Get Them Glutes Working

I see plenty of clients week in week out.

Different genders,ages,shapes,sizes,goals,strengths,weaknesses and so on.

The list is truly endless.

So now surely you can see why sometimes I program for different individuals?Don’t get me wrong,group training and benchmark workouts are tremendous in so many ways but is it going to work on that clients personal weakness?

I put this small blog together for a couple of reasons.

I had a client in last night who has a particular weakness.
I wanted to help him out and work on that weakness.
Normally he trains in the group setting,working off the group program,however this time he showed up in a 1-1 session with me.
I wanted to educate the client that if he was to come along and work off the group program it may not really help his personal weakness and since he was here alone it was better to work the opposite.

So what was his weakness?

Back Pain (L4 Herniated disc),Inactive glutes,poor core strength,weak/tight hip mobility.

So I had 2 options.

Let him do the days group session which consisted of heavy Front Squats then into a met con with running,thrusters and box jumps
Be smart,step back (but really forward) and work on his mobility,core,glutes and hips?

We went with the latter.

Believe it or not inactive glutes=poor mobility=low back pain=weak core and so on is quite common these days.And guess what they bounce off each other.I find it amazing that so many people out there today training are doing things that aren’t really helping them.But then again i don’t blame them because sometimes the education isn’t always there,but gladly its now starting to show up and get ahead of the pack.Just go read this super article now on the Fitness industry in Ireland.I was also one of them people too,Not really knowing on what way to train/eat/rest/recover etc until it was too late and i picked up DDD in my lower back but ive listened to my body and continue to work on it daily.

As part of my own daily routine i spend 15-20 mins working on some myofascial release,glute work/glute activation,flexibility/mobility/stability drills along with many core strength routines.

And this is how my client today spent his 45 minute session with me.Now to be honest it wasn’t the most fancy work and it sure was quite a boring routine and a pain in the ass session (Excuse the pun).Butt it was worth it for him. One of the primary reasons of back pain today is due to the modern lifestyle of spending too much time sitting in chairs, tilting the pelvis forwards, causing total lack of core stability and allowing the glutes to basically go asleep.

So here is what we did,and perhaps something you may need to do.

The following are some very simple drills that can be used to attain a solid gluteal contraction, slowly correct some dysfunction (such as restricted hip extension range of motion), while reinforcing proper movement patterns.

Lacrosse ball piriformis work- Do it every day.View it here
Pigeon/Couch stretch-Go click this
X band walks-Super exercise.See it here @ shown at 1.40mins
Side lying clam-Fire up them Glutes and hit now to view
Hamstring banded -Grab a band/towel and get this going

Then we worked with plenty of planks/side planks and couple of other combos to work on that core strength.Hit me up any time and ill be happy to send you on a home workout working on core strength.

Go check out this small article here that focuses on 7 simple exercises that undo damage of excessive sitting.

Keep working them glutes and get more proactive on taking care of basic fundamental movement patterns.

Hope this can help you out.

DavidLastFitness