drtbear1967
Musclechemistry Board Certified Member
Ever wonder what the BEST glute med weight-bearing exercises are? Look no further than this infographic. In order, it’s the:
.
Side Bridge
Single Leg Squat
Single Leg Deadlift
Pelvic Drop
.
This is from a systematic review by Reinman et al 2011. I'm going to highlight some takeaways below.
.
As you guys may know, we are in love with the sidebridge/sideplank, not only for its core and GLUTE MED recruitment but also its role in teaching proximal scapular stability. It's often categorized as "just a core exercise", but it is so much more than that!
.
The primary role of the glute med is to act as a multi-planar hip stabilizer. That being said glute med activity increased from a forward lunge --> side lunge --> curtsey lunge.
.
Furthermore, exercises like a quadruped bird dog or a unilateral bridge also required lots of glute med activation as a hip stabilizer. Moral of this is to always progress your lower extremity rehab and S&C exercise from the sagittal to the frontal, and lastly the transverse plane as each progression requires more triplanar hip stability.
.
The side lying hip abduction exercise demonstrated the highest EMG activity for the glute med of ANY TABLE EXERCISE. To be exact, it was right after the 4 exercises above. Therefore, if your clients can't perform any of these body weight movements, the sidelying hip abduction exercise is a GREAT alternative for targeting the glute med.
.
If you can do ANY exercise (lunge, squat, deadlift) with load, is it going to be better than these bodyweight exercise? DUH. Just dropping some knowledge for you to incorporate into your programming. Taking this information, you now know giving your client a 30lb single leg squat will achieve higher glute max activation than a 30lb single leg deadlift. Cheers and happy glute gainz!
.
.
Side Bridge Single Leg Squat Single Leg Deadlift Pelvic Drop.
This is from a systematic review by Reinman et al 2011. I'm going to highlight some takeaways below.
.
As you guys may know, we are in love with the sidebridge/sideplank, not only for its core and GLUTE MED recruitment but also its role in teaching proximal scapular stability. It's often categorized as "just a core exercise", but it is so much more than that!
.
The primary role of the glute med is to act as a multi-planar hip stabilizer. That being said glute med activity increased from a forward lunge --> side lunge --> curtsey lunge.
.
Furthermore, exercises like a quadruped bird dog or a unilateral bridge also required lots of glute med activation as a hip stabilizer. Moral of this is to always progress your lower extremity rehab and S&C exercise from the sagittal to the frontal, and lastly the transverse plane as each progression requires more triplanar hip stability.
.
The side lying hip abduction exercise demonstrated the highest EMG activity for the glute med of ANY TABLE EXERCISE. To be exact, it was right after the 4 exercises above. Therefore, if your clients can't perform any of these body weight movements, the sidelying hip abduction exercise is a GREAT alternative for targeting the glute med.
.
If you can do ANY exercise (lunge, squat, deadlift) with load, is it going to be better than these bodyweight exercise? DUH. Just dropping some knowledge for you to incorporate into your programming. Taking this information, you now know giving your client a 30lb single leg squat will achieve higher glute max activation than a 30lb single leg deadlift. Cheers and happy glute gainz!
.
Last edited by a moderator:
