Glute Training

[guns01]

who does it? what do you do to add it into your overall training etc.....

i know a lot of guys arent aware of this but glute imbalances and improper firing can cause a host of issues from knee and back pain to crappy squats. i had some pretty nasty issues with one of my knees a couple years back myself and actually had to go in for pt. turn out it was coming from my glutes not firing properly. since addressing the issue, my knees are much better and i squat much more comfortably.

[BABY1]

Re: Glute Training

def a part of training I am easing back into slowly. those fire up issues happened after my hip surgery and have never been the same. What did you do exactly to help get them refired? I have read a bit about something called gluteal amnesia, so I have some basics I do to help this. Whatever I do, I focus on driving from my heels. Putting something between your cheeks help too,lol

[BABY1]

Re: Glute Training

Oh and another thing I remember is that if you are trying to get them to refire, keep the count at 6 to 10 seconds, then stop and repeat. This is really not training, per say. but for refiring. Part of my post hip surgery PT stuff that I haven't done in years.

[guns01]

Re: Glute Training

def a part of training I am easing back into slowly. those fire up issues happened after my hip surgery and have never been the same. What did you do exactly to help get them refired? I have read a bit about something called gluteal amnesia, so I have some basics I do to help this. Whatever I do, I focus on driving from my heels. Putting something between your cheeks help too,lol

dont need all of that baby1 to get them to wake up and activate properly. i have a great article from a doc that went in almost identical with what the great pt i worked with did and told me. now what's funny is everyone thinks they have strong glutes and they are firing but they are far from where they think they are. all you need for about the first 3-6 weeks is 2 movements and they are brutal and suck.

one leg glute bridges and double leg glute bridges with iso holds. for the single leg bridge all you do is lay flat on your back on the ground with your legs bent. point the opposite leg you are working out at about a 45 degree angle. pushing off the heel raise your hips up off the floor using your glutes. do 10 reps flexing them as hard as you can and on the 10th rep do a 10sec iso hold flexing as hard as you can. switch legs and do the same. all you need is two sets of those. then switch to the double leg ones. they are the exact same except both legs are bent and you are flexing both butt checks at the same time.
you will get a small amount of ham activation as well but not a whole lot and you may not be able to knock out all 10 reps your first couple of times. you can apply these movements 2-3 times per week but i would stick to 2 for the first few weeks and adjust from there. once you get good and strong on these and they are actually firing correctly then i will give you some other movements to add in. i do mine as a part of my warmups for leg days as per my pt. i got some nasty nasty tricks from her

[guns01]

Re: Glute Training

here is part of the article. i will post up more later on once you are ready to progress further:

Here's what you need to know...

You've been lied to. Squats and deadlifts aren't the best exercises for building bigger, stronger glutes.
Most people can contract their glutes harder during body weight glute activation exercises than during their max in squats and deads.
The movements that target glutes the best will activate them with little to no weight. Follow a gradual progression for best results.
The glutes are sleeping giants: Dormant and underused, but having tons of potential.
Bodybuilders, models, and athletes need to be training their glutes based upon their specific needs.

Since 1995 I've read almost every study, article, and book ever written on the glutes. I've also developed several new glute exercises, which are more effective than what most people have traditionally been doing for their glutes. What I've learned will shock you.
Glute Gauges

Early in 2009, I was trained to use electromyography (EMG) software that measures and records the muscular activity of exercises. I suspected that the methods and exercises I developed in my gym were more effective than what the typical fitness publications were printing.

So after performing thirty straight leg workouts and experiments with wires and electrodes attached to me so I could measure and record the glute, quad, hamstring, and adductor activity of over a hundred different hip extension exercises, it became clear that the glutes have been the most wrongly-pegged muscle group in fitness.

I tested common and unique body weight, dumbbell, band, barbell, and machine exercises, and then tested three other individuals with varying anthropometry or body segment lengths to make sure the results I saw weren't atypical.

