Lower Body Workout – Glute Emphasis! 

Begin with a warm up to increase your heart rate, open your veinous system, and prepare your heart to give your muscles oxygen! Do not skip this step, your workout will be more effective, burn more calories, and feel easier to do both of those if you take the time to warm up properly! 

GET MOBILE!

BW Squats ~ 10-20 reps, work on sitting deeper, and coming back up to a firm neutral hip position

Leg Swings Front ~ 10-20 reps, keeping your core engaged, allow the momentum to create an active stretch of your hamstrings and hip flexors

Leg Swings Lateral ~ 10-20 reps, keeping your core engaged, allow the momentum to create an active stretch of your adductors and abductors

Lateral Gliders ~ 10 to each side, sit to one side into a lateral lunge position, press through the center staying low to the other side. This should feel like an active stretch for your entire hip complex. 

Stationary Lunge ~ 10 to each side, start with feet positioned into a narrow split stance, have weight evenly distributed to both front and back foot, lower body like an elevator allowing knee, hip, and head to be in a straight line. This will allow for a dynamic stretch of your hip flexors. If you have tightness in this area, it is important that your prepare these muscles to work in their full range of motion. 

Plank Alternating Toe Taps ~ 10 to each side, begin in plank, lift one hand and cross midline to touch the opposite foot as you pull your abdominal wall up to spine and hips to ceiling. 

BEGIN WORKOUT!

Glute Bridge w Abduction – 4×10, drive hips to neutral position, pause and preform an abduction against the loop band, lower slow and in control pressing through laces and heels in your shoes throughout the movement. Do not dump into toes. 

Banded Stiff Leg Dead Lift – 4×12, use a large loop band across your hips for added glute emphasis, begin standing in a neutral position, head-hips-heels all in alignment with core & scapular retractors engaged, using a hip hinge, lower to shins with the bar held tight against your legs, pause at the bottom before pressing hips back into alignment and standing to neutral. 

Front Rack Curtsy Lunges – 3×15 to each side, using a front rack will require that your shoulders, lats, and core all be engaged throughout the duration of the reps, it is a great way to ensure total body involvement and to drive your heart rate up. If you have sensitive knees, be careful with this exercise, you do not have to cross your alignment very far to gain the benefits of this variation. 

Frog Pumps – 3×20, using a lighter weight, drive your hips to neutral and press your feet together for maximum glute medius action

superset

Foot Elevated Glute Bridge – 3z20, immediately following, and using the same weight if possible, change foot positioning and drive hips back to neutral keeping belly button pulled to spine. This variation will recruit hamstrings a little more, so don’t be surprised if they are tired by the end of the set. 

Roman Chair Low Back Extension – 2×20, begin at the bottom of the exercise with feet parallel to each other and in a hip-hinge position, pull up with hamstrings and glutes tucking your chin and rounding slightly forward at the top to ensure maximum glute/hamstring interaction without over-taxing the spinal erectors.  If you are a newbie to weight training, this exercise may challenge your core too much and you may need to begin with a less advanced technique or exercise. 

Finish up with cardio or cool down by stretching and you’ve completed this workout. 

This is an actual training session for me.  I use training methods and program design that are scientifically proven to work. I use exercise selection that is for ME, but the exercise selection might not be specific to you, and you may find that other exercises work better for where you are at right now.  This is also an example of how my clients train, how they get results, and their own specific exercise selection is specific to THEM, so if you’re interested in training with me, this is the idea, but not necessarily what YOUR workout would look like.