It’s Friday! Link up day with Cynthia, Courtney and Mar 
When I was in Aspen, CO last week, I had the opportunity to visit the Aspen Club and have some instruction from one of their top trainers. She and I discussed how many runners fail to “fire up” and use their glutes effectively while running and doing other athletic activities. Not doing so, can lead to tighter hamstrings and less efficient performance and ultimately injuries. As I’ve had a few of those recently, I was eager to hear what she had to say. She demonstrated these 5 exercises to me to help “fire up those glutes”. I’d like to share them with you all:
1. Balance on one leg–
This sounds pretty simple “butt” give it a try. Stand on 1 leg with the other leg bent in a 90 degree angle for 1 minute. If this is too easy for you, stand on an unstable surface or bosu. As you do this, tighten the glute of the supporting leg, weight in the heel. Take note of how your ankles feel and if you are more stable on one side. Repeat 2z on each side for 1 minute.
2. The Stork-
Start standing on your right leg, lift your left knee and hinge back at the hips so that your right finger tips touch the floor. Try not to touch the leg to the floor in between reps. Repeat 20x on each side. How is your balance? Do you feel your glutes supporting you? Is one side harder than the other? 2×10 reps on each leg.
3.Crab Walks-
With a resistance band around your ankles (or tubing looped under your feet) start with feet hip distance apart, push hips and butt back into an athletic stance until you feel your glutes engage. Move laterally, one small step at a time maintaining that form. Do 20x on each way and repeat. This will be working your glutes, abductors, hip flexors.
4. Side lying horizontal abduction-
Lie on left side with right leg at a 90 degree angle from your body, straight out. Your left leg (bottom leg) is bent slightly. Relax your body onto the floor and lie your head onto your arm. Maintain a straight line with your body. Keep hips stacked. With your foot flexed, slowly raise and lower the right let maintaining the 90 degree angle. You should feel your glute and your abductors engage. Repeat 2×15 on each side.
5. Reverse lunge with a band around outside knee-
This one is a little tough at first. Stand perpendicular (left side closest) to a post or piece of gym equipment with a resistance band around your right knee. Perform a reverse lunge with your left leg while trying to maintain the position of your right leg. You will need to fight the band pulling your right knee in as you lunge backwards. Used to strengthen the muscles on the inside and outside of the knee while using the glutes. Repeat 2×15 each side.
Do you regularly do any of these exercises? Have they helped you? Did I miss any good ones?
I enjoy any exercises that incorporate balance! Piyo is rocking my fitness world right now 🙂
Funny I just got a Piyo DVD and I am going to give it a try too. Will let you know what I think
Those moves were my bread and butter when I was regularly at PT!
They are great to do for injury prevention. I’m trying to remember to do them everyday. Have a great weekend!
I do 4/5 of those, and my boyfriend does the 5th! We have you covered 🙂 I love the “butt” joke 🙂 Have a wonderful weekend!
If you do them they must be beneficial. I just have to remember to do them regularly. I feel so much better when I do.
my trainer had me doing crab walk the other day!! as I gave him death stares the whole time (the band drives me nuts!) but my goodness if they didn’t open up my hip flexors 😉
They are surprisingly hard and effective huh? #FridayFive
I tried a new one this week:
LONG BOARD
ooPS i accidentally pressed enter hahah. Imeant
LONGBOARD SQUATS! I was longboarding w my hub and discovered I could work out more than my calves and abductors.
Thanks for the pics–I love it when people post pics of what they do, makes it easier to copy:) Take care!
I will check it out too!
Crab walks are so much harder than they look! Great group of exercises!
Way harder than they look and very effective!
Crab walks can be a killer! But totally awesome! I love these exercises. When I don’t feel motivated to think up my own workout, I use the Nike Training Club (NTC) app which incorporates a lot of these! Have you ever tried it? It’s quite fun!
I remember taking a look at the Nike app when it first came out. I will check it out again thanks for the reminder.
Such basic exercises, but so much harder than they appear to be!
They are basic but lots of us don’t do them!
Ooo these are great! I just got a new resistance band and have been looking for more workouts to try with it!
great! They are basic but very beneficial
Great exercises! I actually do crab walks every day with the resistance band! I’ll have to give these others a try!
I used to do them and then got lazy but I am back on it now. Trying to stay injury free is hard work
Deborah, these look like GREAT exercises! The only one I’ve ever tried is the side-lying horizontal abduction; got that one from a physical therapist while I was treating a hip issue and it was great. I need to start doing some of these regularly; thanks so much for sharing!
Your welcome! I need to remember to do them regularly too and not just when something hurts. Happy Friday
Oh, I can’t wait to try these! I do the balance exercise (on a Bosu) and stork but have never tried the others. Thanks!
Great hope you try them! Have a great weekend
Good moves!! Have you ever tried combining the first two? So tough!
I haven’t yet but good idea!
I do the one leg balance, the stork and the crab walks. I also love clamshells!
Yes those are all great. I just have to remember to be more disciplined about doing them.
i love balance exercises. you can really tell a difference if you do them regularly!
Agreed! Now I just have to remember to do them! #FridayFive
I do one similar to #2 that includes hand weights and doing a kind of lat pull with them while on one foot and tilted forward. I do think that weak glutes is an issue for me, so I’ve added a lot of “butt” work too! Great exercises, thanks for sharing.
Thanks! I think it’s an issue for a lot of us. I just need to remember to do them more regularly
Haha, these are ALL the moves I learned in PT. I use to do them faithfully. ( I should start doing them again)!
I tend to only do them when I am hurt but I need to do them all the time.
Oh, wow, I think I need to try that lunge exercise.
It’s challenging give it a try!
Really good exercises. I need to do these. I have other ones for my glutes but these are different and I like that. I’m coming off a knee injury due to weak hips and glutes. As soon as I started strengthening my glutes my knee problem went away!
I need to do them more often too. They really do help keep you stronger
That one leg thing sounds doable! Thanks for this simple and effective exercise. I’m going to try this at home!
Great let me know how it goes!
I really like #1 (I enjoy balance exercises) and #3. I’ve done #2 with weights before – the legs are def sore the next day.
I like balance exercises too but I need to remember to do them!
A few years ago I had hip bursitis and the first 3 exercises were described by my T. Super helpful!!
Oh yes I think they would be great for that too. Thanks for checking them out!