We're all doing a lot more sitting since working from home became a bigger focus of our lives, which can send your glute muscles to sleep. This is far from ideal if you want a strong, perky backside or a stable ache-free lower back - the two are connected!
Having strong glutes is essential for stability as well as good posture, balance and strength. Glute-activating squats not only improve muscle strength and blast calories, but the move helps to offset the muscular imbalances and weaknesses that we accumulate in our daily lives.
Spending so much of our day seated means our posture takes a hit and squatting will remedy this by helping stabilise your hips, which can grow weak after long periods of sitting. Bone health can improve as a result too. By increasing stress on the bones, resistance training can increase bone density making them stronger.
To re-activate our glutes we teamed up with personal trainer Caroline's Circuits for a 25-minute resistance band glute workout (although it works just as well without) and boy did we feel it the next day.
Caroline is known for her strength-training sessions which focus on resistance-based exercises. She's taken her sessions online via Zoom, plus she has a catalogue of workout on her IGTV including teen workouts filmed with her daughter.
Here's what to expect from our 25-minute glute blaster with Caroline. If you have a resistance band feel free to slip it on, but it's fine without too.
The session begins with a warm-up including hip circles to mobilise the body, followed by side lunges and stretches in the sumo squat stance. Then the exercises kick off as follows, with each move performed for around 30 seconds.
1. Bridge raises
2. Bridge raises with knee raises
3. Side-to-side knee drops
4. 10 slow squats
5. Crab walks with a resistance band
6. Side-to-side leg taps
7. Squat with side leg raises
8. Curtsy lunges with pulses and leg taps
9. Fire hydrants
10. Fire hydrant pulses
11. Donkey kicks
2. Donkey kick pulses
13. Leg crunch and extension
14. Bridge raise with leg opens
15. Half-way bridge raises
16. Bridge raises with leg raised
17. Clam leg raises
18. Side plank with legs taps
19. Squats, squat pulses and squat jumps