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Most of the time, tight glutes are something to be proud of. After all, that’s why we’ve been doing those heavy squats and burn-inducing lunges, right?
So it seems kind of counterintuitive to loosen the very muscles we’ve worked so hard to build.
But this kind of reasoning is one of the many reasons the glutes tend to be an afterthought when it comes to stretching. We work on flexibility for our hamstrings, quadriceps, and even hip flexors, but we tend to leave the glutes to their own devices.
In fact, we may not even realize our tight glutes may be limiting not only our range of motion, but also our performance.
In this post we’re going to look at several reasons you might want to give your glutes a little stretching TLC – and don’t worry, none of it will interfere with their firmness.
Just like any other muscle, the glute muscles can become shortened over time by too much sitting and also not using them through their full range of motion.
Sitting is especially detrimental to glute performance, whether that performance is picking up heavy pots in your garden or doing heavy squats in the gym.
This is because sitting weakens the glute muscles and shortens the hip flexors, which leads to the lower back taking over during activities that require bending.
It also limits your range of motion during exercises like the squat and bridge, which require flexibility in both the glutes and hip flexors.
In severe cases, lack of mobility in the glutes and hips can also result in piriformis syndrome, categorized by severe pain and tingling in the piriformis muscle of the buttocks, which helps the hips rotate.
Even in cases piriformis syndrome, one of the basic recommendations to treat glute pain and tightness is to stretch and massage the area (1).
Luckily, several hip stretches will relieve glute tightness and pain.
You’ll notice many of these hip flexor stretches also help lengthen the hip flexors, which is a critical part of the formula when it comes to increasing glute and hip mobility.
Before we get started, though, it’s important to notice that you don’t want to go into any static stretching sequence with cold muscles. In the same way that we warm our cars up to dissolve frost and snow in the winter, we want to warm our body and get heat and blood circulating.
Dynamic stretches are the best way to do this, because they not only get our blood circulating, but also help increase range of motion.
Before your stretching routine, try and complete roughly 5 minutes of the following dynamic stretches, which will prep your muscles.
1. Leg Swings
Leg swings are perfect for warming up your glutes and hips before a round of deep stretching.
Performing Leg swings
2. Front Lunge
Performing Front Lunges
3. Bridge
The bridge will get your glutes and hamstrings firing, while also engaging your core and warming up your lower back.
Performing the Bridge
Now that your muscles are warm, let’s get into those glute stretches.
1. Pigeon Pose
Pigeon pose (also a yoga pose) is a powerful stretch for releasing the glutes and the hip flexors.
2. Pretzel Stretch
3. Twisting Glute Stretch
4. Seated Leg Cradle
5. Deep Lunge
6. Stacked Knee (Cow Face) Glute Stretch
7. Leg Crossover
8. Happy Baby Pose
9. Couch Stretch
Each of these hip stretches can be supplemented with different types of equipment to deepen your stretch, or further loosen tight glutes. I’ve outlined some of your options.
Straps
Yoga straps can be used to either deepen a glute stretch or assist you in working up to a full stretch, depending on how you use them.
For example, to deepen the pretzel stretch, wrap your yoga strap around the thigh of the foot you have on the ground and pull it toward your chest. This will assist in lifting this leg close to your chest, which will then deepen the glute stretch felt in the opposite leg.
Check out this blog post for 6 more strap stretches to soothe your muscle tension.
Foam Roller
Foam rolling is a way to basically give yourself a deep tissue massage at home. If you feel like stretching isn’t getting deep enough into your glute muscles to loosen a spot of tension, try adding a foam roller to your routine.
Want more foam roller exercise ideas? Check out this blog post.
Lacrosse Ball
Lacrosse balls, or massage balls as they’re sometimes called, offer similar benefits to foam rollers, but their smaller size makes it a little easier to isolate tense areas.
Try this easy glute massage using a lacrosse ball:
Get more ideas here.
These tools and stretches for glutes will ease any tension and tightness you may experience from lack of flexibility and excessive sitting.
You may also notice an increase in performance and better squat mobility once you start to open up your glutes and hips – a win-win alongside pain relief.
Yuri Elkaim is one of the world’s most trusted health and fitness experts. A former pro soccer player turned NYT bestselling author of The All-Day Energy Diet and The All-Day Fat Burning Diet, his clear, science-backed advice has transformed the lives of more than 500,000 men and women and he’s on a mission to help 100 million people by 2040. Read his inspiring story, “From Soccer to Bed to No Hair on My Head” that started it all.