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the Most Underrated Glute Exercise

the Most Underrated Glute Exercise

by | May 12, 2021 | Blog, Bodyweight, Butt, Core, Exercises, Pain Relief, Warm Up

The stronger your mind-body connection is?

The more you can lift, the faster you can run and the further you can cycle!

Basically the STRONGER YOU ARE!

Strength is not just about brute force but also about neuromuscular efficiency – how quickly can you recruit the CORRECT muscles to perform a movement and produce force.

That’s why it is key we include exercises to really improve that mind-body connection and make sure we are able to engage the correct muscles whenever we need.

Because as much as we focus on form, proper form does NOT always mean you’re engaging the correct muscles.

Actually often the more experienced a lifter you are and the more athletic you are, the more you can mimic a proper looking movement pattern while compensating and recruiting the incorrect muscles to do so.

This can not only result in injury but often holds us back from lifting as much as we truly can.

It prevents us from being as strong as possible because we aren’t using muscles efficiently together. We aren’t making the correct muscles pull their own weight.

That’s why you need to include some isolation moves to activate those underactive muscles and make sure you’re engaging the correct muscles at the proper times.

One muscle that often needs to be the focus of our activation work is our GLUTES.

Our glutes are commonly underactive due to our modern lifestyle.

So focused activation work can help us improve our mind-body connection to better recruit our glutes during compound lifts and when we run or cycle.

One of my favorite moves, and a very basic and often underutilized move, is the Single Leg Bent-Knee Reverse Hyper.

This move is fundamental if you want to improve your hip extension and focus on isolating those glutes.

And it’s a really great way to test if your hamstrings tend to want to take over and compensate for your glutes.

Often our hamstrings can become synergistically dominant for underactive glutes and that can result in hamstrings strains, lower back, hip and knee pain.

So if you tend to feel your hamstrings even during moves like glute bridges? You need to give this reverse hyper variation a try.

To first test your glute activation, lie face down on the ground. You can relax your chin on your hands as you straighten both legs out. Then bend one knee to about 90 degrees. Flex that foot. Do not curl the heel in toward your butt as this will engage your hamstrings.

Then drive your heel toward the ceiling and extend your hip.

What do you feel firing first? Do you feel your hamstring first or your glute?

Do you feel both? Or can you just isolate your glute?

If you can just isolate your glute fabulous! Do 15-20 reps and pause at the top to really establish that mind-body connection and even get a little pump going.

If you can’t feel your glutes, try adjusting how you’re cueing and performing the move.

Here are a few tweaks to try.

#1: Focus on driving your hip down into the ground as you drive the heel back so you don’t rotate open. Think about almost pushing your hip bone down into the ground instead of just lifting up.

#2: Think about STOPPING the lift with your glute over just trying to lift up higher. You want to focus on that glute engagement over the movement itself.

#3: Kick just slightly out as you lift. Remember not to curl your heel in toward your butt. Our hamstrings are worked by that knee flexion so avoiding it can help. However, going too straight with your leg can also make it harder for some to focus on their glutes.

#4: Slightly abduct your knee or move it out to the side before you lift. This can better engage the glute medius to help engage that glute max. Just be careful you don’t rotate your hip open. Just slightly move the knee out to the side.

Try one of these tweaks at a time to see what helps. You may even find you need to combine all the cues to get that glute firing without the hamstring trying to take over.

As silly as it may seem, sometimes just changing how we cue ourselves to perform a movement with a very slight adjustment can really help us better establish that mind-body connection when we’ve struggled in the past.

Just don’t rush through the movement. Pause and assess. Be intentional with the exercise over just trying to get through the reps.

Doing the “right moves” without feeling the correct muscles working won’t get you the results you want.

Focus on activating your glutes.

SUMMARY:

Use this underrated glute isolation move as both an activation exercise but also a test of hamstring compensation. It is a great way to make sure your hamstrings aren’t trying to take over and work when your glutes truly should be.

Be conscious of what you feel working during your workouts and do not simply go through the motions.

The more we can truly create proper recruitment patterns and use the correct muscles efficiently and effectively, the stronger we will be.

Sometimes we need to take things back to basics to get results.

We are never above those simple fundamentals!

Working to improve your glute activation?

Check out my Booty Burner Program!

