Training, my arse!

Newsflash: your rear end is for more than just sitting on. Most us don’t appreciate the vital role that the glutes – the muscles in our arses – play in powering the whole body. All the big, muscle-building exercises that involve the lower body, such as the squat, rely on the glutes to provide strength and direction to the movement.

Without the glutes to direct the actions of our legs we’d tip over. And that’s the problem – most people don’t exercise these key muscles because we use them all the time in everyday life. But stronger glutes will make you more powerful all over, and better able to lift more weight.

In our two-part workout this month you will use explosive movements and mass-building exercises to improve muscle coordination. If you follow this plan and get some extra lean protein in your diet, you’ll get more powerful glutes in four weeks.

How to do this workout

Workouts 1 and 2 are designed as two separate workouts to be done on different days. Leave two to three days between each one to give your muscles time to recover properly. Workout 1 is a triset, which means you should do the required number of reps for exercise one, then move on immediately to exercise two, then exercise three. You should then rest for two to three minutes before repeating the triset. You can add the workouts into a longer gym session or just keep it short and focus on maintaining intensity throughout the three exercises, keeping good form throughout. Warm up with five minutes on a treadmill and some press-ups.