GLUTE AMNESIA...GIVES NEW MEANING TO: "YOU LAZY BUM!"

Or worse. You lazy ass.

Glutes are part of the posterior chain (linkage of muscles in the rear of your body) which play a role in posture, strength, performance, and injury prevention of the back and knees as well as giving a nice aesthetic appearance such as that sported by J-Lo or Tosca Reno.

The glute is supposed to be the largest and strongest muscle in the body.

The glutes are made up of the gluteus maxumus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. The primary function (gluteus maximus) is hip extension - moving the thigh to the rear, that is extending the hip that is pushing you forward while your foot is on the ground; the primary function of the gluteus medius is leg abduction, that is moving it away from the centerline of the body. The mimimus like its name is not hugely significant. Functionally the glutes help push you up and out of a chair, get up from a squat.

When I started my fitness journey and shed my baggy clothes, I noticed ‘Yikes. No butt!

How fair is that. I was still obese but had a flat derriere. Why? Well I believe the same things that caused the obesity such as a sedentary job an inactive lifestyle, and habits that included a lot of time saving energy sparing actions contributed to muscle loss there and elsewhere.

I started to look about and noticed there was an epidemic of missing buns in the general population.

Though I was working out not much was going on there. Flat. Along with the aesthetic downside there is a health downside - injury.

There are controversial theories about glute amnesia. Some therapists feel that lack of use of this muscle leads to problems getting the muscle to fire etc. (sort of a neuro - brain/muscle response problem). Whatever. At the very least it is grossly underused muscle which leads to muscle wasting. In my opinion it is fueled by our lifestyles.

We sit a lot. We avoid stairs in favour of elevators and escalators. Even people who work out, often do not adequately recruit their glutes. They spend more time on upper body, or use machines that do not use adequate range of motion or machines in place of barbells and free weights losing the benefit of fuller range of motion and the recruitment of accessory muscles.

My day consisted of at least 3 hours in the car (sitting of course); at least 8 hours sitting at a desk and maybe some sitting time relaxing having meals or watching Tv along with some hobbies that require sitting for the most part. Hard to undo with exercise alone. Particularly with the wrong exercises or the wrong techniques. I noticed with surprise when attending body building competitions, that some of the competitors had awesome bodies until they turned around and walked off stage. All those muscles but a flat unattractive butt.

When glutes are not activated the muscles that step up to the plate are hamstrings and lumbar extensor muscles. When the glute muscle does not carry its fair share of the load during certain movements you could have knee pain or injury, hamstring injury and anterior hip pain just for starters. Weak glutes can lead to injury when doing deadlifts.

Can you get your butt back? Or as the amnesia proponents say 'reactivate the firing of your glutes' Yes. If you are young generally the response is faster. If you are older it will take longer and may not ever be to the J-Lo level, 'butt' you certainly can improve the aeasthetics as well as the function. In fact for health reasons, it is essential.

Reviewing advice from various trainers here are some tips:

Before embarking on heavy weighted squats and deadlifts try isometric and isolation exercises to learn to recruit your glutes. Examples:

• Contract your butt muscles sitting in the traffic in the car – vary with alternating contractions then simulataneous Left and Right. Go for 100 contractions.
• Waiting in a line up? Yep do more butt contractions. Try holding as long as you can and release. Each ‘workout’ try holding for a bit longer than last time.
• While watching TV lower yourself to the chair squeezing your glutes but stop just short of the destination and squeeze as you stand straight up again. Repeat 20-25 times.
• Take the stairs two at a time – using handrail for safety
• Try to actively use the glutes when walking - concentrate
• Incorporate hills in your walks or add inclines to your treadmill.
• Don’t use a hamstring curl machine if you have dominant hams – it will make the problem worse
• Don’t use the elliptical for cardio (too little range of motion, the stride is too short and there is not enough hip extension; it is more upper body workout than lower and contributes to other issues due to the stride not being appropriate distance for everyone) – so use it with caution and perhaps consult a personal trainer re adjustments to suit you.
• When doing squats favour barbells or free weights over machines
• When doing squats be sure to go down to at least to 90 degrees (thighs parallel to floor) to recruit the glutes – the lower the more recruitment.
• When squatting make sure the knee is not over the foot or it puts more emphasis on the quad. One trainer pointed out the only time this won’t be so is if it is a very deep squat. The lower you go beyond 90 degrees the more the glutes are involved.
• When squatting or doing deadlifts concentrate on contracting the glute muscles
• Some exercises to try one-legged glute bridges, kickbacks on bench using machine, split squats, lunges, squats, deadlifts, back step lunge, bent knee bridges on ball. There are plenty of exercises to chose from - using balls, body weight, bands, barbells and free weights.

Training Techniques to Call in the Glutes

Most exercise for the glutes are also for the thighs. Many of us have stronger attachments and muscles in the thighs so the quads do most of the work and take most of the benefit if we don't purposely use techniques to recruit the glutes. Some more tips from trainers:

1. Try pre-exhaust. First, use an exercise that works ONLY the target muscle. Then, immediately follow that with an exercise that works the target muscle and several other muscles. The technique virtually exhausts the target muscle first then is followed with one that utilizes other muscles (a compound exercise) to help push that already pre-exhausted target muscle harder.

Two isolation exercises: low pulley extension - a) attach ankle pulley, face machine, extend leg behind you - repeat and perform to muscle fatigue; 2) glute push ups - lay on floor knees bent 90 o , feet flat on floor - push hips toward ceiling squeezing butt hard - can do one leg at a time - cross non working leg over other - perform to muscle fatigue

After pre-exhaust - immediately go to compound exercise such as squat

2. When doing squats visualize sitting back - leaning forward puts more emphasis on quads

3. When doing squats raise your toes in your shoes (to place more weight on heels and subsequently the glutes)

4. When doing lunge push with heels rather than balls of feet.

5. Leg Press - if you place foot with heel at top edge of foot plate and the rest of the foot off the plate - puts more emphasis on glutes

If you don't believe squeezing the butt with exercise works, try this test. Climb a good sized hill squeezing your butt hard. Trust me you will know where your glutes are the next day!

If you have tried and can’t seem to isolate and contract the glutes – see a therapist or fitness trainer professional to help you sort out the problem.

One exercise I did that seemed to really get to the spot where the thigh meets the butt was a slightly bent knee deadlift with heavy weight – wow was I sore in the correct spot.

Don't do deadlifts especially with heavy weights unless you have training on correct form and are able to recruit your glutes.

Recently I have been doing metabolic resistance training involving high rep weights using supersets of upper/lower body – there are a lot of squats, lunges, deadlifts and my butt is burning.

It is working.

I am also doing lots of butt squeezes in boring line ups or in the car or at the office. Last year I got a sit/stand work station because of a hip issue. Sitting less helps my hip and my butt.

Sore? Now is the time to use your foam roller to release muscle tension and increase flexibility and reduce the appearance of cellulite.

Note: I am not a fitness instructor. This information is from my interpretation of research I have done and my personal experience as a fitness consumer. Any mistakes are mine alone. There is plenty information out there on perfecting the butt. My top picks are Nick Nillsons Gluteus to the Maximus, Tosca Renos The Butt Book, and Oxygen magazine which has special feature editions including butt workouts.