Real-Life Benefits Of Strong Glutes: Why You NEED Strong Glute Muscles
The glutes muscles are an underutilized area which makes them weak, dormant, and sometimes tight. The benefits of strong glutes for busy moms is huge and can help with everything from carrying babes to an easier time playing tag. By improving the glutes muscles strength (and really, the strength of the entire posterior chain), you’ll have an easier time with everyday tasks.
When people hear the words “glutes muscles”, they naturally think of their bum cheeks. And while that is correct, your glutes muscles also wrap around the side of your hips as well.
For many people, our glutes are under-activated. Placing the focus on strong glutes can have big effects on daily activities. The benefits of strong glutes include:
- easier time with day to day tasks (carrying, holding)
- less back pain
- reduced knee pain
- better performance (running, jumping, lifting, climbing)
- improved posture
Strong glute muscles help in all of these scenarios. The benefits of strong glutes are so important that not making them a priority is where most moms fail.
Function Of The Glutes
With so many benefits of strong glutes. it only makes sense that your glutes muscles are responsible for more than just thrusting.
As a result, in order to improve your glutes muscles, you need to train them through all of their functions and in multiple planes. This helps your glutes work together.
Within the movement of your body your glutes are responsible for your hips in & during:
- extension
- hyperextension
- external rotation
- transverse abduction
- abduction
These functions aid and support everyday movement and by strengthening them you improve your ability to perform day to day tasks. like picking up your kids properly.
The Benefits Of Strong Glutes
Below are the most common strong glutes benefits you’ll notice. However, keep in mind that the glutes muscles need to be trained in a variety of planes as well as with a variety of loads and volume.
Likewise, you also want to pay attention to hip mobility as well (learn more about the importance of hip mobility and strong glutes in pregnancy and postpartum)
Strong Glutes Help Improve Posture & Alleviate Back Pain
Due to our daily lives, we tend to have very under activated and weak glutes (we sit all day!).
Especially as moms, our posture tends to be based on how we’re carrying our kids. Instead of using our muscles, we lean to different sides of our body to support our babes.
One of the biggest benefits of strong glutes is that it can help improve your posture, thus alleviating back pain.
Glutes help pull your pelvis back into place and takes tension off of your lower back. This, combined with strengthening the anterior core and upper back can improve posture greatly.
Here’s a bit more info on glutes and back pain.
Glutes Are Part Of The Pelvic Floor
The word “pelvic floor” is just starting to become mainstream (thank god!).
Your pelvic floor is basically a sling that helps keep your organs inside your body. And one of the muscle groups within that sling are the glutes muscles.
Your pelvic floor is most chatted about during pregnancy and if you have had a postpartum checkup with a pelvic floor physio you’ll know all about it.
Through pregnancy and birth, our pelvic floors become stretched and/or weak. Since the glutes are one of the muscles necessary for the pelvic floor to function optimally it’s essential to make sure they’re activating when they should be.
For this reason, using glute exercises while pregnant (and before and after) can help quite a bit regarding back pain and recovery with pregnancy.
Strong Glutes Sky Rocket Performance
Having strong glutes is one of the essentials of being a good athlete. Even if you never plan on playing competitively, having strong glutes gives you the power to push, sprint, pivot, and perform – all of which we do when playing with our kids!
Even if you never plan on playing competitively, having strong glutes helps: Give you the power to push. To sprint. To Pivot safely ... all of which we do when playing with our kids! #glutes #fitasamamabear #trainglutes #momlife… Click To Tweet
Strong Glutes Reduce Knee Pain
In my career as a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, I have had too many people to count come through my door complaining about knee pain.
More often than not, these clients have been runners but there’s been lots of are not runners and still experience pain.
While stretching and hip mobility work are part of the equation. The common denominator with almost all cases is weak glutes.
Strong glutes help pull the knee into the path it should be when you land. Exercises like banded squats help re-train movement patterns and get the outer hip to fire and stabilize the knee.
You can learn more about how to prevent knee pain with glute training in this blog post but using glute exercises is a crucial part of it.
The Benefits Of Strong Glute Muscles For Moms
While better gym performance, less pain, and a shapely butt might be okay, as busy moms we’re really looking for the day to day stuff.
From a life perspective, having strong glutes muscles lets you:
- keep up with your kids while playing tag or running beside them biking
- Carry grocery bags and a baby at the same time without pain
- prevent injuries from bending over to pick up a million toys
Strong glutes muscles are crucial for fit and healthy living regardless of what your goals are.
