International Women’s Week 2022 has started, and we are talking about womens’ one of the strongest and largest muscle groups—Glute Muscles and the importance of Glutes Strengthing.
The glute muscles, majorly consists of 3 muscle groups, gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus.
When all of the glutes muscles work together, it becomes possible for us to perform actions like walking, running, jumping, climbing stairs, squatting, and lunging.
Thus, glute strengthening exercises are essential in every female’s fitness regime because of the following reasons:
3 Reasons―Why Women Should Perform Glute Strengthening Exercises?
1. Strong Glutes Increase Fat Loss and Build Bigger Booty Muscles
Body dissatisfaction is a public issue because one out of every seven women fears—how her body looks. Getting a typical hourglass figure is a goal for most women, especially teenagers and young adults.
It doesn’t matter if you have a flat butt or a huge cheeky butt, and you can always shape it the right way with just a little bit of a consistent glute-centric workout routine.
See a visible difference in your aesthetic appeal by losing excess fat around your booty. Start including a few lower bodyweight at-home workouts like squats, glute bridges, and lunges regularly for at least 2-3 months in your fitness routine.
In addition to your aesthetic features, glute muscle workouts will also help build muscle endurance and physical stamina. Training will make you disciplined, and you will feel more mentally satisfied.
2. Strong Glutes Improves Body Balance
Many women do not realize this, but with glutes training, you are silently training other types of muscle groups as well.
You engage your lower abs and back muscles as you perform basic glute workouts stances like Bridges, Squats, and Lunges. This engagement of core muscles brings balance and stability to your posture.
Similarly, when your train your glutes, with heavyweights during, free weight squats, leg press, leg extension, sumo squats, glute cable kickbacks, etc.
You also train other leg muscles like quads, hamstrings, and calves. This will help you gain more muscle hypertrophy and vascularity around your legs.
Hence proved, Strong Glutes = Strong Core + Strong Legs.
3. Fight Knee Injury With Strong Glutes
Knee Valgus is a prevalent issue in women. This can occur due to genetics, obesity, or vitamin d deficiency. Researchers examined women landing on single feet during an extraneous jumping workout due to knee valgus collapse makes young women more prone to knee injuries.
Thus, knee valgus deformity can cause knee osteoporosis, ACL injury, or meniscal tear.
Later in another research, National Center for Biotechnology Information also published the effects of isometric gluteus medius strengthening workouts on knee joint function. This study shows Gluteus Medius weakness can cause arthritis later due to a lack of knee joint stability after injury.
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In conclusion, they also suggested performing regular bodyweight Gluteus Medius strengthing workouts by osteoporosis and knee surgery patients can help strengthen the VMO muscle in quads. Whereas, Strong VMO can further help better recover and reduce knee pain over time.
3 Best Glute Strengthening Exercises for Women
Compound barbell motions can provide excellent gluteal activation, but they aren’t the simplest to complete, especially if you’re new to the gym.
“Back squats and deadlifts are terrific glute exercises,” experts claims, “but many people have trouble maintaining proper body form with these movements.”
Also, the gluteus maximus is the only muscle targeted by squatting. Thus, you need to practice a mix of actions that can hit multiple muscles for a well-rounded butt.
Add these three glute workouts to your workout glute strengthening routine:
1. Glute Bridges or Body Weight Hip Thrusts
- Force your heels on the ground while thrusting your hips upward while lying flat on the floor with your arms at your sides, knees bent, and feet tucked in.
- Keep your core and glute muscles tight the entire time.
- Start with just your bodyweight if you’ve never done a hip thrust before. You can gradually increase the weight by carefully laying a medicine ball, kettlebell, or barbell across your pelvic area once you’ve mastered it. The added resistance will aid with the strengthening of your glutes.
2. Lateral Squated Walks with Glute Bands
Put a glute resistance band around your legs slightly above the knees to start. Place the band below your knees and above your ankles to increase the resistance.
- Push your buttocks backward and bend your knees like you’re crouching to perform the action.
- While moving your right foot 8-10 inches to the right and bringing your left foot in toward it, keep your back straight and engage your core.
- Then do the same thing with the opposite leg.
- The trick is to use your hips to drive your legs forward.
The gluteus medius and minimus are mainly targeted in actions requiring glutes’ abduction. Thus, lateral banded walks burn and strengthen the whole glutes and inner thigh muscles.
As you improve, you can increase the difficulty of this move by using a thicker or a higher resistant glute band or just by bringing the band closer to your ankles.
3. Curtsy lunge
The curtsy lunge not only recruits the smaller gluteus medius and minimus muscles, but it’s also very customizable based on your muscle strength.
- Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart is a good place to start.
- Bring your left leg behind and to the outside of your right foot with a straight back and a firm core.
- Return to the starting posture by lowering your hips through your glutes until your right leg is nearly parallel to the floor.
- Repeat four times, then swap legs.
The curtsy lunge works your quadriceps, calves, and hip adductors in addition to your glutes.
Hold a kettlebell or dumbbell to make the maneuver more difficult. You can also add some extra burn by pausing for a few seconds at the bottom of the motion.
Final Note on Glute Strengthening Routine for Women
To grow your booty muscles, start resistance training with weights at least twice a week. Training hardcore also needs fuel. So, take care of your macros and micronutrients for better growth.
Regularly perform bodyweight workouts like deep squats, lunges, side squats, glute bridges, and various hip yoga stretches to make your glutes stronger, up-lifted, agile, mobile, and flexible.
Next time you look at those flat and weak bikini bottoms, do not forget to train them with hardcore butt workouts. The more you feel stronger around your booty, the more movement and balance you will bring in your whole body.
If you face severe injuries anywhere around your lower body, consult a healthcare professional before getting into any glutes-related workout routine.