Knowing that the fitness population would seek scientific explanation to lend support to my data, I knew what my next step needed to be. Fourteen years after reading my first book about glutes, I wrote my own.
The Glute Guy

A colleague nicknamed me "The Glute Guy," and it stuck. I'm certain that I've done more research on the glutes than any other person on earth. My research made me realize two things:

Most experts don't know shit about the glutes. Despite the fact that the gluteus maximus muscles are without a doubt the most important muscles in sports and the fact that strength coaches helped popularized "glute activation," no one has a good understanding of glute training. Bodybuilders, powerlifters, and physical therapists think they do, but they don't. In fact, the experts are so far off the mark that their best glute exercises can only activate half as many fibers as the glute exercises I'm about to show you.
Athletes' glutes are pathetically weak. Even people who think they have strong glutes almost always have weak glutes in comparison to how strong they can get through proper training.

Follow the Logic

Let's keep it brief. Here are the facts:

The lower gluteus maximus is involved in three distinct actions; hip extension, hip hyperextension, and hip transverse abduction.
The upper gluteus maximus is involved in five different distinct actions; hip extension, hip hyperextension, hip abduction, hip transverse abduction, and hip external rotation.
These motions are the most important in sports and include sprinting, leaping, cutting from side to side, and twisting.
The strongest joint action at the hip is hip extension/hyperextension.
The hip can hyperextend ten degrees with bent legs, twenty degrees with straight legs, and thirty degrees when forcibly pulled back.
Hip hyperextension is safe and occurs naturally during walking, running, sprinting, grappling, throwing, lunging, and hip flexor stretching.
Length tension relationships dictate that a muscle contracts best when it's at resting length, which means that the gluteus maximus muscles contract the hardest from zero to twenty degrees of hyperextension.
Hip flexor flexibility allows for hip hyperextension and is an absolutely critical component to maximum glute activation; tight hip flexors prevent hip hyperextension and maximum glute activation.
A vertical jump involves maximal vertical propulsion. A sprint involves maximum horizontal propulsion.
A sprint activates 234% more mean gluteus maximus muscle than a vertical jump.
Due to the increased glute activation, sprinters commonly experience "butt-lock." Repetitive vertical jumpers experience "quad-lock."
In resistance training, there are two distinct types of hip extension exercises: those that mimic vertical jumping and those that mimic sprinting.
Hip extension exercises that mimic vertical jumping have vertical or axial directional load vectors and include squats, deadlifts, and static lunges.
Hip extension exercises that mimic sprinting have horizontal or anteroposterior directional load vectors, involve hip hyperextension, and include reverse hypers, back extensions, hip thrusts, pendulum quadruped hip extensions, and pull-throughs.
Hip extension exercises that mimic jumping will be referred to as hip extension exercises. Hip extension exercises that mimic sprinting will be referred to as hip hyperextension exercises.
The propulsion phase of a vertical jump involves simultaneous hip, knee, and ankle extension, whereas sprinting involves hip hyperextension.
Hip extension exercises are usually performed while standing.
Hip hyperextension exercises are usually performed in the supine, prone, or quadruped positions.
Hip hyperextension exercises can be performed with bent legs or straight legs.
Straight-leg hip hyperextension exercises maximize hamstring contribution.
Bent-leg hip hyperextension exercises place the hamstrings in a shortened state which limits their contribution and maximizes gluteal contribution.
In order, the hip extension exercises with the highest glute activation are the kneeling squat (67%), deadlift (55%), sumo deadlift (52%) and Zercher squat (45%).
In order, the hip hyperextension exercises with the highest glute activation are the single-leg bent leg reverse hyper (122%), hip thrust (119%), pendulum quadruped hip extension (112%), bent-leg reverse hyper (111%).
Hip abduction, transverse abduction, and external rotation exercises often maximally recruit the upper gluteus maximus muscles to a much greater degree than hip extension or hip hyperextension exercises.
A well balanced gluteal routine involves hip extension exercises, hip hyperextension exercises, hip abduction exercises, and hip external rotation exercises.

So Here's The Myth

Most people think they have strong glutes but they don't. They're the ones who believe squats, deadlifts, and lunges are the best glute exercises, and they've spent years getting very strong at these.

Squatting, deadlifting, and lunging, can make the glutes sore but they don't strengthen the glutes much. They target the quads and erector spinae. Even box squatting, walking lunges, and sumo deadlifts don't activate much glute in comparison to the exercises below.

