Good morning exercise!

So it's morning and there's only so much time for exercise, so what's the fastest way to a better glutes and Abd's to prevent injury to your back at home? Well according to the latest EMG research studies here is a few exercises for your core and hips that activate the majority of muscle fibers. You can see some of the exercises cross over on their firing ability and make it easy to get these muscles stronger.

Abdominals:

1) Swiss ball push-ups- can do without ball in modified or regular push-up position, remember to pull in your low tummy muscles, you can feel these muscles where you would put your hands in your pants pockets.

2) Swiss ball Front plank- can do without ball as well on elbows or hands. Hold position and pull in the low tummy muscles which are the Transverse Abdominis muscle as you do it.

3) Side plank for oblique abdominals

Posterior Gluteus Maximus:

1) Forward step up

2) Single limb deadlift

3) Single limb squat

4) Wall squats

Lateral hip muscles:

1) Side plank

2) Single leg dead lift

3) Single leg squats

4) Side hip lifts

Your back needs protection and support and your abdominal muscles and gluti muscles provide that for your body. Your abdominal muscles support the anterior core and give a counterforce to your back. They wrap around the lateral part of the trunk and stabilize all the way into the layers of the pelvic floor via myofascial tissue. Any dynamic motions of lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling require these muscles to know how to contract otherwise you can hurt your back. Degenerative changes occur when we are not mechanically firing our abdominal and gluti muscles well to support and protect the back.

The gluti muscles are just as important as well. There are posterior and lateral gluti muscles. The posterior group is the biggest group with the Gluteus Maximus and Hamstrings as prime movers. The lateral gluti are made up of three main muscles: the Gluteus Medius, Gluteus Minimus and TFL which stabilize the pelvic girdle in single leg positions whether walking or running.

If one leg is only on the ground the lateral hip muscles are responsible for good pelvic girdle control in the frontal plane, so they must be strong otherwise your IT band is overworked and becomes too tight. So check your lateral hip muscles and see how strong they are if your IT band is too tight it could be one of the reasons you are having trouble.

These quick easy ways to wake-up these muscles and keep your back safe this summer while hiking with backpack, water skiing, wake boarding and paddle boarding. Take care of your back, you need it to be healthy.

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Sheree DiBiase, PT, is the owner of Lake City Physical Therapy and she and her amazing staff are happy to help you make your body better Call us in Coeur d'Alene at (208) 667-1999, in Hayden at (208) 762-2100 and in the Spokane Valley at (509) 891-2623.