Fort Wayne Gluteus Muscle Weakness Helped by Exercise: Planks
There is so much more to the glutes than being seat cushions! They need to 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 time to talk about them all. Your Fort Wayne 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 desirable. Side bridge while raising 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. (An aside: Back bridge exercise showed itself helpful in strengthening the multifidus muscle.) (1) One variation of side plank is the side-sling plank. Researchers found that it enhanced gluteus medius strength post-injury. Side-sling plank with hip medial rotation demonstrated itself superior in patients with gluteus medius weakness but dominant tensor fasciae latae. (2) Side bridge exercises were described to strengthen hip, trunk, and abdominal muscles in addition to being able to challenge trunk muscles without high lumbar compression, an important aspect for back pain sufferers like those Aaron Chiropractic Clinic care for in our Fort Wayne chiropractic office. Another variation that was described as being superior to the others for strengthening a weak gluteus medius muscle was the side bridge with knee flexion. (3) When glute muscles are weaker than their surrounding muscles, exercises concentrated on triggering the gluteus max and gluteus medius without involving surrounding muscles like the tensor fascia latae, etc., are vital. One easy exercise that triggered the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles while keeping to a minimum tensor fascia latae muscles was the clam exercise. (4) With such a variety of exercises to pick from, allow your Fort Wayne chiropractor to help isolate which of your supportive muscles are weak and determine which exercises - natrual parts of chiropractic care - are most beneficial in strengthening them.
CONTACT Aaron Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Robert Krause on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes care of a patient with degenerative disc disease and back pain who found relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management that incorporated exercise.
Schedule your Fort Wayne chiropractic appointment with Aaron Chiropractic Clinic today. Don’t just sit on your weak glutes. Strengthen them, so they can support you best!
