Glute Exercises

[Selkie]

Why do you want to isolate your glutes? What is your goal?

I ask because like Tulip says, there's a lot more to working a muscle that just getting it to contract. If you've got an injury and your glutes aren't firing well at all, isolating them to restart the system can be helpful in the short term but in the long term you want to be doing exercises that are function specific to the activity/sport you are trying to get better at and they should also involve multiple muscle groups.

If you want a firmer, lifted tush for looks, that's a good goal but I would approach that in a very different way than if you told me you wanted stronger glutes for climbing on a road bike.

My Physical Therapist gave me a bunch of glute exercises but I find myself engaging my hamstrings more than my glutes. Strengthening my glutes, particularly those on my right side that are atrophied, is part of my recovery. I just wanted to see if anyone had something else to offer up that I could throw into the mix and perhaps, something that would result in more obvious firing of those muscles.

I want those muscles to regain strength and to remember to engage like they are supposed to, so I don't end up with another foot injury.

Indy, that's interesting because I have suffered on and off from high hamstring tendonitis and a lot of the glute exercises the PT had me doing made it come back. I attribute this mostly to difficulty in isolating my glute muscles. She gave me a few exercises that really zone in on the glutes but the ones that require engaging other muscles (i.e., one legged squats and a lot of the balance-required standing exercises) are hard for me to "find" the glute, if you know what I mean.

My posture is the issue, as is not engaging my core. The PT taught me the correct way to walk, so that's helping. Also, she released the bound up muscles in my back, so my scoliosis is nearly gone now. That alone has improved my posture.

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions.