Glute Sets

behind closed doors.

Glute sets seem to be a very insignificant exercise. Don't be fooled. These butt cheek squeezes can make or break your rehab. They actually set the tone for your "back door" strength.

Your first few exercises after significant hip or knee surgery will include this simple, yet profound exercise - and for a very good reason. Almost every one of your new exercises don't require your behind muscle glutes) to work at all! You may be wondering why...

For the purpose of general explanation, the glutes extend the hip. That means that this muscle pulls the leg backward at the hip. Think of getting ready to kick a foot ball or kick ball...your kicking leg "rears" backwards first taking advantage of momentum to kick the ball further. The glutes are the main player in rearing your leg backwards.

Glute sets are very important since they stand alone as the only exercise that pays any attention to your back side while you are flat out in bed! This muscle often gets overlooked and neglected whether you are well or rehabilitating.

We don't often walk with a purposeful thrust into hip extension with each step. Given this, remember also that much of your rehab time will be sent lying down or sitting... this means that your hip may get tight in the same position as sitting. One more reason why these exercises are so important to your health!

This easy exercise is just as important in knee surgery. Normal walking calls for an average amount of hip extension during to off. This can put a painful strain on hip or knee surgery right after surgery. This is why we narrow in on correct walking procedures a few days down the line.

Are you convinced? Great! There's nothing to it! Start them now and the move on to even more important leg exercises.

Lie on your back and squeeze your butt cheeks together as if you were pinching a 100 dollar bill together and someone was trying to take it!!!!!!!! Sorry for the visual but in this economy, it could happen, so lock your doors!

Hold this glute set for about 7-10 seconds. Repeat it 10x (but remember that you are doing great with all your exercises if you can get to 2 sets of 20 in a slow and controlled manner.