You’ve been crunching your abs and building up your biceps. Meanwhile your bum muscles are kicking back on a sunlounger. It’s easy to neglect your glute muscles—but lazy glutes, also known as “dead butt syndrome” (yes, really) have been linked to a range of issues, from hip and lower back pain to postural problems.
Your glutes are actually made up of three main muscles. “You’ve got the gluteus maximus, which is the big one at the bottom. Next to that are the gluteus medius—on the outer surface of the pelvis—and the gluteus minimus underneath,” says Shona Vertue, a personal trainer and yoga teacher. “The medius and minimus provide stability and allow you to take your legs out to the side, while the maximus is responsible for lots of different movements. You need to be activating all of them, but in a lot of people they’re not working hard enough.”
