When it comes to muscle building, many gym-goers overlook some of the most important muscles in their body.
This is especially true for the hips, back, and core muscles. While these muscles may not be immediately noticeable while working out at the gym, they play a crucial role in maintaining strength and stability during workouts and preventing injury.
To ensure that you're not leaving these crucial muscles out, here are the three most forgotten muscles you need to focus on when training and why you need to include them in your workout regimen.
Muscles Ignored During Training
You must've heard this countless times "if you don't move, you lose." And it's true! Your muscles need movement, which is why you must ensure that you're hitting all the right spots. Neglecting certain muscle groups doesn’t only mean that you won't get the results you want, but it can also increase your risk of injury and weaken the muscles you're overworking.
Now let's talk about the least essential muscles that people tend to neglect while training. These muscles are located in the hips, back, and core regions of the body.
These muscles may be less obvious than some other muscle groups, but they are just as important as some other, more commonly known muscle groups.
1. Glute Muscles
Everyone wants a big-round booty, right? But here's the thing: big butts don't just come from hours and hours of squats.
Squats will build strength in your glutes and help you pack on some size, but you also have to focus on other muscle groups like the abductors and adductors. The abductors are the muscles on the front of your thigh, and the adductors are the muscles on the back of your thigh.
Strengthening these two muscle groups will help correct any imbalances that you may have in your lower body and help make your butt look bigger and stronger. But how do you train them?
Begin With Glute Workouts
The gluteus maximus is one of the muscles that often gets ignored. This large muscle is located in the buttocks and is responsible for hip extension. With Glute workouts, you can strengthen this muscle in no time.
Two exercises that can be done to work the glutes are a kettlebell swing and the Farmer’s Walk. This exercise helps to build power in the glutes and hamstrings and targets the glutes, shoulders, and core.
Another exercise you can try to target this muscle is the curtsy lunge.
Curtsy Lunges
The curtsy lunge is an exercise that specifically targets your hip muscles for a toned look. Its dynamic move activates the stabilizing muscles around the hip joint and lower trunk, providing excellent balance and flexibility to the body.
This exercise strengthens your glutes, quads, and hamstrings and enhances your posture. You can add a resistance loop band for an extra challenge and a quicker result. However, we won’t recommend trying a resistance band until you’re at least on the intermediate level, as the challenge can be a little too much for a beginner’s body.
- Allow your arms to hang at your sides as you stand with your feet hip-distance apart.
- Your right foot should form a semicircle and move anticlockwise until it crosses behind your left foot. Hold your hands together at your heart while keeping your right toe tucked.
- With your knee, a few inches above the ground, lunge as deeply as you can.
- Get back to your standing curtsy position slowly.
- Lunge again on the opposite side.
2. Core Muscles
When it comes to core exercises, many put too much emphasis on the superficial layers of muscle and not enough on the transverse abdominis, also known as the "deep abs," which help provide core stability and strength. The exercise we are mentioning below will help you get a stronger core making you gain stamina.
Bicycle Crunches
Bicycling crunches are one of the best exercises to target your core muscles effectively. Besides toning your stomach, bicycling crunches can also help improve your balance— making it a great exercise to incorporate into any full-body workout routine.
When done correctly, Bicycle crunches are the best way to strengthen your core and do cardio simultaneously! Don’t let your core be the underdeveloped muscles in your body.
- Lean back and lie down. Place your feet hip-width apart on the ground. With your elbows pointing outward, cross your arms behind your head.
- Get your abs ready. Raise your upper body while bending your knees to a 90-degree angle. Your starting point is here.
- Exhale while rotating your trunk and bringing your left knee and right elbow together. Straighten your right leg at the same time. Pause.
- Take a breath, then reset your posture.
- Exhale. Extend your left leg and bring your left elbow to your right knee. Pause.
Pilates Roll Over
Now this one is a little tough for the newbies, but once you get the hang of it, you will love doing it. It activates all your core muscles, making it an excellent exercise for building abdominal strength.
- Taking a deep breath, raise your legs straight up and together at a 90-degree angle toward the ceiling (touching along the inner thigh and knee). The instep is pointed.
- As you exhale, lift your legs and tilt your pelvis backward.
- Legs extended, lift them above your head. Finish with your feet and legs parallel to the ground while keeping your hands firmly planted on the yoga mat.
- After exhaling, slowly reposition your legs so that they are at a 90-degree angle, placing one vertebra at a time onto the mat.
