Big Butts Saves Lives
The title says it all, having a bigger butt can save your life, #BBSL (Big butts saves lives).
I promise, this is 100% real, not a joke.
Building a bigger and stronger butt will save your life. Maybe not now, but in 10, 20, or 30 years from now, it will save your life.
Now, before I explain why big butts saves lives, lets go over what muscles composes your butt.
Your Butt Muscles
Your butt consists of more muscles than you might think, and they have important roles.
The three main gluteal muscles are:
- Gluteus Maximus
- Gluteus Medius
- Gluteus Minimus
Worthy mentions are the Piriformis and tensor fascia latae (TFL).
How your glutes move
The largest is the gluteus maximus, that is the muscle that everyone thinks of and gets all the love. This muscle is primarily responsible for bringing your leg behind you (hip extension) and pushing your body forward while you walk, run, and jump.
Your gluteus medius is highly underrated and you should show more love so you can have healthy knees and low back.
Why?
Your gluteus medius main responsibility is stabilizing the pelvis during single leg actions like walking, running, stairs, and stabilizing the knee from caving in with these movements.
It can also assist in moving your leg out to the side (abduction).
When you have a weak gluteus medius, the pelvis will shift or rotate causing issues with your low back, hip, and knee.
This is why I said it should receive some more love, because it has a significant role with stabilizing your lower body.
Your gluteus minimus does a combo of assistance with the maximus and the medius and acts as a stabilizer muscle for these two muscles.
I wanted to do a special shout of these muscles because I want you to know that big butts saves lives is more than just size. It is about function and strength. Your hips and the butt muscles can function more than just the sagittal plane.
The sagittal plane, in case you didn’t know, is one of three planes of movement. The sagittal plane is all movement in the forward and backward motion.
Walking, running, deadlifts, squats, bench pressing are examples of being in the sagittal plane. Any movement that puts you in one direction and move weight up/down or forward and backwards is the sagittal plane.
Your other planes of movement are the frontal and transverse plane. The frontal plane is any movement in the side-to-side movement and the transverse plane is rotational movement.
Side planks and lateral squats are examples of the frontal plane. Russian twists and pallof presses are examples for the transverse plane.
I hope that helps explain the planes of movement because it is an important part to understand if you want to move well and be healthy.
Knowing this, you can understand on why you need a combination of leg exercises so you can build your butt. Big butts saves lives is more about function than size.
How Can Big Butts Saves Lives?
Now that you have an understanding what makes up the butt and its functions, let’s talk what happens when you have chronically weak glutes.
Chronically weak glutes do not only mean a small backside, but it also means you are in a dangerous situation. The situation becomes more dire the older you get.
Why?
The older you get with a sedentary lifestyle, you will lose muscle mass, strength, and bone mass.
Three things that protects you when you fall. Older adults are at a considerable risk of falling and getting injured.
Globally, 646,000 individuals fall and die each year, making it the 2nd leading cause of unintentional deaths, worldwide. In the US, 1 out of 4 adults the age of 65 and older will fall each year.
Why is this important?
It’s important so you can avoid having weak glutes with a proper strength training program and a healthy lifestyle.
If you are young, you might not care, but you should. What you do now will directly influence how you move when you are 60+ years old.
Big butts saves lives, it will save your life. Maybe not now, but your future self will thank you for developing that big, functional butt.
Weak glutes are dangerous for you and here is what you can expect having weak glutes:
- Poor posture
- Low back pain
- Hip pain
- Knee issues
- Reduce daily & athletic performance
- Reduced balance and stability
- Compensatory movement patterns (increases risk of joint issues)
- Aesthetic concerns
- Fragile skeletal system
As you can see, weak glutes can cause a load of issues with the body. Further proving that big butts saves lives.
Big Butt Saves Lives Exercises
Good news is that you can prevent from having weak glutes. It takes lifestyle choices and consistent hard work.
As I said before, this is more than how big your butt is. It is also about strength, functionality, and mobility.
You have your traditional exercises like barbell squats and deadlifts, but your glutes need more than that. Remember, you need more than just the sagittal plane.
When training your glutes, you will want to incorporate all three planes of movement. During a phase, have one plane of movement as your big focus and sprinkle in the other two planes of movement. With each phase rotate your priority around so you can all 3 planes of movement in.
It is about balance and slowly during the year you are developing in all three planes of movement versus developing only one.
You can expect great looking glutes and moving and feeling better.
- Lunge variations
- Squat variations
- True single leg exercises
- Step up variations
- Sprints
- Plyometrics
- Kettlebell swings/cleans/snatches
- Heavy sled drives/drags
- Hip thrust/bridge variations
You have options with all the variations to develop new movement skills and get stronger with.
If you are new to lifting and not sure how to even squat or deadlift, check out my other blogs:
Both of those blogs will give you detailed information on form and how to progress from bodyweight to loading heavy.
Looking at the list above, you might notice that not all exercises are about strength or hypertrophy. Instead, it’s about power and explosiveness.
There is an important reason for this.
Butt Power
As you age, power is the first thing to go. Put simply, power is your ability to produce force quickly. Big butts saves lives is not only a strength issue, but also an explosive one. Everyone needs power with their training.
Here are examples of power in your daily activities:
- Running after your toddler
- Jumping away from danger
- Catching yourself from falling
- Tripping from a curb step and quickly catching yourself
- Throwing a ball
There are other examples, but these are common ones for parents. Here is another article going into more details on the why and the how for power development, Deceleration: Building Brakes for your Future.
Your glutes are the main driver for these quick and explosive movements. Train your glutes to be strong and explosive so that it can help you play with your kids, move well, and save your life as you age.
Glute Focused Workout
Big butts saves lives is not just a funny saying, it is a true statement that everyone show know and put into practice.
Thank you for reading.
P.S. Here is a glute focused workout for you to try.
When you do the workout, let me know what you think.
Tag me in Instagram.
Here is my handle if you don’t follow me already, Coachcaruthers.
Enjoy
- Deadlifts 3 x 6- Rest 2-3 minutes
2A. Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat 3 x 8
2B. Hip 90/90 Stretch 3 x :30 ea. – Rest 2 minutes
3A. Sprinter Stance RDL 3 x 12
3B. Lateral Squats (mobility) 3 x 6 – Rest 2 minutes
4. Single Leg Hip Thrust 2 x 20 Rest 90 seconds