How Them Glutes?!

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We are running full steam ahead with DEADcember and hope you are loving all the information we have been sharing with you and getting a VERY different thought on what the deadlift is and how you can do more with the movement than just an exercise. 

Now, EVERYTHING we do at DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training we do our best to base not off personal bias or emotion, but that pesky thing called science. Of course, I’ve got some bad news. I feel like I am telling the kids for the first time that there is no Santa Clause. That darn science thing, WHY does it have to keep ruining the wonderful sound bites of fitness!

What on earth am I talking about? I have seen it, I am sure you have to, the deadlift has been said to be the VERY best way to train the glutes. After all, isn’t that why most fitness pros will tell you that you have to, you gotta, you MUST deadlift after all? 

I was curious, was there anything other than our personal “hope” that this was true that backed up such a claim. Well, there aren’t a lot of studies comparing deadlifts to other exercises, but there is one REALLY interesting one. It compared, lunges, step-ups, squats, and deadlifts in a variety of lower body muscle activity tests. Some were more quad based, some hamstring, and of course there were glute measurements (both medius and maximus). So, the deadlift ran away with the hamstring and glute measurements right?! Well, check out the chart below. 

No! Josh you did this, didn’t you! How, how COULD you show the deadlift NOT being the best for the glutes? Well, you can hate the science, but it makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Both the lunge and step-up (when done RIGHT!) have a lot of the same components of the deadlift. The ability to work from hip flexion to extension in a more similar manner than the squat. Yet, the instability of the body position of being in a lunge and step-up increases the lateral stability of the hip and hits the glutes even harder because they not only have to produce force up and down, but stabilize side to side. 

Does that mean deadlifts are bad? No, does it mean you shouldn’t use them, no. It DOES mean if you think functional training is completely reliant on an exercise and not a movement you are missing what functional training is ALL about. 

How can you get the best of both worlds? Try this DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training bench mark workout by DVRT Master, Paige Fleischmann. Such DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training workouts allow us to get the amazing benefits of both, but realize the strengths and weaknesses of both types of training. The result? A far more well rounded program than most ever expect. Only one way to know if I am lying, see if you can keep up with Paige!

A1. High pulls

A2. Front Loaded Alt. reverse lunge

A3. Bent row

A4. Push press

A5. Alt lateral DL

A ladder of 4,5,6,5,4.