Athletes make a lot of effort to train their glutes, as the glutes are one of the most powerful muscles of the human body. The glutes are a muscle group that include the gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus, and gluteus medius. Below are 5 moves to tone, strengthen, and activate your glutes.
1. Lunges
To do this, stand with your feet directly under your shoulders, and step forward with one leg. Bend your knees till your back touches the floor and your front shin is completely perpendicular to the floor. Now, keep your front knee directly over your ankle and make sure that you don’t track over your foot. Repeat on the other side and keep alternating sides while you do your lunges. There are different types of lunges and you can choose to walk forward or backward while doing the lunges, or do side lunges, or even add weights as you get used to it.
2. Bridge pose
Lie with your back flat on the ground, knees bent and feet on the floor. Then, squeeze your butt while you push through your heels with your hips raised toward the sky. Pause for a while and then lower back down. As you master this move, you can place a weight across your hips and hold on tightly to it as you thrust up into the air.
3. Squats
Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and breathe deeply to engage your core. Send your butt to the back, while you bend at the hips and knees with your chest elevated. Do this till your thighs are parallel to the floor, then drive up through your heels and think of screwing your feet out and into the ground. The squat is known to be one of the best exercises to develop the glutes.
4. Step Ups
Get a stable weight bench or locate a raised platform, and place one foot on the platform in front of you, keeping your knee at a 90-degree angle. Then, activate your glutes and step up to the platform, while you drive your opposite knee up. Step back down the platform and do same on the other leg. You can also place a barbell on your back for better results.
5. Deadlift
Place a bar on the ground and then bend to pick it up with your hips spread apart. Your knees should be pushed to the back to ensure that your body is over the bar. With your chest high and core locked, keep the bar close to your body and drive it up to a standing position. Extend your hips and squeeze your glutes at the top for a complete rep.
image courtesy of: pinterest.com, thinkingnotaloud.blogspot.com, lh3.googleusercontent.com.
