The Glutes (Gluteus Maximus, Medius and Minimus) are one of the largest and most important muscle groups in the entire body. Our latest blog post focuses on three banded glute exercises that will help to prevent lower body injury and improve athletic performance.

These three glute exercises will help to build a strong and injury resistant body.

Check out three more exercises to activate your glutes here!

GLUTE EXERCISE #1: MONSTER WALKS

Monster Walks are a great hip abductor (gluteus medius and minimus) strength building exercise using resistance bands.

Here’s how to do it:

Wrap a band (or two) either above your knee or above your ankles.
Create resistance in the band by stepping your feet hip width apart.
Sink your hips down into a mini squat position.
Keeping stable in your midsection, take 10-15 exaggerated steps forward and then repeat the same number of steps backwards.
Maintain tension in the band(s) at all times.

GLUTE EXERCISE #2: SPLIT STANCE HIP OPENER

The Split Stance Hip Opener is a great way to train hip and pelvis disassociation which is a very important movement pattern to overall lower body function. You can use one or two resistance bands. In this variation, we use two resistance bands to further challenge the deep hip muscles.

Here’s How To Do It:

Place one band above your knee and the another just above your ankle.
Position your legs in a split stance position with an 80/20 front/back leg weight distribution. You should be able to lift the back foot relatively easy if need be with the amount of weight you have on the front leg.
While maintaining good torso alignment, the hip of the front leg resists the pull of the bands as the pelvis opens, allowing the back leg slowly pivots outwards.
Return back to the start position in a controlled manner.
Repeat 15-20 reps each side for 1-3 sets.

The key to this exercise is to load the front leg and hip to generate the pelvis movement while simultaneously resisting the knee from collapsing inwards.