The gluteus maximus is an extensor muscle.
We have three gluteal muscles that play different roles.
Four-legged animals have these gluteal muscles but they are weak.
As upright animals on two legs, we have developed much stronger pelvic muscles. Especially the big bubble-like gluteus maximus muscle.
The other two glutes are gluteus minimus and gluteus medius. These two muscles are internal and external rotators.
As an extensor muscle, this gluteus maximus muscle aided and abetted the journey to standing and walking upright.
It gained size and strength when, along with the hamstrings, it pulled down on the back of the pelvis.
This is how we became us. The downward pull on the back of the pelvis turned it upward. This allowed the spine to stack in a vertical position.
Again, quadrupeds have gluteal muscles but they are relatively weak. This is why they can’t walk for long on two legs.
There are plenty of primates that can walk on two legs for a bit. But weak gluteal muscles force them to shift their entire weight onto one leg with each step they take.
To stand and walk upright, which brought the legs directly under the pelvis, we needed stronger and bigger butt muscles to help stabilize the pelvis.
One of my favorite phrases is, “We are tight assed people and we need to let go”.
Way too many people are gripping their butts tight in a futile search for stability.
But tight doesn’t always equate with strong and this is where we often get into trouble.
While our gluteus maximus is meant to be a big bubble many people appear to have no butt at all.
The next time you are walking down the street check out people in front of you. Find someone wearing jeans and see if their butts fill out their pants.
What kind of butt do you have?
While plenty of people have plenty of butt– a good number of people have nothing to speak of.
The back of their jeans where the butt muscles should be is just a wrinkled pocket of fabric.
In truth, the gluteus maximus doesn’t need to do much of anything while you are standing.
And even though it is an essential part of walking in general, it really goes to work when you go up stairs, or up a hill.
Learning to relax when it should do nothing and use it correctly when it should be working is a key to rebuilding your body effectively.
But if you are squeezing and gripping it all the time, for the wrong reasons, you will not be creating a good environment for muscle tone.
What category do you fall into? Do you know if your glutes are weak or strong? Do you know if you grip your butt all day long?
There are plenty of exercises for building better tone in your gluteal muscles. I’m not going to go into them here but you can find plenty of them on my blog.
But in my opinion, there is one form of exercise that is best for building good glutes, especially the gluteus maximus.
Go hiking. Hiking on trails (unpaved) with at least some elevation changes is the best way to naturally develop good gluteal tone.