In this progression, we throw in some extra challenge by having the swiss ball under us. By holding the body in correct alignment, you will also want to squeeze your glutes to help you stay on the ball.
If you are unable to get your head against the wall, try propping a towel that is rolled up enough to enable you have your head against it.
Dead Lifts are often considered to be the biggest and most beneficial lift in the gym. It makes sense as to why too. The number of muscles recruited and the amount of weight the body can lift are both impressive and very effective in changing your body.
The Dead Lift is also one of the more technical lifts in the gym but if you learn correctly first time around, they can be seen as a simple lift! Afterall – it is simply lifting a dead weight from the floor đŸ™‚
This is a great exercise to get some control and activation happening in your glute and hamstrings. The aim of this exercise is control your descent down to the floor. If you kinda free fall and then “plonk” to hit the floor it means you didn’t control the movement with your glutes. Old ladies with lots of cats plonk – we don’t đŸ™‚
The key to get the most out of this exercise is to ensure that the working legs knee never goes in front of the ankle. Directly above or slightly behind is the way to go. Also make sure when you get to the top of the movement you are leaning back and that there is tension in your arms at all times!
This exercise is an evolution of your standard Swiss Ball Hamstring Curls. It’s a great exercise to really get a serious contraction happening in the hamstrings as well as engaging your glutes as well.
To make this exercise more challenging, you can have only your elbows pressed into the ground which reduces your stability. To make it more difficult again, have your arms straight up in the air.
This exercise is a deceptively challenging exercise to help activate the often pesky Glute Medius. Strengthening this muscle will assist with keeping your pelvis aligned. It is quite often used for eliminating knee and back pain as when the muscle is weak, it causes the hips to cock out to the side which puts the lower back into play and also can put the knee out of optimum biomechanical alignment. You will feel the burn on this one!
This is a great exercise to do if you are having any sort of problems with your knees or ankles. The TRX squat allows you to lean back into the exercise and get tension more through your hamstrings and glutes as opposed to your knees while also keeping your ankles and knees in a more neutral position.
Dead lifts are considered to be one of – if not THE BEST exercises. The basic premise is that you are lifting a dead weight from the floor. It has many variations and can be mixed up to co-inside with your workout requirements. Using a kettle bell allows to mix up the positioning of the weight to be more central to your mass.
This is a great exercise for those who struggle to get those glutes to work and also to keep them in an activated state. The bridging component helps keep tension on the glutes to ensure they keep you in the right position!
To make this one more challenging, you can add weight onto your hips.
Do you know how to activate your glutes? Do you know how to tuck them? This exercise is definitely one that can help you with this! A very simple exercise that can be done practically anywhere.. except for may be a public toilet floor… for.. well obvious reasons.
Want to make this exercise more challenging? Add weights to your pelvis. Gentlemen mind your bits!
Getting our glutes to work can sometimes be tricky work. This exercise focuses on extending the hip so you can give the glutes a good squeeze. By going single leg, it means there is more weight for the glute to lift.
To make this exercise a touch easier, you can cross your floating legs ankle across your working legs knee.
To make it more challenging you can place a small weight across your hips (gentlemen – watch your bits!).
The silent stealthy killer! Pulse n Stands seem pretty good at first – not so much by the end! Just like sitting down in a chair, the Pulse n Stand is about engaging those glutes and hamstrings to control your descent and using your quad engagement at the correct part of the movement.
It is important to ensure that your knees don’t collapse inwards while doing this exercise and don’t forget to squeeze and engage your glutes otherwise your back will try and engage!
The Stiff Leg Dead Lift is a fantastic exercise to really target those hamstrings and glutes. By focusing on keeping your back straight and envisioning that your hips are the only joint that moves, you will get the most out of this exercise.
Big thing on this one – try not to hyper-extend or lock out your knees.
Kettlebell swings are a fantastic exercise to get those glutes firing. Surprisingly you don’t need to do a great deal with this exercise though lots of people make it harder than what it needs to be. The secret to this exercise is to only use your hips. Your arms are like rope and your hands are like hooks. There is no effort from your shoulders. The momentum you build comes from you thrusting your hips forward as quick as you can!
I love how many people LOVE to hate this exercise.. even though they know how effective it is for hip stabilisation! It’s important that you keep your back nice and straight and that you don’t fish for the ground by compromising your neutral spine in order to reach for the ground. If you do this side on to a mirror, ensure that your working leg is closest to the mirror. That way, if you see your non working glute in the mirror, it means you have lost form. Hide that glute and keep your hips square!
This exercise is a variation of a TRX Pistol Squat or a TRX Sprinter Squat. No TRX? No problem! Simply find something you can loop a towel around and BAM – you have a great set up to work your glutes and hamstrings!
Ahh TRX pistol squats… so much hate for an exercise so so good. Well hate is a strong word but not many of my clients get excited when I advise it’s next on the program but they definitely don’t deny that they do the trick for glute and hamstrings!
Tips for this exercise are pretty simple.
1. Try and make it so that your weight is not simply being lowered to the ground, direct your weight on a diagonal behind you and down. This will put emphasis on your hamstring and glutes
2. Don’t forget to tuck your hips and squeeze your glutes.
3. Don’t use your arms. You hands are like hooks and arms are like ropes. They are simply allowing you to lean back for the movement.
The Leg Press has often had a bad reputation in the gym. Elitists mocking it because EVERYONE SHOULD SQUAT. Yeah, whatever ya big meat heads.
The Leg press has a multitude of uses that make it a fantastic piece of equipment. You can go much heavier than with squats, you can use it for rehabilitation.. the list can go on.
Ensuring that your back isn’t copping the load is important and remember – it shouldn’t matter how heavy you lift.. we want a weight that does the job. You’d be surprised as to how many people lift too heavy and don’t get the full benefits of the Leg Press!