3 Reasons to Care About Your Butt That Have Nothing to Do With Looks http://ift.tt/1Jq5An3

You might be concerned about sculpting a strong booty to fill out your favorite pair of jeans, but there's so much more to a tight tush than the way your pants fit! Your backside consists of three major muscles: the glute maximum, glute medius, and glute minimus. This important group of muscles extends the hip (pulls the thigh behind you), abducts the hip (your lateral movement to the side), and does internal and external rotation of hip. In short, they're incredibly important, but they're often weak and underworked.

So many of our jobs require us to spend so much time sitting that our glutes "turn off" or stop firing as efficiently, effectively, and strongly as they should. Once our glutes stop firing, our hip flexors (the muscles that pull the thigh forward) get tight and can lead to injury. When you build a stronger booty, here are a few of the benefits you can expect.

Beat back pain: I couldn't believe how much of my lower back pain dissipated after I started concentrating on building up my glute muscles. Your glutes work to stabilize the pelvis and keep integrity of movement in the hip joint. When they're strong, your lower back doesn't bear the brunt of your motion.

Increase athletic performance: If you want to be a stronger athlete, it's time to start squatting. Stronger glutes will improve your speed, agility, and jumping skills, and quick side-to-side movements will also become much easier. Every time you take a step, your glute max shores up your pelvis and SI joint for stability. When you run, this is even more important, since the force of impact increases exponentially on each foot strike.

Prevent knee pain: Strong glute meds keep the pelvis stable from swaying side to side. When your pelvis isn't stable, it puts a lot of pressure on your knees and ankles to compensate. When your backside is strong, it helps prevents this naturally, keeping you safe from injury.

Now you know what your glutes do for you, so here are four moves you can do for them!

from POPSUGAR Fitness http://ift.tt/1JpZiDX