Take a look at our Instagram post, where Jasper takes us through the Gluteal Activation Test with hip extension!
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Gluteal activation test with hip extension. . . This is a nice and simple test to see whether your gluteal muscles are firing and activating when they should be. Here, we can feel and compare the timing of contraction between your lower back muscles, gluteals and hamstrings. As the patient extends their hip without bending the knee, a desirable result is that the gluteal muscles activate first/no later than the hamstrings or lumbar muscles. The lumbar muscles for for spinal stabilisation (not heavy lifting or bending) and the hamstrings are predominately for flexing the knee, but the long head of biceps femoris does aid in hip extension. . . There can be multiple reasons why your gluteals may not be firing. Some reasons include having a ‘sway’ posture, can be from a history/time-frame of general inactivity and then sudden load, or could be muscle inhibition from lower back pain. Regardless of what the reason is, having glutes that activate immediately when we extend our hip is vital for knee, hip and ankle control, to protect our lower backs from excessive loads with training and bending, and to offload other smaller muscles (like the calf) down the leg so they don’t have to overwork and lead to injury. . . If you are experiencing back pain, or pain in your legs and you're not sure why, don't wait and come to Get Active Physiotherapy for an assessment today as it could be your underperforming bottom that is a primary driver of your condition!
A post shared by Get Active Physiotherapy (@getactivephysiotherapy) on Jul 19, 2017 at 6:42pm PDT
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