Glutes contribute to an aesthetically pleasing physique, but they also play a crucial role in enhancing overall athletic performance and promoting functional movement.
However, in the pursuit of achieving this, some may find it easier than others. This is where you can identify if you’re glute or quad dominant.
Glute dominance occurs when the glute muscles take on more workload during lower body exercises. Strong and activated glutes provide several benefits, such as improved hip extension, better posture, enhanced athletic performance, and reduced risk of lower back and knee injuries.
Whereas, quad dominance arises when the quads become overly dominant in lower body movements. This can lead to an over reliance on the quads, neglecting the engagement of the glutes, resulting in slower booty gains.
How does this impact your workouts?
Glute and quad dominance can significantly impact your workouts and overall fitness progress.
Exercise Efficiency: Glute dominance ensures that you effectively engage your glute muscles during exercises like squats, deadlifts, and lunges, leading to more powerful and efficient movements. Quad dominance might lead to ineffective recruitment of the glutes, reducing the effectiveness of the exercise for targeting specific muscles.
Preventing Injury: Imbalances between the glutes and quads can put stress on certain joints, leading to overuse injuries in the knees, hips, or lower back. Correcting these imbalances is essential to prevent long-term injuries.
Aesthetic Purposes: Achieving balanced development between the glutes and quads contributes to a symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing lower body physique. AKA, Booty gains.
Identifying whether you have glute or quad dominance is beneficial to getting the most out of your workouts.
Here are our favourite tips to correct imbalances:
Glute Activation: Prioritize our 5 minute glute activation exercises to engage and strengthen your glutes before performing lower body movements. We strongly suggest incorporating booty bands into your lower body days to ensure you are activating and targeting the correct muscles. The resistance from the bands will help lock in your core and create controlled movement. Our fabric booty bands are the perfect fit, with 3 different resistance levels to strengthen your glutes and activate each muscle.
Mind-Muscle Connection: Focus on activating the glutes during squats, lunges, and other lower body exercises. Imagine pushing through your heels and squeezing your glutes at the top of the movement. Try removing weights and using a booty band to feel how your muscles activate when completing the correct form.
Posture: Ensure proper posture during exercises to prevent over reliance on the quads. Keep your chest up, shoulders back, core braced and knees tracking in line with your toes.
Targeted Training: Incorporate exercises that emphasise glute activation, such as Romanian deadlifts, step-ups, and Bulgarian split squats. You can find a large selection on the Tammy Fit app.
Guidance: Using the step by step workout information in the Tammy Fit app, our tips over on Facebook and Instagram and our app support.
In the end, you want to aim for a balanced use of these muscles for enhanced performance, strength and reduce the risk of injuries.
By incorporating targeted exercises, maintaining proper form, using booty bands and seeking guidance when necessary, you can achieve a complete balance between your glutes and quads, unlocking your full lower body potential. Remember, a balanced body is a powerful body!
