Pilates Controlology: Buttocks exercise

Important: Only consciously engage your buttock during the following movement enhancing exercises and drills. See comment 3 in right hand panel.

Buttocks Exercise(1) activation while standing:-

Stand upright and relaxed with your feet hip width apart and your toes pointing slightly outwards and unlock your knees.
Your pelvis should be in "neutral".
Gently lift the pelvic floor; "navel to spine"

Note: To monitor for gluteal activation place a hand over the sit bones.

Action:-

Tense your gluteals, & hold for 3 seconds (could you crack a nut on your touche?(!)
And then relax fully - repeat 3-5 times..

Monitoring for gluteal engagement
Gluteal Anatomy	Monitoring Gluteus activity

(Walking exercises thighs as well as buttocks Scroll right >>>..)

Buttocks exercises(2) At "Heel Strike":-

Stand as for "Engage Gluteus maximus while Standing" and place a hand over the sit bone.
Start walking: Each time your foot lands, firm up the Glute!

Buttocks Exercises(3) Walking on Sharp Pebbles

Stand in bare feet and imagine that you are walking on sharp, painful pebbles (better still try the real thing - your feet actually are designed to do this)! Does:
- Your foot lands gently?
- Heal and toe land at the same time?
- Knee over foot, not behind it?
(2-4 minutes is a good workout!).

Buttocks exercise(4) while bare foot running on tar seal:-
(Not for the faint hearted!) Does the Gluteus maximus firm when the foot touches the ground? Do the legs stay springy and in alignement? Do your knees stay in alignment (now inward collapse, that is "knock knees")? Small doses at first!

Solve your lower back pain! - Learn to walk like the Kalahari Bushman...

Comments
(1) - With "Walking on sharp pebbles", you may have noted your Gluteus maximus engaged; your knees tended not to collapse inwards; and your foot arches found it easy to form just as they are supposed to.

(2) - Modern shoeing and smooth sidewalks take away the natural buttock firming stimulus. Worse still, the "lazy Gluteus" is even lazier when the back is sore or the ankle is sprained(3). This is disastrous to for lower back & hip joint stability. Hence the modern epidemic of back pain and hip joint replacement and the need for Gluteus maximus engagement with exercises and drills!

(3) - Buttocks as part of the traditional Pilates workout
Quote (Mari Winsor in her phenomenally successful Pilates Video 'Sculpt your Body Slim') "Squeeze your tushe and engage your power house"!

(4) - The Gluteus maximus is a dynamic stabilizer! -
Only consciously engage your glute during movement enhancement drills. During everyday activity don't think about it - just stay loose and tall (like wheat in the wind as Joseph Pilates would put it). If you do the drills the natural activation will follow.

Shirley A Sahrman: "Movement Impairment Syndromes" Publ. Mosby, 2002 ISBN 0-8016-7205-8
Bruce Thomson: Engage Gluteus maximus!
Bullock-Saxton JE; Janda V; Bullock MI:Int J Sports Med 1994; 15 (6) Aug: 330–334