We talk a lot about the importance of building your core, but your glutes are also very important. If your glutes are weak, it can throw off your balance, your posture, and even your entire athletic daily workout performance.
Your glutes are a key muscle group, so you should not ignore them before it's too late.
How to know if your glutes might be weak then?
1. Poor posture
Slouching is main potential cause and common indicator of weak glutes for sure. If you have bad posture it could mean you are in need of some glute strengthening. You might also get lower back pain as a result of poor glute muscles and lack of hip mobility.
2. Hip & knee pain
If your knees or hips start to hurt during daily workout session, it might be a sign of a larger issue, however pain in the front of the knee (while cardio or fast exercise tempo) could also be a common sign of weakness in the glutes.
QUICK TEST - If you think this is you, then one way to test this is, to lay on your side with hip and knee perfectly straight, then extend the top leg backward and perform 5-10 straight leg raises into the air away from the body. If there is pain, it might be a sign of weak glutes.
3. Lower back pain
During certain exercises for example squats & Deadlifts- if our Glutes aren not “switched on” and your hips are tight ( not able to go through proper range of motion) , it can result in over compensating with lower back muscles - causing pain and potential injury.
4. Tight glute muscles
Unless you are recovering from a heavy booty workout session, your glutes probably should not be feeling tight or sore all the time. However, if they do, then chronic tightness can be a sign of weakness along with not enough recovery and or proper stretching pre and post-workout session.
5. While performing dominant glute exercise you seem to not feel the glute working?
Here I am talking about glute exercise, such as hip thrusts, If the exercise does nothing to you, this can be down to poor glute muscle recruitment meaning other muscles taking the flack again like the quads or lower back .
So, bottom line - If you do experience any of the mentioned above, there is no doubt you should start focusing on glute exercises while performing daily workouts. I am sure you probably will not be surprised to hear this - but you need to start doing 'those' squats and lunges ;)
Until next time, S.
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