Any of you have really developed lower back muscles?
Like two big ropes on either side of your spine in your lower back?
Reach around there right now and have a feel?
Do you feel what I am talking about? If you do then you darn well better keep reading…
At first you might think it is pretty awesome – “man nice bulk there on my erector spinae – way to go”, but here is what I think… uh oh – – you have two bums.
One that you sit on and one in your lower back.
Let me explain the TWO BUMS thing…
Your but muscles (your glutes) are your primary hip extensor or skating muscle. When you push from post to post, you are relying (or should be) on your glutes. Your hamstrings and quads also help, but let’s focus on the glutes.
You should have a well developed butt.
If you have those big bulky erector spinae in your lower back (now that you think of it, they kinda look like a butt too, don’t they?), that tells us loud and clear, that when you push with your legs, you also extend your back.
Two likely reasons you are using your back as an accessory hip extensor is because you are not great at recruiting your glutes (this idea gets a lot of attention lately). That’s not to say they are weak, I am just saying that you are not great at using them. Maybe the fact that you sit on them all day long and squish the daylights out of them has something to do with it.
The other reason is that you are so tight in the front of your hip, that you physically cannot get into any hip extension, so you have to extend at your lower back to get any stride length.
So try this exercise – – I bet 70%+ of you will not even be able to get your knee off the floor.
Do two sets of 8 on each side – hold for 3 seconds.
This is a subtle exercise, you are not supposed to make it as hard as you can or add weight, it is all about getting the right muscles firing and building some range of motion.
Cheers,
M