Fort Wayne Gluteus Muscle Weakness Helped by Exercise: Planks

There is so much more to the glutes than being seat cushions! They must be strong and supportive to keep us, especially those of us who suffer with Fort Wayne back pain, walking, balanced, up-right. Aaron Chiropractic Clinic considers gluteal muscle strength seriously, especially 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 space to discuss them all. Your Fort Wayne chiropractor is concentrating on the gluteal muscles in this article. The others will be discussed in the future.

FOCUSING ON WEAK GLUTEUS MUSCLES WITH SIDE PLANK OR BRIDGE

When supportive muscles are weak – gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, multifidus and transverse abdominus – performing exercises that strengthen those while not using others like the erector spinae and tensor fascia latae is advantageous. Side bridge while raising the dominant leg is one exercise that showed itself to be good to activate the gluteal muscle and not the tensor fascia latae muscle. (An aside: Back bridge exercise was helpful in strengthening the multifidus muscle.) (1) A variation of side plank is the side-sling plank. Researchers found that it improved gluteus medius strength post-injury. Side-sling plank with hip medial rotation proved itself better for patients with gluteus medius weakness  but  stronger tensor fasciae latae. (2) Side bridge exercises were documented to strengthen hip, trunk, and abdominal muscles as well as challenge trunk muscles without high lumbar compression, an important point for back pain sufferers like those Aaron Chiropractic Clinic care for in our Fort Wayne 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 adjacent muscles, exercises concentrated on triggering the gluteus max and gluteus medius without involving surrounding muscles like the tensor fascia latae, etc., are key. One easy exercise that activated the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles while minimizing tensor fascia latae muscles was the clam exercise. (4) With so many different kinds of exercise possibilities, depend on your Fort Wayne chiropractor to help pinpoint which of your supportive muscles are weak and determine which exercises - natrual parts of chiropractic care - are best to strengthen them.

CONTACT Aaron Chiropractic Clinic

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 included exercise.

Schedule your Fort Wayne chiropractic appointment with Aaron Chiropractic Clinic today. Don’t just sit on your weak glute muscles. Strengthen them, so they can best support you!