Day 5

Two days of core work and two days of jogging got me motivated to work on a specific muscle, the gluteus medius. In the majority of people, this muscle is neurologically inhibited, under-used, and weak. It is a very important muscle for stabilizing the hip and can easily spotted as the muscle that keeps the hips perfectly level as you step down stairs. I usually pass a number of muscle tests for the glut med, but I wear down quickly and I have some chronic hip issues. For about as long as I can remember I have had very tight adductor muscles, which elicit some soreness, and don’t respond well to stretching. The adductor muscles are on the medial side of the thigh and bring the leg closer to midline as well as helping out in a few auxiliary processes. After studying some anatomy books and a gait analysis book, I hypothesized that my tight adductors may be compensation for weak glut activation. So I followed this 40-minute glut routine:

10 minute warm up on treadmill

Clams (4 positions on each side) for about 12 minutes

Tri-planar squats, making sure to load my heal and gluts for about 10 minutes

Double leg, and single leg glut bridges for about 5 minutes

Cool down stretches.

This is not a sweat breaking workout, but it is mentally tough to focus on only letting one muscle do all the work without compensating, especially when it is a weak muscle. You definitely feel the burn throughout, but it doesn’t quite count as a cardiovascular work out.