If You Want Buns Of Steel ....

Ok I admit, that was a heading to get you to read this post. But seriously, I had a patient who was referred to our clinic by a GP across the road.  He hurt his groin while doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu 2 months ago and had not gotten better. He said his previous physiotherapist just got him to do clam shell exercises and it did not help at all. 

Want to know the best exercise for packing the biggest punch for the gluteal area? Let me share the results of the following study by Collings et al (2023).

Their study compared and ranked gluteal muscle forces in 8 hip focused exercises performed without and with external resistance, i.e. dumbbells or loaded barbell.

This 8 hip focused exercises in the study were single leg (S/L) squat, S/L Romanian deadlift (RDL), split squat, S/L hip thrust, banded side step, hip hike, side plank and side lying leg raise. The exercises were performed with and without weights for 12 reps max (RM)  and measured by electromyography (EMG). 

Analysis of muscle forces were limited to gluteus maximus (pictured above), medius and minimus (below). The results show that varying demands were placed on the individual gluteal muscles. Peak gluteal muscle forces significantly increased when all exercises were performed with weights compared with body weight alone. 

R gluteus medius and minimus

This is the first study to investigate a wide range of hip focused exercises that also includes isometric hip and hip abduction exercises. Clam shell exercises which you already know from my earlier  blog post is not great at activating gluteus medius and was not even included in this study. The S/L RDL and side plank  produced the highest peak gluteus medius and minimus muscle forces. 

Side plank

This is what I found most interesting. I was surprised that this variation of the side plank (pictured above) really targeted the gluteus medius and minimus too. It will be a good choice for physiotherapists to teach their patients this since no equipment is needed. Patients can easily do it at home or during on field/ court training.

Single leg RDL

We already know that the S/L RDL (pictured above) is good for  hamstrings strengthening. Done with weights, the S/L RDL activated high gluteus minimus force (100 percent observed) while gluteus maximus (98 percent) and gluteus medius (84 percent). S/L RDL is the go to exercise if you need to target all 3 gluteal muscles simultaneously along with the hamstrings.

To sum up, for the gluteus maximus, the split squat, S/L RDL and S/L hip thrust are the exercises that you want to do if that is what you want to train. The S/L RDL and side plank  produced the highest peak gluteus medius and minimus muscle forces. Those who are injured may start by doing the lower tier exercises and/ or reduce load (pictured above). You may want to remember this if your goal is to prevent injury, as part of rehabilitation or for performance.

Reference

Collings TJ, Bourne MN, Barrett RS et al (2023). Gluteal Muscle Forces During Hip-Focused Injury Prevention And Rehabilitation Exercises. Med Sci Sp Ex. 55(4): 650-660. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003091