Flat Butt / Glutes? Start To Work It With Ideal Posture

Do you want a bit of "junk in the trunk"? A bit more booty? Are you quad dominant and struggle to "activate" your glutes and hamstrings? Have you tried "bridges", "clams", lunges, squats, step-ups and all other "butt building" exercises...all to no avail?

This video I made with Lisa Petersen from Key To Life Health and Fitness will show you how to get some shape into your glutes without tilting your pelvis or sticking your bottom out.

Key points:

1. You need a slight lordosis and kyphosis. Flat spines are not ideal.

2. Note that I never told her to pull her shoulders back. This is because your shoulders sit on your rib cage. Lisa leans back through her upper back so the shoulders will round. When I get her thorax upright, her shoulders will sit better if all the muscles haven't adapted to shortened positions. For more information on NOT pulling your shoulder back, please click here...

3. Breastbone over pubic bone is a good cue but the rib cage should look upright like a beautiful vase, not angled back or forwards.

4. Note that I don't tell her to tilt her pelvis forwards or backwards. That's because she didn't need it and correction of her over her hips places her in a good position. A good rule of thumb is pubic bone in the same vertical plane as the ASIS'. Some say ASIS' and PSIS' level but you can have 15deg of difference and still be ok.

5. When Lisa gets into the right posture, she has a much more upright posture from the ground up and her glutes rounded nicely and the hamstrings were more equal to the quads in activation.

6. When we did lunges (not on the video) and squats, minor changes in technique and starting with this posture allowed her to work the glutes and hamstrings much better.

This information is obviously simplistic - please see a qualified health professional for more advice...but try to find one who keeps it simple. You shouldn't have to "activate" a lot of muscles if you are generally healthy and play sport.

Thanks to Lisa from Key To Life Health and Fitness (www.keytolife.net.au) for asking the question and being the model.

I would love to hear your favorite cues for correcting posture.