Top 5 Mistakes seen during the Glute Bridge

Top 5 mistakes to avoid during your Glute bridges, and how we like to see them done.

Happy strong glutes are the key to so many of our daily activities - running, bending, lifting , and even just getting off a chair. They help to keep your hips healthy, and they can stabilise the pelvis and low back to reduce those aches and pains.

If however you think your glutes are a little bit lacking or have been told to “get off your lazy butt and do something!” - what can you do?

Well, with a simple “Glute Bridge” exercise you can stop the lazy butt, build some strength and get happy again. Easy right?

Well yes it can be, when done right.

SO what are the most common mistakes we want you to avoid:

1. Going too high and overarching the low back. This exercise is about the hip extension abilities of the glutes - not about the low back extension. Do too much of the low back extension and you could end up aggravating your low back. So leave it out. Lift your pelvis off the ground - but no higher then if you had a plank of wood going from your knee to your shoulder.

2. Letting the hamstrings do all the work. Now we all know that lazy people let others do more of the work - the glutes are the same. If your hamstrings are always helping out during normal activities - they are going to get involved here as well. SO - you need to figure out a way to get the glutes taking over more of the responsibility - we show you a couple of ways in a minute.

3. Losing control of your middle (rib cage flare and using the back muscles too much). You will notice that in some cases the lower ribs start popping up towards the sky at the top of the bridge. This often happens as you let your stomach muscles relax too much (they typically pull your rib cage down towards your pelvis and vice versa) and loose your low back bracing. It can also be due to too much back extension - using the big powerful muscles of the lower back to arch the low back as you raise your hips off the floor. Both of these are mistakes that you can easily focus on and change.

4. Speeding through the movement (especially on the way back down). There is no race to get through the reps - we are after activation and strength. A lot muscle strength is built through eccentric contraction of muscles (which just means taking a shortened contracted muscle and slowly letting it get longer in a controlled fashion - like lowering your butt back to the floor)

5. Not varying your bridges as you improve - dont just keep doing the same style forever. Progress - challenge yourself once you are able to show good form repeatedly. You body loves to adapt and change - so try it out.

Now lets watch Rachael Simpson show us how we like them done:

As always if pain persists please don't hesitate to call Ash on 02 5310 6259 to book an appointment or book online at www.bodyandspinesolutions.com.au.

Cheers

Andrew