12 Aug Knee Behind Butt

Here at Evolve to Perform, we’re big advocates of Knee Behind Butt–butt (see what I did there)… what even is knee behind butt?

Knee behind butt is our non-medical way of asking if you have Hip Extension.

Still unsure what we mean? For my non-doctors out there, knee behind butt is when you’re walking and you take a step with your front foot, your back foot is still behind you. Your knee is literally still behind your butt and your hip is extended.

While walking is magical, hip extension is also involved in a lot more things than just walking.

What kind of things? Well, everyone should have a generalized similar range of motion that we’re able to move ourselves into through all of our joints to make sure that we don’t put extra stress on other parts of our body.

In general, we should be able to bend ourselves backwards, bend ourselves forward, and turn in all these other directions.

Range of motion for hip extension is the most important thing that we need to be able to have. It may even be important for our hip extension to be better than normal.

Why?

If we have limitations in hip extension, it’s a very common cause for low back pain.

Of course, there’s going to be other factors for why someone has low back pain, but if we can address that first and see if that person has a limitation, then it can clear up a lot of the other issues that are associated with the complaint of low back pain.

What are some signs that your hip extension might not be where it should be?

-If you ever dealt with getting out of bed, going from that seated position on your bed to a standing position, it could be a little bit labored, it could be your low back or your pelvis/lumbar region is uncomfortable.

-It’s very common when you lean forward to brush your teeth at the sink– that motion of slightly leaning your upper body forward is uncomfortable.

-If you’re someone who works out and trains a lot and you do lunges and you tend to have your shoulders forward and your butt thrown back

-If you feel like you have low back pain as a jogger or as a runner

-If you have a job that requires a lot of sitting. 

-Now, here’s the big one … you’re wondering why can’t feel or grow your glutes no matter how many exercises you’re doing

So now that you may have identified yourself as someone that may be experiencing a lack of hip extension, how can we fix it?

-If you sit at work for four to six hours or if you spend a lot of time commuting and sitting in your car, that’s a lot of time sitting in the same position. See if you can stand up at your desk, walk on your lunch break, take the stairs instead of the elevator, potentially take another mode of transportation to work so you aren’t sitting.

We know that these things aren’t always easy or possible– the point we are trying to make is to see if you’re able to squeeze in more movement throughout the day.

Maybe you’re the opposite and you think you have great hip extension–my next question for you is can you also squeeze your butt aka engage your glutes?

When you’re in a lunge position– it’s really easy for you to lean forward, but do you have the ability now to have muscular control? 

So, okay, you checked off one box. You have the flexibility to get your knee behind the butt, but can you also engage that glute muscle because that’s the thing that actually will also allow you to stay in an upright posture without you having to compensate and use your low back muscles to keep you upright.

So, knee behind butt and activating your glute muscles should go hand in hand.

But if you haven’t had a lot of exposure getting that hip to extend and getting that knee to travel behind your butt, then there’s a higher chance that you’re going to have a harder time to also squeeze the glute. 

You want to try to make that conscious effort because then you’ll notice that you’re a lot more stable and a lot more powerful. But also, if you’re doing it the right way and it’s been a while since you’ve gotten to hip extension or knee behind butt and you squeeze that glute, there’s a chance that you’re going to feel actually some of that tightness in the front of your hip. And that’s okay! Squeezing the glute is actually just stretching these muscles that got tight, the ones that get tight from just being in a hip flexion position a majority of the time. 

So if those muscles are tight, what should you do?

Firstly, find out whether or not you have some muscle stiffness and tightness along the front of the hip. Starting from right above the knee to the front of the hip, you can find out if those muscles are tender and stiff by assessing that with a foam roller. Apply some light pressure to these muscle spots to release some tension.

Another way –and probably one of the most popular ways– to maintain or improve your hip extension is the Couch Stretch.

Whether you are a knee behind butt master or not, we hope we have given you a good idea of where you might be in your hip extension journey and what you can do to improve it.

Have any other knee behind butt questions? We did an entire podcast on it! You can find that here: