Gluteus Maximus may sound like the name of a Roman Gladiator, but it is one of our most important muscles and believe it or not, one that is greatly under-used!

It’s the largest muscle in the body and plays a variety of key roles. Together with its less sexy sounding counterparts Gluteus Minimus and Gluteus Medius, the glutes (as they are collectively known) play a vital role in our posture, how we move and how we stabilise ourselves.

Apart from the practical needs of having a bottom for movement and a comfy padding to sit on, whether male or female, we are often much more concerned with our bottom’s aesthetics – just look at all the fuss about J-Lo and Kylie’s pert behinds.

Also when the body develops postural misalignments and poor length/tension relationships of opposing muscles, their ability to ‘fire’ can become inhibited and other muscles, such as the Piriformis (a small muscle in the buttocks that rotates the leg outwards), will try to take over the role of the glutes.

This muscle takeover is known as synergistic dominance and thus begins the cycle of potential postural problems that can lead to injuries such as lower back pain and overuse injuries such as Piriformis syndrome.

This cycle will remain unbroken unless the misalignments are corrected and the right muscles are ‘firing’.

The Cure

Squats and lunges (when performed correctly) are excellent exercises to perfect your glutes, but most people hate doing them. Why? Because they hurt.

Why do they hurt? Because the muscles are working!

A great way to spot poor glute exercising techniques is to watch people on Steppers – the classic mistake people make is to take their body weight on their arms, in this instance they are not using their legs and more importantly not ‘firing’ their glutes.

To get the best results focus on actively ‘firing’ the glute muscles.

To make sure you get this right place your hands on your glutes and make sure you feel the muscles working. This technique helps you make the link between movement and muscular contraction.

If you activate the muscles with every repetition it will become second nature and your bottom will truly benefit from working these muscles.