Every day is glute day...and other stories from the #BattleOfTheBooty

10/18/2016

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As some of you know, I recently returned to San Francisco from China, where I had been working as a physio for the Chinese Olympic teams in prep for Rio. In China, the cultural standard of beauty for women is to be small and thin- no curves, no muscles, and definitely NO butt. As a result of this, it was nearly impossible to convince ANY female athlete to do their glute/hip strengthening exercises. “But I don’t want to get a big butt! Big butt not cute!” was the common complaint. It was like. Pulling. Teeth. As a result, the first FULL phrase I learned in Chinese was NOT “Hi, how are you?” or “Nice to meet you!” or any number of other useful phrases one typically learns when starting a new language…the first phrase I learned was “Every day is GLUTE day!” This was much more useful for me and my line of work..I used it at LEAST 10 times per day, way more often than the other standard phrases. I would run around the gym, excitedly exclaiming “every day is glute day! Every day is glute day!” While the Chinese athletes and their coaches looked incredulously at each other, wondering who the white girl was who wanted everyone to grow big butts. This was one of the biggest recurrent battles I fought in China (#battleofthebooty??)

Luckily, in working with circus artists in predominantly western cultures, I don’t encounter the same resistance to glute work. In America specifically, we really love big butts…this makes my work SO much easier. Thanks, sir mix-a-lot. My #battleofthebooty here is much different. Typically, many circus artists I work with are already incorporating glute training into their warm up and/or conditioning…however, what I see being done to train glutes is not usually the most effective or efficient methods for glute training for circus arts. SO- this post will discuss the common errors in glute strengthening in circus arts, and a few options for exercises that may be more circus-specific.

The Problem with Traditional Glute Training

Squats and lunges are some of the most common “traditional” exercises that we do to target glutes. The problem with these is that during these exercises, the hip moves from a neutral position to a flexed position, and then returns to neutral. In many activities in performing arts, we need our glutes to be strong in EXTENSION (leg behind you), not flexion. Examples of how our glutes need to be strong in extension:

Squaring our splits (back leg)
Supporting our hips and spine in a back bend
Arabesque
Active inverted leg flexibility: handstand splits/straddle, or inverted splits/straddle on an apparatus

If you think about the positioning of our legs in the above tricks, and then think about squats and lunges, you can see that there is limited similarity to how glutes work in squats, and how they work in an arabesque. Specificity of training is important in all sports, but is especially tricky in performing arts, since we’re…ahem…slightly different than the “average” athlete, and have very unique requirements of our bodies.

The Problem with Glute Training in Performing Arts

In performing arts, we like to train our glutes in positions like these:

What’s wrong with these exercises? Nothing. They are great total-body exercises. What they are NOT is glute-specific. Lets take a step back and talk about the natural tendencies of our #circusbooties before moving forward...

First of all, left to their own devices, our glutes prefer to do as little work as possible. They’re lazy, and not team players. You know that kid in high school who you didn’t want to get stuck with on a group project, because they never pulled their weight? Yeah, that’s our glutes.

The problem with these exercises is that it is REALLY easy to substitute by using our low back muscles. Our low back muscles are the overachiever in class, that always does TOO much and picks up the slack for the lazy kid on the group project. What all of these exercises have in common is that they are done with our backs arched- spinal extension. This is a position that our back muscles are very comfortable in, and therefore kick in extra. As a result? Glutes don’t tend to activate as much as they should. So, while these exercises are not inherently bad, they do not tend to bias our glutes- especially for those of us who KNOW we have difficulty with activating our glutes.

So...what do I do to get my #circusbooty working??

The following are a few of my favorite starter exercises for ACTIVATING your lazy #circusbooty, while putting the low back muscles in a position that makes it near impossible to cheat with them. These are also positions that are much more functional for us as circus artists- most of these are either with the hip in end range extension, or neutral…not the same flexed position as in squats and lunges.

Childs Pose Glute Progression

This is one of my favorite glute activation exercises for performing artists. I was originally inspired by one of Dave Tilley’s posts on his website, www.shiftmovementscience.com. I started using it in China and saw AMAZING results. It’s also an incredibly versatile exercise that can be adapted multiple ways.

GLUTE MAX BIAS:

Start on the floor in a one-legged childs pose, one leg behind you, both arms in front of you, sitting on your back heel. First, straighten your leg all the way. Then, keeping it straight, lift it off the ground. Hold 5-10 seconds, then relax. DO NOT come up off your heel. DO NOT let your hips tilt.

GLUTE MED BIAS:

Next, in the same starting position, bring your leg out to the side, as in middle splits. Start by straightening your leg all the way, then lifting up towards the ceiling. Keep your knee pointed forward, don’t let your leg turn out.

EXTRA CREDIT:
Once you’re feeling confident with these two variations, you can turn it into a ronde-de-jambe. Start with your leg to the back, then circle it to the side.

OMG, I CAN’T LIFT MY LEG OFF THE FLOOR!
Don’t freak out. You’re not a weakling. MANY super strong circus artists CANNOT lift their leg off the floor at all when they start this exercise. A nice modification to start with is doing this on the edge of a panel mat. You can grab on the sides of the panel mat for added stability, and then let your back leg drop off the side. This way, you’re still working your glutes in end-range extension, but in a less intensive way.

KNEE HANG HIP ROTATION (Biasing hip rotators)
Lie on your side, in a knee hang position- knees DIRECTLY under hips. In this position, it’s really important to keep your abs engaged to ensure your low back doesn’t arch. With a theraband around your ankles, lift your top leg off your bottom leg. First, drop your knee as you lift your ankle, then switch, bringing your knee up and your ankle down. As you do this, make sure your pelvis stays stable.

If this is too challenging, bring your knees forward slightly, and do the same rotation exercise from here. Progress to the knee hang position.

Special thanks to Lindsay and Lena for being the best booty models/photographers in the world<3

In Summary...

Proper glute training is SO important in performing arts. Strong glutes will make your circus experience much happier, flexy-er, and probably more pain free. However, this conversation is just the tip of the iceberg. Every circus artist is SO different, and everyone has different limitations, flexibility issues, and weaknesses. If you want to find out more about your specific issues, find a PT!! Or, if you're currently UNinjured, but interested in improving your flexibility and strength in a safe way, schedule a skype session with me!

19.10.2016