TONE UP LIKE GEMMA
Follow Gemma Atkinson’s gym hack and fast-track your way to a brag-worthy bum
Our bums are one of the biggest muscles we have and, as most of us sit on them for a large portion of the day, they’re the laziest, too. So, when you hit the gym, you want to make sure that your butt is giving it 100 per cent. But if you’re looking to power up your posterior, you’ll need to give it a kick up the, er, bum to get it fired up and ready to work.
Get your glute on
Glutes are the name of the group of muscles that we affectionately term our bums. And former Strictly star (and owner of a pretty brilliant-looking behind) Gemma Atkinson reveals that she starts off her workouts with a series of “glute activation exercises” to make sure her bottom is at the top of its game. “Before every session – especially lower-body workouts – I always do a round of glute activation to ensure they are firing throughout the exercise,” she shared on Instagram. “Having strong glutes will massively help with pain in the lower back, quads and hamstrings. When your glutes don’t fire, you compensate and use other muscles when lifting, which can lead to injury. Plus, it also helps to create a lovely looking ass.” Yaaas.
Tone up your trunk
But what is glute activation and will we look like a total tool in the gym if we do it? Thankfully, no. Steve Chambers, aka #Evilsteve – Gemma’s PT at Ultimate Performance (Upfitness.ae) – says “Glute activation is the preparation of the muscle fibres in the glutes, but also the neurological awareness to recruit those muscle fibres during more demanding movements. In modern society, we spend most of our days sitting down looking at a computer screen. This, in turn, can cause weak and inactive glutes. The problem here is twofold. One, we can’t activate or train the glutes properly when working out and two, other surrounding muscle groups need to work harder to perform the desired movements. This can eventually lead to muscle imbalances and sometimes even injury.” Luckily, glute activation is pretty easy to do. If you slip these bootylicious moves in at the start of your workout, you’ll see and feel the results within just a few weeks.