Strong butts that don't hurt: Here's the glute routine I wish everyone had.

I like to say that I am a glute evangelist. I was also born in 1988 and have significantly older siblings, so I grew up singing this song (which like, wow, that video, so much to unpack here, discussion welcome in comments).

I do like big butts. Clinically. Because a strong butt is freaking critical to a healthy pelvic floor.

• Move your ass. My first endeavor in glute evangelism and an excellent primer on more of the anatomy of the situation.

• We love a hinge! On simple hinge movements that create magical results.

• Are your butt muscles the problem? On glute “gripping”, constipation, and hemorrhoids.

Here’s the tl;dr on that matter: Glutes are made to be big and powerful. They perform hip extension, i.e. moving your leg behind you in space, i.e. a critical part of the gait cycle, and we know that walking is critical for most folks to get around!

If your glutes aren’t doing their job, your pelvic floor is likely going to try to take over in order to stabilize the pelvis during standing and walking, and tbh, they have no fucking business doing so. What we get in that scenario is a tight, overworked, and often incontinent and/or painful pelvic floor.

Further, many popular glute exercises focus on shortening the glutes under load. While this can be totally fine in some scenarios, particularly with glute max (e.g. I fucking love a hip thrust!), a movement diet that only consists of clamshells is probs not going to bring your pelvic floor — or butt, for that matter — joy.

Instead, constant shortening under rotation-based load is just going to make the already tight and grippy deep rotators of the pelvis more tight and grippy.

Wait, you might be saying, wtf are deep rotators?

They’re these fuckers. They get tight frequently because of the common and intermingling compensation cycle of weak glutes and tight hip flexors inhibiting the opposite side of the joint. So now we’ve got tight hip rotators.

All of these tensions change the forces on the pelvis and create tension on the pelvic floor. It’s not a great scene.

So back to glute evangelism. I really love late-stage loading glute exercises, which is a fancy way to say that the glute is loaded and has to work in a lengthened position. This can help break the aforementioned cycle.

To be clear: This can look like a deadlift! A B-stance lunge! I freaking love a one sided hinge, in part for this reason.

But I really love integrating some internal rotation into the experience because, IMO, it’s super therapeutic for folks with any kind of hip/pelvic floor injury, e.g. labral tear etc. (And obvi, that’s not individualized medical advice! It’s just my generalized observation!)

So that’s what this video is about — integrating some lovely lower body chain fascial releases (i.e. opening the calves and hip flexors hella efficiently) and jumping into my fave glute lengthening exercise.

And then! I came up with this funky pigeon sequence while live filming for Open Practice and have been obsessed for a whole week. IMO, it’s a game changer for the deep pelvic floor and thoracic rotation. I am honestly pretty freaking proud of it FWIW.

Don’t know how to activate your butt? I’ve got you, too. You can do this video or try the one below.

Happy glutes, happy life! Have fun, friends.

Psst — If you’re into this kind of movement and teaching style, you can find so much more on Tidal Work. Tidal Work is movement for complex bodies and pelvic health with a distinct focus on body autonomy. It is my heart and I can’t wait to see you there!

take me to Tidal Work!