I also find lying on my back, with my knees bent, to be one of the most stable positions for my SI joints.īut these videos, of course, allow you to actually see the person’s butt cheeks, aka gluteus maximus muscle, so they are a great thing to include here.Īgain, I personally feel more comfortable when I’m lying on my back (because then my pelvis really doesn’t move).īut these videos give you a great idea of what you’re looking for. ![]() I personally prefer lying face up, because it’s easier to visualize going all the way up into a bridge. ![]() (Sorry!!!!).īut there are plenty of great videos showing how to do an isomtetric glute squeeze while lying face down. I’m just not quite ready to put a video of myself squeezing my butt cheeks onto Youtube just yet. So… I looked and looked, and could not find a great video to show you guys how I do this.Īnd I’m sorry. Instead, all I had to do was to visualize myself, as if I was about to go into that bridge, and tighten my butt cheeks as though I was about to do it… but then not actually do it.Įssentially, I was only performing the beginning of the whole movement pattern, but not actually changing the position of my hips or pelvis– making it an isometric contraction. The way my physical therapist Paula explained it to me was that I could be lying on my back, as if I was actually about to do the bridging exercise in the video above… but not actually do it all the way. That’s right– just by clenching our butt cheek, so to speak– we can begin to wake that muscle up, and get it to start firing. In the case of the gluteus maximus, we can produce an isometric contraction just by squeezing it. What this means is we are squeezing our muscle– contracting it– without actually changing its length, or the position of the joint it spans across. Translate from the Latin roots, it literally means “same length.” So we are talking about a “same length” muscle contraction. So, back in the day, my physical therapist Paula explained a much gentler, easier way to start out: ![]() However, in my experience, moving the pelvis in this motion pattern can actually be too stressful on the SI joints, if the ligaments have been sprained. Many people are familiar with the glute bridge exercise shown in the video below: So… you can see why it is so important for this muscle to be strong. It also assists the other hip muscles (such as the gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, and the lateral rotator group) in producing some of our other hip movements. However, even when we are not actively extending our leg, the glute max is also an important muscle for stabilizing our pelvis and lower back. This allows the gluteus maximus to move our leg backward, straight out behind us (the technical term for this is extending the leg, or leg extension). Essentially, this muscle runs right out of the same space as the SI joint: View of the gluteus maximus from the backĪnd then it connects down onto the femur, or leg bone, via a band of fascia called the iliotibial tract. In the picture below, you can see what a large muscle the gluteus maximus, and how it originates from the hip bone, all along the surface where it interfaces with the sacrum. This muscle is really important to stabilizing the SI joints, because it’s right there, and it’s responsible for many of the primary motions that directly affect the SI joint. ![]() Most of us are familiar with this muscle– it’s the largest muscle that makes up our butt cheeks! In this post, I want to talk about a very easy and gentle way to start strengthening the gluteus maximus.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |