Glutes are the biggest muscle group in the body and are made up of the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus.

The role of the glutes is to stabilise the pelvis and hip. They work together to provide proper pelvic alignment when moving and when balancing on one leg. As a result, weakness of the glutes has a significant impact on your body’s biomechanics during everyday activities like walking, going downstairs and lifting. The compensation for this weakness and change of biomechanics then commonly results in injuries – particularly to the lower back, knees and feet.

The gluteus maximus and hamstrings are the primary muscles that extend the hip and provides the power for propulsion when running, jumping and even heavy lifting (like banging). When the gluteus maximus is weak, the hamstrings end up doing more of the work and therefore lead to tight or injured hamstrings.

What causes weak glutes?

When we are sat down the glutes are lengthened and inactive, therefore the longer we sit the weaker our glutes become. Unfortunately, modern lifestyles involve a lot of sitting, whether that’s at a desk, in a car or on the sofa.

How to strengthen the glutes at home?

Exercise is the key to strengthening your glutes.

Below are 5 key exercises that you can do at home using a miniband to help build up strength and control of your glutes.

Glute Bridge with band

• Lying with knees bent and arms across your chest with a resistance band around the knees
• Engage trunk muscles to stiffen the spine and pull knees apart slightly
• Clench  buttocks together and tuck your tailbone under to engage your glutes and raise hips off floor until knee hip and shoulder are in a straight line
• Keep the knees pulled apart and hold for 2 seconds
• Exhale and return to start position
• Do not overextend your low back.

Fire hydrants with band

• Place a resistance band around the lower thighs
• Start on hands and knees with hands below shoulders and knees below hips
• Engage the trunk muscles to stiffen the spine
• Lift the knee out to the side without twisting through the trunk
• Pause and top and slowly return to start position

Side Plank Clam

• Lying on side with resistance band around the lower thigh and knees bent to 90 degrees
• Elbow directly below shoulder
• Engage trunk muscles to stiffen the spine
• Lift hips off floor to bring spine into neutral
• Squeeze heels together lift the top knee without rolling the hip back

Monster Walks

• Place a resistance band around the legs at the ankles
• Perform a small squat keeping the legs apart and knees in line with the 2nd toe
• Lift 1 leg to the side to take up the tension on the band
• Keeping the legs apart and in squat stance, walk forward, then backwards

Glute Taps

• Place a resistance band around the legs at the ankles
• Perform a small squat keeping the legs apart and knees in line with the 2nd toe
• Place all your weight through the supporting leg.
• Slowly tap to the side, then  diagnonally  backwards.
• Keep your hips level and maintain a shallow squat on the supporting  leg

Minibands

Minibands are light and don’t take up much space which means they are great to store or take away when travelling. 

Bands vary in different resistance, therefore start on the lightest resistance and you can work your way up to make the exercise harder. It is important to progress the exercises to ensure continuous strengthening of the glutes.

By Louisa England
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1. Establish a routine

Not travelling into the office can easily cause you to fall into bad habits.  Research shows that effective sleep is produced by having a consistent time of getting up and going to bed. Decide on a set time to go to bed and wake up, plan your daily exercise and work diary in advance and don’t forget to plan a lunch break.

2. Create a designated work space

Work can quickly blend into home life and you can find yourself sitting on the sofa in front of the TV still working on the laptop after dinner.   Adopting a regular routine will help get you into  “work mode”.  If you can do this in a set space it will help you switch off once you end your official day and you shut the computer down.  If you are furloughed and unable to work try and find something ‘life or career enhancing’ and put that into your diary for example learn a language or go for a virtual tour of a museum. 

3. Ergonomics

This is a difficult subject to cover as there is no 1 answer from everyone. The key is to keep moving regularly. Its ok to slouch (some of the time) and you don’t have to sit up straight all day long. Having an expensive chair is equally not all that important. The key is to feel comfortable and adjust portions regularly. Spending some time in standing at the kitchen counter or walking around the room as you take a phone call is a great way to break up the sitting time. If you are working on a laptop, we suggest using a laptop stand, external keyboard and mouse so you are not looking down all day long. Here are 2 affordable products on amazon that can help.

Laptop stand    Keyboard

4. Don’t watch the news all day!

At present, the constant talk about Coronavirus is overwhelming and can get you down.There is a benefit to staying up to date with current developments, but too much information can take a toll on our mental wellbeing. Avoid checking news stories before bed and try to only check in periodically rather than keeping it on in the background all day. The most correct and updated information can be found here

5. Eat well

Don’t use food as a source of comfort, try to maintain the discipline of regular meal times and avoid too many carbohydrates like biscuits and muesli bars. Ensure you are getting plenty of protein in your diet and keep hydrated. It will keep your hunger cravings at bay and ensure you maintain energy levels.   

6. Stay in touch

Zoom, WhatsApp, FaceTime, Skype your friends and family regularly. Arrange a group or family chat online to stay connected with those you would normally see regularly. It will help break up the days and having social interaction is an important part of your mental health.

7. Mental health

With stress and anxiety levels high it can impact on your overall health and sleep. Applications like “Headspace” and other meditation apps can help relax the senses. It’s important for everyone to have a little “me time” and it’s increasingly hard with everyone at home all the time. Set aside time daily to either meditate, listen to music or read a book to escape a little from all the craziness and remember at some point life will eventually return to some normality.