STRENGTHEN YOUR GLUTES
Hi there my name’s Stefanie. I’m one of the teachers here at Hot Yoga Naperville. Today I would like to talk a little bit about strengthening the gluteus. Which is a little bit of an issue having weak gluteus since we are more of a sedentary society. And the reason the concern it’s not so much the aesthetics of the gluteus, it’s more that weak gluteus will contribute to low back issues, potentially. Because a low back will want overcompensate because it’s all attached. You got your low back, the gluteus, and then the hamstrings. So I’ll demonstrate a couple of poses that are really effective but most anybody can do on the floor to strengthen their gluteus and the hamstrings.
So we’ll start with bridge pose. Come on to your back and you’ll bring your shin bones perpendicular. Feet about hip distance apart. Parallel with each other. Arms just alongside the body close to the body. So you want get rid of that gap below your lumbar spine, your low back. I’ll just take an exhale as I push my low back into the mat. I’m tilting my pelvis and then pressing into the feet, inhale start to lift your hips. Lifting the hips so they’re in line with the knees and the shoulders. Make sure you’re not rolling to the outer edges of the feet. The weight is placed evenly in the feet. You can even take a bind if you’d like here by interlacing the fingers, bringing your arms, and your elbows straight. Then start to bring the weight into your left foot.
From here what I’ll do is lift my right foot just an inch off the floor. And then bring it back down. Okay my hips probably dropped a little bit there. So I’m going to press them back up and switch positions. So now lift the left foot. And then go ahead and lower it. Okay. So let’s try the right side again. Lift the right foot. And then from here if you can, see if you can extend the leg and it’s just about an inch off the floor. And immediately you’ll feel the gluteus kicking and your hamstrings. It’ll be nice to be able to hold this for maybe ten breaths or so. But I’ll shorten it just for the demo. And then we’ll bring the foot back down. Re-lift the hips. Hover the left foot. And extend the leg. And holding here, making sure you’re breathing nice long smooth breaths through the nose as you hold the pose. Okay.
And release the arms, release the back. If it feels good then afterwards you can hug the knees towards the chest a little bit. Okay so that’s a variation of bridge. It’s good for your hamstrings, your gluteus, and for your low back. And some of the standing poses that work really well for also strengthening the gluteus, is anytime we’re coming in to a pose where we’re externally rotating the hip. You have to engage the gluteus for that. For instance, coming into a warrior two position. In warrior two, we want place the weight into the outer edge of the back foot. The heel of the front foot. And then start an external rotation. So, a little external rotation in that front hip and you’ll feel the gluteus engage. This a nice pose too for strengthening again, your gluteus medias. Into the pose. Maybe go a little bit deeper. Challenge yourself to bring your front thigh bone parallel with the mat. Keep your shoulders relaxed. Your hips relaxed. And just breathing. Just looking into infinity. Breathing in and out through the nose. So we’ll try that on the other side. Bend into the left knee. So bending the knee in the direction of the toes. Placing the weight into the outer edge of the back foot and the heel at the front foot. And then as I extend my arms horizontal, I’m trying to keep my shoulders over the hips. And then again, just that little external rotation in my front hip in my left hip, is going to activate my gluteus. So, that’s warrior two.
Warrior three is another good one. So let’s come into warrior three from a high lunge position. So we’ll start in downward facing dog. And I’ll look forward and step the right foot forward. From here start to lift up into a crescent lunge. So it’s a closed hip posture. Hips and shoulders facing forward. I’m just going bring the hands to heart center. Hinge a little bit forward. And then start to come in to the front foot bringing all your weight. You can start with the knees bent here, as you start to lift the leg. Working to get the body horizontal with the floor. And now this is where the really gluteus kick in. I’m starting to straighten my standing knee. And then I’m going start to point my left toes and straighten the left knee. You can even flex your left toes.
Once both knees are relatively straight, working to get the hips level. You can feel the activation of the gluteus on both sides. Alright, I can come forward. Maybe hug the knee in towards the chest. A nice way to release the outer hip and the gluteus is just a simple standing figure four pose. This a variation of a standing pigeon pose. So, it’s a nice external rotation. Again that external rotation. The other side. Let your inhale, float your left leg up. And then take your gaze forward step your foot between your thumbs. Keeping your back heel lifted. We’ll come into crescent lunge.
And, then from here start to work our way into warrior three. Start to bring the weight forward into your standing leg. And again, both knees can start bent. And as I lift my back leg, I’m bringing my body down simultaneously till I feel like I’ve got a straight line from the crown of my head through my heel. Okay, as I start to straighten the legs more I’ll definitely feel the gluteus engaged. All those muscles supporting my standing hip. And then we’ll move into that standing figure four. Just keep your balance. Your gaze steady. Make sure you’re not holding the breath. Okay I’m going to flex my right ankle as I cross the leg above the knee. And just start to sit the hips back and down. Reach the hips back as I come into this pose. You can even use your hands to assist. Pressing the knee down. And you’ll feel the stretch on the outer hips and the gluteus. Alright and we’ll release from there. So thank you for watching this short demo. This is just a couple of ways to strengthen the gluteus and stretch the gluteus.
There are many ways to do that in the yoga poses. But, this just gives you a little sample. Thank you for watching the video. If you have any questions you know where to find me.
I’d be happy to help.
Namaste.