If you study glute activation, you'll be blown away by the data. Most individual's glutes contract harder during body weight glute activation exercises than from one-rep max squats and deadlifts.

It's not that people don't know how to use their glutes or don't adhere to proper exercise form. It's just that the glutes aren't maximally involved in squatting, lunging, and deadlifting. They're only maximally contracted from bent-leg hip hyperextension exercises.

Just because someone's glutes are big, it doesn't mean that they're strong. In addition to training around three hundred "normal" clients over the past few years, I've trained elite athletes, from NFL players to powerlifters, sprinters to figure models. I taught each the exercises below, and I almost always had to start them off with their own body weight for resistance.

Although one of the powerlifters could do raw squats and deadlifts with over three times his body weight, when he first performed hip thrusts, he had to start out with two sets of twenty reps with his own body weight. We initially tried using 135 pounds on the hip thrust, which was roughly a third of what he squatted and deadlifted, but he could barely budge the bar.

The NFL players were both 350-pound offensive lineman who'd do hip thrusts for two sets of twenty reps as well. When you weigh 350 pounds, body weight exercises can be very productive! Both linemen mentioned that the hip thrust was the best posterior chain exercise they'd ever performed and remarked about how they loved the fact that they didn't have to wrap their knees or wear a belt to perform the exercise.

The Olympic sprinter had the best relative glute strength of the bunch, easily being able to perform twenty single-leg hip thrusts on his very first workout.
Exercise Progressions

Strength gains for the new exercises come very quickly. I started off using 185 pounds for ten reps on the hip thrust and within a year I could do 405 for five.

The following plan will get your glutes much sexier, stronger, and speedier. Since everyone possesses varying ranges of glute strength, I'm going to provide four phases, which become progressively more challenging and difficult.

If you belong at phase one and start off at phase three, you'll just end up increasing your existing dysfunctional patterns, which will lead to a pulled low back, hamstring, or groin muscle. Play it safe by starting in phase one, then spend two to three weeks in each phase.

I included an array of exercises, some can be performed at your local gym or garage gym, and some will require specialized equipment. The equipment below should become staples in glute training and sport-specific training. They effectively train the sprint-vector and maximize glute activation.

Don't stop performing your squat, lunge, deadlift, and back extensions movements. Do these on your regular leg day and perform two weekly glute workouts on separate days. The workouts will be brief and won't get you very sore. Always begin each glute workout with a simple warm-up consisting of hip flexor stretches and a couple bodyweight glute activation exercises.
Phase One:  Hip Flexor Flexibility and Glute Activation

You must possess adequate hip flexor flexibility in order to open up the hips and maximally activate the glutes. And you must be able to control your own body weight in order to learn how to contract the glutes properly before you begin adding weight.

Perform two sets of hip flexor stretches for sixty-second static holds, progressing deeper into the stretch as time ensues.

[BABY1]

Re: Glute Training

thanks guns. I will def do this and let you know how it goes. Goal is my bubble back,lol

[guns01]

Re: Glute Training

thanks guns. I will def do this and let you know how it goes. Goal is my bubble back,lol

the other side effect could be less hip pain as well. that's always a plus for me haha

[BABY1]

Re: Glute Training

dont need all of that baby1 to get them to wake up and activate properly. i have a great article from a doc that went in almost identical with what the great pt i worked with did and told me. now what's funny is everyone thinks they have strong glutes and they are firing but they are far from where they think they are. all you need for about the first 3-6 weeks is 2 movements and they are brutal and suck.

one leg glute bridges and double leg glute bridges with iso holds. for the single leg bridge all you do is lay flat on your back on the ground with your legs bent. point the opposite leg you are working out at about a 45 degree angle. pushing off the heel raise your hips up off the floor using your glutes. do 10 reps flexing them as hard as you can and on the 10th rep do a 10sec iso hold flexing as hard as you can. switch legs and do the same. all you need is two sets of those. then switch to the double leg ones. they are the exact same except both legs are bent and you are flexing both butt checks at the same time.
you will get a small amount of ham activation as well but not a whole lot and you may not be able to knock out all 10 reps your first couple of times. you can apply these movements 2-3 times per week but i would stick to 2 for the first few weeks and adjust from there. once you get good and strong on these and they are actually firing correctly then i will give you some other movements to add in. i do mine as a part of my warmups for leg days as per my pt. i got some nasty nasty tricks from her

