There’s more to strong glute muscles than aesthetics. Your glutes – the minimus, medius, and Maximus – are the largest and strongest muscles in your body. These three muscles work together to abduct, rotate, and extend the hip.

Without your glutes, you simply would not be able to stand up. You wouldn’t be able to walk, run, jump or even sit.

The glutes are designed to be powerful and strong. They join the upper body to the lower body creating a postural chain and controlling everything from the hamstrings, hips, and back.

Strengthening your glutes can help improve posture, as well as make sitting down, standing, picking up heavy objects, and climbing stairs easier. Developing strong glutes can also improve athletic performance and decrease your risk for injuries.

Common causes of inactive or poorly functioning glute muscles

• Sitting

When we sit for long periods of time, the muscles in our lower bodies simply switch off and become inactive. At the same time, we also adopt terrible postural positions that push our spine and connective tissues out of shape. The result is compromised body function, inactive muscles, and overly strained ligaments and tendons.

• Lower body injury

The glutes are very clever muscles. So clever that they know how powerful they are. When we experience any type of lower-body injury, whether it’s a broken leg or a sprained ankle, the glutes automatically switch off to try and slow you down. This allows your lower-body injury to heal. The only problem is our glutes do not automatically switch back on.

Benefits of strong glutes

• Injury prevention

Developing strong glutes is not only essential for optimal performance but can also decrease your risk for injury in the knees, lower back, hamstrings, and groin.

Weak glutes can cause an imbalance in the hip. Subsequently, this leads to excessive medial rotation of the femur and lateral tracking of the patella. The result is knee pain.

Strengthening your glutes decreases your risk for back injuries in exercises such as the deadlift and squat by taking some of the pressure off your lower back. Furthermore, weak glutes may contribute to pulled muscles in your hamstring or groin.

• Athletic performance

Strong glute muscles are essential for almost every sport, as they are responsible for accelerating, decelerating, changing directions, and creating explosive power in jumps. They are also responsible for effective hip extension.

Sprinting is one of the most effective exercises for simulating the glutes, activating 234% more of the gluteus maximus muscle than a vertical jump. Athletes with strong glutes will be faster, more efficient, and more explosive in their movements than athletes with weaker glutes.

Strengthen your glutes

Train your glute muscles at least once a week. Use compound, multi-joint exercises, such as full squats, deadlifts, lunges, and step-ups. These exercises mimic real-life functional movements, which can help improve daily life.

Additionally, include aerobic exercise in your weekly routine. Perform at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercises five days a week.

Chiro & Sports Med

Our chiropractors at Chiro & Sports Med are committed to providing chiropractic solutions to address your unique needs, whether you are experiencing an irritated nerve, bulging disc, back pain, neck pain, knee pain, headaches, or even muscular tightness and tension. You may be searching for pain relief after an accident or experiencing an injury.  Our mission is to help reduce or eliminate pain and to prevent future problems and injuries. Above all, we are here to improve your quality of life, well-being, and ability to live an active healthy lifestyle.

If you would like to make an appointment with one of the chiropractors at Chiro & Sports Med simply call our office on 9817 2005 and one of our friendly staff will organise an appointment for you or you can book online.