Strong Glutes: One of the Keys Needed to Unleash Your Power

You use this muscle group everyday. They stabilize the hip joint, help with balance, are essential for erect posture and get activated for most leg exercises not to mention all athletic activities. What muscle group are we talking about? The glute muscles.

Muscle Groups

• Gluteus maximus
• Gluteus medius
• Gluteus minimus

Muscle Function

The glute muscles, collectively, help to stabilize the upper body and pelvis, aid in locomotion, and extend the hip. The strongest of the three muscles, the gluteus maximus, is the largest muscle at the hip representing 16 percent of the total cross-sectional area, according to Physiopedia.

Beneficial Glute Exercises

• Barbell Hip Thrust
• Cable Pull Through
• Reverse Hyper on Flat Bench
• Cable Hip Abduction

Exercise Highlight: Hip Thrust

All of the exercises mentioned above are beneficial in their own right for developing strong glutes. In this article, though, we will highlight the barbell hip thrust performed off a flat bench. If you don’t have any exercise equipment, start with bodyweight, using both legs and progress to a single-leg.

Barbell Hip Thrust

Final Thoughts

To Increase the difficulty of the exercise, simply slow down the movement. This in turn will keep the glutes under load or tension for a longer duration. To do this, perform an explosive thrust in one second (upward phase). Pause at the top of the movement for 1-2 seconds before slowly lowering the hips and weight taking 2-3 seconds. There are also glute hip thrust machines if you are fortunate enough to have one at your gym.

Stay Strong Together

Jefit, has been named best strength training app by Sports Illustrated, Esquire, GQ, Men’s Health, Greatest, Forbes Health, and many others. We offer a community responsible for 92,000,000 workouts to date! The app, which recently passed 10 million downloads, comes equipped with a customizable workout planner and training log. The app also has ability to track data, offer audio coaching cues, and can share workouts with friends. Visit our members-only Facebook group. Connect with like-minded people, share tips, and advice to help get closer to reaching your fitness goals.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Michael Wood, CSCS

Michael Wood, CSCS, is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and Content Manager for JeFit app. Michael is a former Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach at the University of Connecticut and Exercise Physiologist at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. He is the Founder of Michael Wood Fitness, named twice to "Top 100 Trainers in America" by Men's Journal and voted Best of Boston by Boston Magazine. Michael previously taught at the University of Connecticut and Boston University. He is the author of TBC30: 6 Steps to a Stronger, Healthier You.

Latest posts by Michael Wood, CSCS (see all)

• Want to Build Strong Arms? Try These Jefit Exercises - May 3, 2024
• 3 Reasons Better Quality of Sleep Improves Health & Fitness - May 1, 2024
• A Brief Review of the Benefits of Intermittent Fasting - April 29, 2024