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Glute bridges are a great, basic exercise for working the butt muscles. Once you master the basic bodyweight version, it is easy to load up with weight. Two common areas I see people going wrong with this exercise are: 1) Using too much lower back and hamstring during the exercise - Focus on squeezing the butt muscles hard through the exercise. 2) Being afraid to go heavy on this exercise. This is an easy exercise to go heavy with as the glutes are such a strong muscle. Key Points:
•Lay on back with knees bent and feet flat on floor. Feet hip width-ish apart with toes facing away. •Brace abdominal muscles and keep braced throughout exercise. Press upper arms into the floor. •Squeeze glutes and lift hips up off floor. Continue raising until there is a straight line from knees - hips - shoulders. •Avoid over-arching lower back during exercise and try not to use hamstrings during exercise. Work should be done by butt muscles. •With control, lower back to floor and repeat.
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This is a core exercise which is a lot tougher than it looks. If you have the core strength to do more advanced front plank type exercises then this is a good step up. Not only do you have to use your abs whilst pushing back, as the ball will wobble, they're having to work extra hard to resist that. If you struggle to do a full range repetition, you can shorten the distance you move to make this a bit easier. Also, and this is important, if you feel your lower back taking over at any point, stop the exercise there - don't try and push through it. Key Teaching Points
- Start in a press up position with feet on a stability ball and hands underneath shoulders. - Brace abdominals very tightly. If the tightness goes or this is felt in the lower back then finish the exercise. - Keeping the arms completely straight, breathe out and push your body backwards so it rolls over the stability ball. The further you push your body away from your hands, the harder this exercise will be. - To return, breathe in and use arms to pull the body forward so it rolls back over the stability ball until the feet are back on the ball. By combining a strict reverse crunch with a deadbug, you get a core exercise that is guaranteed to hit your ab muscles in some weird and wonderful ways. The key to really making this work for you is keeping the movements slow and controlled. Don't rush these. You may find for a start you can't (won't want to) do many reps of these and that's ok. Aim to build your reps over time. Key Teaching Points
- Lay with back on floor and knees bent, feet flat on floor. Arms should be lightly holding a weight overhead. Weight is on the floor throughout exercise. - Knees should be in line with hips, forming 90 degree angles between shins, thighs and hips. - Draw stomach in towards spine and brace abdominals. - Breathe out and focus on lifting hips up and rolling them towards chest. Should feel a strong contraction in abdominal muscles. - With control, lower hips back to the floor. Do not allow thighs to extend past 90 degrees to hips - Breathe out and with control slowly extend fully and lower one leg until heel touches floor. Other leg remains stationary. - Once heel lightly touches floor, reverse motion and bring leg back up whilst breathing in. - Alternate legs. AKA feel the ab burn! This is an awesome deadbug progression I have been using with my clients recently. It is a subtle tweak to the standard deadbug from last week. However That subtle tweak will hit your core HARD. Essentially, you are isometrically holding the ab crunch position whilst doing the deadbug. Again, with most deadbugs, the key is slow, controlled, quality movement. If you just blitz through this exercise at high speed, you miss its effectiveness. Key Teaching Points
- Lay on back with knees bent 90 degrees. Knees should be in line with hips, forming 90 degree angles between shins, thighs and hips. - Raise arms straight up in front of body, directly over shoulders. - Reach arms up towards ceiling and lift shoulders off floor a few inches. Maintain this through exercise - Pull stomach towards spine to brace abs. Maintain this through exercise - Breathe out and with control slowly extend fully and lower one leg until heel touches floor. Other leg remains stationary. -Once heel lightly touches floor, reverse motion and bring leg back up whilst breathing in. - Alternate legs. - Important: Throughout exercise, do not allow lower back to arch up, keep spine in a neutral position. On my Facebook page, I have been posting a weekly exercise for the past year and thought I would start that feature on my webpage too. Each month, I'll be demonstrating exercises for a particular body part or area. Some months I'll show you how to take an exercise and progress to more challenging variations Some months, they will be a collection of effective exercises for that area. Let's start with one of my favourite core exercises - The Deadbug. It may not look like a lot but if you're used to mainly doing crunches and sit ups, this will challenge your core more than you think for. Also if you can easily hold different variations of front planks and want to switch them up (let's face it, front planks are good from a learning point of view but get very boring after a while), this is a great progression. Key Teaching Points
-Lay on back with knees bent 90 degrees. Knees should be in line with hips, forming 90 degree angles between shins, thighs and hips. -Raise arms straight up in front of body, directly over shoulders. -Pull shoulders back and down to engage back muscles. -Pull stomach towards spine to brace abs. Maintain this through exercise -Breathe out and with control slowly extend fully and lower one leg until heel touches floor. Other leg remains stationary. -Once heel lightly touches floor, reverse motion and bring leg back up whilst breathing in. -Alternate legs. -Important: Throughout exercise, do not allow lower back to arch up, keep spine in a neutral position. |
AuthorThis is my, mostly, Personal Trainer musings and information which I hope you'll find helpful! Archives
May 2021
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