How to Wake up your buttocks and get the most out of them with these strategies and exercises

The glutes are the most powerful musculature that we have in the human body, and the one that tends to be the most asleep. Just as a tiger is nothing more than a simple kitten if it doesn't get its potential, our sleeping buttocks will stop performing their functions if they are not routinely activated. Gluteal amnesia can lead to back pain and other injuries, as well as a drastic decrease in athletic performance. Wake up your buttocks like this and "bring out the tiger that you have inside". Gluteal amnesia: what is it? How many hours a day do you spend sitting or lying down? Due to a sedentary lifestyle, there is very poor activation in the buttocks. This deactivation or gluteal amnesia makes it difficult for many people to contract this muscle voluntarily. A common example is when we go to the gym and do exercises that are intended to work the gluteus, but we barely notice that this area is stimulated, while the work falls on the back of the thighs or lower back. As much as we do glute bridges or similar glute exercises, we fatigue our hamstrings, but our glutes receive very little stimulation. The consequences range from an aesthetic section by developing less muscle in this area, to pain such as the lower back because the buttocks do not work to give it support. Below, we will detail what are the causes of gluteal amnesia, and how to awaken the most powerful muscles in our body to avoid negative side effects. Causes of gluteal amnesia and its solutions Sedentary lifestyle, vascular and nervous function You will have heard on more than one occasion that it is advisable to avoid postures held over time to improve circulation. Spider veins, those spiderweb-like veins that appear under the skin, are due in part to vascular impairment. Also, its most notable version is varicose veins. Like circulation, nerve function can also be interfered with by a sedentary lifestyle. If our gluteal-mind connection is weakened, and our pumping sensation is not as it can happen when we train our quadriceps and feel them swollen, it will be difficult to improve the strength and muscle mass of the glutes. Break the sedentary lifestyle from time to time with the Pomodoro technique, so that the loss of vascular and nervous function in the buttocks is reduced. You can perform different exercises ranging from a simple walk to maximum gluteal contractions. Think that you have a bill between your two cheeks and a person is going to pull it to take it away. You have to squeeze your buttocks as hard as you can so that he can't take the said ticket. At any given time, break your sedentary lifestyle, stand up and perform 30 maximum gluteal contractions. Shortened hip flexors When we are sitting our legs are flexed forming about 90º in the hip joint. That hip flexion causes the muscles in the groin area, the well-known soap, among others, to be shortened. A shortening of the hip flexors is associated with gluteal amnesia, so part of our training is to improve the mobility of this area. Do this at any time, but it's important to introduce these stretches at the start of your glute workout warm-up. We need explosive movements and considerable loads to activate the gluteus Strength training is essential to awaken our glutes in the first place, and strengthen them later. The lower body muscles are activated when we get up from a chair or walk, but the gluteus needs to jump or run to activate. You can verify this in the gym by comparing the weight that people move in exercises like squats, compared to what they are able to lift with the hip thrust. The gluteus is much more powerful than other muscles of the lower body, and as such, it requires higher loads and greater explosiveness of movements. People who don't strength train or perform explosive movements hardly recruit the gluteal fibers. This is where the first mistake comes when it comes to training the buttocks in the gym, without having awakened this musculature beforehand. Can you hit a sprint as soon as you open your eyes when you get up? By proxy, of course, but it will not be your best mark. The same thing happens with your buttocks. First, they must "wake up" and then we can add high charges to it. Wake up your buttocks and eliminate gluteal amnesia In the previous section, we have seen that it is advisable to break the sedentary lifestyle every so often and stretch the hip flexors to improve the activation of our glutes. In addition, we need explosive movements and high loads to stimulate those sleeping muscles, but previously it is advisable to execute the following activation techniques for the glutes. Start with low loads and controlled movements and work your way up. Mind-muscle connection One of the causes of gluteal amnesia is that the connection between the brain and the gluteus can become weak. We need to focus and feel how our buttocks work with an internal focus (our thinking) and help them with an external focus (touching the muscle). Touching the glutes when we are working them in the gym improves the mind-muscle connection. This strategy is called Systematic Touch Training, and scientific evidence shows that it is effective when it comes to activating the muscles more. Low load, high repetitions, and stopping in the zone of maximum activation Warming up will be our best ally to activate the gluteal area. Perform easy exercises such as quadruped gluteal kicks, or gluteus abductions lying down, since they involve a very low load with which we can go at low speed and feel the awakening of the gluteus. When we notice that the gluteus contracts to the maximum, hold it there for a few seconds. To break the sedentary lifestyle, we suggested that you perform 30 maximum gluteal contractions so that "they don't take the ticket" from between your cheeks. That exercise can also be inserted into the warm-up, at home, or on the go. In these early phases, what we are looking for is to improve gluteal activation, not to squeeze it with high loads and repetitions to failure. Put exercises that enhance gluteal activation first When it comes to training the lower body, there are exercises that emphasize some muscle groups or others. To maximize the gluteus, there are some tricks that you should keep in mind. In this article, you can visualize all the actions to take into account when you go to train the lower body and want to emphasize the buttocks. Increase the load of the exercises little by little, but decrease the weight if you notice that the stimulus is not directed towards the gluteus but towards other muscle groups.