WEAK POINT WEDNESDAY: GLUTES
The glutes are a taboo bodypart for men since we only care about their looks when it comes to women. Most men think that if you dare to perform hip thrusts in the gym you’ll be labeled as the gay weirdo guy, simply because you usually only see girls doing them in the average gym. Truth is the glutes play a huge role for athletic performance and they’re the key to overall power and extreme feats of strength.
If you look at the most explosive athletes you’ll notice the same patterns. Big strong backs and big strong strong posterior chains. These are the most important muscle groups to train if you want to be as strong, fast and explosive as you possibly can. So get your glute/posterior chain game up.
Anatomy
The glutes are comprised by three major muscles, the gluteus maximus, the gluteus medius and the gluteus minimus. Of course, there are other smaller muscles like the piriformis, quadratus femoris etc, but the main emphasis when lifting weights is places on the three bigger muscles.
Gluteus maximus’ main actions are to extend and laterally rotate the hip joint. Furthermore, upper fibers can abduct the hip whereas the lower fibers can adduct.
As a powerful extensor of the hip joint, it’s suited to powerful lower limb movements such as stepping onto a step, climbing or running, however is not used greatly during normal walking. The gluteus maximus and the hamstrings work together to extend the trunk from a flexed position by pulling the pelvis backwards, for example standing up from a bent forward position.
Eccentric control is also provided when bending forward. Superior fibers of the gluteus maximus can extend the knee through its attachment to theIliotibial tract.
Several stability roles include:
balancing the pelvis on femoral heads thus maintaining upright posture, the attachment throught the iliotibial tract supports the lateral knee, and lateral rotation of femur when standing assists raising the medial longitudinal arch of the foot.
If the gluteus maximus is paralyzed, climbing stairs and running will become very difficult, however, other muscles can extend the hip. Gluteus maximus can be trained to produce functional knee extension when the rectus femoris is weak or paralyzed.
The gluteus medius is located on the lateral aspect of the upper buttock, below the iliac crest. The superior muscle is broad with the muscle narrowing towards its insertional tendon giving it a fan-shape. Gluteus maximus covers all of the gluteal muscles except for the antero-superior third of the Gluteus medius.
It is the prime mover of abduction at the hip joint.
Its anterior portion can abduct, assist in flexion and medial rotation of the hip.
Its posterior portion can abduct, assist in extension and lateral rotation of hip.
In hip flexion all portions internally rotate the hip and it has shown that at 90° of hip flexion the leverage of medial rotation of Gluteus medius is increased eight folds.
All portions of Gluteus medius will produce hip abduction regrades the position o the hip.
The gluteus medius is an extremely important muscle in maintaining frontal plane stability of the pelvis it forms with the ipsilateral tensor fascia latae and contralateral quadratus lumborum a lateral fascial sling whose main role is to provide frontal plane stability.
It is also extremely important in walking, running and single-leg weight-bearing because it prevents the opposite side of the pelvis from dropping during walking, running and single leg weight-bearing.
When a limb is taken off the ground the pelvis on the that side will tend to drop through loss of support from below. Gluteus medius works to maintain the side of the pelvis that drops therefore allowing the other limb to swing forward for the next step, as well as supporting the pelvis during gait by producing rotation of hip with assistance from gluteus minimus and tensor fascia lata.
The gluteus minimus muscle is the smallest one of the three gluteal muscles, it lies deep to the gluteus medius muscle. The gluteus minimus is smiliar to the gluteus medius in function, structure, nerve and blood supply. Its main function is hip stabilization and abduction.
Training
The glutes along with the hamstrings, are acting as hip extensors, so it makes perfect sense to utilize hip extension exercises such as Romanian Deadlifts, 45° and Reverse Hyperextensions, along with Good Morning, Prowler Push and Sled Drag variations. Additionally, the glutes are also going to be taxed on sumo and conventional deadlifts, as well as with box/free squats.
Hip thrusts are the best movement to effectively overload the glutes.
I prefer to stick to low rep ranges and heavy weights, with the occasional ultra high rep set here and there. I usually alternate between a 3RM and a 5RM each week, aiming to lift as heavy as possible for that day. Whenever I go for ultra high reps I do so with 135, 185 or 225lbs. You can either do it for time or for as many reps as possible. 50 to 100 rep sets are not uncommon with this technique.
I personally perform them inside the power rack, with the Safety pins set up to the lowest holes and with the bench just outside of the rack. That way you can still get all the range of motion that you need, without having to worry about how to get underneath the bar. You can also alternate between a normal or a wider stance too.
There are other ways to perform them, for example with the use of a machine or even doing single leg hip thrusts or frog pumps with a dumbbell placed on your hips, however I personally prefer to stick to the basic variation of the exercise.
There you have it, training the glutes is not complicated at all and you’ll be already training them “indirectly” with all the other compound lower body movements, adding however an isolation exercise will work wonders for your athletic performance. It should also be mentioned that your women will love your new look too.
If you’re tired of getting no results in the weight room and you’re ready to level up your life you can work directly with me. For any questions shoot me a DM on Telegram or via the contact page.
