The hips and glutes are where most of the running issues start from and where they can be corrected. Think about it. Have you ever noticed that if there has been an issue with foot positioning that once you attempted to correct it during a moments notice a sensation occurs in your hips? This is simply because your hips control most of the mobility in the range of which our legs move. As for runners, the more mobile and stronger our hips become, the more power can be generated and released. So let's think about the glutes for a moment.
1. You should try to be stable while on one leg.
While we are running, each time we touch down with one foot, our glutes work immediately to keep our hips stable so that our knees don't absorb too much of the contact from the ground. Doing your fair share of proper squats and single leg exercises such as dead lifts or just hopping in place and catching yourself on one foot could essentially spark a change in your glute muscles. The hopping would cause them to grow in a different manner than your traditional leg workouts (simply holding your hands on your waist and gently hopping; 3 sets of 10 hops per leg).
2. Turning corners while going at a faster pace.
Many of us like to race on the road, but how many of us actually know how to hit turns while going at a reasonable race pace? If one can be aware during a race, once a corner approaches, simply raise the hip that is closer to the turn and use the opposite hip to steer your legs in the desired direction. This will help ensure that you keep your pace going. This neat trick would help mostly once your glutes become strong enough. Think of it as changing hip direction while in the recovery part (peak vertical oscillation) of your stride during a turn. The sooner you can learn to torque your hips while turning corners, the more swift you'll be hitting those turns on your feet.
3. Maximum power during forward propulsion
Once our feet make contact with the ground during our push off phase, it helps for the glutes to fire as efficiently as possible conserving energy while improving our running economy. There are various exercises that can help build these large backside muscles. Want to know? Here are just a few to name:
Glute Bridges, Single Leg Side Tilts (bending to one side while bringing the opposite leg in the air), and Downward Frog Leg Raises (think of the fire hydrant)
Building up the 3 headed booty muscle (Maximus, Minimus, Medius) won't just yield the aesthetics part of it all, but it will also improve the chances of staying injury free by promoting healthier hips and knees due to the constant impact inflicted to our lower joint extremities. So what do you say?
Let's run like gel!