“GLUTES…FAT LOSS, PERFORMANCE AND INDEPENDENCE”
Ken Dobberpuhl, CPT, MAT
As active health and fitness conscious people recognizing the importance of squatting/lunging in your life and training is critical. I know that may sound melodramatic but I will offer three examples of how adding these movements to your exercise regimen can help you achieve: fat loss, improved athletic performance, and long term independence.
For individuals concerned with losing body fat squatting and lunging movements provide tremendous bang for the buck. These types of movements recruit the large muscles of legs and hips and muscle is where fat is burned. You can do all the crunches, arm curls, shoulder presses you want but they won’t impact your body composition (fat loss) the way that squats and lunges will. Start by mastering body weight versions of these movements in a variety of forms: traditional parallel, staggered, split and single leg squats. Make sure to go to at least a parallel thigh for depth, head and chest up, weight in the heels, knees not extending beyond the toes. Start by doing 2-3 sets of body weight squats 15-25 reps as part of your warm-up.
Once you have mastered these start adding resistance in the form of holding dumbbells. Add 10% of your body weight initially keeping the sets/reps as above and keep adding 10% every two weeks until you reach 50% of your body weight. You will burn tremendous calories and develop great strength/endurance.
Squats and lunges for athletic performance are key to most athletic endeavors that require ground reaction forces to produce power (running, cycling, swinging implements and jumping). Once you have learned to squat and lunge properly I recommend learning to “Front Squat” with either dumbbells held at the shoulders or a barbell held on the front of the shoulders.
Dumbbells should be used first as they are easier to control. The barbell requires an “under hook grip” which can be awkward and requires some flexibility. The reason I prefer front squats to traditional back loaded is simple. You can not do a front squat wrong! You have to maintain proper back alignment which makes it much safer. If you need some help with this technique I can show you in a couple of minutes, so please ask. Most of the time in sport we rarely produce force from a stable parallel stance so learning a progression of staggered to single leg squats will pay huge dividends. Initially you should start with a “split squat” (lunge type stance), bending both knees simultaneously so that the torso remains upright as you lower and raise. This will teach you to drive with the front leg and prep you for single leg squats. Again, start with body weight 2-3 sets of 15-25 reps and then add resistance as mentioned above. Single leg squats are where the rubber meets the road and is a great determinate of true leg/hip strength. When you get to this level you will probably need a demo so give me a call at that point. Single leg squats will take whatever ground based sport you do to a new level because your glutes will finally be making the contribution they were meant to.
The final reason to squat is for our long term independence! Some of us are getting to the point or have already been involved with making a decision about putting a loved one in “assisted living”. For seniors, losing the ability to walk and get up out of a chair or off the toilet can mean their loss of independence.
Most of us will want to live on our own for as long as possible but if we can’t perform gait and level changes we are not going to have much choice. So if you have a relative that is losing or lost some function encourage them to start doing some modified forms of squats (under supervision). There are seniors fitness programs through hospitals, YMCA’s, personal training studios etc. In most cases they just need to start using those muscles again and proper progression is obviously key here. I have personally worked with people in their 80’s that were just shuffling when they walked and could barely get out of a chair. Within several weeks they had significant improvement in function and more confidence about getting around.
Obviously the take away message for those of us that are “younger” (40+) is to NOT lose this ability to squat as we age. You don’t need to be squatting 400 pounds, if you can work up to squatting half your body weight 15+ reps you won’t have any problems getting around. Even just doing high volume 3-4 sets of 15-25 reps of body weight squats and lunges will serve you well and do you think this might also help with osteoporosis? Try giving yourself a self-test, do body weight squats for 1 minute (to a parallel thigh). If you can do 40-50 you are in pretty good shape, 30 or less I would encourage you to bring that number up. If you can do 50+ it’s time to add some resistance and congratulate yourself for knowing that you’ve got power in the “caboose” for whatever comes your way.
FUNCTIONAL
FITNESS
