Your Butt is not just for Sitting on!!

I am going to point out to you why you should be using your butt for much more than just sitting. First and foremost from a cricket fitness and conditioning point of view. Injury prevention should always be a number one priority. The gluteals(butt) particularly the gluteus medius should be constantly active and doing a lot of the work that most cricketers backs do. Most cricketers do not use their glutes enough if at all. Meaning you are using your back muscles too much. This can lead to over activation of the lower back and hamstrings to compensate for this lack of gluteal activation. This will eventually lead to a breakdown and a medical professional will have to be consulted. An unwanted rest period usually follows and then some rehabilitation to get you back on the playing field. Or as most of you will do after your down time. Just continue on as you were before and hope it doesn't happen again. Unfortunately the percentages are stacked against you and it probably will happen again but this time it will be worst.

Before you go and start doing heaps of sit-ups and abdominal work to help take the load of your back think butt. And I don't mean the way in which most of you do!!! You need to get your gluteals working and start taking a lot of the work off your back. I can't go into it too much in this short article but you can test yourself simply to see if you are using any gluteal muscles at all. Simply stand on one leg and poke the butt cheek of the leg that you are standing on with your finger. If that butt cheek is not rock hard then you aren't using your glutes enough and your back is doing too much work. It will only be a matter of time until back soreness or even Hamstring or Quadriceps injuries start appearing.

Now a simple way to start activating your glutes is simply squeezing your butt cheeks. This sounds simple yet some people have difficulty doing this. I find the following cue always works for my non butt activating cricketer clients. Imagine you have a $100.00 bill in between your butt cheeks and if you let it go you will lose it. Funnily enough they immediately get those gluteals activated. Maybe that is where the term tight arse originated from :) That is enough butt talk from me.

I hope this information has inspired you to take some action, take the work load off your back and get those glutes working. It will require consistent attention to convert this activation to habit but for cricket-fitness and injury prevention it will be a worth while investment. I would advise you to check for gluteal activation in a private area or be prepared to be the butt of all jokes and cop some funny looks and maybe some unwanted attention!!!