Is there such a thing like THE “most important” muscle?
When you look at the fitness and longevity space, there are tons of good information
out there.
Yes, you want to be reasonably strong and maintain muscle especially getting older.
Mobility and movement is key because what can you do with all the muscles if you can’t really move well. Not to say that muscles and mobility are contradict each others. Absolutely not!
You should also care about increasing your HRV (Heart Rate Variability). HRV is basically a number that represents your body’s resilience against stress (physical and mental). The fitter you are the less energy your body spends on recovery. It’s an important metric. A topic for another day.
What makes us, humans unique, is the way we walk.
Humans are bipedals. Walking upright on two legs and the opposite limbs are connected to each other, making walking seamless.
Anatomically speaking, there are a few unique features that we have as humans: the pelvis is stabilising the spine, the spine shifts the body’s center of gravity over the hips, the legs and the feet have a special ability to balance and push forward.
So if we consider all of these things I can make the argument that the most important muscle is the gluteals muscles.
However, the gluteals are part of a larger group of muscles the posterior oblique sling,
which basically connects the opposite arm to the opposite leg through the connective tissue.
The posterior oblique sling is key for stability and transferring power between upper and lower body.
In simple terms, everything that humans do: walking, running, throwing, and anything powerful, the posterior sling is contributing to.
A weakly performing posterior sling can cause a host of issues like lower back pain, hip issues, pelvic pain, or hamstring problems.
How to train the gluteals?
Firstly, you want to connect these muscles and NOT to isolate the gluteals too much. The gluteals are NOT independent from the body, they are connected to the core and lats.
So you want to improve the “communication” between these muscles. By connecting these muscles the gluteals are not just producing force but resist at the same time. The latter is key for injury resilience.
This will lead to improved core stability, stable pelvis, and better connection between upper and lower body for the above mentioned real life activities.
Training tips:
Warm up: include 2-3 exercises that address some of these areas together.
-Bird dog drag (like Gosia shows here)
-Marching Bridges w core stability (Clients are warming up with this)
-Marching KB Presses
Main session: A few, more foundational examples of full body strength training that incorporates the gluetals to the core and upper body. I didn’t want to show to overly complicated ones. These exercises are easily accessible to most beginners especially with the right coaching.
Front Loaded Good Mornings (are a safe way to learn to hip hinge and create a stable core)
Inverted Rows (upper body exercise with a huge emphasis on stabilising the pelvis and engaging the feet and gluteals together)
Lateral Plank Drags: a fantastic way to teach the entire body to stabilise and making those connections between upper and lower body, the slower you go with the drag the better.
KB Goblet Squat: A perfect way to integrate the grip, core and pelvic stability during the squat just by creating tension against the kettlebell.
Find out how we can coach you to get strong, fit and healthy by joining our 6 Weeks Kickstarter Program HERE!