Do you have tight gluteus muscles?

Then get stretching!! You may think that therapists in general are very glad in advising people to stretch, stretch and stretch even more, but there is a reason why we do it. Tight muscles can restrict range of movement and cause unnecessarily muscle strains which is not something you want if you are an athlete or do any type of exercise or sport.

Today I wanted to show you a few good stretches for your gluteus muscles, in particular for your gluteus minimus, medius and your piriformis muscle. If you suffer from sciatic pain, which can be caused by the sciatic nerve getting pinched, there is an even bigger reason to stretch this muscle group. The sciatic muscle runs through your piriformis muscle so for a lot of people a tight piriformis muscle can aggravate the sciatic symptoms in the buttocks and sometimes down the leg.

However everyone can benefits from gluteus stretching so I will show you a few options anyway. I have arranged them according to how “difficult” I think they are. Starting with the “easiest” ones first.

Seated gluteus stretch

• Sit upright on the floor, cross your left leg over the other

• Place the left hand behind your left side and grab hold of the left leg with your right hand and pull this to the right

• Make sure you sit with a straight upright posture and feel the stretch on the outside of your left bum cheek

Laying gluteus stretch

• Start by laying on your back on the floor

• Bend both knees, cross right leg on top of the left leg (the right foot should rest on top of the left knee)

• Grab your left leg behind your thigh with both hands and pull it towards you until you can feel a stretch on the outside of your right bottom

• When you are done with one leg, cross the other leg over and repeat

Standing gluteus stretch over a table/bench

• Start by standing in front of a table or bench which is about hip height

• Place your left knee at 90° on top of the table

• Step backward with your right leg and bend the right knee slightly

• From this position lean forward from your hips and place your hand in front of you

• Lean forward even more to increase the stretch

• Feel the stretch on the outside of your left gluteus

Bent your rear leg more than I do if you can

Laying gluteus stretch (Be aware that flexibility will be a limiting factor if you attempt this one!!!)

• Start off by placing your left leg across in front of you

• Use your arms to move yourself into the position outlined above

• Lean over until you can feel a comfortable stretch on the outside of the left gluteus

How long you hold each stretch for depends on when you do the stretches. If you do these during a recovery session I recommend to hold the stretches for 45 sec- 60 sec per stretch.

Lots of runners and cyclists always have tight gluteus so get stretching and move more freely.

I have now manage to get a retweet button so feel free to share this on your facebook and twitter with family and friends who might need some of this info!:)