How To Strengthen The Glutes Muscles
Learning to strengthen your glutes muscles requires a multi-style approach. Remember you need to:
- target all of their functions and not just hip extension
- give them a variety of weights and repetitions
- learn to contract them properly (sometimes this means working on hip mobility)
- use a variety of exercises
This is a list of my favorite glute exercises that can be done at home. However, there are so many more.
- Frog pumps
- Reverse hyperextensions
- Crossack squats
- Weighted glute exercises
When it comes to strong glutes, a mini band is easily the best tool you can invest in. You can use code mamabearfit to grab one.
These mini-bands help retrain movement, hip the outer glutes more than dumbbells will, and can be added to other glute exercises to increase their tension.
Below is a *super old* m,ini glute circuit you can do at home to get started with if you need the inspiration. I do have a lot of glute workouts on my YouTube channel and you can peek my favorite glute finishers too.
Learning to activate and engage the glute properly and completely is the first step to improving them. From there, focus on progressing the glutes with weights, repetitions, or variations. Great glute workouts can be hammered out in under ten minutes.
If you’re looking to get strong, reduce back pain, and carry kids easier check out my Stronger Glutes For Busy Moms E-book. This 25-page E-book provides you with everything you need to strengthen your glutes at home. You’ll learn about the fundamentals of glute training, and have access to my progressive glute training program. This e-book will take you through: The difference between these glute workouts and sporadic, glute exercises you stumble upon is that these training programs are progressive. Meaning, they build on one another! You’ll learn: Take the guesswork out of your glute training and follow a plan. Learn the best practices to implement when it comes to strengthening glutes and reap the benefits of less back pain and the ability to carry kids easier. Because being strong isn’t optional when you’re a mom. Grab the Stronger Glutes E-book today.
(when you click on the button a new window will open that will take you to securely process payment)Strengthen & Tone Your Glutes… At Home!
Don’t forget to pin these 3 reasons to train glutes muscles!
A weekend of gardening has reminded me that I’m in pretty terrible shape. I’m super motivated to get back into it this week! Thanks for the post 🙂
I think whenever you do something you haven’t done in a while you feel out of shape- so don’t worry about it too much! That said, enjoy getting back into it!
Great information. I think it’s easy to overlook gluten. Many people assume they are getting them “good enough” with targeting other areas.
Agreed. While the bigger exercises do target them to some extent. To really keep them strong and functioning they need to be hit as a main muscle group 🙂
I love how you break down the importance of doing these glute workouts. Thank you for the information!
Thanks Donna! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
strong glutes are good for everyone and help maintain a healthy low back. nice post, thanks for sharing (:
Yes! They honestly just do so much it’s silly not to work them- thanks for stopping by!
I never knew glute exercises could help with posture! With 3 kids in the last 4 years, I have that “mommy” posture exactly like in your photo. Thanks for these tips – I’ll have to try them!
Glutes do SO much in terms of posture, pelvic floor function and overall ability to move. THREE IN FOUR YEARS?! You’re amazing. Give the glute exercises a try and just shout if you need help!
Great exercises and motivation. I have lower back problems, and I’ll use some of these to strengthen my glutes. When those muscles around are stronger, my back tends to do better. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful! Glutes play such an important role but are so often overlooked. Good luck!
Girl, I be working the glutes a lot lately and it’s insane. I have totally noticed a difference, this BABY GOT a lil’ back LOL!
LOVE it! I’m jealous. My glutes struggle to grow so for me to keep a rounded booty I have to work them pretty frequently.. it’s so rewarding though!
Lots of good information! And I love how you can see your kids/toys in your pics. Definitely makes it more “real life” (I have a 14 month old).
Haha yup she’s always in the studio with me! It’s so fun when they try to “mimic” 😀
I love the breakdown of this important body part. I have just started my fitness routine and I make sure to include the glutes with hips and thighs.
Wahoo! Congrats on the new fitness routine. I LOVE that you’re including glutes. Keep it up 🙂
Great post! I never knew glutes are part of the pelvic floor or that they could help improve posture! I definitely need to work on that!
Glad you enjoyed the post! Sometimes I feel like glutes have a say in almost everything haha so yes definitely train them!
I know the importance of training the glutes, but somehow I always forget them. This is a great reminder and excellent workout!
Sometimes we just need the reminder- glad it helped!
Great post! I love doing squats, lunges and glute bridges on my leg day! 😛