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The hamstrings (biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and semimembranosus) and the gluteals (gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus) contain the strongest muscles in the human body. This muscle group, called the glutes, ensures your pelvis stays stable so you can run, walk and climb. A trained posterior is also easy on the eyes.
However, toned glutes aren’t just nice to look at, they also alleviate back, knee, and hip pain, improve posture, reduce the appearance of fat, and reduce bone density. Adding a glute workout routine will increase lean muscle mass and even accelerate fat loss. There isn’t any negative to improving your overall fitness, but the glutes are a muscle powerhouse.
Let’s look at these positives more in-depth.
Injury prevention and Pain Reduction
Your lower muscles, including your glutes and calves, help support the rest of your body, including the often sensitive lower-back and spine. When you don’t properly work out your glutes or stop exercising entirely, other joints and muscles will try to support your lower back. Eventually, these supporting joints and muscles will overstress and result in pain.
The glutes stabilize the hips, which can spell disaster if your glutes are weak. In a matter of years, your spine could misalign, which makes it more prone to injury. The ACL in your knee, shin, and Achilles tendons can also suffer from misalignment. To protect all these necessary muscles and joints, start including a few butt exercises at home immediately!
Increased Bone Density
Bone density hits a peak in your early 30s and stops forming new bone at the rate of old bone. By the time you hit your 40s, your old bones may be more present than the new bones, which could quicken the speed at which osteoporosis forms. However, daily exercise can prevent osteoporosis from forming while improving your ability to jump, run and cycle.
Better Overall Posture
Our sedentary lifestyle makes it difficult for us to move during the day, and plenty of working professionals forget to stretch to realign their spine. Sitting for an extended period of time will result in poor posture, which will cause the glutes to compensate. On the other hand, a poorly activated hip flexor could result in kyphosis-lordosis or a swayed back - both are painful.
Better posture also helps you look taller because your straight posture won’t push your gut out. One of the quickest ways to look like you’ve lost 10 pounds is to stand up straight, and firm glutes will give off that effect without having to correct slouching. If you want to look taller and slimmer, just do a few squats every day before getting ready for work.
Improves Athletic Performance
The glutes are exceptionally powerful and generate a lot of force. After all, they are the muscle group that keeps you standing. If you’re interested in endurance-based sports that emphasize distance, acceleration, and speed, working out your glutes will help you see an overall improvement in these areas. Eventually, you’ll be able to run, jump and cycle longer.
Fat Loss and Maintenance
Muscle is metabolically active, which means that your muscles still burn calories even when you’re not working out. The bigger they are, the more calories you’ll lose while at rest, which means you can eat more and workout less. For every pound of muscle you build, your body burns an extra 50 calories. That can start adding up the more muscle you gain in your glutes.
You can gain 20-30 pounds of muscle or more in your body with a good workout routine - that’s the equivalent of 1000 or more extra calories! Since the glutes are the largest muscle in your body, they contribute to the vast majority of your weight loss. To really improve weight loss, train the other major muscles like your chest, shoulders, arms, and back.
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