Severna Park Gluteus Muscle Weakness Helped by Exercise: Planks

There is so much more to the glutes than being seat cushions! They need to be strong and supportive to keep us, especially those of us who suffer with Severna Park back pain, walking, balanced, up-right. Back And Neck Care Center takes gluteal muscle strength seriously, especially the gluteus medius muscle, one of the more prominent supportive spine muscles along with the gluteus maximus, tensor fascia latae, lumbar multifidus, external oblique, erector spinae, and rectus abdominus. So many muscles, so little space to talk about them all. Your Severna Park chiropractor is focusing on the gluteal muscles this month. The others will be discussed in the future.

FOCUSING ON WEAK GLUTEUS MUSCLES WITH SIDE PLANK OR BRIDGE

When supportive muscles are weak – gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, multifidus and transverse abdominus – doing exercises that strengthen those while not activating others like the erector spinae and tensor fascia latae is advantageous. Side bridge while raising the dominant leg is one exercise that showed itself to be effective in activating the gluteal muscle and not the tensor fascia latae muscle. (Side note from this study: Back bridge exercise showed itself beneficial in strengthening the multifidus muscle.) (1) A modification of side plank is the side-sling plank. Researchers explained that it improved gluteus medius strength post-injury. Side-sling plank with hip medial rotation demonstrated itself superior for patients with gluteus medius weakness  but  dominant tensor fasciae latae. (2) Side bridge exercises were described to strengthen hip, trunk, and abdominal muscles in addition to being able to challenge trunk muscles without high lumbar compression, an important detail for back pain sufferers like those Back And Neck Care Center takes care of in our Severna Park chiropractic practice. Another variation that showed itself better than the others for strengthening a weak gluteus medius muscle was the side bridge with knee flexion. (3) When glute muscles are weaker than their surrounding muscles, exercises focused on activating the gluteus max and gluteus medius without involving surrounding muscles like the tensor fascia latae, etc., are key. One easy exercise that triggered the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles while minimizing tensor fascia latae muscles was the clam exercise. (4) With such a variety of exercises to pick from, allow your Severna Park chiropractor to help pinpoint which of your supportive muscles are weak and decide which exercises - natrual parts of chiropractic care - are best to strengthen them.

CONTACT Back And Neck Care Center

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Robert Krause on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he discusses care of a patient with degenerative disc disease and back pain who attained relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management that incorporated exercise.

Schedule your Severna Park chiropractic appointment with Back And Neck Care Center today. Don’t just sit on your weak glutes. Exercise them, so they can best support you!