Glute Confidential Part 1

 “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” Bruce Lee

It has been a while since I have put pen to paper and hammered out 3000 to 5000 words about a health related topic.  A knowledgeable friend and mentor had informed me of the limitations of the written word in this “microwave culture” we live in, and that now my information movement needs to be via the spoken word or on video.  We will be making the transition to different media streams to convey the message shortly, it will be a work in progress.  But that is fine as this allows me to expand the audience for health and fitness issues, specifically human movement and its role in optimal athletic performance. We are looking at the hips better half the glutes more to the point the glute complex and its role in human movement. If you work in an environment where people are seated most of the time, you know the old man/old lady walk the crack snap pop like rice crispies.  Generally what follows is pain in the knees and back, this is due to tight hip flexors they in turn will inhibit or turn down your glutes. More on that later back to one of my favorite topics Butts. They have become a status symbol, this is evident if you are a fitness professional and your involved in social media.  Another fitness professional recently had a rant about the “overselling” of ideal flutes and  the  training programs for glutes.   In some parts of the country  it has come to the point where women are getting plastic surgery to pump up their booties. Some women are going for a Brazilian butt lift and some are resorting to getting silicone injections as seen in the vice story Buttloads of Pain.  The top cities for the Brazilian butt lift are Miami, New York and Atlanta. When we look at the recent statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery they saw a 37% increase in butt augmentation procedures and 24.6% increase in butt lifts from 2008. Our interest today is not really in the aesthetics of the gluteals but in the power we can draw from them. The truth of the matter is that most athletes glutes are inhibited and under-potentialized, robbing them of strength and speed.  What if I told you that by opening up your hips and strengthening your glutes and hamstrings I can increase your power and speed? If it made the difference between being drafted in the third round vs the first round, it could be the difference in a state championship or paying for college and getting a scholarship. The fact that you are reading this article tells me your interested in optimizing athletic performance.

 We will need to discuss some anatomy in order for all of this to make any sense to you. The lumbo pelvic hip complex or LPHC has over 29 muscles attached to it and is responsible for the transfer of power from the lower extremities to the upper extremities. Some of the issues we have with the LPHC is synergistic dominance which is when a muscle takes over for a weak or inhibited muscle. The one that applies here is when the  psoas  is tight the gluteus maximus is inhibited. This will cause a compensation pattern allowing the synergists for hip extension  to take over. Increasing the force output of the hamstrings, adductor magnus and erector spine  This will lead to us into the cumulative injury cycle synergistic dominance leads to altered joint motion leads to altered neuromuscular control then tissue fatigue to injury.  We can have a tight Psoas 1 from being a desk jockey and not stretching throughout the day as well as general poor posture. Lets put this into perspective the strongest joint action at the hip is hip extension/hyperextension, hip hyperextension is safe unlike hyperextension of the knee, elbow or wrist.  Hip hyperextension occurs while we are walking, running, sprinting, grappling, throwing lunging and stretching our hip flexors. The key here for us is here hip flexor flexibility as it allows for hip hyperextension and it allows for glute activation. The

glute complex consists of three parts glute maximus, glute medius and glute minimus and their function is extension, abduction and stabilization of the limbo-pelvic hip complex. The gluteus maximus the largest of the glutes extends the hip, laterally rotates the hip, and  abducts the hip. While the gluteus medius  abducts the hip, flexes the hip, medially rotates the hip, extends the hip  and laterally rotates the hip. The smallest of the glutes abducts the hip medially rotates the hip, and flexes the hip. What is the common thread that we can gleam by looking at the muscle action? All three muscles in the glute effect the hip when they are not inhibited.  This will become an important concept while we look at lumbo pelvic hip dysfunction.  I am happy to put forth the information pertaining to anatomy, joint actions, and  movement specific definitions. If you like to geek out about movement, human anatomy and the like great I will do that all day.  If this is an introduction for you into that area of health science cool, keep striving, searching and learning. At the end of the article, I can send you to some people who will teach you the right way.  For our purposes here, I want you to think of movement as a symphony, anatomy as an orchestra and if we are out of synch or not in time or not playing the right part we have issues. Just like movement if we are out of time or not in synch we are not as powerful.

