Ever wanted that Kardashian booty, or a nice rounded bubble butt that all the Instagram trainers are on about? Well it comes down to a little bit of science, some hard work and mind muscle connection….
The glutes are made up of 3 parts, the main muscle being the gluteus maximus and 2 smaller parts that contribute to the movement of the larger section, gluteus minimus and gluteus medius. The role of the glutes is to aide in supporting your core and helps with a range of exercises and movement of the hip joint such as extension, abduction, internal and external rotation, not just to look good in a pair of jeans.
When we talk about ‘firing up’ we are referring to them as being ‘active’ during an exercise or ‘activating’. By having these muscles activated during a compound exercise for example the benefits are nearly doubled. For example, during a squat some people feel for just their quads to activate but by having a mind muscle connection with the glutes as well will mean these muscles are also being targeted and are gaining from the benefits of the exercise also.
Mind muscle connection?? Sounds a bit airy fairy right…. Well, this is when you make a conscious effort to contract a targeted muscle in your body during an exercise, so pulling all your focus to the muscles you want to work – not just “doing the exercise”. Therefore, it should be an integral part of anyone’s training. If you can do this successfully you will be able to take note when your glutes are firing up and when they are fatiguing. For some people this technique needs to be learnt and requires a lot of patience.
Having weak glutes could be from various reasons, poor form, having a sedentary lifestyle/career or from over-relyng on other muscles to activate and carry out an exercise. So it is important to give your glutes a pre-workout to help them ‘fire up’ especially before going for a run or doing an intense lower body training session. If your glutes are inactive then they aren’t being used as well as they should during training or in daily living. This results in them becoming weaker and getting in the habit of not being used.
So before your next lower body training session try these 4 exercises to help ‘fire up’ those glutes and notice the difference in muscle burn from using that mind muscle connection.
20 reps of each:
*Glute bridge
*Donkey Kicks
*Crab walks
*Clam shells
These can be done with or without bands…. The bands do provide extra resistance.