Does walking on the buttocks help you lose weight and pump up your ass?

What is glute walking?

A glute walk is an exercise in which you sit on the floor with your legs extended forward and move your hips forward or backward in turn.

In numerous articles devoted to the benefits of these movements, walking on the buttocks is called a remedy for cellulite, excess weight, hemorrhoids and infertility, as well as a good way to strengthen muscles.

And the popularization of the exercise is credited to Ivan Pavlovich Neumyvakin, a Soviet doctor and author of books on alternative medicine.

Is this exercise really pumping the buttocks?

The main function of the gluteus maximus muscles is hip extension, and with fixed legs, extension of the body. The middle and small glutes abduct the thigh, and with the legs fixed, the pelvis is tilted to the side.

Thus, to effectively pump the buttocks, you need to unbend the hips under load. In line with this, a recent review of scientific research has identified elevation strides, weighted hip extensions, and hex barbells as the best exercises for working out the gluteus maximus.

The most effective movements for pumping the gluteus medius include lifting the leg to the side, such as abducting the hip in the lateral plank, extending the knees while lying on the side.

Also, the gluteal muscles are excellently tense in balance exercises, when you not only extend the hips, but also make efforts to stabilize the core and legs. These are, for example, squats and deadlifts on one leg.

In movement on the buttocks, there is neither hip extension, nor hip abduction, nor the need to stabilize the body. Thus, we can conclude that the load on these muscles in the exercise is minimal.

What muscles can be strengthened by walking on the buttocks?

When walking on the buttocks, the main load falls on the muscles of the body: the internal and external oblique muscles of the abdomen, the square muscles of the lower back. Also, throughout the exercise, the rectus abdominis muscle and the extensors of the spine are strained. They help keep the body rigid and the back straight.

In addition, at the moment of lifting the thigh from the floor, muscles are activated - the hip flexors: iliopsoas, tailor, rectus femoris muscle.

Is it worth walking on the buttocks?

It all depends on your goals.

It's not worth wasting time on this if you want to:

Lose weight. To do this, you need to spend more calories, and walking on the floor on the buttocks is not the most energy-intensive type of exercise. To lose weight only through exercise, without connecting a diet, you need to engage in at least 60 minutes a day and, moreover, choose energy-intensive workouts - prolonged cardio or strength elements aimed at pumping large muscle groups. They will make you lose more calories and help maintain your metabolic rate while you are losing weight.
Build up your muscles. To increase the volume of muscles, you need to tire their fibers with strength exercises. Walking on the buttocks will not provide enough exercise for significant hypertrophy of any muscles.
Get rid of cellulite. Exercise is effective against the "orange peel" only in the context of losing weight, and this is what we discussed above. As for the massage effect that occurs while walking on the floor, it will also not affect the appearance of cellulite. Even manual massage is of little use in this regard - positive changes are observed only from deep LPG massage, and even then not always.

Try this exercise for those who want to strengthen the muscles of the core, especially the oblique abdominal muscles. You can also use it as a warm-up before strength training - the movements will help to gently warm up the body and not overwork.

How to do this exercise correctly?

Sit on the floor, stretch your legs forward and straighten your back. Bend your arms at the elbows and hold on either side of the body. Pull in your stomach, lift one hip and move your leg forward. Lower your thigh to the floor and repeat on the other side.

Move forward, keeping your back straight and your abs tense. You can walk forward and backward this way.

How can you diversify walking on the buttocks?

There are two ways to complicate this exercise:

1. Perform walking on the buttocks with weight. Holding a dumbbell or kettlebell in front of your chest will increase the load on your core muscles.

2. Do the exercise with your arms over your head. Take a light stick with a grip one and a half to two times wider than your shoulders and hold it in your arms outstretched above your head. In this case, the muscles of the upper back and shoulder girdle are connected to the work.

How often and for how long do the buttocks walk?

You can do these movements every day, alone or in conjunction with other abdominal and back exercises. As for the quantity, be guided by your capabilities. If you have not been physically active for a long time, start with one or two sets of 10-15 "steps".

Increase the drive length as you get used to. To pump the oblique muscles of the abdomen, perform three or five approaches of 20-30 "steps"; to warm up before training - one-two sets of 15-20 "steps".