All about that Bass- A guide to Glute training

I consider Glute (bum)training an essential body part to merit a significant degree of attention in your training for 2 reasons;

1)The Gluteus Maximus is the largest individual muscle in your body, for me that implies it should be a strong muscle.

2)A trained Bum looks awesome.

The Gluteals are a big muscle but what do they do?  Firstly they extend the hip, that is they bring the upper leg back and in line (and beyond) with the spine. They also perform 'External rotation of the Hip', simply put-turn the leg out at the hip.

Looking at the Gluteals as part of the bigger picture, the Glutes play a huge role in human function-or they should at least.

From experience I have seen many people with Glutes that function poorly with regards to people not being able to activate, contract and make them work.  As a result of the modern world where many of us spend time sat at desks, in the car, in front of the TV has seen people's Glutes becoming less utilised from an early age.

This is a real shame as the results I see is people losing good posture as well as the growing inability of people to perform basic human functions such as a squat or deadlift.

Don't worry all is not lost, the Glutes can be recovered and can be built stronger and better.  You can enjoy the benefits of improved posture, improved fitness performance that being squats or running and of course a good looking butt that doesn't droop down to the back of your knees.

Start by warming up on a Step Machine to get the Glutes warm and working followed by one of these workouts;

Workout A

A1:Deep Sumo Squat 4 x 6  4-0-1-0

superset with

A2:Stiff Leg Deadlifts 4 x 12. 3-1-2-1

Workout B

A:Hip Thrusters 4 x 8  4-0-X-0

B1:Cable Kickback 3 x 12  3-1-3-1

Superset with 

B2:Hip Thrust Lunge 3 x 8  2-1-X-1

Perform each of these 2 Glute workouts once per workout.

See the exercises here;

Train Hard,

Darren.