I treat a lot of clients for injuries, and niggles to the hip and knee. All too often the buttocks are not working.  Now, there are many reasons for this, and there are many other muscles, fascia and ligaments that need work too. But for the focus of this Blog, and following an excellent workshop last week on Unwinding the Spine from Noah Karrash at the North London School of Sports Massage, I am going to focus on the Gluteals!

Learn more about Strength Training for Runners here.

I have done many workshops with Noah, he is a fountain of knowledge and the NLSSM runs some great courses - check them out here. One of the key muscles involved in correct biomechanics for running are the Gluteals - maximums, medius and minimus.  The Anatomy of the Gluteal muscles can be seen here and a great book for strength training, with good clear diagrams of how the muscles work is this one. He also does a Female Specific Book so check that out too.

As you sit here reading this Blog I would like you to activate your buttocks and think - do both buttocks fire equally?  Can you switch the right buttock and the left buttock on individually, and with equal strength?  Try this seated, standing and on one leg.  I get clients to regular buttock clenches and single leg balance work to get the muscles firing. The key focus here is to get your gluteal muscles working effectively, and efficiently rather than under, or over active. If you are unsure do just post a comment.

Once you have got some awareness of your buttocks, good exercises to build up the strength and functionality are:

1.    Gluteal Bridge - focusing on the downwards movement, leading into a bridge into a single leg extension. YouTube example: