Big Butts, Small Butts, Strong Butts

Let’s get to the bottom of things, and talk about butts. Have you noticed that big butts are “in” over the past several years? It’s so interesting how body parts can be “in” or “out”, and how if we just wait long enough, our body can be trendy. But whether you like big butts (and cannot lie) or prefer a smaller behind, I’m of the opinion that we should all have strong ones. Our glutes do a lot for us, so building strength there has a lot of benefits (and yes, there’s the bonus of gaining a more toned, shapely butt from doing strength work!). 

Why Does Glute Strength Matter?

The glutes are actually made up of three muscles: the gluteus maximus, medius and minimus. Together, they help you:

• Extend and rotate your legs from the hip joint
• Stabilize your pelvis while standing and moving 
• Control your trunk, pelvis and hip motions 
• Distribute load throughout your low back and lower extremities

So what does that mean for you in everyday life? Since your glutes are designed to drive you forward and keep you stable, keeping them strong will make each and every step you take easier (and safer). Increased glute strength will help to: 

• Reduce or avoid back, hip, and knee pain
• Improve your athletic performance in running, walking, hiking, jumping, climbing, biking, etc. 
• Better your posture
• Increase your balance

Here’s a perfect example I know you can relate to. Do you know someone who often has back pain? It may even be you! Now how much time does that person spend sitting? Work these days is often in front of a computer, and if you have a commute, you also spend a lot of time sitting in the car. All of that sitting leads to weak glutes, poor posture, and (yup) back pain. 

For the runners here, if you have weak glutes your hips drop more during your stride. With the further drop, you put more force down into your knees and feet. This can lead to pain or injury in those areas. Stronger glutes will lessen the hip drop, and help propel you forward with more ease. If you’ve been watching the Olympics, you’ll notice that the runners, gymnasts, vaulters, etc. look like they barely touch the ground with each step. They don’t sink down into their feet, but look like they bound off the ground like a gazelle. That’s their powerful glutes working for them. 

How to Build Glute Strength

There are so many great exercises to build glute strength, each with modifications depending where you are at. Here are some of my favourites: 

1. Glute Bridges. Also called hip bridges, you can do these with your body weight, on a single leg, or use mini bands. Try doing it with elevated shoulders, either with your body weight, bands, or barbell. 
2. Deadlifts. I love deadlifts, and there are so many ways to change them up to keep your body guessing. Try conventional or romanian deadlifts with a barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell, or sandbag. Then try using a staggered stance, on one leg, or even on a bosu (for experienced lifters only). 
3. Squats. Use the ideas above for different equipment you can add to your squats. There are also a lot of variations to the traditional squat as well, such as front, back, staggered, and one leg squats. There’s also the much-despised wall sit.
4. Split Squats. These squats get their own section, because I have such a love/hate relationship with them. Again, the equipment and position variations are endless, and the rear foot elevated Bulgarian split squat literally makes me want to vomit. Yet when I was my strongest and fastest with my running, these were consistently in my workouts. 
5. Pilates. No surprise here! Since Pilates is designed to work your whole body and your glutes are connected to so many of our daily movements, the glutes get a great workout from Pilates. 

I started this by talking about big butts, but we each have a unique body shape and we’ll never all look the same (how boring!). But (butt?) by building our glutes up, we can all be strong.