If you work from home or in a sedentary job, the amount of time you spend sat on you behind may have caused your bum muscles to snooze.
Strong glutes are important for posture and performance and this workout from boutique fitness studio Flex Chelsea, will help you engage and activate your sleepy glutes in no time.
Repeat all exercises between 12-20 times, on each side if necessary! Take 2-4 rounds of the full set to get your peach burning!
Weights and bands are optional.
Banded Sumo Squat
Take a wide stance with your feet, toes pointing outwards. Have your band just above your knees and squat down, trying to get your bum as close to the floor as you can for depth. Push your knees out against the band to engage your abductors and obtain the correct form (make sure your knees are not facing inwards, this takes the pressure off your glutes and can lead to potential injury). Ensure your upper body is in a stable upright position keeping your chest up, shoulders back and facing forwards not down. Imagine you are sitting down onto a chair. Ensure your glutes are engaged throughout the movement and really squeeze when you get to the top. Weights optional
Curtsy Lunge
With the front leg, have your toes pointing slightly outwards and your knee pointing outwards in the same direction. Keep your upper body upright and stable facing forwards, not the same direction as your toes. Bring the opposite leg behind you only slightly, so your front toes are in line with your back toes. From here lunge down, you should have a 90 degree angle on both legs, and push through the front leg engaging your front glute.
Single Leg Deadlift
You want to perform this movement in a similar manner to how you would perform a stiff leg deadlift. So engage your core, and push your hips to the back of the room as if you were trying to get your glutes to touch a wall behind you, keeping the chest up. You want to lift one leg off the floor so your upper body and leg are in a nice straight line, so you are in a “T” shape. It is important to keep the core really engaged so you are stable and squeeze your glutes the whole way through, use them to hinge your upper body up and down. This movement should be done slowly and controlled.
Ensure to keep your knee of the leg that is on the floor nice and soft, so it is not locked out for the movement as this puts too much pressure on your knees. If you are just starting out with this exercise, you can hold onto a chair for stability with one arm and ensure your form is correct before progressing. Weights optional
Straight Leg Donkey Kickbacks
The key to this exercise is keeping your back leg as straight as possible by engaging the quads. From here you lift the back leg up by squeezing your glutes and using them to power the movement, so they take the whole weight of your back leg. Keep your torso stable and your back flat and still by engaging your core. When lifting the back leg, the higher you go, the more you will feel it in your glutes, and squeeze your glutes for a one second hold at the top of the movement.
- Lift the back leg up in one fast, powerful movement using the glutes
- Hold for one second at the top continuing and squeeze your glute as hard as you can
- Lower the leg back down in a slow and controlled movement to increase time under tension of the muscle and really feel the burn
The Glute Bridge
With this movement, have your feet nice and wide, wider than shoulder-width and your toes pointing outwards. Have your weight through your heels and really drive them into the floor.
Ensure your knees are pointing outwards, if you are using a band, actively push your knees out against the band to engage your abductors (the side booty).
From here thrust your lower body upwards and squeeze your glutes as hard as you can. To lift your glutes off the floor you need to be using your pelvis, ensure you tuck your pelvis under. The thrust movement should be powered through your glutes and pelvis. Therefore your upper back should stay on the floor.
FLEX Chelsea is a stunning boutique fitness studio in the heart of London that offers challenging interval training, spin and a variety of yoga classes. And with Balance Box, up until the end of August you can save 15% on all classes you buy with code BalanceBox15 – don’t miss out! Discount code also applies to FLEX LIVE, the digital streaming service that brings live classes straight into your home, recently awarded Top 10 Global Livestream Studio by ClassPass.