Your glutes and core are two of the most important muscle groups in your body. Their strength and function are directly related to how you move and how you feel throughout your day.
Your glutes are your body’s largest, most powerful muscle group. Consisting of 3 muscles – the glute maximus, medius, and minimus – strong glutes will improve your posture, balance, and pelvic stability. Strength in these muscles also reduces back and knee pain and improves performance in all sports.
Your core muscles are not just your abs but also the muscles of your spine. Responsible for protecting your spine, these muscles give you strength, stability and mobility when you bend, twist and extend.
Both muscle groups are designed to support your body when you stand and walk. As such, they play a major role in your overall endurance and stamina throughout your day.
When the surrounding tissues around your hips and spine are strong, there is less strain on your bones and joints. But dysfunction in your glutes and core muscles can lead to low back and hip pain, trickling down to your knees and up towards your shoulders.
Let’s examine why dysfunction happens, and in particular, why people experience back pain after standing for periods of time.
What happens when we neglect our glutes & core?
All of us are required to stand on a daily basis – whether it’s for our job, making a meal, doing dishes, laundry or just waiting in line. All that day-to-day stuff demands strength and stability from our glutes and core.
Without proper glute and core strength to stabilize your hips while standing, you will begin to sink into your lower back. Your pelvis will tilt forward, increasing the curve of your lower back. This creates compression in your joints, stressing the soft tissues surrounding your spine (especially in the lumbar region).
When your glutes have not been conditioned to do their job, your lower back tries to support your body weight. Because it is not designed for that job, you will end up with pain and possible joint damage. When you strengthen your glutes and core, they are able to stabilize and support your spine with ease, taking the load off your vertebral discs.
If you have proper strength in those areas, you’ll feel better as you go about your day. You will have stamina for all the fun standing opportunities that life has to offer! Travel, going to concerts, dancing, watching your kids’ and grandkids’ sports game, socializing, hiking, playing sports – the list goes on! If you’ve given up on any of those activities or think they’re a thing of the past, think again.
Strengthen your glutes to prevent falling
Strong glutes have a direct impact on reducing falls. How? Your glute medius and minimus are responsible for stabilizing your pelvis. Weakness in those muscles results in the opposite hip dropping during your walking gait – increasing the chance of tripping.
Strong glutes mean steady walking and easy clearance of your swinging foot. Our Essentrics Pliés, Standing Kicks, and Side Leg Lifts will directly improve your stability.
Strengthen your core for improved posture
The foundation of every Essentrics workout, Trademark exercises are large, full-body standing sequences focused on lengthening and strengthening the muscles of your spine and core. Moving through all planes of motion, exercises like Windmills, Pulling Weeds, Washing Tables, Side-to-Side Lunges, Airplane and Clock will all strengthen and engage the muscles of your core.
In addition to our Trademark sequences, Essentrics Arm Pumps, Plies, and Side Leg Lifts all require a strong core in order to stabilize your hips. These exercises also give you the chance to practice clean alignment while actively pulling up and out of the joints, the discs and facet joints in the spine decompress, directly relieving back pain.
Say hello to greater strength and stamina
Tune in for our Awaken Your Core and Glutes Program on Essentrics TV. Hosted by Meg Feeney, this 10-day program will increase your strength, stability and power, improve your balance and sharpen your brain-body connection. You will absolutely feel the difference!
Written by Meg Feeney, Essentrics Master Trainer
Now Streaming on Essentrics TV
