Exercise of the Week

This week’s exercise of the week is the quadruped hip extension.  I used to laugh at my little sister when she did these at home while following along to her Buns of Steel tape (no DVDs back then).  Come to find out, this is a very good exercise that really hits the glutes.  So Tootie, it looks like the joke is on me.  Go ahead, laugh at me and call me names, I deserve it.

Anyway, Strength Coach Bret Conterashas done a great job of letting us (us = those interested in achieving a better booty) in on his glute studies.  Bret has been doing some experimenting – he places electrodes on different parts of the body while measuring the EMG activity in the various muscle parts.  His experiment shows that the peak activation is very high in the glute medius and upper glute max while performing the quadruped hip extension.  And here is how it is done…

At the top of the movement SQEEEEEEZE the glutes for a second and make sure NOT to hyperextend your lower back.

Getting a Sexy Butt Looks Easy

Not so fast.  Simply throwing in some quadruped hip extensions is a great way to improve your butt.  But it will take a lot more than this body weight exercise to maximize your bootylicious potential.  I still want you to perform different squat variations (back squats, front squats etc), different single leg variations (bulgarian split squats, reverse lunges etc) aBduction variations (X-Band Walks),  and hip extension variations (RDLs, glute bridge, etc).  As you can see, the quadruped hip extension is an effective tool, but it is only one tool.  You need to use all of the above from time-to-time to complete your tool box.

Do you want to run faster for your sport?  Do you want to keep your body healthy?  Do you want a much more round, shapely back side?  If you answer yes to any of the above, make sure you are incorporating the quadruped hip extension into your program.