As a triathlon coach, yoga teacher, strength and condition coach and recovered severe-injury hip athlete, I highly recommend, push, almost-force my athletes into the idea of strength work for the hip girdle. Here is a great article bringing endurance, strength, stability and body health into one thought process.
What the glutes do:
How they get out of balance:
1. Athletes, for once reason or another, have over developed quads and hamstrings.
2. Sitting at an 8-5 causing deconditioning to these vital rotators/stabilizers as the activity of sitting does not activate the glutes. (unless you happen to work while sitting on a stability ball). ‘
3. Additionally, sitting for long periods of time causes decreased blood flow to the hip area which also deconditions muscles.
4. Our daily habits have a large contribution to what happens when we are running or doing other awesome activities. For instance, the mom that holds the baby on one hip habitually, the way we drive, the way we sleep, etc. This leads to number #5. But I did want to say #4 out loud and strongly. You can work to correct your glute strength all day long. The real life changing habits come when you address your day to day habits as well. You sit for WAY longer than you run. It’s just the running is the extra stimulus to cause pain, decreased performance and possible injury.
5. Another cause that they don’t think about much is our tendency to be stronger on one side. We have strong kinetic habits that usually result in one hip (or glute specifically) to be less functional. This means that the kinetic firing ability as well as the strength of the glute is less than compared to the other side. Which results in hip girdle imbalance. Which causes a ton of other issues.
Que the singers: “the hip bone is connected to the leg bone…”
