whyWhen you exercise, your best intention is to feel energized, stay healthy, and strengthen your muscles. But no matter how good your regular exercise routine is, like cycling or lunges, it can tighten your butt muscles.
There are a few key reasons why you might want to avoid pressure in that area. Typically tight hip muscles include the hip flexors, a group of muscles at the front of the hip that help move the leg. These muscles also connect through the abdominal cavity and lumbar spine, which is why chronic hip strain is often linked to back pain.
A common cause of sore buttocks is sitting for too long (uh-huh, working at a desk and long distance travel), but certain exercises can also cause sore buttocks.
“As a physical therapist, I often see clients who have tight butt muscles from regular exercises.” says Steven Cheung, PT, DPT, lead physical therapist and founder of Synaptic Rehabilitation. “These exercises are great for building strength, but poor form or excessive repetitions can cause hip tightness.”
Additionally, the act of strengthening the muscles themselves can cause tension in the hips.
“As muscles get stronger, they tend to become tight or hyperactive,” says Steve Stonehouse, CPT, vice president of programming and training at BFT.
Some common exercises that can help you tighten your buttocks include:
- squat
- lunge
- leg press
- leg raise
- cycling
People who frequently go to the gym, athletes, people who are overweight or obese, and people who sit for long periods of time are prone to tight buttocks.
Aside from the potential pain and tension you may experience due to tight buttocks, it is important to address tight buttocks to prevent them from affecting the rest of your workouts.
“Exercising on tight hips reinforces bad patterns that can affect gait and movement efficiency,” says Kyle Krupa, DPT, CSCS, founder of KRU PT + Performance Lab and a physical therapist who has treated and trained Olympic gold medalists. says: Other athletes.
In this article
-
01
Exercises to tighten your buttocks
-
02
Prevent and treat tight buttocks
Exercises that can cause tightness in your buttocks and how to adjust them
Proper posture during certain exercises can help keep your hips flexible. Here are 5 exercises that can cause butt tightness to help you perform them correctly, according to Dr. Here are Cheung's best tips:
1. Squat
When performing squats, keep your spine neutral and your knees lifted over your toes (avoiding curling inward). Use your glutes and hamstrings to evenly distribute the workload.
To avoid muscle overuse, perform 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps, 2 to 3 times a week.
2. Lunge
As you lunge, keep your front knee directly above your ankle and your back knee toward the ground. Use your core to maintain balance and avoid leaning forward.
To avoid muscle overuse, perform 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps, 2 to 3 times a week.
3. Leg press
Complete the leg press with your feet shoulder-width apart and pressing through your heels. To prevent hyperextension of the lumbar spine, make sure your lower back is against the machine seat.
To avoid muscle overuse, perform 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps, twice a week.
4. Leg lift
Tighten your core and avoid swinging your legs. Aim for slow, controlled movements to fully activate your hip flexors without straining them.
To avoid muscle overuse, perform 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps, twice a week.
5. Cycling
Adjust your bike saddle height to a suitable height so that your knees remain slightly bent at the bottom of each pedal stroke.
Vary your cycling intensity and duration to avoid overuse. Stick to 20-30 minute sessions 2-3 times a week.
“Exercising with tight hips reinforces poor patterns that can affect the efficiency of your gait and movement.” —Kyle Krupa, DPT, CSCS
How to prevent and treat buttocks stiffness
1. Start stretching more regularly
Stretching after exercise can be a great way to prevent hip tightness, but stretching is key. before If you're already dealing with tight, painful hips, do some exercise.
“In this case, you shouldn’t wait to stretch after your workout,” says Dr. Krupa. “This can create pressure over tight, dysfunctional hips.”
Here are some stretches that can help relieve tight hips:
- Sofa stretching: Kneel down and push your hips forward to stretch your quadriceps and hip flexors. Here's how to do it:
- Hip 90-90 Stretch: This is a sitting position where one leg is bent forward and the other leg is bent back to open the hips. Here's how to do it:
- Banded hip mobility: This is a dynamic movement typically performed using a resistance band around the hips to increase hip mobility. Here are some examples:
“Stretching at higher temperatures, like a sauna, can help you achieve deeper stretches with less pain,” says Dr. Krupa.
2. Avoid overusing your muscles
There is a saying that there is no such thing as overtraining, only under-recovery. To keep your hips flexible, exercise on your rest days.
“I wouldn’t program high-intensity strength training or high-intensity exercise more than two or three days a week,” says Stonehouse. “If the overall intensity is low, it is okay to stay for 1-2 more days.”
Varying the amount you lift and the number of repetitions can also help prevent strains.
“Strengthening exercises allow you to vary the stimulus to avoid overuse,” says Dr. Krupa. “For example, do fewer reps on one heavy day and more reps on one lighter day.”
3. Warm your buttocks appropriately
Jumping straight into exercise can cause shock and tightness in your hips.
“A common mistake that causes hip tightness is not properly warming up the hips to move through a full range of motion or accept heavy weights,” says Dr. Krupa.
Try these quick hip mobility exercises that will help you relax in less than 5 minutes before your workout.
4. Move all day
The more you sit, the greater your risk of tight buttocks. That's because sitting puts your hip flexors in their shortest position and reduces blood flow to those muscles, according to sports and orthopedic rehabilitation experts.
Sitting for long periods of time can weaken your core and gluteal muscles, causing your pelvis to tilt forward, which can also cause stiffness in your hips.
“There is a clear link between people who do certain types of sedentary work and those who experience back pain,” says Stonehouse. “These sedentary jobs create what we call lower body crossed syndrome.”
If you have lower body crossed syndrome, your abdominal muscles and glutes become long and weak, while your lower back muscles become short and tight. As a result, you may experience back pain and tight, less mobile hips.
5. Practice proper knee alignment
Practices such as Tai Chi focus on flexibility in the “kua,” the pelvic region that includes the hips, groins, glutes, upper thighs, and lower abs, by ensuring proper knee alignment.
“In Chinese anatomy, the kua is one of the most important areas to be flexible to support body mobility,” says Shirley Chock, CCWS, owner of Aiping Tai Chi in Milford, Connecticut.
Here are some simple Tai Chi alignment exercises you can practice to achieve a more flexible hip area.
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Imagine your legs are glued to your hips with a long screwdriver.
- Observe the direction your knees and toes are pointing, then visualize tightening the screwdriver until your knees and toes are pointing in the same direction. Your hips and groin will be activated and you will feel a deep internal stretch.
- Repeat on the other side.
“Strengthening and lengthening Kua to promote proper knee tracking alignment is an important first step to increasing flexibility,” says Chock.