After a minor hiatus due to trying to work during the Easter holiday while trying to spend time with family resulting in forgetting my computer at my parent's house for the week, I now present Gospel #3! As low back continues to be on the rise in our society, I want you guys to know why and how to alleviate this unrelenting epidemic. In review, we have talked about Iliopsoas and Quadratus Lumborum being major contributors to dysfunction, we continue the trend with muscle group #3: Glutes! Everybody knows about gluteus maximus, that big booty muscle, but do you realize that there are actually 3 glute muscles that all act on the hips/pelvis that affect your posture! Here are the glutes in all their glory; gluteus minimus, gluteus medius, and gluteus maximus.

So why do we care about these guys and how they affect our bodies? They act on the pelvis and the femur for glute max by way of hip extension, like a straight leg raise to the back, and hip abduction, or leg lift directly to the side; for glute med, again is abduction of the hip and prevention of hip adduction, which is when you squeeze your thighs together; and glute min, again is hip abduction along with internal rotation of the hip. Ok so now we know what they do, how does that affect your low back? If your glutes are constantly shut off from hunching forward, slouching in your chair, or essentially just not using them your posture becomes reliant on the hamstrings. You are leaned forward from the entire combo of shortened Iliopsoas, lack of QL and lack of glutes that you end up putting your whole upper body tilted forward and overworking the hamstrings to keep you upright! So moral of the story, get that booty in shape to improve posture and give those hamstrings a rest! To strengthen and work these guys out think about the actions we went over and apply it to what you know about exercising. Hip extension and abduction exercises are the ones to focus on with things like table top fire hydrants (left) and hip extensions (right) to really focus on this muscle group. I hope this info helps you guys be more informed about your body, how it works, and what to work on when you're hurting! Feel free to respond, email, or call with any questions (all the info is on the contact page)! Get out there and (t)werk that booty!