_Glute Shaping Exercise For Women: Dumbbell Split Squats
_
Want to learn one of the best and simple glute exercises for women? If you want a beautiful backside, it's critical to learn how to selectively recruit your glutes rather than your lower back and hamstrings. Add these new and challenging glute exercises to your next glute workout for a sexy, firm and curvy behind!
glute exercises for women
Your glutes define the look of your butt. Glutes are one of the largest muscle groups in the body and nice glutes are no doubt the reason many of us go to the gym. Women, especially, are consistently craving for that curvy shape to their glutes and achieving this takes hard work and specific exercises that target the lower body muscle groups.
It is no surprise that the majority of today's workforce spends countless hours sitting in front of computers resulting in a very inactive lower posterior chain. If you spend most of your day sitting, you most likely have tight hip flexors and hamstrings along with very inactive glutes. Before you workout your glutes for that sexy butt, you need to activate your posterior chain. Perform these glute activation exercises as part of a warm-up before your workout or after sitting for long periods. Here are my top three glute activation exercises.
The Glute Bridge Exercise
Grab a mat and start by lying on your back with your hands by your sides. Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor. It's important to have your feet under your knees. As you tighten your core and glutes, raise your hips up to form a straight line extending from your knees to your shoulders. Contract your glutes hard while keeping your hamstrings relaxed. Keep your core tight and pull your stomach back toward your spine. Work your way up to holding the bridge for 30 seconds. Ensure you use proper technique - don't compromise it to hold longer.
Hip Flexor Exercise (Psoas Stretch)
To activate your glutes, you want to get your psoas muscle firing. This can be achieved using the slow, static hip flexor stretch. To start, get in the regular forward lunge position and drop your back knee to the floor. Keep your upper body straight with your arms and head up. Now slowly press your hips down (and forward) towards the floor. You should feel a stretch through your hips, groin and thighs. Repeat the exercise for the other leg. Work your way up to holding each stretch for 30 seconds. This should be a comfortable stretch - never overstretch. Also, don't allow your front knee to move past your toes.
Hip Extension Exercise
This exercise will help activate your lower posterior chain. We want to isolate the glutes and thus minimize hamstring involvement. To do this we perform the exercise in what is called the quadruped position - on your hands and knees. Grab a mat and start off in the quadruped position. Really tighten your core and contract your abdominals to help stabilize your spine. You will be contracting each glute individually. Slowly lift one leg up while consistently keeping a 90-degree bend at the knee so the elevated thigh is parallel with the ground. Perform the same with the other leg. Perform the exercise slowly and do 10-15 reps on each leg. You can make this exercise more difficult by placing a light weight behind your knee.
glute exercises
Want to learn one of the best and simple glute exercises for women? If you want a beautiful backside, it's critical to learn how to selectively recruit your glutes rather than your lower back and hamstrings. Add these new and challenging glute exercises to your next glute workout for a sexy, firm and curvy behind!
glute exercises for women
Your glutes define the look of your butt. Glutes are one of the largest muscle groups in the body and nice glutes are no doubt the reason many of us go to the gym. Women, especially, are consistently craving for that curvy shape to their glutes and achieving this takes hard work and specific exercises that target the lower body muscle groups.
It is no surprise that the majority of today's workforce spends countless hours sitting in front of computers resulting in a very inactive lower posterior chain. If you spend most of your day sitting, you most likely have tight hip flexors and hamstrings along with very inactive glutes. Before you workout your glutes for that sexy butt, you need to activate your posterior chain. Perform these glute activation exercises as part of a warm-up before your workout or after sitting for long periods. Here are my top three glute activation exercises.
The Glute Bridge Exercise
Grab a mat and start by lying on your back with your hands by your sides. Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor. It's important to have your feet under your knees. As you tighten your core and glutes, raise your hips up to form a straight line extending from your knees to your shoulders. Contract your glutes hard while keeping your hamstrings relaxed. Keep your core tight and pull your stomach back toward your spine. Work your way up to holding the bridge for 30 seconds. Ensure you use proper technique - don't compromise it to hold longer.
Hip Flexor Exercise (Psoas Stretch)
To activate your glutes, you want to get your psoas muscle firing. This can be achieved using the slow, static hip flexor stretch. To start, get in the regular forward lunge position and drop your back knee to the floor. Keep your upper body straight with your arms and head up. Now slowly press your hips down (and forward) towards the floor. You should feel a stretch through your hips, groin and thighs. Repeat the exercise for the other leg. Work your way up to holding each stretch for 30 seconds. This should be a comfortable stretch - never overstretch. Also, don't allow your front knee to move past your toes.
Hip Extension Exercise
This exercise will help activate your lower posterior chain. We want to isolate the glutes and thus minimize hamstring involvement. To do this we perform the exercise in what is called the quadruped position - on your hands and knees. Grab a mat and start off in the quadruped position. Really tighten your core and contract your abdominals to help stabilize your spine. You will be contracting each glute individually. Slowly lift one leg up while consistently keeping a 90-degree bend at the knee so the elevated thigh is parallel with the ground. Perform the same with the other leg. Perform the exercise slowly and do 10-15 reps on each leg. You can make this exercise more difficult by placing a light weight behind your knee.
glute exercises