All About The Glutes

     Alright ladies who of us do not want a firm butt? These days’ people pay big money on plastic surgery to get a bigger and a more lifted butt.  In fact, the majority of my female clients always wanted their glutes toned and to look bigger.  The problem that I found was that many people think that in order to tone up the glutes the need to do squats and lunges.  Well, squats and lunges alone will not get you there.  This is because squats and lunges focus more on the legs.  In order to really see results you need to understand how the muscles work.

The glutes consist of the 4 superficial muscles and their job is to:

Gluteus minimus:   The gluteus minimus muscle does abduction and medial rotation

Gluteus medius:    The gluteus medius muscle does abduction and slight medial rotation.

Gluteus maximus:  The gluteus maximus muscle is what gives the glutes their shape.  It does extension  of the hip and lateral rotation.

Tensor Fascia latae:  The tensor fascia latae does abduction of the hip, medial rotation, and flexion of the hip.

There are also muscles that are deep under the maximus minimus and their job is to:

Piriformis:  The piriformis muscle does lateral rotation and abduction of the thigh when flexed.

Obturator Internus:  The obturator internus does lateral rotation of the thigh and abduction of the thigh.

Superior and Inferior gemellus muscles:  These muscles do lateral rotation of the hip joint and abduction of the flexed thigh.

Quadratus femoris:  The quadratus femoris does lateral rotation of the hip.

I have come up with a workout that focuses on the movements of these muscles.  As with all workouts, it is really important to warm up your body to prevent injury.  I do not set a time limit on warming up.  There are days were I only need a few minutes and I am ready to go but then there are those days were I am dragging and it takes me a bit longer to get going.  So before you work out make sure that you have spent at least 5 to 10 minutes warming up.  A typical warm up for me when doing a glute workout will go as following:

Leg kicks

Butt kicks

Jumping jacks

Plie squats

Deep squats

Lunges

Now comes the workout! With this workout you can always adjust it.  There are times that I will do 10 slow reps and 10 fast paced reps or I will do slow reps the whole time.  If you want more of a challenge you can use weights.  I never keep doing the same workout so I do not hit a plateau. 

 At the end of the workout make sure you stretch.  Hope you enjoy!