Glutes: how to keep them strong and toned

Our gluteal muscles are an important part of our core and when they work efficiently, they help to keep us balanced, aligned, powerful and able to walk, run and jump with ease.

Weakness in these muscles can be easily seen in people as they get older. Without a fitness regime that includes some glute work, our glutes can lose their tone (flat or no bum syndrome) and more importantly their functionality as a hip stabiliser.

Specifically, our glute muscles are important for:

our balance, which becomes quite important as we get older
for our hip mobility and stability - our ability to move and rotate our hips, as well as the ability to hold our lower body steady and stable and help control our leg movements
for our leg alignment and especially for knee health - without strong glutes, our knees can roll in which can lead to injury, arthritis and pain
for a healthy lower back - when the glutes don't work well, the lower back muscles can be overworked which contributes to back pain
for power - keeping us moving with speed in our walking and running so we don't slow down with age.

Some Exercises for Stronger Glutes

In the video below 🔽 I run through a few standing glute exercises - so essentially all you need are a few minutes and a chair!

Good form is important to (a) ensure that you are isolating and using the right muscles and (b) to ensure you are not losing your form and potentially hurting your back or your knees.

While you're doing the exercises ensure that you

Keep your abdominal muscles gently engaged so that you don't arch your back while doing these exercises
Keep your knees are in line with your centre toes (so knees are not rolling in). This also stops your foot arches from rolling in.

These moves may look easy but they can be quite tough and if you're starting out, you will feel that you've done something the next morning.

Would you like to see more exercise demonstrations? Let me know!

cheers,

Angela