Most people know that the gluteus maximus is the largest muscle group in the body. It acts as both a stabilizer for the back of the body and as a pushing driving force for walking, running. The glutes also work as a stabilizer for the pelvis and interact with the lateral hip muscles to stabilize the hips and side body. As a sitting society, our glutes often become dormant from lack of use. 

Training the brain to utilize the gluteal complex for functional movement patterns: squats (sitting), lunges (getting up from the ground) and not falling over sideways (often requiring a hip replacement) is not instinctive. These muscles must be trained to work with the lateral hip muscles, the posterior hamstring muscles and the quads for effective movement patterns. 

Hip flexor and quadricep (front of the legs) tightness can lead to inhibition of the gluteus muscles firing which is often what happens from sitting all day long. The front of the body gets tight from being in the same crouched position so that the back of the body’s muscles can’t engage. 

To remedy this imbalance, we must train the posterior muscle chain of the back, the glutes, the hamstrings while releasing tension in the hips, quads and hip flexor muscles. 

Most of us are so tight in the front body and weak in the core and upper torso muscles that we can’t even properly get into a squat. Personally, I wasn’t able to properly do a squat until 6 years ago once I realized from Ash that even though I don’t sit all day, the front of my body was too tight, my torso too weak and my hip flexors too engaged for me to be able to sit into the back of my body. I couldn’t figure it out myself and needed another set of eyes to help me see my weak points. At 47 years old, I am the strongest I have ever been in my life – thanks to strengthening what was weak and releasing what was tight so that all of my body is moving as a strong, functional, unified entity. And it starts with the tush ;).