The glutes are incredibly powerful; they also can be extremely lazy. Many people have inactive glutes, where their muscles simply have forgotten how to function correctly. Guess what leads to? A flat butt, and posture problems.
An inactive gluteus tightens hip flexors and curves the spine, throwing off posture and causing pain. These pictures depict 2 types of lower cross syndrome.
WHY ARE THE GLUTES SO IMPORTANT IN RUNNERS?
Some may have pain, some may not: Dead Butt Syndrome. Technically, the name of the condition is gluteus medius tendinosis – an inflammation of the tendons in the gluteus medius, one of the three large muscles that make up the butt. It is a very isolated pain that can knock one out of their marathon training with stabbing pain in the hips. If you have been giving yourself excuses that you have so much running to train for and didn’t have time for the exercise machines or weights, you blame no one but yourself.
Imagine your pelvis as a cup, the muscles attach to it, including the three gluteal muscles and lower abdominals. The gluteus muscle collectively consist of, gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. The glute max is primarily our chief hip extensor, the glute medius and minimus are abductors and rotators of the limb. They interact in an intricate choreography to keep the cup upright when you squat, run and walk. If these muscles are balanced and strong, the cup stays in place with no pain.
If one or more of those muscles are weak, the small muscles around the hip take on pressure they weren’t designed to bear, we compensate. The cup still stays up, but at a price.
If we have glute max weakness, we might compensate by increasing our lordosis in our lumbar spine aka low back. By increasing our lumbar lordosis, we put undue stress on our disc, vertebrae and erector spinae muscles. Besides, being the primary hip extensors, when weakened, there will be a decrease in hip extension, affecting the running gait. The glut max being a large muscle pushes the ground down and back to create power when we run.
The glute medius and glute minimus are crucial for keeping the pelvis level while running. If these muscles are weak, our pelvis will drop while running, especially when you are in single leg stance while running. When your pelvis drops and your leg will cross midline, creating possible knock knees and over straining your low back as your pelvic sways.
When extra wear and tear happens, first come muscle tears and inflammation, followed by scar tissue in the muscle. If left untreated, this process becomes a cycle that keeps feeding into itself. Inhibited gluteus muscles won’t fire properly, and over time, they’ll get weaker. This is called muscle atrophy, making your behind looks flatter and slaggy. Not to mention make those squats routine feel way harder than they use to.
When you neglect the glutes, other muscles including the hamstring, quads, and calves will take over your workouts and become disproportionately stronger. Such imbalances lead to your poor running form, negatively affecting your performance.
Many choose to run through the pain. And many compensate by adjusting their strides in a way that impedes the gait and can lead to problems in the hips, legs, heels, ankles, feet or toes. When the big muscle isn’t pulling back its weight, the pressure and force relocates to those weaker spots.
Stretching is as important as strengthening all the muscle groups, as tight muscles can inhibit the performance of neighbouring muscles. For example, tight hip flexors can restrict the glutes and inhibit proper firing of the muscle fibers, which means that your back or hamstring muscles may fire first during a run, which is incorrect.
Maybe you are experiencing some sort of low back pain? Perhaps, you have a really tight hamstring running down the back of your legs? These could already be a sign.
