How can I build strong glutes postpartum?

Even prior to babies I had no booty. I did all the hip thrusts and glute bridges, but still - pancake. I also had a ton of glute pain and a tight pelvic floor. Correlation? Let’s dive in.

If you want to build a strong booty, have a happy pelvic floor and hips, and reduce deep butt and back pain, then it’s important to consider four key steps to glute training postpartum, or anytime.

Build awareness around glute gripping/stop clenching

A lot of mamas I work with grip down with the glutes. Clenching or tucking the booty under creates a lot of compression in the low back and pelvis, reduces the availability of the pelvic floor, and contributes to SI joint pain, low back discomfort, etc.

Why does glute gripping happen? During pregnancy, mamas often take on postural shifts and adaptations due to a growing belly and a shifting center of mass. We are quite literally, being pulled forward all the time. This often leads to tucking the pelvis and butt under and taking on a more swayback presentation, creating a sense of stability. This postural change in itself changes the appearance of your butt. Your muscles may actually look flatter without an actual change in size.

Check out this post to learn more about glute gripping and the video below to understand why having a tight butt matters.

Open the back of the pelvis/pelvic floor to create space

First up, we need to open the back of the pelvis/pelvic floor before we can load and add in more strength work. If the back of your hip is TIGHT, it's really hard to get the full range of motion (internal and external rotation).

To help your low back, hips, pelvic floor, and booty feel great we need to first start by: 

1. Creating space in the back of the hip: we need range to shift and load into. 

2. Breathe down into the body and pelvic floor. Let that sh*t go. I often talk about butth@le breathing, and this is just that!

This is where breathing becomes key. We can use positions and breath to help facilitate expansion around the pelvis and back body to free the tail (sacrum) and open the backside. Essentially we are creating more space. I often tell clients that when that “space” opens up, you just know. It’s like the space between the sit bones just spreads and it feels amazing.

Goal: When the pelvic floor can let go, the sacrum can nutate (think dog tail up), we can access more internal rotation, and a hinge can happen. Glutes can actually be set up to work!

Moms are often told they need to improve hip internal rotation. But, if the back of the hip is super tight, you likely won’t see much improvement. Give some of these breathing exercises a try.

Practice finding length / Eccentric work

Once we have the available space, we need to practice finding length through the glutes, rather than gripping the backside and finding length from somewhere else, like the low back. Lengthen to strengthen.

A great exercise to practice this is a rockback, maintaining a stacked position. Only go until you can't maintain the length on the back side. You can add challenge by doing this in a standing hinge variations.

Load it up

Many moms are told they are limited in hip internal rotation (often related to pelvis position + tight glutes). After you’ve created space in the back of your pelvis, we can use strength exercises to own that new range to build strength. This is one way we can work on improving available internal rotation. I love focusing on:

• Loading internal rotation

• Loading through a full range of motion (internal and external rotation)

I often use single leg hinge variations, cable hinge, or split squats with rotation to load this range. I’ve included some examples below. If you feel pinching in the front of the hip, it’s likely because you don’t have the available internal rotation and cannot open through the backside/get the femur translating back. If you feel your low back, tune in to pressure through your feet (loading through your mid-foot) and being able to lengthen + open up the backside of the pelvis. Only go to your available range.

Extra challenge: piece it all together and take the glute through it’s full range of motion. I love a rotating towel roll hinge or airplane variations. Essentially you're lengthening and then contracting the glutes. Win win. 

Once I learned how to let go of the backside, lengthen the glutes, and load up the glutes through their full range of motion, I saw HUGE changes in glute gains, a decrease in pelvic floor symptoms, and happier hips.

Ready to explore some of these exercises? You’ll see some of the breathwork and eccentric work within BUILDCore. I also offer 1:1 training virtually + in person postpartum training in San Diego.

Feel good mama. And remember - let that ish go!

xoxo,

Erica