CHALLENGE TO THE CORE

Lifting both legs at the same time is also a really good workout for the core muscles. They have to work hard to hold the torso still against the weight of both legs. 

TRAINING THE COORDINATION OF OUR MUSCLES (NOT JUST STRENGTH)

Movement is not just about muscle strength. It’s also about how muscles coordinate and work together to produce healthy, balanced movement. 

Hip thrusts and bridges are done by lying on your back and lifting the hips up. The feet and the upper body are held stable by the floor or bench.

In the reverse Hyper Jack exercise, the foot and leg are free to move, and not only move up but out to the side and back in again. The muscles that surround the hip joint have to work together in coordination to control the movement of the weight of the entire leg. Moving the legs out to the sides adds another direction of movement to the exercise. The gluteus maximus and hamstrings have to stay active as the legs move out and in, this is a good way to train the muscles to do their job as the limb moves in other directions. It is always a good idea to work muscles in a variety of directions. It makes them more capable during daily life activities, for example, maintaining an upright posture as you move about, changing directions: walking on a crowded sidewalk, hiking, shoveling, and vacuuming.

I don’t know about you, but when I think about it, it’s often been the times when I had to move my body in an unplanned way, or not as often, I feel like I got close to hurting something (or did hurt something)- but training these muscles to move in all these various directions & angles can help them know what to expect in these scenarios & respond in a good way that doesn’t cause injury.

WORK ON TRUE HIP EXTENSION FOR HEALTHY HIP JOINTS

In many exercises that work the gluteus maximus the focus is on moving the hip from a bent position to being straight, for example, step-ups and lunges, and even bridges and hip thrusts. In all these cases our thigh ends up in a straight line with the front of our hip. Which is all well & good- but our leg can also go behind our body to some degree too! And the ability to do this is very important to the most basic activity we do every. Single. Day. Walking - when you take a step, your thigh stretches behind your body, right? 

In this movement, the focus is on taking the leg back past the torso into true hip extension. We don’t have a lot of movement of the leg back behind the body, just about 15 degrees or a little more (that’s key - so don’t copy all those videos where the person’s leg is going way above their head- they are bending a lot at the spine in general to achieve that). This 15 degrees of hip extension just happens to be about the distance that your leg is behind you in the last part of your walking stride, when your weight is on your front foot and the back foot is still on the ground - how perfectly designed right?!

Interestingly, as people age, they tend to lose their ability to take their leg behind their body though. This is due to a loss of movement in the joint and strength. You may have noticed older people taking shorter steps when they walk. It takes more energy to walk this way, and we only have so much energy right? Good to conserve some of that and save it for the kids or grandkids. Getting a good amount of hip extension while we walk and do other things saves energy because it also utilizes propulsion to get us where we’re going. This exercise will help train that aspect of our glute muscle function.

Including exercises in your program that target the muscles that move the leg behind the body can help to prevent “walking like an old person”. It also will help to keep the hip joint healthy, which in turn protects the spine, knees, and feet from increased stresses and abnormal wear and tear. 

FOCUS ON THE GLUTES FOR DECREASED STRAIN ON THE SPINE IN LIFE

With all that I’ve been learning the past couple of years, & then comparing that with how I actually move my body- whether during exercise or just stuff I’m doing in life like tiling a shower or moving some boxes to the shed, I realized that I was often using my back to do what I was doing, rather than my glutes & leg muscles. You too? It’s so easy to do!

A healthy gluteus maximus help keep the spine, pelvis, hips, and knees healthy. They work with all of the other muscles of the core and legs to keep the joints aligned and cushion the impact during walking, running, and jumping. Strong glutes and leg muscles can be used to do most of the work when lifting and moving heavy objects. This will decrease the stress on the spine and help to prevent damage and degenerative changes that occur with age. This exercise will help us to make that mental connection to our glute muscles & help us to use them rather than our back in these other daily activities.