There are a lot of back pain suffers ( including myself) who suffer from what is called butt-amnesia. We forget how to activate the gluteus medius and maximus and rely more on our hip flexors and tight hamstrings to maintain a rigid structure. I want to briefly touch on the importance of the glutes when it comes back pain and how you can fix it.
The glutes are huge when it comes to keeping the spine rigid and maintain the proper muscle balance in the core. Most importunely proper glute activation A doctor by the name of Vladamir Janda proposed this idea called “crossed-pelvis syndrome” which is basically just another way of saying you don’t know how to use your butt muscles. His idea was supported by the groups of men he would test that were currently dealing with some kind of back pain. His studies found that the majority of those suffering with back pain also relied more on their hamstrings and back extensors while doing squatting activities. These men also had weak abdominal wall strength along with lacking glute activation. This leaves the person that has butt amnesia with a problem, without properly firing the glutes when doing certain tasks, they aren’t able to spare the back and produce a better general performance. Whether you’re squatting in the gym or getting out of a chair. Proper glute activation is a must.
So it’s an easy fix…just use more glutes!
but how?
“It’s too painful to squat with any weight or load anything on my back for that matter so what is there left for me to do?”
Well, its going to take some time but there are a couple things you can start doing now to retrain this connection and get those glutes fired up!
How to activate your Gluteus Medius (this is the smaller butt muscle)
The big deal when it comes to learning to activate this muscle is based off of feel. You need to learn how to “feel” the muscles being activated. You have to think of it as retraining your muscles fibers to activate without you even thinking about it. I give a perfect example of this activation technique that works for the gluteus medius in the video below. Make note of the placement of my hand and my feet. The fingers that are stretching posteriorly across my glute and laying directly over the gluteus medius. The feet need to be planted or “stuck” together so that your simply pivoting from this position. Try to relax every muscle in your leg and slowly begin to lift the knee up (pivoting at the feet). You will feel a small, long muscle contract to lift and lower the knee under your fingers. Go slow and really try to focus on feeling that contraction
How to activate your Gluteus Maximus (your big butt muscle)
To give this next exercise the credit it deserves you really need someone there coaching you through the steps of each stage. Ill do my best to explain it below.
What seems to be a very basic move really requires a step by step coaching because you can easily over power the glutes using the hamstrings and back muscles and completely disregard the butt.
Follow these 3 simple steps:
1) Before you even lift your butt off the ground the most important part of this early stage is being able to contract your glutes. With a neutral spine along with your butt on the ground focus on mastering the contraction of your butt without ANY pelvic tilt in the process.
2) Once glute contraction is mastered begin to raise the hips towards the sky. Immediately after the hips come off the ground have a partner feel your hamstrings. A common issue with “crossed-pelvic syndrome” aka butt amnesia is people will fire the hamstrings in oder to lift the butt. If this is you, repeat this practice until little to no hamstring activity is noticed.
3) Another trick to working on the glute activation if the hamstrings tend to still be a dominate factor is to place your toes against a wall in the bottom bridge position. After you have fired the glutes in the bottom position very lightly try to contract the quads by lightly attempting to extend the knees. Keep in mind your toes are against a wall so the actual success of the knee extension is impossible but the attempt and mild quad activation will help with directing the focus on the glutes and away from the hamstrings.
So there you have it. A short and sweet nugget of info that you can add to your “Big 3” routine. Keep in mind through all of this back specific training your learning to reprogram your body to function the way it should in order to spare the back. Keep up the work and don’t get discouraged. It takes time to fix what is broken.
William
Source: Stewart McGills Low Back Pain Disorders: Evidence-Base Prevention and Rehabilitation.