I tried these this morning and HOLY YIKES you are right . Easier said then done but I am real excited to get fired up. One question though...when I am doing 1 leg at a time, am I squeezing the glute of the leg that is extended or the one that is bent? One was easier than the other,lol.

thanks again for your help

[guns01]

Re: Glute Training

I tried these this morning and HOLY YIKES you are right . Easier said then done but I am real excited to get fired up. One question though...when I am doing 1 leg at a time, am I squeezing the glute of the leg that is extended or the one that is bent? One was easier than the other,lol.

thanks again for your help

the leg that is bent is the one that is being worked primarily but as you figured out they both still fire a bit.

now you know if those body weight movements are difficult to do then your glutes arent actually firing correctly with whatever else you have been doing. i thought the same thing myself though that my glutes had to be strong as hell from squats and all the other direct work i had been doing. i was wrong big time. you figure that out real quick when you are only able to use them to lift yourself up and hold haha

[Yohimbe]

Re: Glute Training

dont need all of that baby1 to get them to wake up and activate properly. i have a great article from a doc that went in almost identical with what the great pt i worked with did and told me. now what's funny is everyone thinks they have strong glutes and they are firing but they are far from where they think they are. all you need for about the first 3-6 weeks is 2 movements and they are brutal and suck.

one leg glute bridges and double leg glute bridges with iso holds. for the single leg bridge all you do is lay flat on your back on the ground with your legs bent. point the opposite leg you are working out at about a 45 degree angle. pushing off the heel raise your hips up off the floor using your glutes. do 10 reps flexing them as hard as you can and on the 10th rep do a 10sec iso hold flexing as hard as you can. switch legs and do the same. all you need is two sets of those. then switch to the double leg ones. they are the exact same except both legs are bent and you are flexing both butt checks at the same time.
you will get a small amount of ham activation as well but not a whole lot and you may not be able to knock out all 10 reps your first couple of times. you can apply these movements 2-3 times per week but i would stick to 2 for the first few weeks and adjust from there. once you get good and strong on these and they are actually firing correctly then i will give you some other movements to add in. i do mine as a part of my warmups for leg days as per my pt. i got some nasty nasty tricks from her

Good stuff, I'm definitely going to incorporate these into my training.

What do you think about stiff leg deads? That's always been a staple at the end of my leg workout stretching my hams. Always feels like it sets my glutes on fire.

[guns01]

Re: Glute Training

Good stuff, I'm definitely going to incorporate these into my training.

What do you think about stiff leg deads? That's always been a staple at the end of my leg workout stretching my hams. Always feels like it sets my glutes on fire.

damn man, i just saw this. hell yeah with the stiff leg. i do the same thing as well. they hammer the glutes really good

[guns01]

Re: Glute Training

I tried these this morning and HOLY YIKES you are right . Easier said then done but I am real excited to get fired up. One question though...when I am doing 1 leg at a time, am I squeezing the glute of the leg that is extended or the one that is bent? One was easier than the other,lol.

thanks again for your help

so baby1, how is the bridging coming along? any new additions yet or added volume? i am still in the baby basics myself haha

[Trixie]

Re: Glute Training

Maybe this is why my butt is so flat; not firing properly. I've got to start doing this at home.

[BABY1]

Re: Glute Training

so baby1, how is the bridging coming along? any new additions yet or added volume? i am still in the baby basics myself haha

I meant to update this earlier. It is definitely working and hopefully it will lift up now,lol. Thanks guns

[guns01]

Re: Glute Training

Maybe this is why my butt is so flat; not firing properly. I've got to start doing this at home.

these are not meant to be done at home or on a daily basis. they are meant to wake up the muscle and get it into proper firing patterns before training them. now you can do them 2-3 times per week and 1 day on their own but they are meant to get them ready and awake