Strengthen Your Glutes With Our Favorite Moves
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Let’s take a look today at one of the most important muscle groups of the lower body: the glutes!
Strong glutes are helpful in so many ways:
They make everyday tasks like lifting objects and getting up and down off the floor easier
They help us run faster
They support us when walking up stairs and climbing hills
And most relevant for our community: they help make many of our yoga poses more accessible!
Anatomy of the Glutes
When we think about training the glutes, it’s helpful to remember that we have three glute muscles (not just one!).
The gluteus maximus is the muscle on the back of our pelvis.
And trivia time: did you know the glute max is the largest muscle in the human body? :)
Gluteus maximus muscle
Gluteus medius and gluteus minimus are the muscles on the lateral side of our pelvis.
Gluteus medius is more superficial, and gluteus minimus is smaller (hence its name!) and lies underneath it.
Gluteus medius muscle (gluteus minimus lies underneath)
We refer to these three muscles collectively as "the glutes." And in our strength practice, when we perform hip extension, hip abduction, or hip external rotation against resistance, we're targeting the glutes!
Our Favorite Glute Strengtheners
Here’s a selection of some of our favorite Strength for Yoga exercises for targeting the glutes.
As you’ll see, each exercise targets this muscle group in a different way. Therefore, if we perform all of these exercises, we’ll target our glutes in a well-rounded way!
1) Goblet Curtsy Lunge
In this lunge, we step our moving leg behind us and across our midline, making a "curtsy" with our legs.
This loads the lateral glutes on our standing leg.
As we lower into the lunge, these muscles work eccentrically (as they lengthen).
As we return to standing, they work concentrically (as they shorten).
2) Pigeon Chair Squat
This exercise is a favorite among our Remote Group Training members! Everyone loves a pigeon leg, right? 😉
All squats work the posterior glutes, but when we squat on one leg like this, we also work the lateral glutes.
These muscles prevent hip adduction on our standing leg.
(Bonus: the glutes of our pigeon leg receive a nice stretch as we lower down into these squats!)
3) Standing Heel Pivot External Rotation
This exercise targets the glutes in their hip external rotation role!
We loop a resistance band around the ball of one foot, stand with our feet wide in a straddle, and anchor the band with our hand on our opposite hip.
Then we externally rotate the banded leg against the resistance of the band.
This is so potent for lighting up the outer hip muscles – a.k.a. the glutes!
4) Forearm Side Plank w/ Leg Raises
This challenging bodyweight exercise targets the lateral glutes of both legs!
As we lift and lower the top leg, that leg's glutes work dynamically.
At the same time, the bottom leg's glutes work isometrically to resist hip adduction and hold the body up.
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