Fitter Food’s Matt Whitmore offers expert advice about training, nutrition and fat loss.
Yep you read that right, it is time to work that ass, your tush, your bum or as we call them in the training world your glutes. The glute muscles are the biggest in the body and a strong set of glutes will not only mean you look hot in a pair of jeans (or out of them for that matter!) but will have a huge impact on other body parts to help prevent injury.
For many desk jockeys out there a lot of time is spent sitting on their glutes (as opposed to working them) and often when we work with clients we find they have what we call ‘posterior chain amnesia’ – where they lose the ability to activate their glutes and hamstrings. Now a weak pair of glutes can lead to back injuries as well as preventing you from making progress on your big lifts – such as the deadlift and squat.
Both the deadlift and squat are fantastic glute exercises but it is important that you learn how to activate them first. Exercises we would use to help clients rediscover the power houses are the kettle bell swing, glute bridges and even planks. This way the load is minimal which reduces the risk of injury and makes it relatively easy to engage the muscles.
Once the muscle activation happens reflectively you will benefit from all the fantastic postural chain exercises such as deadlifts, squat variations, lunges, sprints and plyometric exercises.
