Unlocking Your Booty...

There has been a lot of talk about gluetal activation, especially for athletes. The glutes are made up of three parts:

1. Gluteus Maximus
2. Gluteus Medius
   
3. Gluteus Minimus
   

These muscles make up a large chunk of the posterior chain, making it crucial that we use them optimally. In hopes of learning more about getting the most out of my butt, I went straight to the source:

Kim Kardashian

After only finding a sitcom-like reality show, I decided to go to the real experts, Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson.

"The fact of the matter is that most athletes are tight in the hamstrings, lower back, and hip flexors. This collection of problems is related to a lack of strength and motor control in the gluteal muscles. When the hip flexors (antagonists to the gluteus maximus) are overactive, the gluteus maximus becomes weak via a mechanism known as reciprocal inhibition."

Okay, so we know that underactive glutes are a problem, and are hurting my performance, so what can I do to turn them on?? Here is a great workout consisting of exercies to get your glutes activated and give them a great workout. Follow this protocol and you'll be filling your apple bottom jeans in no time!

The Protocol

1) Supine Bridge (2 Sets of 10) Squeeze your glutes and lift your butt off the ground thinking about lifting up one vertebrae at a time. Advanced athletes can attempt this on one leg, but do not sacrifice the technique!

2) Donkey Kicks (2 Sets of 10) Kick up and out and squeeze the glutes at the finish

3) Squats with complete hip extension (5 Sets of 3)



4) Split Squats (3 sets of 4 on each leg) Focus on a complete range of motion

5) Glute-Ham Raises (3 Sets of 8)

6) Free-Form Reverse Hyper (3 sets of 5) Squeeze your butt hard at the top!

7) Pull-Throughs (3 sets of 8) The bread and butter of the workout

If this protocol doesn't get your glutes on fire, then there will be only one method left...

Train Hard!