SEC-s20w4: Fitness Training 👉 strengthening the muscles at the buttocks and hips region

The buttocks or hip regions are the strongest part of our body and have the largest muscle of the body to support the body weight and keep the body aligned. There are groups of muscles, glutes maximus, medius and minimus, that make up our buttock or hip region. There are also deep muscles that are associated with hip movements.

The common diseases that patients suffer from in the hip region are hip osteoarthritis, piriformis syndrome ( sciatica symptoms), pelvic tilt due to weak muscles and many more. All these diseases need strengthening of hip or buttock muscles that will improve their ability to work, which reduces with age.

Canva

This week, focus on hip strength as it's a major & important part of our body that keeps us active even if upper body strength is reduced. If we can't focus on hip muscles, then the major issue we face while performing ADLs is not able to sit on the buttocks or hip region, as it increases the pain.

Before I begin this week's exercise program, I would be thankful for the previous week's sessions as it was helpful for my leg muscle strength; I am still improving and try to perform those exercises daily as I am also working on weight loss. So that I would gain a perfect and healthy body.

Warm Up

I warm up before exercise as it's necessary to boost up your body to perform exercises. I am doing these exercises to strengthen my arm muscles & to improve my rounded shoulders.

Cardio Exercises

I perform cardio exercises such as walking for 15 to 20 minutes, jumping jacks & mountain climbing. I am so happy that I am jumping 100 times a day to improve my leg muscles and my cardiac health.

Abdominal Exercises

Then I perform abdominal exercises, full plank, half plank, scissors. I am improving my strength day by day. I have also added a few other exercises that help me to tone abdominal muscles & I lost 2 inches of belly fat after that.

Leg Strengthening Exercises

I also perform squats, not like jumping jacks, but improving with time. Perform lunges and hip bridging exercises to improve back muscles after performing all these exercises. My exercise time increased from 20 minutes to 1 hour after adding all these exercises to my daily routine.

Week 4 tasks; Buttock and Hip muscles exercises

I selected 3 exercises to perform: side lunges, single leg lifts, and sumo squats, as I find it easy to start the exercise program. Single leg lift & side lunges are easier as compared to the sumo squats as in that position, more hip muscles work, so it requires good strength to perform sumo Squats.

Side Lunges

Side lunges are easy for me this week as I already tried the same exercise but with a little bit of change in position. So, I easily performed it, but my heartbeat increased by performing the previous week's exercises. Also, I have added the side-lying leg raises to strengthen hip abductors.

I perform it by standing straight, increasing the gap between my legs, bending on one left, and also bending that, trying to keep the other leg straight. Take a rest of 5 to 10 seconds & then complete 3 sets of 8 repetitions. It's one of the easy exercises to strengthen your glutes, hamstrings and quadriceps muscles & maintain balance on your knee.

Single leg deadlift without dumbbells

I think this is the first easy exercise that I have performed till now as compared to other lower limb exercises. But still, after watching my video, I saw that my leg was a bit less straight as compared to other participants. The reason is I am performing a few weight loss exercises each day, due to which my muscles are tight, but I try to stretch them so that they become relaxed and perform exercise easily.

This is the best exercise for those patients who are unable to perform single leg stand as it improves their knee and hip extension. If you're facing difficulty while performing it, then your muscles are tight, and you need to relax them with soft tissue mobilization and stretching exercises.

In this exercise, you have to stand straight, then put all your weight on one leg and start to lift the other leg in the extended position. Maintain that position for a few seconds, release and then complete the 8 repetitions with 3 seats; take a rest of 5 to 10 seconds after each set. This is a good exercise to add to stroke patients' rehabilitation as most of the time, one side of the body is affected, so we need to work on that side's strength.

Sumo squats

Sumo squats are a bit difficult, but if you start them daily, then it would be easy for us to perform each day. In sumo squats positions, we mainly work on hip muscles, hamstring and quadriceps muscles as we have to strengthen them to bear our body weight while performing such activities.

The posting for sumo squats is to stand straight with my legs apart, make a position like you're about to sit on a chair, chest up. Try to widen your legs in each repetition. I complete the 3 sets of 8 repetitions with 10 to 20 seconds of rest after performing each set. I prefer to do sumo squats on the deadlift as I don't have a dumbbell or weight at home. But I will try in the coming days.

Stretches

Then I perform stretches of leg muscles to lengthen to shorten muscles, I give the stretch to glutes, piriformis muscle, hamstring and calf's muscles. I relaxed all the muscles after all exercises.

I drink my 750 ml water bottle after exercise and my face was full with sweat. So, I drink water to stay hydrated and compensate the water loss during sweating.

Tell us your overall feelings and ask your questions concerning the programs

It was another great experience to perform these exercises and join your strengthening of muscles sessions as I am glad that my muscle strength will increase with time and gain the perfect body in few weeks. I am thankful to the @genomil and @ngoenyi for initiating this program so that people will work on their body health to stay fit.

I don't have any questions regarding the exercise program, but if you feel I didn't perform any exercise well, then you can correct me so that I can perform better in future. Thank you for this exercise program. I would like to invite my friends @m-fdo, @goodybest and @drhira to share their participation.