YORK COUNTY, Pa. — Sometimes we do one move thinking that it'll impact a certain muscle and in reality that move is actually working a different muscle group entirely. This can happen often when working the glutes!
In this week's FOX43 FitMinute Danny Amon, a personal training and fitness center manager for the York JCC, takes us through how to correctly target the glute maximus.
"What we mean by activating the glutes, is how do we actually get them to get an effect from exercise [being done]. Because activating your glutes is a problem that happens normally when they aren’t doing a proper range of motion on their exercises," Amon said.
This means the participant is not hitting the proper depth when doing the exercise, leaving the glute maximus out of the work entirely.
"We were taught that the glutes are actually a very lazy muscle and that’s [also] part of the problem. You have that big slab of muscle on the back that’s the glute max, and then you have a smaller muscle called the glute medius, and [the glute medius] is the one that’s a lot more active most of the time. So when you are walking, when you are doing normal tasks, it's usually the glute medius that’s doing most of the work," Amon said.
Amon explains that when deep squats or lunges are done, or even hip thrusters, and when the proper depth is achieved, the glute maximus can finally feel the effects of the exercise.
"The glute max is the big muscle that’s going to come in when you are doing a big step up like on a hike, [or] you’re going way up an incline, which is why you have to use a big range of motion to target that part of the glutes when doing actual exercise," Amon said.
Your range of motion may look different than others, and that's okay. To get to a depth where the muscle feels engaged, an option for gymgoers is to do the move without added weight, to focus on the range of motion.
A reminder, it's not a bad thing to hold off on exercising the glute maximus, but this FitMinute is to show the difference between the moves and what depth can do for your muscle gains.
Amon says there are no major long-term problems that will arise, but if the muscle group doesn't get the proper exercise over time i.e. the glute maximus, it won't be as effective when trying to do some of these bigger movements or trying to incorporate higher weight amounts.
It'll also take longer for it to recover when it does get worked properly.
You just got better!