But is there a case for a dedicated glute exercise?

When Isolation Makes Sense

Greg Dea wrote a recent article arguing against using isolation exercises, specifically the calf machine. He argues that our calves are built to act as springs to absorb shock and propel us forward, and that performing slow calf raises can decrease reactive abilities over time. His thought process against using specialized equipment is shared by many strength coaches, whose ultimate goal is to create high-performing athletes.

But Charles Staley makes the case that isolation machines can sometimes be beneficial to athletes if the exercise has these two qualities:

• Efficiency — the exercise does not divert resources away from movements more beneficial to sports performance.
• Positive Transfer — the exercise improves the sport-specific skill or activity by improving strength.

For quad-dominant athletes, isolation training of the glutes might provide that positive transfer. Research has shown that explosive movements and heavier weights activate the glutes well.¹ In slower movements, such as squats, the glutes are also prime movers, but not for everyone. Athletes who lift in a more upright position (with less hip hinge) recruit their thighs to do the bulk of the work, while their glutes remain less active. For these athletes, it might be helpful to do more specific training to learn how to turn on their glutes.

A Test and a Solution for Sleeping Glutes

With a partner, lay down flat on your stomach. Lift your heel toward your butt and raise your leg off the ground. Have your partner press your hamstring toward the ground. If you can resist your partner pressing down, then you can activate your glutes well. If your partner can press your leg back down, you might have a problem waking up your glutes, otherwise known as gluteal amnesia.

The hip thruster is an excellent movement to combat glute activation issues because it isolates the hip joint so that there is little knee movement. It is usually done with the feet planted on the floor and the knees bent and thrusting your hips into the air by contracting your glutes.

One method for adding weight to this movement is to place a barbell on your hip bone and put your back on a bench. By raising the upper body, you prevent the bar from rolling down onto your face. When using a barbell, wrap a squat pad or towel around the bar to protect your hip bones. Over time, you should be able to lift 1.2 to 2 times your body weight, so protecting the hip bones is important.

A traditional bench is often too high and unstable for this exercise. It can be difficult to get up onto the bench using heavier weights. Recently, I tested a machine built specifically for hip thrusters. The bench is shorter and it is connected to the platform. This unit also has pins so that bands can be used to place more demand on the top of the movement where you squeeze the glutes (i.e., Compensatory Acceleration Training).

Is the Hip Thruster Worth Your Time?

Does the hip thruster fulfill Charles Staley’s requirements for usefulness, namely efficiency and positive transfer? Yes. It is an efficient use of time as it is working multiple glute muscles at once. Adding this movement to your training routine will create positive transfer for your squat and deadlift. Many newer athletes would benefit from this machine to learn how to use their glutes properly, and it patterns the proper movement needed in deadlifts and kettlebell swings.

The hip thruster is also a tool that might have uses beyond specific glute training. I have heard of someone using the hip thruster for rehabilitation after a knee injury because they could not do squats. Once he returned to squatting, he found that he had not lost much strength and had new power in his glutes.

A Place for Isolation in Athletic Training

I do not have a great deal of space for unnecessary equipment, but the hip thruster is important enough to make room. Deadlifts and kettlebell swings are great movements for building strong glute muscles, but the hip thruster isolates the glutes in a way that can teach athletes how to hinge properly, and with weight. Complex movements are generally the most efficient and transfer to athletic endeavors, but the hip thruster is one isolation exercise that I would recommend for athletes at all levels.

More on Glute Training:

• 4 Simple Exercises to Get Your Glutes Fired Up
• The Physics of Lifting: Don’t Forget to Hinge
• Butt-ology 101: How to Enhance Your Gluteal Muscles
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo courtesy of CrossFit.

Reference:

1. Beardsley, Chris, and Bret Contreras. “The Increasing Role of the Hip Extensor Musculature With Heavier Compound Lower-Body Movements and More Explosive Sport Actions.” Strength and Conditioning Journal 36, no. 2 (2014): 49-55. doi:10.1519/ssc.0000000000000047. 

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If your daily regimen includes multiple hours sitting, here are three exercises to turn the gluteus minus into gluteus maximus. And once you’ve located the proper muscles and done these exercises, you can graduate to the “ultimate dead butt to active arse” exercise.

Do you consider yourself to be a paper-pushing athlete or a desk jockey? Or do you hold the record for the word’s longest passive squat?

If your daily regimen includes multiple hours sitting, here are three exercises to turn the gluteus minus into gluteus maximus. And once you’ve located the proper muscles and done these exercises, you can graduate to the “ultimate dead butt to active arse” exercise.

You can do hundreds of squats and not actively flex the main hip stabilizers or glutes. Really, what needs to happen is location and activation of these muscles. Apply activation and flex these muscles while sitting – anywhere, anytime.

• Gluteus Maximus
• Adductor Magnus
• Hamstrings

Not sure where these muscles are on your body? Start with these preparatory exercises to get acquainted and teach yourself how to activate them consciously. If after doing these exercises you still have a challenging time feeling the muscles, place your hands on them directly and get a sense of where they are and how they move. Using tactile feedback helps your brain connect and map out body parts and increases your conscious awareness of them.

Preparatory Exercise 1: Locate Gluteus Maximus

1. Stand up
2. Place your fingers on your sit bones (Latin name: tuber ischiadicum). Contract and hold for 20 seconds, then release. Do 10-15 repetitions per 1 set. Repeat the set for every hour seated.

Preparatory Exercise 2: Locate Adductor Magnus

1. Sit on a chair
2. Make a fist and place it between your knees. Squeeze your knees together and hold for 20 seconds, then release. Do 10-15 repetitions per 1 set. Repeat the set for every hour seated.

Peparatory Exercise 3: Locate Hamstrings

1. Sit on a chair
2. Extend your legs out, two feet in front of the knees
3. Dig your heels into floor
4. Without moving your feet, pull the feet in the direction of the chair, thereby contracting your hamstrings. Hold for 20 seconds, then release. Do 10-15 repetitions per 1 set. Repeat the set for every hour seated.

Now apply your conscious activation of these muscles into this one do-it-all isometric exercise.

Isometric Exercise: Active Squat/Chair Pose

1. Stand Up
2. Bend knees until in squat position.

• Phase 1: Contract gluteus maximus while holding pose for 30 seconds.
• Phase 2: Contract adductor magnus while holding pose for 30 seconds.
• Phase 3: Contract hamstrings while holding pose for 30 seconds.
• Phase 4: Contract gluteus maximus, adductor magnus, and hamstrings simultaneously while holding pose for 30 seconds.

Repeat as necessary to decrease low back tension, hip tightness, and fatigue from prolonged sitting.

Options If You Experience Knee Pain

• Increase standing height, with knees bent only a few degrees.
• Squat while leaning against a wall.
• Squeeze a rolled up towel between knees.
• Try widening or narrowing feet positions.

Ultimately, the number one, greatest exercise you can do is to consciously and actively flex these muscles.

Muscles lose their strength because they aren’t being utilized for their intended purpose. This is also true for human beings. If we don’t feel as though we have a purpose in life, we lose our strength and flexibility.

Remember these muscles were a gift for your ability to mobilize – to run, to leap, to move. There is purpose in our body and purpose in our life. Use them both wisely.

The post The Do it All Exercise to Go From Dead Butt to Active Arse appeared first on Breaking Muscle.