Tag: advice

HEART RESEARCH UK HEALTHY TIP

When we think about heart health, we often focus on cardio exercises like walking, running, or cycling. But did you know that your bottom, AKA the glutes, can play a surprisingly important role in keeping your heart healthy? 

Your glutes are the largest and most powerful muscle group in the body. They are essential for everyday movement, posture, and balance. When they are strong, being active feels easier and is sustainable, which supports long-term heart health. 

In this month’s Healthy Tip, Luca van Cleemput, Healthy Heart Coach at Heart Research UK, explains why strengthening your glutes is about much more than aesthetics, and discusses how it can help protect your heart. 

Why do glutes matter for heart health? 

Strong glutes power everyday activities such as walking, climbing stairs, standing up from a chair, or carrying shopping. When these muscles are weak, other parts of the body, like the lower back or knees, often compensate. Over time, this can lead to discomfort and reduce daily movement. 

Regular activity is one of the most effective ways to protect your heart. Research shows that even small increases in daily movement, like walking more, are linked to a lower risk of heart disease. Strong glutes make movement feel easier, which helps you stay active consistently. 

Luca explains: “Cardio is essential for heart health, but muscle strength is often overlooked. Strong muscles support heart health, bones, balance, independence, and long-term quality of life.

“For best results, include regular cardio along with at least two strength-training sessions per week. Since the glutes are the body’s largest muscle group and support everyday movement, they’re a great place to start.” 

Glutes, energy, and metabolism 

Because the glutes are such a large muscle group, strengthening them has benefits beyond movement alone. When muscles work, they generally use glucose for energy. Therefore, doing strength training regularly helps improve blood sugar control and supports insulin sensitivity, which is important for overall health and specifically heart health. 

Luca adds: “People often think strength training has to be time-consuming. In reality, even simple glute exercises done regularly can help your body manage blood sugar and support heart health over time.” 

Maintaining muscle mass as we age is also important for supporting a healthy metabolism. From mid-life onwards, we naturally begin to lose muscle, a process called sarcopenia. Because muscle burns more energy than fat, even at rest, losing muscle gradually lowers the body’s resting metabolic rate. This means we burn slightly fewer calories over time at rest, which can make gradual weight gain more likely, even if eating habits remain the same. 

Luca explains: “Even simple glute exercises done consistently can support your metabolism and help you burn more calories at rest. Strong glutes aren’t just about aesthetics, they support your heart, weight management, and independence as you age.” 

Carrying excess weight, particularly around the waist, is linked with higher blood pressure, cholesterol, and an increased risk of heart disease.

Keeping large muscle groups like the glutes strong helps preserve overall muscle mass. This supports weight stability, a higher resting metabolic rate, and better long-term metabolic health. 

While glutes are the largest muscles, strengthening other major muscle groups, including the legs, core, and back, complements glute strength. Building overall muscle mass supports everyday fitness, makes daily movement easier, and reduces the strain on joints. 

Stronger glutes make exercise feel easier 

When your glutes are doing their job properly, activities like walking, cycling, or climbing stairs require less effort from smaller muscles. This reduces fatigue and improves movement efficiency. 

Lower-body strength also helps your body cope better with aerobic exercise. Strong muscles make everyday activities feel easier and more manageable, even at the same pace or intensity. This makes it easier to maintain moderate-intensity activity, the level most strongly linked with improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol, and overall cardiovascular fitness. 

In simple terms, when movement feels easier, you are more likely to do it regularly. And when it comes to heart health, consistency matters more than intensity. 

Strength training works best alongside regular aerobic activity such as walking, cycling, or swimming. Together, they provide the strongest protection for heart health. 

Posture, balance, and injury prevention 

Weak glutes can contribute to poor posture, such as slouching or excessive arching of the lower back. Over time, this may make daily activities feel more tiring. 

Strong glutes play a key role in balance and stability. They help control movement at the hips, which is essential for staying steady when walking, turning, stepping up or down, or getting out of a chair. 

As we age, we naturally lose muscle mass and strength if it isn’t regularly challenged. Reduced lower-body strength increases the risk of falls, a major cause of injury and loss of independence in older adults. Even short periods of inactivity following an injury can negatively affect heart health, as people often move less and lose confidence in their ability to stay active. 

Luca adds: “Glutes play a surprisingly big role in preventing falls. Keeping them strong stabilises your hips, which can help you move safely and more confidently every day, especially as you age.” 

Maintaining glute strength improves balance, reduces the risk of falls, and supports long-term independence. Even small improvements can make a meaningful difference. 

Simple ways to strengthen your glutes 

You don’t need a gym or heavy weights to start strengthening your glutes. Simple exercises at home can be adapted to suit different abilities. 

The UK physical activity guidelines recommend muscle-strengthening activities at least two days per week. These sessions do not need to be long and can use bodyweight alone. 

Examples of glute-strengthening exercises: 

• Sit-to-stands from a chair
• Glute bridges
• Step-ups
• Glute kickbacks
• Romanian deadlift 

As your strength improves, exercises may feel easier. Gradually increasing repetitions, adding an extra set, or introducing light resistance (from a resistance band or dumbbells) helps maintain progress. Small, steady increases are safer and more effective than sudden large jumps in intensity. 

A good rule of thumb is that the last few repetitions of an exercise should feel challenging, but you should still maintain good form and breathe steadily. 

Luca explains: “Strength training should feel challenging, but not overwhelming. Start at a level that suits you and build up gradually.

“Choose exercises you can perform without pain and focus on perfecting your technique before increasing intensity. This is the best way to get all the benefits of a specific exercise.” 

Remember, the goal isn’t necessarily large muscles. It’s to maintain strength, support everyday movement, and protect long-term heart health. 

Bringing it all together 

Strong glutes are more than just an aesthetic goal. They: 

• Make everyday movement easier
• Support heart health and blood sugar control
• Helpmaintainweight and metabolism 
• Reduce the risk of falls and injury
• Contribute to overall muscle strength, functional fitness, and independence

Incorporating glute exercises into a total-body strength routine provides maximum benefits for your health, both now and in the long term. 

Download Heart Research UK’s Free Resource 

To help you get started, we’ve created a ‘Glute Strength for Everyday Movement’ exercise sheet. It includes simple, step-by-step exercises to support mobility, balance, and heart-healthy movement, with options for different ability levels. 

These exercises focus on movements that strengthen not just the glutes, but other important lower-body muscles too, helping you build functional strength that supports everyday life. 

Download the free resource and take the first step towards stronger glutes and a healthier heart: