Pretty much, the glutes are what allow you to stand on two legs. If you want sidekick or back kick somebody, you need some strength in them. Weak glutes are bad for your knees, abs, and low back, which have to work harder if the glutes aren't doing the job.
Lot of exercises work them somewhat. Squats, leg-presses on an inclined sled, some special machines like the one pictured above.
If you want to develop a great bubble-butt, figure skating will do it. All those toe-loops and axels and backward skating are great, assuming you don't kill yourself trying 'em ...
Because they are relatively-large and because they stick out away from their points of origin and insertion, they are also among the first things to sag ... Eventually, gravity beats us all, of course, but you can delay it some. It takes a lot of work.
Just so you know ...
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ReplyDeleteLearning to correctly swing a kettlebell and then doing it regularly benefits the whole "posterior chain" tremendously with a lot more balance and interaction whith the connecting muscles. Don't get me wrong I've been doing full squats for decades, but feel swings aid mobility better at least for us older guys. Mix this with some regular pelvic/hip mobility work like the frog stretch and you should be good to go.
ReplyDeleteStarted doing DDP Yoga recently, because my walkable gym is closed for repairs for at least another month and I don't want to drive 5x a week. DDP is a retired pro wrestler (Diamond Dallas Page). He designed a yoga program to stay in shape on the road without needing equipment. It's pretty interesting and has helped a lot of people -- including an obese, crippled veteran in a video that's quite popular. Anyway, I notice my glute region has already been benefitting. Wasn't what I was shooting for, but I won't complain.
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