Train Your Glutes

The glutes.

There’s is controversy over whether or not you should train them directly, or if other lifts are enough.

There is even more if you’re a man, as if it’s something that should be trained by women only for some reason.

I’m going to give you some reasons as to why you’d want to reconsider giving them their fair share.

Many moons ago I had a major back injury. I’ve had a few actually. Most of the time, what was I doing during the injury? In the moment, it was not lifting itself, it was doing something odd. What I mean is what was I doing in life in general?

Sitting too much.

Even up until recently I could feel my loss of stability. I can feel that my right leg (my driving leg) is a bit weaker.

Before, knowing I was “tight,” I’d stretch my hip flexors. I’d also attempt to “stretch” or strengthen the lower back directly (think Jefferson curl). The lower back is the problem, so we need to work on that, right?

What we need to realize is that the biggest muscle responsible for posterior lower body stability is sitting right under us. Avoiding it robs us of both stability and athleticism.

So if you want to get stronger and feel better, not just look good, it’s time to train the back side.

Glute Training, Waste of Time?

There are arguments against direct glute training that come from different directions.

The “squats and deadlifts are enough” argument comes from the proponents of the big lifts. It comes as a counter to Bret Contreras (who popularized the hip thrust) in the reading of whatever invention measures how much a muscle works during a given exercise. The squat and the deadlift won. Ha, take that Bret! Buuuut if you look around enough, there are some lifters with big numbers but relatively smaller glutes. Also people who hip thrust a lot with big glutes. Hm. So they work right? So I’m not sure this argument holds much weight.

The next point is that the glutes are the largest muscle in the body. They provide propulsion and stability. If you look at any sprinter or any sport that requires a lot of sprinting, (football skill positions, bobsled, etc), then they have big glutes. Is it any wonder why they have so much power? If that’s the most natural way they develop (one leg at a time to move you through space), then I think they’re a pretty important muscle, and it gives insights as to how to train it the “original” way.

The last point that will sidestep all these arguments is this:

We all sit too much!

Is it any wonder why the deadlift (and even squats) are demonized and we are led to believe that they are the devil? If the glutes are a major stabilizer and they are “off” or non-existent when you go to lift something, you’re going to have a bad time. So if you add them, lo and behold, they keep your body nice and healthy so that you can do whatever it is you want to do.

Is it any wonder why younger kids don’t have a problem with the lifts, and they only seem “problematic” for older people? I think it has more to do with the fact that the older we get, the more we sit, and the more we sit, the more our poor glutes stop working (and our hip flexors get super tight).

Guardian of the Glutes Plan

The trick is adding enough work for your rear-end that doesn’t interfere with your regular training and not venture into being a full blown glute specialist.

At first I was thinking about high rep bridges, which are awesome and eventually lead to doing a full bridge, which does wonders for your spine, but what’s the “original” way we used our glutes?

Think about what we humans do that most other animals don’t do - walk on two legs. The muscles that help us do that are our buns. So that means one leg at a time. The ultimate expression of that would be sprinting, but I doubt you’d want to jump into that without a solid base.

Bird Dogs to the rescue.

Get on all 4s, reach your opposite arm and leg forward and back respectively. You can also play with the gait dog (also known as speed skaters) and a cross cross bird dog, where you tap opposite limbs after each rep to get the front side involved.

So why these?

We get to the them for high reps, it adds more resistance than standing straight up and it teaches our backside to fire “reflexively,” which means we don’t have to think about it. “Squeeze your glutes” is a term we always hear in the lifting world, but wouldn’t it be to not have to think about it and it just runs in the background? The answer is yes.

Also as a warmup you can work the prone segmental lower body roll. This really wakes things up and even digs into the rest of the spine and upper body.

I was going to add in stretches and bridges, and those are great, but I feel the roll and bird dog a lot more. It will open up the front side if you work on the back side. It also detects imbalances between legs.

The moral of the story is that you don’t want training your cheeks to interfere with your training, and since you need a lot of reps for your body to “get the message,” then this is a great option. Aim for 20-50 reps each leg a few days per week, after training (or before as a warmup), or even every day if you’re having issues, and you’re set.

Literally Go Forth

It pains me to see people lose their glutes. It’s no wonder that people with hunched over postures have small ones or none. They’re supposed to be back there holding you up, but with all the sitting we’ve done, they atrophy to nothing.

If you want to make the rest of your training smoother (from lower body to even upper body movements), then go give your glutes their fair share of work.

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