unedited for 100 days. Day 42

There is a common misconception on how to work out your butt. For decades we have been commanded to "squeeze" the butt at the top of every squat, lunge, bridge, or any lower body exercise we do in attempt to strengthen and tone the buttox. The truth though, is that what you do at the top of these moves has little to zero effect on utilizing the glute muscles. What we should be paying attention to is what we are doing with our pelvis, thigh bones and sit-bones on the way down of the movement. Cueing people to 'squeeze their butt' is open to interpretation, and of course most us respond with the action of pinching our cheeks together, which again, will do nothing for the aesthetics of your butt or the recruitment of these muscles. Perhaps it would help if we start by clarifying the difference of butt cheeks and glutes. Butt cheeks are superficial (like literally on the surface of your body) and glutes are connected to the anatomy of the pelvis and thigh bones. If we can start to connect how we articulate our pelvis in our squats and lunges this will be much more effective than the confusing and overused cue of 'squeeze your butt'. When you are operating the movement of a classic squat, try focusing on the action of rotating your pelvis back (like pointing your tailbone to the wall behind you- not down), as well as energetically drawing the sit bones towards one another while pulling your thigh bones back and apart. If I just lost you, keep it simple and just focus on stretching the smile line as you lower down in the squat. (Smile line is bottom of the butt cheek and top of the hamstring). It's important that we understand that in order to fully recruit the muscle fibers of any body mechanic, we must lengthen. This is why you will often hear the term "full range of motion" in a strength training session or class. I think the confusion lies in not knowing how to access a stretch of the glutes at the bottom of a squat or lunge. In attempt to avoid overcomplicating this blog post, I encourage everyone to work on understanding three things: anterior and posterior tilt of the pelvis, interior and external rotation of the femoral head and the anatomical location of your sit-bones. To access a stretch of the posterior chain (think glutes and hamstrings), remember the three cues while descending in a squat. 1. Rotate pelvis back (anterior tilt of the pelvis), 2. internal rotation of the femoral head and 3. imagine touching the sit bones together. The more you practice, the more you can rely on muscle memory to do the work for you, as well as the ability to apply this action to other lower body exercises. If none of this makes sense, at least we can start with this. Let's stop over squeezing our butt cheeks, this can have unwanted long term effects or even acute injury to the low back, and also frustrate a loyal squatter who doesn't seem to be getting any of the desired results (like a higher butt!) Happy to answer any questions!