BUTT! Exercises and Why We Need To Do Them

When I say butt exercises, I'm talking about this area right here, our glutes. There's actually three muscles there. There's the Gluteus Maximus, (the largest glute muscle, responsible for the shape of your butt), the Gluteus Medius, and the Gluteus Minimus.

The gluteus Maximus is the biggest muscle in our body. The other two, minimus and medius - are for moving our hips and our legs, for what they call adduction. So moving your legs out and that sort of thing.

Now, why am I talking about this today? I have been working out for several years, doing a group training program where I work on the treadmill, I work on the rower, and then there's body weight and free weights and that sort of thing on the floor.

Even after all that time, I found out, thanks to a cranky right hip, that my posterior chain is weak. It's not as strong as it should be. So what's the posterior chain.

These are all the muscles on the backside of our body. So starting at the bottom, the calf muscles, hamstrings, glutes, the erector spinae muscles that go on either side of the spine. The latissimus dorsi, which is a big fan-like muscle, and our rotator cuff muscle.

We spend a lot of time on the anterior, or front side of our body, keeping our glutes strong, our core muscles strong and that sort of thing. But we need the balance of both.

So the glutes. What do they do? First off, locomotion. Those are the things that help as we run, walk, jump, climb stairs, or hike. We also need them to be able to go from a sitting position to a standing position.

The biggest thing, is we need them to just hold us upright. Having good posture is so critical to reducing pain and keeping our bodies up straight and strong.

So why is it important for us to be strong? Especially as we get older, why do we need those muscles to be really strong. Number one, we always want to maintain our muscle mass for as long as we can, right? Until we shuffle off the mortal coil. Because it keeps us strong. It keeps us balanced, and it keeps our metabolic rate up.

Now what's that? That's the amount of calories we burn or fuel we burn to keep active and moving. It really helps with decreasing weight or at least to keep weight at a stable place. We also need it to be able to get in and out of bed, to get on and off the toilet, to be able to sit and stand and walk around, and to pick up our grandkids until the end.

So what do we do? How do we take care of strengthening our posterior chain? And specifically our glutes?

I'm going to suggest three exercises. There are many. I'm not an exercise physiologist or a personal trainer or anything like that, but I'm going to start you with three.

The first one is a squat, its very important to keep the glutes strong, to keep the hamstrings strong and the quads strong. It really works a lot of areas in the body. We have to squat down for a number of things - to get into chairs, and then to get back out. We have to pick up things off the floor and that sort of thing.

The second one is a dead lift. Now I am not talking about the bar and the big 250 pound weights on either side! Not that! I'm talking about some sort of handheld weights that you slide down your legs and come back up.

The third one is lunges. Now the most important thing about these exercises is to do them correctly. So I suggest that you check some YouTube videos, perhaps meet with a personal trainer even for a short period of time - it will make a big difference for you. Or perhaps even a physical therapist.

It's very important that the form is correct. You don't want to get hurt. Second, just start small, do one or two every day and maybe even all three of them. If you did one of each of those three things that would take you probably a minute, maybe a minute and a half.

Do it every day. Consistency is so important and the more you do it, you can increase the number of times you do it. You'll start getting stronger and feeling better and being in less pain.

The other thing is stop sitting all day long. The more we sit, the more our nervous system turns off those muscles. And then they start to atrophy, which means that they kind of shrivel up and weaken. That's the last thing we want.

So if you can, work for 45 minutes, set your alarm! Stand up for five minutes, move around, go to the bathroom, get some water, walk outside, whatever you can do to keep moving.

So that's it for today. I have three links that are in the box below. I'm not endorsing these, but these are just three links that I saw - three resources that talked about these particular muscles. And I thought they were very good in how they handled it. They gave a lot of good information.

You can go to my website and download my paper on self-empowered aging and learn more about why exercise is so important as we get older. You will find the download HERE, scroll down and click on the blue "Download Now" box. Enter your information, and I'll send you my free report on Self-Empowered Aging.

Thank you for listening, and have a peaceful holiday

Dr. Elaine

https://www.shape.com/fitness/tips/what-is-posterior-chain-exercises

https://bretcontreras.com/how-to-fix-glute-imbalances/

https://moveu.com/blog/strengthen-weak-glutes/

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.