I've been doing a lot of kick sets and trying hard to make sure that I use my glutes/hips to kick. One interesting method I read online is to imagine you are holding a coin between the buttocks while kicking. My question is this. I'm feeling some fatigue in the quadriceps while doing this, even though I'm sure I'm initiating the kick from the hips. I'm wondering if this is normal to some extent or a sign that I am not relaxing my lower leg enough on the down kick (i.e. I'm keeping it too extended). Should I be trying harder for that whip action where the lower leg lags behind the thighs on the way down (so it is completely relaxed) and locks on the way up? Thanks.
Does swimming even work on the glutes that much? I've been swimming for 2 years (this coming summer), I still have no butt. Although I inherited the dominant no-butt gene from northern Italy, I really thought swimming would help but it didn't. It just toned up my otherwise non existant glutes.
I've been doing a lot of kick sets and trying hard to make sure that I use my glutes/hips to kick. One interesting method I read online is to imagine you are holding a coin between the buttocks while kicking. My question is this. I'm feeling some fatigue in the quadriceps while doing this, even though I'm sure I'm initiating the kick from the hips. I'm wondering if this is normal to some extent or a sign that I am not relaxing my lower leg enough on the down kick (i.e. I'm keeping it too extended). Should I be trying harder for that whip action where the lower leg lags behind the thighs on the way down (so it is completely relaxed) and locks on the way up? Thanks. The quadriceps are the muscle masses that are the most involved in forward propulsion during the flutter kick execution. Glutes will only be involved in the leg recovery, which of course only accounts for a very small portion of the propulsion.
Superior Hip flexors (Iliopsoas, or hip muscles if you may) aren't qualified for the job. Movement has to be initiated from the hip, but it is the quads that finish the job and insure most of the propulsion.
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As an aside. When I first visited a gym back in my early college years (it was in the context of a phys ed class), I rapidly came to the conclusion that I didn't have much potential for lifting weights, except for two areas where I would lift more than any of the class Big Boys (I was 5'10 140pounds at the time):
- Lat Pull down
- Leg extension / quads (At this one, I was the king of the class!)
I later explained this by those millions meters of swimming and tough kicking I had done at earlier age.
Does swimming even work on the glutes that much? I've been swimming for 2 years (this coming summer), I still have no butt. Although I inherited the dominant no-butt gene from northern Italy, I really thought swimming would help but it didn't. It just toned up my otherwise non existant glutes. In fact, short and simple answer to this question? No! Not very much.
Glutes and Hamstrings should be targeted in dry land training in order to recreate a balance between antagonist muscles. That, of course, is to avoid developing knee injuries. I'm mainly referring to Patello-Femoral-Syndrome here.
I am not saying they're not working whilst swimming, just that they are far from working as hard as the muscles groups responsible for forward propulsion (quads).
Would the glutes do some work during dives and push offs? And to a certain (and significant) extent, during breaststroke kicking.
They are also engaged in leg recovery of course. So they're not completely at rest, but other than during starts and turns, they operate at a very low percentage of their actual potential.
