The Best Exercises for Shooters:
Amber English, Shotgun National Team Glutes What are the gluteal muscles (the glutes)?
The gluteal muscles comprise three distinct muscles: the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the body. It is not only a powerful hip extensor but is a key stabilizer of the hip, spine and sacroiliac joints (SIJ). The gluteus medius and gluteus minimus are powerful hip abductors (moving your leg out to the side). They also function to stabilize your pelvis when you stand on one leg, walk or run. Depending on the starting position of your hip, they also assist with hip rotation. All three muscles function to stabilize the hip and control rotation and abduc- tion/adduction of the leg.
BY CATHY ARNOT USOC PHYSIOTHERAPIST
Why is it important to have strong gluteals? In our modern day society, we spend too many hours sitting in a chair and our glutes tend to become weak. This is a problem because weak glutes have been implicated in low back pain, sacroiliac dysfunction, ITB friction syndrome, patellofemoral pain and recur- rent ankle sprains. There are many exercises that you can perform to strengthen the glutes but some are better than others. The following exercises have been shown by electromyography (EMG) to activate the glutes at a high level.
March 2014 | USA Shooting News 55
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