West Palm Beach Gluteus Muscle Weakness Helped by Exercise: Planks

The glutes are for more than just sitting! They need to be strong and supportive to keep us, especially us West Palm Beach back pain sufferers, walking, balanced, up-right. Chiropractic Care takes gluteal muscle strength seriously, particularly the gluteus medius muscle, one of the more prominent supportive spine muscles along with the gluteus maximus, tensor fascia latae, lumbar multifidus, external oblique, erector spinae, and rectus abdominus. So many muscles, so little time to talk about them all. Your West Palm Beach chiropractor is focusing on the gluteal muscles this month. More to come on the others!

FOCUSING ON WEAK GLUTEUS MUSCLES WITH SIDE PLANK OR BRIDGE

When supportive muscles are weak – gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, multifidus and transverse abdominus – doing exercises that strengthen those while not using others like the erector spinae and tensor fascia latae is desired. Side bridge while lifting the dominant leg is one exercise that demonstrated its ability to be good in activating the gluteal muscle and not the tensor fascia latae muscle. (Side note from this study: Back bridge exercise was beneficial in strengthening the multifidus muscle.) (1) One variation of side plank is the side-sling plank. Researchers found that it increased gluteus medius strength after injuries. Side-sling plank with hip medial rotation proved itself superior in patients with gluteus medius weakness  but  dominant tensor fasciae latae. (2) Side bridge exercises were documented to strengthen hip, trunk, and abdominal muscles in addition to being able to challenge trunk muscles without high lumbar compression, an important detail for back pain sufferers like those Chiropractic Care takes care of in our West Palm Beach chiropractic practice. Another variation that showed itself better than the others for strengthening a weak gluteus medius muscle was the side bridge with knee flexion. (3) When glute muscles are weaker than their neighboring muscles, exercises concentrated on activating the gluteus max and gluteus medius without involving surrounding muscles like the tensor fascia latae, etc., are vital. One simple exercise that activated the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles while reducing the impact of the tensor fascia latae muscles was the clam exercise. (4) With such a variety of exercises to pick from, allow your West Palm Beach chiropractor to help isolate which of your supportive muscles are weak and determine which exercises - natrual parts of chiropractic care - are best to strengthen them.

CONTACT Chiropractic Care

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Robert Krause on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he discusses care of a patient with back pain due to degenerative disc disease who found relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management that incorporated exercise.

Schedule your West Palm Beach chiropractic appointment with Chiropractic Care today. Don’t just sit on your weak glute muscles. Strengthen them, so they can best support you!