Gluteal Muscle Activation During Common Yoga Poses.
B J Lehecka, Sydney Stoffregen, Adam May and 5 others
PMID 34123518WHAT IT FOUND
Half Moon and Warrior Three poses produce high muscle activation in the glutes, making them suitable for strengthening exercises.
Other poses like Tree and Warrior Two generate lower activation, fitting better for endurance work. No significant sex differences were found in gluteus maximus activity.
Key findings
01Half Moon Pose showed the highest activation for both gluteus maximus and gluteus medius, exceeding the threshold for strength training stimuli.
02Warrior Three Pose also produced high gluteus maximus activation and moderate-to-high gluteus medius activation, particularly on the lifted leg.
03Tree Pose and Warrior Two Pose resulted in low to moderate activation, suggesting they are more appropriate for endurance training than strength building.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was conducted on healthy young adults, so results may not apply to patients with low back pain or other pathologies. Only the right side was tested, assuming symmetry in healthy individuals. Standardized verbal instructions were used rather than individualized cueing, which may have affected muscle activation levels. The sample size for experienced practitioners was small (7 of 31), which may have limited the ability to detect differences in gluteus maximus activation between experience levels.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest or financial arrangements.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that performing these yoga poses will automatically improve low back pain or strength without progressive overload. This study measured muscle activation during a single seven-second hold, not long-term physiological changes or clinical outcomes.