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FHP 318 – STOP Cheating yourself

FHP 318 – STOP Cheating yourself

by | May 10, 2021 | podcast

I think often in our workouts in an attempt to do more or that harder variation and last the entire interval of work, we CHEAT ourselves out of the full benefit of moves.

We don’t try to work muscles as hard as we can. We actually just try to survive the time we are “supposed” to work in the follow along.

And this leads to us CHEATING on moves.

Letting our hands shift out in front of us as we do mountain climbers. Letting our butt go up in the air as we hold a plank.

Not sinking as low or jumping as high in that squat jump.

We are focused on doing more over maximizing the movement.

And that can even lead to us thinking we’ve earned harder variations than we have because we can seemingly “do” them, but it can also lead to us thinking things are easier than they are.

But we are never above the basics. And often if you think something is too easy?

You really need to assess how well you’re doing it!

Here are some things I think it is really key we do at times to assess if we are really maximizing our results from each training session.

  1. Focus on what you feel working.
  2. Take ego out of it and at times, go lighter. Do an easier move. Optimize your form.
  3. Shorten intervals of work or add in rest and see if you can get better quality.
  4. Stop focusing on just doing more for results. Wasted volume honestly is not only wasted time but hampering your results

FHP 317 – I HAD to Step In Front Of The Camera

FHP 317 – I HAD to Step In Front Of The Camera

by | May 3, 2021 | podcast

I refused to demo the moves and made friends or co-workers do it.

I was comfortable sharing my knowledge behind the scenes.

But I also really really really (did I say REALLY!?) wanted to share my passion and knowledge and help others.

So Ryan kind of gave me an ultimatum…

Ryan basically told me at one point, “If you really want to do this thing, you need to suck it up and get over it and be in the photos.”

(I would say he said it nicer than that as I can’t remember his exact phrasing since it feels like it was almost a decade ago, BUT he probably didn’t as Ryan has never been afraid to be 100% blunt with me when I needed it. It’s why I love to hate him at times and need him around all the more. Love you butthead! Anyway…)

I’m telling you all of this because I think we believe there are parts of ourselves we can’t change.

I know I NEVER ever thought I’d be a person in front of the camera.

But really it isn’t that we CAN’T change them…it’s that we don’t “want” to.

It’s really often just an excuse we give ourselves to stay within our comfort zone.

And maybe that’s fine. We don’t have to.

Maybe changing that aspect of ourselves to reach a specific goal isn’t “worth” it to us ultimately.

But then we also have to realize that we are setting a limit to what we can achieve.

Achieving “greatness,” something we feel is beyond our reach, does mean embracing a part of ourselves that may not even yet exist.

It can mean, to some extent, recreating how we see ourselves.

I mean geez…had you asked me if I’d be doing live videos each week and taking half-nakey photos with make up on, I’d laugh at you as I put on my big t-shirt and pulled back my hair I hadn’t brushed in a week. (Ok I still do the last part just also the other!)

The point is, we can choose to be who we want to be. It just requires us acting AS IF we are the thing we want to be.

It will be extremely uncomfortable to start. You will be implementing habits that often go against what you want to “naturally” do.

But it’s remembering that what has become natural isn’t always best. It was often just easier to fall back into.

However, with the repetition and embracing the new habits, it’s why I say ACT AS IF over fake it till you make it, you will ultimately become truly who you want to be.

Because when we ACT AS IF, we aren’t faking it. We are just acting as if we are the person we want to be, implementing the habits needed to create the new lifestyle.

As scary as that change was, as much as I felt like I was oddly leaving the Cori I’d always been behind…

I wouldn’t go back for a second.

I became truly the person I wanted to be and am now able to do what I truly love and share my passion.

For me the “risk” associated with the change? The uncomfortableness I had to go through?

IT WAS ALL WORTH IT.

And I think it’s sometimes reminding ourselves that change, while hard, truly is worth it if our goal means that much to us.

So if you’re feeling really uncomfortable now with ACTING AS IF you are the person you ultimately want to be, remember it does get easier.

It goes back to that super annoying saying – change requires change.

Embrace those new habits this week. Give yourself a pat on the back for being willing to make yourself uncomfortable.

Change is not for the weak 

And KEEP GOING!