Muscle above to the side of glut. max

R

RhiannonW

Cathlete
Is the muscle above to the outside of the gluteus maximus called the gluteus minimus?
Mine is overdeveloped. What can I do?
Currently I do 4 days step cardio 60 minutes and 2 days total body weights. My goal is to maintain but would like to tweak a few areas - the above mentioned area being one of them. I have the dancer dent, but a flat glut. max. I'm working on increasing the maximus with squats/wts. Is this increasing the minimus also?
Would replacing step with another cardio type help this?
Thank you!
 
The gluteus medius is the muscle that sits towards the top and more out towards the side of the hip area. The primary action of this muscle is to abduct the hip. The primary action of the gluteus maximus is hip extension, but some of the fibers contribute to hip abduction and hip adduction, also.

Higher volume lifting and plyo cardio are the best ways to develop the glute maximus. Stepping is actually a very good hip extension exercise. What you may have to do, though, is to pre-exhaust the glute maximus with some isolation work before doing your squats and lunges. The maximus is a very strong muscle, so it is difficult to overload it optimally without overwhelming the quads and hamstrings in compound exercises like squats and lunges. Try doing hip extension exercises like hands and knees leg lifts to the rear with ankle weights before you hit the standing exercises.

Let me know what happens!
Maribeth
 
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Aug-16-02 AT 04:04PM (Est)[/font][p]THANK YOU for responding so quickly!!!!!
Should I avoid abduction lifts with weights to keep from working the medius? Anything else I should avoid(like side plie squats?), or should I just do more for the maximus to overcompensate the medius?
 
Don't stop working the medius--it is a very important muscle in terms of gait and pelvic stabilization. Focus on hitting your maximus a bit more or differently first and see what happens.

Take care!
Maribeth
 
In a different post BODY PULLS ENERGY FROM WHERE? you said to let you know if the glute training doesn't progress as I would like. There are a few techniques that I might find helpful to add to my program. Would you share those with me now? I'd like to begin incorporating them today.

You're so wonderful, Maribeth! Thank you for giving me some of your time and expertise.
 
Rhiannon,
Thank you for the kind words! One of my favorite techniques for really thoroughly fatiguing the glute max is known as pre-exhaust. Because the glutes are so large and strong, it can be difficult to overload them effectively without overwhelming the quads in exercises like squats and lunges.

The way pre-exhaust works is to perform a relative isolation exercise for a specific muscle group before doing compound exercises. An example with the glutes would be to do hands and knees hip extensions with an ankle weight to pre-exhaust, then doing your squats. By performing the squats last, the glutes are already fatigued, making the weight that is limited to what your quads can handle on the squat more challenging to the glutes.

Let me know how it goes!
Maribeth
 
Doesn't really seem like you could build up one part of your gluteals while simultaneously tearing down another part of the gluteals. What does an overdeveloped gluteal mimimus look like?? Does it protrude from your sides or is it just bigger than you would like it?? Is what you refer to as the "dancer dent" the cut in the gluteal when you raise your leg to do like, outer thigh sweeps??
 
The gluteals are three different muscles. The maximus has distinctly different actions than the medius and minimus. Yes, it is possible to develop the medius without seeing the same degree of development in the maximus for a couple of reasons.

First, the primary action of the medius is to abduct the hip. It also acts as a rotator. The primary action of the maximus is to extend the hip, although certain fibers of the maximus contribute to abduction and adduction (upper and lower respectively) and their degree of involvement with abduction and adduction will depend on the position of the leg.

Second, the maximus is a much larger muscle, meaning that workloads will have to be much greater to fully develop it. What works as progressive overload for the medius won't likely do the same for the maximus.

What is virtually impossible is to try to totally isolate one muscle and work it alone. At best, the isolation exercises are relative isolation, meaning that you emphasize one muscle over another by positioning and/or primary action.

We train the maximus and medius separately in physical therapy frequently. Typically, what we see is gluteus medius weakness, but in dancers and runners, we may find the opposite. Through proper exercise selection, we are able to correct the imbalances.

Maribeth
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top