Quote:
Originally Posted by Depalma
First, do some glute activation work in your warm up such as unweighted lunges, supine bridges, and bird dogs to "wake-up" the glutes so that when you do your weighted work, you will be more likely to work the muscles you are targeting and not letting a hyperactive muscle take over the movement.
For exercises, depending on where you are at in your trainin, my favorites are:
1. Pull Throughs
2. Box Squats. These emphasize the posterior chain better than free squats. It really forces you to sit back and then drive through your heels. Just make sure you don't rock forward to get up off the box and you will be hitting the glutes hard.
3. Lunges. All variations are great. Static lunges, AKA split squats if you aren't ready for dynamic lunges.
4. Glute Ham Raise. These are HARD! If you are lucky enough to work in a gym with a GHR, obviously use that. If not, you can do natural glute ham raises on the lat pulldown machine or on the ground with someone holding your ankles. At first, you may need to start with some assistance. On the ground, you can assist yourself, On the GHR on lat pulldown machine, you will need someone to give you a tap up. Again these are HARD!
I can do about 10-15 walking lunges in a row without losing my balance -- but the fire always hits my hamstrings before my glutes. Still, a few of the other moves I need to check out, as I've never tried them. The box squats especially sound like something I need to try, I'll work on those tonight. Thanks!