Abs, Glutes, and Performance: Though it might be hard to believe, well developed abs and glutes do in fact have a purpose beyond making one look good in a bathing suit. Aesthetically pleasing or not, their development is the foundation of athletic mastery, and without sufficiently strong and functioning abs and glutes, one will always fall short of their true potential. But what exactly makes these two muscle groups so important? For starters, the glutes are the primary hip extensors (working with the hamstrings and the adductors) and hip extension forms the base of most athletic movements. Jumping, sprinting, changing direction, and just about any other sporting movement, they all rely on the glutes. Yes, the quads, hamstrings, spinal erectors, and calves are important too, but it's the glutes that do the brunt of the work and it's their proper function that allows all of the other muscles to do their own jobs. But what about the abs? Much like how the other muscles can't do their jobs if the glutes aren't working, the glutes can't do their job if the abs aren't working. During athletic movement, the abs should be helping stabilize the pelvis, and if the pelvis is stabilized properly, then the glutes can work at full capacity. If the abs are too weak or don't fire at the right time, the rest of the muscles around the hips (the glutes especially) will not be able to transfer power to the ground optimally. If the glutes are too weak or aren't firing correctly, then the body will start to rely too much on the lower back and hamstrings and performance will be compromised. While one might think they've got their glutes and abs covered because they do crunches, situps, squats, and RDLs, that's not necessarily the case.  Though some might find it hard to believe, it's completely possible to do squats, deadlifts, or Olympic lifts without heavily involving the glutes. As mentioned earlier, if one's glutes aren't firing correctly then the body will compensate by over-utilizing the lower back and hamstrings. This can turn a great glute-training movement (squats, DLs, etc.) into a movement that only exacerbates the problem. Regarding the abs, most people fall back to compound movements and high rep crunches as their training. There is a problem here too though. The claim that squats and deadlifts train the abs just isn't true. Sure, if the abs are working right they'll be used to help stabilize the pelvis, but that's all they'll do: stabilize. They won't be prime movers. So saying that squats and DLs train the abs is like saying bench presses train the lats. Sure, the lats help stabilize the movement, but bench pressing isn't making them any stronger. As for crunches, not only do they work the abs incorrectly (the abs are supposed to work largely isometrically), but they can't be loaded heavily enough to continue making gains. Contrary to what others might say, the abs are just like any other muscle group in the body, they need continually increasing volume and intensity to keep making progress. And beyond problems limited to just strengthening the abs, there are also problems getting them to fire at the right length during athletic movement. So, how can one make sure that not only are their glutes and abs strong enough, but are functioning correctly too? Simple enough, they've just got to teach them to work correctly and then go from there. For an explanation as to how, just read on. The Abs: More important than just their strength, one really needs to focus on teaching their abs how to stabilize the pelvis and torso. If an athlete's abs aren't stabilizing correctly then they will probably exhibit an anterior pelvic tilt while moving and their upper body might possibly look “out of sync” or “wild” while they're playing, but fixing this is easy enough. Basically, all one has to do to make sure their abs are working correctly is practice stabilizing with them while the body is under load. The easiest way to do this is to lift weights while focusing on keeping the abs contracted and the pelvis neutral. In other words, you won't be trying to arch your back, you'll be trying to keep it ramrod straight, with the abs contracting from one side and the spinal erectors contracting from the other. Making sure you're pelvis is in the right position is far more important than the weight used, so when you start doing this, you're going to want to start off pretty light, maybe even with just bodyweight. As for what movements you can apply this to, the answer is: all of them. You can squat, deadlift, lunge, split squat, or anything else you want to, as long as you focus on keeping your abs contracted and your pelvis neutral. Once you've mastered doing the slower movements, you can increase the weight (but not to the point where it causes form breakdown) and you can start to incorporate faster movements such as reactive squats or Olympic lifts. Once you've mastered those, you can move on to altitude landings, bounds, and other athletic movements. Again though, as always, pelvic position and form takes precedence over the amount of weight used or any other measure of intensity. For athletes whose upper body is a little off-kilter or wild, measures need to be taken to teach the abs to help connect the lower and upper body. Most coaches teach their athletes to perform upper body lifts in ways that disconnect the upper body from the lower body. They teach an arch on the bench press or overhead press, and they ignore cuing the abs during pulling movements. What this leads to is athletes who cannot coordinate their abs to help connect the lower and upper bodies. To rectify the problem, all that needs to be done is focus on contracting the abs and keeping a neutral or slightly posteriorly rotated pelvis while performing compound upper body lifts. This may lead to an initial drop in poundages, but who cares