

3. McGill, Stuart. Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation 3rd Edition, Champaign: Human Kinetics, 2016.

4. Heller, Mark. Changing Inhibition Patterns: Breaking the Pain – Inhibition – Instability Cycle, Dynamic Chiropractic, Volume 34, Number 9.

5. Liebenson, Craig. Are We Restoring Function?” Dynamic Chiropractic, Volume 34, Number 9.

The post Glute Training for Real-Life Strength appeared first on Breaking Muscle.