My buttfession this week is a little bit different than the last 2, I want to talk about the safety of having a strong butt. Yes! If your ass is weak you are in some real danger. Danger?! That may be a little dramatic but we take glute strength pretty serious around here.
 
 
 
That’s why we tell all of our members to squeeze their glutes as much as possible!
 
 
So what do I mean by that? Think about it, the glutes are the largest muscle in the human body according to the library of congress.  Not in some of you…in some of you those glutes that are supposed to be big and strong and round…are flat, small and weak.
 
 
 
What do the glutes do?
 
 
 
They are responsible for:
  • Hip extension (moving the leg behind your hip)
  • Hip abduction (moving your leg to the side)
  • Hip external rotation and internal rotation (pointing your foot internally and externally)
  • Raising the body up from a forwardly displaced position (think deadlift)
  • Lifting the body out of the stooped position (think squat)
  • Femoral, patellar and tibial alignment (knee pain? check the butt!)
  • Stabilizing the lower back and sacroiliac joint via its attachment into the thoracolumbar fascia (Back pain? check the butt!)
  • Keeps the pelvis level for walking and running

Strong glutes basically help you cook better and look good doing it 😉

Weak glutes can cause hip pain, knee pain, lower back pain, shoulder pain…even neck pain! Research has shown that the glutes are the first muscle to become inhibited with lower extremity (ankle and knee) and lower back injuries.  If you’ve ever sprained an ankle, had knee pain or lower back pain, it’s a good bet you have weak glutes.

That’s some pretty serious stuff! So if your glutes are weak or turned off then you will have some serious issues at some point.
 
About 4 years ago I injured my low back, I had a herniation at L4 and L5. It wasn’t from one specific incident. I competed in my first powerlifting meet months before, was continuing to train for my next meet, traveling a lot for work, and I just moved the wrong way one day and there it was. Ouch!  It hurt to touch my toes, it hurt while I was sleeping, I couldn’t sit for long periods of time with out fidgeting…it really sucked!
 
It turned out that I was using my lower back muscles to do what my glutes were supposed to do.
 
And what a bitch it was recovering. No lifting, working out, running, or any of my day to day activites…for about 6 months. It was very frustrating!  The truth is weak glutes are dangerous. The loss of glute strength can be debilitating.
6 months after my injury I started an intense 16 week glute program to strengthen my glutes and fix my back. My butt is stronger AND I can do everything I could do before, but better!
 
With that being said I still have to do those glute builders and sculpters, you cannot just do a strength program of any kind and then stop. You don’t just become strong enough, you have to keep it up!
 
In the next installment of buttfessions we are going to talk about how you can tell if your glutes are strong enough.  But for now – do this exercise every day, shoot for 100 reps at a time.  Follow the below progression
Week 1 = 10 reps 10 times per day
Week 2 = 20 reps 5 times per day
Week 3 = 25 reps 4 times per day
Week 4 = 50 reps twice a day
Week 5 = 100 reps every day
 
 

Do you think you might have a weak butt that is contributing to join paint?  We have a perfect program for you, click the image below for more info.