Do you suffer from low back pain? Spend more time sitting than walking? Skipped going to the gym a few times this week, and when you finally do go, are you thinking that doing squats will build your butt? Think again! You probably suffer from a common problem of having weak, under-developed and ill-firing glutes. Let me explain.
The body is an incredible machine. It works by activating or ‘firing’ muscles in a million different sequences in order to complete whatever physical task you give it. A physical task can be achieved by using many different muscles. We aren’t usually interested in which muscles we are using to complete a task because we are more focused on getting the task done. Unless you’re an athlete or you’ve been coached on proper technique, you probably are guilty of delegating one muscle groups’ job to another – a very common example of this can be seen when looking at the body’s biggest muscle group, the glutes.
The trend most commonly seen in the lower body is the transfer in responsibility from the glutes to the other parts of the body like the quads, or worse, the lower back. We live in a highly quad-dominant society, meaning most of us are rely heavily on the quads and are not ‘recruiting’ the glutes. This practice results in a muscular imbalance of strength and activation that can lead to physical complication…