- Repeat
Related Article: 10 Best Pilates Ring Exercises to Strengthen Your Core, According to Experts
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3. Back Muscles
A strong back is essential, the sole protector of your spinal cord, and it's the only thing keeping you standing straight. Still, it's often overlooked and, as a result, can be the cause of injury and can no longer provide stability.
Even if you're working out the abdominal muscles in the front of your body (your "core"), you might be ignoring the same area on the back, which can have serious consequences.
When ignoring your back, you leave the muscles on your back susceptible to injuries while exercising or doing anything strenuous.
Superman
Superman exercise is an incredible way to challenge your core muscles and build strength. It also works other important muscles in your body, like those in your back, glutes, and legs. You'll feel a burn in your abs after this superman exercise and enjoy a fantastic workout.
- Lay prone (face down) on the yoga mat with your arms in front of you and your legs straight.
- Lift your arms and legs slowly while maintaining a neutral head position (avoid looking up). At the same time, contract the muscles between your shoulder blades, your core, and your glutes.
- To tighten your abs, try to lift your belly button off the floor just a little bit.
- Hold this posture for two to three seconds. Make sure you are breathing throughout.
- Return to the floor by lowering your arms, legs, and belly.
- Repeat
Deadlift
The deadlift exercise is an incredibly powerful, multi-muscle movement. Working out your feet and legs, glutes and hamstrings, back, traps, and abs—it’s the one movement that seriously engages all the major groups of muscles in your body simultaneously.
Plus, it's a great way to condition your core and strengthen your posture. Once you get the form down by using proper technique under the supervision of a professional trainer or coach, you'll be able to lift heavier weights while reducing the risk of injury.
- Assume a hip-width stance and place the bar above your shoelaces.
- Hinge forward and push your hips back, so your torso gets parallel to the floor.
- Pick up the bar with a double overhand grip and pull it slightly. Make sure your armpits are positioned above the bar and are squeezed.
- As you drop your hips, pull up the bar.
- Ensure that you’ve pulled the bar up in a straight line as you pick the bar up.
- Make sure to keep your weight divided in the whole foot equally.
- Once your hips are locked out, reverse your movement to return to the starting position.
- Repeat
Related Article: 10 Amazing Deadlift Variations for Beginners to Improve Your Pulls
FAQs
1. Why do we have to train our whole body and can’t only train selected muscles?
Training your entire body is essential to sculpting a balanced and injury-free physique. It allows you to add variety and spice to workouts while optimizing overall strength development. Each body part impacts one other, so it's essential to focus on the muscles that contribute to a strong core.
Exercising multiple muscle groups simultaneously will improve balance, coordination, and stability while stimulating the release of beneficial hormones that not only help maintain a healthy physique but also aid in supporting muscle growth when used in combination with other exercises - such as squats for hamstrings and lower back or chin-ups for lats.
Ultimately, training your whole body is critical for improving physical performance and helping prevent any overuse injuries from targeted workout routines.
2. Is training your back important?
Training your back is vitally important for overall health. Your back is the foundation on which so much of your upper and lower body movement depends; it takes the brunt of most physical activities, both in and out of the gym.
Having strong back muscles helps to improve your posture, reduce pain in your neck and spine, and even prevent injury while exercising. It's also a great way to get a bigger frame—if you're looking to build mass, having a broader back can give you the aesthetic you might be after.
Training your back isn't just about vanity or muscle size; it's essential to staying fit, healthy, and injury-free.
3. Which part of our body is neglected most?
Our feet are often the most neglected part of our body, despite them being two of the strongest and hardest-working parts of us. Our feet bear all the weight of our bodies throughout our lives, yet we rarely take time to consider their health or well-being.
We rarely thank them for carrying us around each day, which is incredibly unsettling when you think that they may carry us through anywhere between 75,000 - 150,000 miles in a lifetime.
As such, taking care of our feet is essential to have a long, healthy life; we must treat them well with massages and provide them with shoes and socks that fit correctly.
In this way, we can ensure that our feet stay healthy enough to provide us with decades more steps into an even happier life.
Conclusion
We hope you gained some insight into how critical it is to train all muscle groups, including those frequently overlooked in the hips, back, and core. These muscles are essential for maintaining strength and stability during workouts and avoiding injury. Include glute workouts, curtsy lunges, resistance band training for the hip and adductors, and bicycle crunches for the deep core muscles to ensure that you are targeting these critical muscle groups. Remember that a well-rounded workout regimen is essential for achieving optimal results and avoiding injury.
