Rear End

October 23, 2016 – 

Give or take a few days, we are just around the corner and it’s Christmas (10 short weeks).  This year seemed to speed past!  If you are like I am you just thought to yourself  “do I need to lose a pound or two so my holiday attire fits comfortably?  Will last years ‘new’ Christmas sweater fit this years body?”  I am quite sure that there are a few of you who should probably start to consider Ski Conditioning for the season.  Where does the time go?!  Ok now that I have you thinking about the year end … let’s talk about the rear end.  Are those very large, very strong, set of muscles you sit on in shape?

Posteriorly, there are three large muscles on each side of your hip girdle that combine to give shape to the buttocks and serve as powerful stabilizers of the hip joint.   The Gluteus Maximus, the largest and most superficial of the three gluteal muscles, externally and laterally (outwardly) rotates the thigh.  Underlying the Gluteus Maximus are the gluteus medius and the gluteus minimus, which combine to abduct and medially (inwardly) rotate the femur.  All three muscles are critical to movement and your metabolism.  Yes, your glutes burn more calories than every other muscle in the body.

Actively the glutes extend the hip, like when you are getting out a chair, as well as when you are walking and climbing stairs.   We use the hip constantly and I promise you want to keep that joint strong as you age.  They say, if you fall and break the hip after 60 you have effectively taken 10 years off of your life expectancy due to the trauma of that break.  If you do not exercise often and your posterior muscles stop working for you, then your brain will send different signals to the wrong muscles to perform the movement.  We call that dysfunction and it will eventually develop your body right into an injury.   This dysfunction or imbalance creates movement inefficiencies that cause your joints to hurt and feel painful.

The hip is a very large joint and if the muscles that move the hip are “out of order” you can expect something to go wrong with your movement and mobility.   The Glutes are huge in comparison to size and proportion with most of the bodies muscles and they need to be strong.  IF your rear end is mush, get back into weight training before it is too late and hip pain takes over, your pants fall flat, and your metabolism/immune system crash.

Passively, as you sit there you happen to be sitting on your Glutes. I hope that they feel firm and pad the bones well.  If you feel like you are sitting on a bag of bones, it is a clue that your Glutes have shrunk. Hurry … get to the gym! Functionally the Glutes first response is to extend the hip, so let’s try a little test to see if you are using your Glutes or your quads to stand up;

How Functional is Your Movement?

Find a folding chair or a light chair with legs and place it in front of you on a tile or wood surface.  Place the chair against your knee or upper shin and bend as if you were going to sit on an invisible chair behind you.  Did the chair in front of you move?  If the chair in front of your knee was in the way of your movement in bending, then your brain has trained the knee to bend before the hip.

My saying is ”the  first joint to move is the  muscle origin you use.”  In this case, if the chair in front of you moved when you bent to sit, your knee’s flexed/bent before the larger stronger joint of the hip did, and that my friends is a movement dysfunction.   The brain let your legs do the work and your hip/buttocks happen to come in second place …  and the rear end did not get the work it needs to stay strong and firm!  Easy fix, come see me and retrain your movement patterns.  Trust me, keep your Gluteus Maximus strong … your metabolism depends on it.

In good health,

Bob

“We can make the world a better place, one butt at a time.” – Sarah Blakely