Unlock your glutes: 3 essential exercises for a stronger butt
Summary
The glute muscles are the largest in the body and their strength is key to having good back health and mobility. Here are three exercises to make your glute workouts better.
There is always a starting point in a fitness goal. But the beauty about making workouts a way of life is that the progression never stops. There are goals, but there is no final destination. When one starts doing push-ups, the aim has to be to get one right, but never stop at one. Increase it to five, then 10, 20, and then add time challenges, weights, and then increase the weights. This is progression and the better you get at an exercise, the more you want to make it more challenging.
The starting point exercises for working on the glutes are simple: floor bridges, squats, Bulgarian squats, lunges, single-leg cable raises and so on. But it’s easy to plateau with these movements, and this is where more advanced exercises come in.
Advanced does not mean more weights, rather slightly more complicated movements with a little more targeted work. This is important because of how large the glute muscle is, and the way it is divided. There are the three main ones, which are easy to remember: gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus. There is also the tensor fasciae latae, which is a small but important stabiliser for the iliotibial band, the thigh, and even the knee.
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Glute health is also directly related with lower back health. This is because of the muscles in the region being so important for extension of the body. “As mentioned by leading researchers, there is a biodynamic relationship between low back pain, the hip joint, and hip muscles, and when applying an exercise program for low back pain treatment to chronic low back pain patients, stability of the pelvis and hip joints and strengthening of the hip muscles are important," states a study titled, The Effects Of Gluteus Muscle Strengthening Exercise And Lumbar Stabilization Exercise On Lumbar Muscle Strength And Balance In Chronic Low Back Pain Patients. Published in The Journal Of Physical Therapy Science, it also adds that the study conducted experiments on “chronic low back pain patients in their 30s to 50".
Which brings us to an exercise that doesn’t just isolate the glutes but is a top lower back strengthener. Reverse hyperextensions have a steady starting point for beginners and a very exciting progression curve to advanced levels.
One of the top trainers in the world, Charles Glass, calls this exercise an “upper shelf" builder. While he’s referring to one of the toughest areas to gain, it is an exercise that will give you not just a superficial lift in the buttocks region, but even build muscle and make you stronger. The exercise also hits the hamstrings.
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The most basic version can be done using any elevated platform, the most popular being a box, which most gyms have. Start with placing the box at the shorter height before moving to the taller side. The advantage here is you can hold on lightly to the ends of the boxes, to keep the head down and let the lower body do the work. In simple terms, this exercise is lowering the legs and bringing them up to the point where the glutes and lower back contract to give you the right kind of squeeze.
Choose the next progression points according to availability of equipment: start with a dumbbell between the ankles, or a light resistance band attached at the bottom. If there is a choice of ankle weights, use those.If there’s no box, one can opt for the shorter range of motion, which is a floor reverse hyper.
“Lie on your stomach on the floor with your legs straight and your arms to the side for support. Keeping your chin tucked in, brace your abs and squeeze your glutes to raise your legs off the floor. Hold the squeeze in your glutes and lower back for a count of two, then lower back down and repeat. As the Floor Reverse Hyperextension has a very short range of motion, we recommend training for 12-20 reps per set," states an article on the fitness site The Fitting Rooms titled Reverse Hypers: A Great Exercise You’re Not Doing!
There are a few versions of the floor reverse hypers which are as shown in the video below, one of which also incorporates a yoga block.
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All of which means this exercise is not just limited to a gym-going fitness enthusiast. But if there is access to a gym, then it’s time to practice for a few weeks and eventually do reverse hypers on the smith machine. This is the meanest one, but the best one.
Use a bench and slide it under the bar on a smith machine and lie down on your stomach. Then adjust your soles onto the bar, use a friend to help unlock the bar mechanism, and start raising. Start with just the bar and the natural resistance. Then add small weights. This is again a slightly shorter range of motion compared to the ones done on the box, but the addition of weights makes it a proper muscle builder.
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The last stage of this would be to use a reverse hyper extension machine. These are very rare in gyms in India. But if you see one, now you know how to use it.“Movements like the reverse hyperextension allow coaches and athletes to train the hamstrings and glutes in a similar movement pattern to deadlifts and other pulls from the floor without the added spinal loading/forces. This can be beneficial for those athletes who have lower back issues/flare ups, are recovering from hard training, and/or are looking to maximise lower back health," states a Barbend.com article on the benefits of doing this exercise.
Pulasta Dhar is a football commentator, podcaster and writer.
