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et’s talk about your butt! Specifically, your butt muscles. You see, your buns are made up of a whole group of muscles—three, to be exact: the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. These, as you may have already guessed, are referred to collectively as “the glutes,” and they serve a number of purposes including extension and rotation, abduction and adduction, and preventing pain in the low back and knees. Strong glutes contribute to a healthier, happier more mobile body.

Typically, exercises target one (sometimes two) of the muscles within the glutes group. For instance: Deadlifts and step-ups tend to focus on the glute max (the biggest of the bunch) while side-lying clamshells work on the glute med (they’ll be on fire), and fire hydrants get into the glute med and minimus simultaneously.

A combination of exercises usually does the trick of getting all those muscles, but we wanted to see if there was a particular move that could target all three at once. As it turns out, there is—Sridhar Yalamanchili, PT, MSPT, with Atlantic Spine Center in New Jersey, recommends the frog-leg bridge.

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