TOP GLUTE EXERCISES TO DO AT HOME TO STRENGTHEN THE BOOTY FOR A PAIN FREE BODY
I am a huge fan of at home routines. It’s a great way to keep the body moving when time is limited. While few have home gyms staked with equipment, a simple routine using resistance bands can be very effective to strengthen the body, get your heart rate up and improve your overall health. As you progress your lifts, you may want to transition to heavier weights, but banded work is the perfect way to start out and is also the recommended tool to work through pain and injury in the lower back, knee and hips as a result of weak, inactive or overactive glutes.
Here are my favorite banded glute exercises to support a healthy and mobile body:
Glute Bridges with a Mini Band
By far my favorite exercise to work the glutes in the shortened position in hip extension. Controlling the hips as they move into flexion and extension while keep tension on the band will have those glutes on fire and will ensure you are maintaining the contraction the entire time.
Resistance or Mini Band Squats
This is a great banded exercise to work the glutes in the lengthened position. If you have access to a band with handles or a cross-fit style pull up band you can add some resistance to the exercise as you drive out from the end range. If you have a mini band you can add resistance at the end range (bottom of the squat) by slightly opening up the hips and abducting.
Mini Band Kick Backs
It is important to incorporate unilateral movements into a well-rounded program in order to work through any imbalances. A kick back is a fantastic unilateral exercise to load the glutes in the shortened position and work on strengthen the hips in extension.
Banded Dead Lift
The deadlift is one of the top exercises to train the glutes in the lengthened position. While a challenging exercise to execute at home with limited equipment, there are a couple of ways you can perform the motion using bands. Using a cross fit style pull up band, folded, step on the band and hold the top portion between your feet. This variation will load the glutes as you move out of the end range.
Lying Side Kick Ups
The glutes have several major muscles and when programming a solid glute routine, one should select exercises that target all of them. The lying side kick ups is a great movement to target and load the glute medius and minimus (the upper portion of the glutes).
Seated Abductions
The glutes are responsible for hip extension as well as abduction, a movement that will externally rotate the femur. This is important to note, as the femur works in tandem with the knee, hip and ankle and if our glutes are strong, theoretically we have better control over how our femur moves and ultimately keep the hips, knees and ankles stable as we perform daily activities. Abduction exercises, such as a seated mini band abduction, is one of my favorite at-home exercises to ensure the glutes are strong when rotating the hips. The glute medius and minimus, as well as the piriformis are the dominate muscles controlling this motion. You can load the glutes in this plane by placing a mini band around the quads and pressing laterally to add resistance. You can also perform this in hip extension (in a glute bride), which will target the glute medius, minimus and maximus all at the same time.
