butt exercises

Pain in the Buttocks

Sciatica can be a pain in the buttocks —literally and figuratively. The sciatic nerve runs out multiple vertebra in the lower back and down both sides of your legs passing through the glutes (butt muscles). The compression and inflammation of the nerve at the spine can cause the pain in the glute and down the entire leg. In addition sometimes one of the muscles in your butt called the pyriformis can be adding to the pain. If you do the four stretch and you feel relief, you might have pyriformis syndrome.

How to do the Four Stretch:

Note: You can do both sides, but the side with the pain should get relief when crossed over.

Sit down on a firm chair.

Cross the leg with pain over the leg without so that the ankle rests just above the opposite knee

Sit up Tall.

Stay for 3-5 deep breaths.

Relax and Repeat Up to 5 times.

OPTIONAL: Hinge (do not round) forward slightly for […]

Pain in the ButtocksMaggie Downie2019-07-17T12:26:58-04:00

Butt Massage

Years ago a friend mentioned to me that she had gone for a rather awkward massage. The therapist told my friend that she had tight hips and then proceeded to straddling her on the table, digging her knees into my friend’s glutes and hips to work out the kinks. My friend was understandably uncomfortable. This is not a normal occurrence in a massage. In fact, more often than not, massage therapists pass right over our glutes, bypassing a butt massage altogether.

Last year, Matt and I went away for my birthday. We signed up for massages. At one point the therapist said to me, “You have really tight hips.” Then she straddled me and dug her knees into my butt. All I could think of was my friend’s story. The massage felt great, but I would have been uncomfortable if I hadn’t heard about this happening. The second my massage was complete, I texted my friend: where did you get that massage? Sure enough we were at the same place, and I have no doubt we had the same massage therapist.

Believe it or not, this was not the most awkward massage I’ve had. In China a massage therapist once rubbed my […]

Butt MassageMaggie Downie2018-03-26T20:50:23-04:00

Are You Engaging Your Abs or Your Butt?

In almost every exercise it is easy for another part of the body to take over and do the work of the muscles we are targeting. This is particularly true when we do a pelvic tilt or rock from imprint (basically a flat lower back) to neutral (the natural curve in your low back). Often instead of initiating imprint using the abdominals, people will squeeze the butt. It gets the job done, but you then you miss all that wonderful ab work. The glutes are a major mover and a big muscle. They can create an imprinted position when called upon to engage that way. But if you want to strengthen and improve control of your abdominals, particularly to counteract back pain and help protect the back when moving, you need to make the glutes quiet down and learn to fire the abs. So how can you tell if you are engaging your abs or your butt?

What Do You Feel?

Start by just stopping to notice what you feel. Is your butt squeezing when you imprint? Do you feel like your legs are involved by sort of pushing into the floor? Do you even feel the abs doing the work? If […]

Are You Engaging Your Abs or Your Butt?Maggie Downie2018-03-07T16:19:39-05:00

Why You Really Want a Toned Butt

This is not a picture of my butt, but it is a picture of me hiking. And without my butt, I wouldn’t go hiking!

No doubt many of us would like a lifted and toned butt. The look is appealing, but strong glutes (those are our butt muscles) are important for more than aesthetics.

Standing & Posture

Our glutes have an important role in keep us upright all day. We often take that for granted. The back and butt work together to hold us up straight. Our tendency to sit and slump makes their job even harder. Daily glute exercises would be a great habit to get into. They are large muscles. They can take daily workouts.

Strength

The glute max is the largest muscle in the body. It’s the back of the butt. When you think of the butt, you are thinking of the glute max. The muscle is a major mover in propelling us forward with every step. If you are an athlete you need your butt to propel you forward and up in nearly every movement you do. Athlete or not, if you walk or jog your butt is required so that […]

Why You Really Want a Toned ButtMaggie Downie2018-02-09T14:42:25-05:00

Glute activation exercises.

We take our butts for granted, but they help us stand up all day. The largest muscle of our body, the glute max, should push us upstairs and propel us forward when we walk or run. When it gets lackadaisical our lower back sometimes takes over some of the glutes workload. Then our back gets achy, sore, overworked, and under appreciated. This is when we need glute activation exercises.

So we need to fire those glutes. It’s not always as easy as it seems. It’s actually fairly common for the low back to do the work of the butt. So we need our abs to help us out. The abs can help us keep the back stabile while we try to get our butt muscles to fire.

Experiment with this exercise to help make sure you can feel the butt. Remember, the movement will be small because the glutes are already working simply to get the foot off the floor. They are doing a lot already.

Generally in life, start to notice when you feel your butt. Do you feel it working when you go […]

Glute activation exercises.Maggie Downie2018-02-14T16:08:18-05:00