I remember my mother kicking us out of the house whether it was winter, spring, summer or fall.  She would say you can’t sit around and watch TV all day! Get out of the house go outside with your brothers. Looking back now she was right to get us outside one reason was simply to save her sanity. The second reason she was right is that inactivity cannot only be deadly but also crippling. A study performed by Dr. Alpa Patel of the American Cancer Society tracked the health of 123,000 Americans from 1992 to 2006. The study found that men who sat for six hours or more a day for leisure time had a 20 percent higher death rate than those who sat for three hours or less. The other issues that arise from sitting all day are sitting cranks your hips flexors. Over the past 100 years there has been a shift from manufacturing to office work. Most folks are desk jockeys or spend their days, this a contributing factor to a postural dysfunction known as anterior pelvic tilt.  It simply means that your hip is tilted forward,  a neutral spine and neutral pelvis would be optimal for spine safety. Some experts find that some pelvic tilt is acceptable as long as it is not to end range as it will not dramatically impact spinal posture. A moderate amount of pelvic tilt will actually keep spinal posture in check in these situations.  

We all know that one should self diagnosis as this is the quickest way to drive yourself insane and get yourself hurt. In this article we have quickly went through some of the main culprits when it comes to anterior pelvic tilt or APT, most dysfunctions or postural impairments do not occur in a vacuum and the likelihood of having APT without another issue is rare. I think this needs to be diagnosed by a Physician, Chiropractor, DPT, or CPT .Please seek out a trained professional for a proper assessment . This normally  consists of a couple functional movement screens, as well as taking a social/medical history.  This assessment along with a discussion about the goals of the program will allow for them to create personalized corrective exercise program. The program should be set up in different stages, normally at the end of a stage you would have a re-assessment. The correctives would be implemented in place of the traditional “warm up”,  the stages would follow the NASM OPT model with a fine tuning to the stage order.  The  warm is broken into two sections Mobilization this is where you will find  self myofascial release, stretching and mobilization when appropriate.  Then you would move on to a blended circuit that would be completed one to three times. The circuit would consist of Isolated activation, Core support, Reactive integration and subsystem integration. The success of the program relies on a few factors excellent assessment,  optimal exercise selection and technique and the efficacy of the strategy behind the corrective plan.  Please see the side bar  for a sample plan. Normally I would delve into the work out piece but I feel that should be goal specific for a client. If this something you would be interested in, I am more than happy to assist you with a goal specific training program.

Sample Plan 

Release Hold 30 seconds to 2 minutes

Quadricep 

TFL 

Adductor complex 

Thoracic spine 

Stretch hold 30 Seconds to 2 Minutes 

Childs pose 

Hip Flexor stretch (kneeling) 

Standing Adductor Stretch 

Mobilization Performed as a circuit 1-3 times Straight through

Isolated Activation 

Marching Bird Dog

Glute Max 

Glute Medius 

Core 

Ball Bridge 

Integrated Stabilization 

Single leg reach or Single leg touchdown

Reactive integration 

Side hops to balance 

 Subsystem Integration 

Squat to Row 

Glute Activation with Clams 

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Everyone wants to train like an athlete, do the navy seal workout, the 300 work out. The problem this is not appropriate for where you are now. I have been listening to the Rich Roll Podcasts with John Joseph from the Cro Mags, in the first one they talk about meeting people where they are now. This can apply to anything in life whether it is a new hobby, fitness regiment.  Where does this leave us you may be asking ? You are really in phase one of a four phase program. I will be writing a follow up article wherein we look at optimizing the glutes for athletic performance. I would like for everyone to really work on hip flexor flexibility and opening up the hips. Then move onto activating the glutes and getting a mind muscle connection. Think about it this way this is step one in training like an athlete, this is how countless athletic trainers start their athletes. We work on flexibility, range of motion and the mind muscle connection.  I would be remiss if I did not mention the Glute Guy Bret Contreras a Strength Coach who is at the forefront of Optimizing Athletic Performance by tweaking glute training.  As well as Charlie Francis yes that Charlie Francis Ben Johnson's coach he is a genius when it comes to strength and sports performance many of his techniques are being used today.  The take aways from this article should be stand up throughout the day and walk, stretch those hip flexors, and activate those glutes. I have posted some links to sites of people who I feel are knowledgeable in health and fitness.

2014 Boston Marathon Next Month 

1 The psoas originates at the lower lumbar spine, inserts at the lesser trochanter of the femur. Its actions are a primary hip flexor with the Iliacus. As well as external rotator of the hip. 

http://bretcontreras.com

http://www.brookbushinstitute.com