what they can bench press if they perform better on the field? To speed up the learning process even further, one can train daily or even multiple times per day with very light weights. One could do sets of 60 seconds with unloaded bodyweight split squats or they could do sets of squats or RDLs using <50% of their 1RM. Whatever one does, as long as the intensity is low enough so as not to affect recovery, the movement will help the body the to learn how to correctly use the abs. But as is the case in everything, practice makes permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Once the athlete has learned to recruit their abs to stabilize whole body movements, they can start to focus on strengthening them specifically. Since the abs act primarily in isometry, they should be trained the same way. For specific movements, the variation hip-flexion abs is my favorite, either done isometrically or with oscillatory isometrics. It can also be done unilaterally to emphasize hip flexor development over abdominal development. The one cue for this movement is to keep the pelvis neutral and the spine tall and straight throughout the movement. Leg lowering drills can also be used, but these are hard to load. After an athlete has dealt with activating and strengthening their abs, it's on to glute work. The Glutes: Once the abs are coordinated and strong enough to stabilized the pelvis then it becomes time to start training the glutes. Oftentimes people with weak or uncoordinated abs will have a problem recruiting their glutes, but if an athlete has already trained their abs correctly then their glutes will more than likely be firing just fine. If they're not, however, then there are drills that can be done to teach the right recruitment patterns. Starting with the easiest drills, glute bridges are probably the best starting point. One should start doing them with two feet with a brief 3-5 second pause at the top of each rep. When this becomes easier and the glutes are being fully recruited, the athlete can then switch to a single-legged version, also with the 3-5 second isometric hold at the top of each rep. Even after both of these variations become easy, they're still great moves to keep in one's warmup to make sure the glutes are awake and ready to go. After an athlete has mastered the glute bridge, they can move on to more difficult bodyweight movements. These include bodyweight good mornings, bodyweight lunges, and bodyweight squats. The key to making sure that the glutes, rather than the spinal erectors and hamstrings, are loaded in these movements is to maintain a neutral pelvis and to focus on using the glutes to take the brunt of the load. These can be done regularly (ie. normal up and down reps) or they can be done with isometric holds for time. If one chooses to use regular reps, then they should use full range of motion and do sets of 10-20. If one chooses to do ISO holds then they should position themselves at the bottom of the movement (where the working muscles are the most lengthened) and then should hold for sets of 30-90 seconds. No matter which method one chooses, they're both minimally taxing and can be used daily for reinforcement purposes or as part of a warmup. By this point, any athlete who has progressed through these instructions should have capably functioning glutes and abs, and this is where it's put to the test. Having mastered unweighted movements, it's now time to reintroduce weights. Using the same variations and the same performance instructions as listed immediately prior for bodyweight movements, the athlete simply adds a loaded barbell. By performing lifts with a manageable amount of weight and making sure their pelvis is neutral and their abs and glutes are functioning correctly, an athlete can simultaneously ingrain good firing patterns and strengthen the muscles being used. Whereas sets were longer with unweighted movements though, weighted lifts need sets of shorter duration. When doing standard reps one should keep the reps between 6-10 per set when looking to gain strength and size. When doing ISO holds with weight, the ISO duration should be between 10-30 seconds. Also, it's important to note that even though an athlete should be trying to constantly increase the weight they can use in all movements, they need to remember that a sacrifice in form is not acceptable. It doesn't matter if they lift more weight is they're doing it with the wrong muscles or with a misaligned pelvis. Form needs to come first, and for this to happen, egos need to be checked. Once the glutes and abs have been integrated into weighted movements, then benefits will start to manifest themselves on the field. The body is smart, and when attempting to run as fast or jump as high as possible, it will recruit whatever muscles are the strongest to get the job done. For people with weak abs and glutes, this means the body will default to the lower back, hamstrings, and quads, limiting their potential performance. But when the glutes and abs are the strongest links in the chain, the body will automatically default to using them out on the playing field and performance will be maximized. So, having explained all of the above, I hope the reader walks away from here understanding more about how and why to train their glutes and abs besides looking good for the chicas out on the beach. If I had to condense it down into a few key point though, they would be as follows: -Worry about correct form and recruitment over weight used (neutral pelvis) -The body will seek out its strongest muscles when going for maximum performance -Make sure the right muscles are the strongest (with those muscles being the glutes and abs) If you can keep those things in mind, you'll be golden. So until next time, keep training hard, keep training smart, and be sure to leave your ego at the door. -Revolution