The Importance of a Designated Glutes Area

Darren Piggins, the president of Booty Builder LLC, shares why having a designated glutes area is vital.

The rise of “building the booty” continue to grow, and it is not just from those wanting strong, sexy glutes to head down to the beach to show them off. There are medical professionals promoting the strengthening of the posterior chain for a healthier and more active lifestyle — especially as we age. There are many sports professionals realizing the importance of glute activation for physical function, strength and performance.

People are becoming aware that this muscle — the gluteus maximus, the booty, the butt, the money maker whatever you want to call it — is potentially the most important muscle in our body.

Here are a few reasons why having strong glutes are important for your health:

• The glutes are made up of three parts being the gluteus maximus, the gluteus medius and the gluteus minimus. They have long been recognized as playing the most central role in our ability to walk upright and stand erect for long periods of time.
• The glutes are also known as the anchor to our posture, tying our lower back and knees together. It is of the utmost importance that our glutes remain strong to maintain good posture and help to prevent and lessen lower back pain and relieve pressure off the knees — especially later in life.
• Being the largest muscle group in the human body, big strong glutes will help in maintaining a higher metabolism. This in turn will help burn more body fat and keep weight off, again protecting your knees and lower back from injury caused by being overweight.

Here are a few reasons why health club owners and operators should have a designated glutes area on their gym floor:

• Dedicated glute equipment provides a space on the gym floor for members to do their glute exercises. There has been a big obsession over the recent years to build glutes by both men and women by doing a very popular exercise in the barbell hip thrust.
• We have seen the deaths of many benches, plyo boxes and other pieces of equipment before their time due to members dragging these across the gym floor to be used as support when doing this exercise. By providing a dedicated machine/area for the hip thrust exercise you are solving many other issues that are created by overzealous members trying to get their hip thrusts in.

Having a glute zone is proving to be a winner when taking potential members on the membership sales tour. It shows them firsthand where they can go to grow the most important muscle in the body.