Muscle · Glutes

Gluteus maximus

Musculus gluteus maximus

The largest and coarsest muscle in the body, and the one you sit on. It runs obliquely from the back of the pelvis, sacrum and coccyx down and outward, handing most of its pull to the iliotibial tract on the outside of the thigh and the rest to the back of the femur. Its job is powerful hip extension and external rotation — driving you up out of a squat, up a stair, and forward in a sprint — while its upper fibres help hold the pelvis level. It is quiet during easy walking and comes alive against resistance, which is why it can be strong-looking and still under-used. The founder's clinical system puts gluteus maximus squarely in the WEAK column: when it stops extending the hip, the lumbar spine and hamstrings take the work, which is the mechanism behind its low-back-pain and hip-pain treatment flows.