Love your butt, it does a lot for you!

At the risk of becoming a misaligned google search, our very first blog for Rise and Thrive Mobility Consultants has to be about the derriere. My entire career in physical therapy has been focused on either stroke recovery, amputee rehabilitation or recovery from orthopedic injuries. The one common denominator in all of these is the gluteal muscle group or in layman terms ya’ booty. Why is this area so key? It connects your trunk and therefore your upper body areas to all lower body areas and can pre-position and protect against injuries. Within the field of prosthetics your gluteals will decide how much control you have and where your prosthetic foot lands. Whether injury, neuro recovery or amputee rehab my focus with patients always comes back to movement patterns and therefore the focus always comes back to the gluteals.

The Gluteal Muscle Group: Our butt muscles consist of the gluteus minimus, gluteus medius and gluteus maximas with the latter being the main muscle you can feel covering the majority of your backside.

The structure of the area dictates that each of these muscles have different jobs to do.  In every case, the main job is to keep your legs connected to your trunk and since your trunk connects to your head and your arms, your gluteals help to stabilize, in one way or another, almost every movement in your body. 

The smallest of these muscles is the Gluteus Minimus.  Because of the way it attaches to your thigh bone this muscle assists with moving your leg forward, out to the side or with rotation.  Because of how it lays around the top of our leg bones, when this muscle contracts, it causes the hip joint to stabilize.

The middle of these muscles is the Gluteus Medius.  It is considered a mighty powerhouse in terms of controlling where your pelvis sits as you walk or move around.  Have you ever seen someone walking past you as they lean to one side with each step?  Chances are they have a weakness or dysfunction in the gluteus medius on the side they are leaning towards. Can you imagine how this dysfunction might make it hard to control movements and/ or pain around your hips and back?

The largest muscle in this group is the gluteus maximus (glut max).   The glut max lays over the smaller gluteal muscles. It provides the power we need to move our legs back behind us, hold our pelvis in a good position so we don’t stress our backs and to help our legs muscles to get us up to standing/climbing/running.

 Each of the gluteal muscles plays an essential  role in controlling  how our trunk connects to our pelvis and legs.  When functioning strongly and correctly these muscles protect our joints in the hips , knees and low back.  If you are experiencing joint pain in your back or lower extremities, imagine what effect it would have on how you move, giving your joints some protection. If you are an amputee and for example have lost your calf muscle on one side, imagine how much your gluteals need to help control the position of that leg. After a neurological diagnosis, the gluteals are often a strong focus as if you can control the middle of your body, then you have better control of everything else. 

There is a huge importance and a very large amount of knowledge to share about this muscle group.  Look for future blogs to go more in depth but in the meantime get moving and use those gluteal muscles!

Beck M, Sledge JB, Gautier E, Dora CF, Ganz R. The anatomy and function of the gluteus minimus muscle. J Bone Joint Surg Br. 2000 Apr;82(3):358-63. doi: 10.1302/0301-620x.82b3.10356. PMID: 10813169.

Buckthorpe M, Stride M, Villa FD. ASSESSING AND TREATING GLUTEUS MAXIMUS WEAKNESS - A CLINICAL COMMENTARY. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2019;14(4):655-669.

Whiler L, Fong M, Kim S, et al. Gluteus Medius and Minimus Muscle Structure, Strength, and Function in Healthy Adults: Brief Report. Physiother Can. 2017;69(3):212-216. doi:10.3138/ptc.2016-16

Photo credit to Wikipedia and depositphotos.