I may not be sporting a high-cut leotard complete with a matching belt and beige hose, but I’m channeling my inner Jane Fonda. 

How am I mimicking her?

By spending time strengthening my mini muscles.

What are those?

“Mini muscles” is not an official term. In my five months of studying for my NASM Certified Personal Trainer exam, I never saw the words, “mini muscles.” I wish I could tell you I coined the phrase, but I didn’t. Honestly, I’m not sure where I heard it first.

Mini muscles are the smaller muscles in your hip musculature that support your hips and movements. They are the foundation of many movements, yet get zero credit.

The muscles I’m specifically referring to are:

• Gluteus Medius (glute med)

• Gluteus Minimus (glute min)

• Iliacus (otherwise known as one of the hip flexor muscles – the other being the psoas)

What they do

These muscles help control your leg movements as they relate to your hips. When you move your leg laterally away from your other leg (like a side leg lift), you are engaging both your glute min and med.

As for the iliacus, chances are you’re flexing that nine hours a day. Also known as one of the hip flexors, it’s flexed any time your knee is in line with your hip. This occurs in any seated position. Or, if you’re standing and raise one bent knee in front of you, the iliacus is actively
engaged.

Why yours may be weak

I’ve taught group fitness for 13 years. Group fitness has been in my blood long enough that I used to wear a thong leotard over black biker shorts to my step aerobics class. I’ve been doing this a loooooong time, people.

When I taught traditional group fit classes, I became known as the “leg lady.” Not because the look of my legs were anything special, but because my students cursed my name the next day when they sat on the toilet. We did squats and lunges, and lunges and squats. Then we knocked out a few more.

The problem with only doing squats and lunges is they focus on what I call the “big sexy muscles.” All those squats and lunges are great for the quads (front of thighs), hamstrings (back of legs), and gluteus maximus (the beefiest portion of your derriere). They don’t engage the smaller muscles that are just as important but don’t get the credit.

The mini muscles are kind of like the sound technician at a concert. The big sexy singers are on stage, dancing and rocking and getting all the glory, while the sound tech sits in the dark with his or her mixing board and equipment. As an audience participant, we may not even think about the sound technician. But if the microphone goes out or the music isn’t transmitted properly to the speakers, we are well aware of the problem.  

You probably don’t even think about your mini muscles until you’re injured. But here’s the kicker: you don’t have to have a literal pain in the butt to have a mini muscle injury.

Personal Story-Telling Time

My 15-year-old son just tore his right meniscus for the second time. Yep, he can’t even drive and he’s had surgery on the same knee twice. The meniscus is a C-shaped piece of cartilage that acts like a cushion between your shinbone and your thighbone. He’s also a big kid. At 6’3” and 185 pounds, he has a lot of lean mass.

This kid also LOVES basketball. One of his first words was basketball, which came out more like “bakeball.” If I was a better mom and actually did a baby book I could tell you with certainty it was his fifth word. Instead, you’ll have to take my word for it.

He worked really hard in the off season performing squats and lunges and lunges and squats. This is his first year in high school and he really wanted to make the starting lineup of the A team. Mission accomplished.

Thirty minutes before his first home game, he came down from an attempted dunk (he would want me to tell you he made it. Maybe he did. Again, if I was a better mom I would have been there to see it.) The mass force of his body plummeting down, plus adding a pivot, took his knee out of alignment and pulled the meniscus away from its position between the two bones.

His physical therapist confirmed my suspicion: his gluteus medius and minimus are weak. Were they stronger, they would have held his femur in position better and not allowed his knee to cave in.

The moral of this story is twofold:

1. You can have an injury that doesn’t appear to be related to weak mini muscles but it is.
2. Mom is instigating clamshells in his workouts. That’s right, kid: clamshells.

How to strengthen them

The problem with strengthening your mini muscles is there’s no glory. Like the sound tech, they sit in the back and do their job with no one to applaud their efforts. Biceps, now they get glory. So do the pectorals (especially for males). But no one in the history of ever has said, “wow, your gluteus minimus looks fantastic in those jeans.”

Strengthening them also burns in a way that’s completely different than your biceps feel while doing hammer curls. Simply put: it hurts.

However, here’s what happens when you strengthen them: your big sexy muscles work better. They can get stronger because they’re not overcompensating for the weaker supporting ones. And most importantly, they create a more balanced state in which your entire body can function.

Just give me the exercises, Amy

I remember putting in a Jane Fonda VHS tape and sweating to the oldies. Oh wait, that was Richard Simmons. I did his VHS as well. But Jane Fonda, in her quintessential 80’s exercise clothes, really was onto something.

Jane did clamshells. Lying leg lifts. Fire hydrants. Leg kickbacks.

And they all strengthened her mini muscles.

We need to do those as well.

You can do these with only your bodyweight but it may require higher repetitions. I recommend adding  these loops, which you can get for $8. We use these in my classes, and my girls said they were surprised when I didn’t include them in my 7 gifts for under $30 post.

Incorporate some of these exercises into your next workout.

The set

Perform each exercise 15 times with a 10-second hold on the last rep. Do more if you don’t have any added resistance of a loop.

Clamshells (optional: place loop on muscle one inch above knee)

Lie on a yoga mat on your right side. Align your shoulders, hips, and feet with the back side of the mat. Bend your knees but keep your feet in the same line.

Squeeze your left buttock and begin lifting your knee up toward the ceiling (or sky).

Repeat other side.

Lying leg lifts (optional: place loop around ankles)

Lie on a yoga mat on your right side. Align your shoulders, hips, and feet with the back side of the mat. Tilt your left heel up while you keep your toes down. Lift your leg up to a 45-degree angle. Lower to twelve inches above your foot.

Repeat other side

Fire hydrants (optional: place loop on muscle one inch above above knee)

Come to a position on your hands and knees on the mat. Align your shoulders over your hands and your hips over your knees. Make sure your spine is still in neutral alignment, just as if you folded over. Do not round your shoulders.

Keeping your left hip over your left knee, lift your right knee out to the side. The right knee should stay in lateral alignment with your hip (do not bring it forward or backward as you lift it). Keep your left hip directly over your left knee. It’s easy to sit into the movement and let that hip fall. 

Repeat other side.

Leg kickbacks (optional: place loops around the arches of your feet)

Come to a position on your hands and knees on the mat. Align your shoulders over your hands and your hips over your knees. Make sure your spine is still in neutral alignment, just as if you folded over. Do not round your shoulders.

Extend your leg back so that it is in line with your buttock. Return back to starting position. For additional challenge, keep the knee slightly elevated above the ground while in the starting position.

Glute bridge

Lie on your back with your legs bent and feet shoulder width apart. Create a tripod with your feet and evenly distribute your weight between your big toe, baby toe, and heel. Squeeze your glutes and raise your hips into the air. Come only to a neutral position. Do not overarch your back. Return to starting position.

As easy as it is to make fun of Ms. Fonda’s leg warmers, hair, and videos, she was really on to something in the fitness arena. She turns 81 – 81! – this month and is still going strong. I think it was most definitely the clamshells.

Outfit by Skirt Sports: Pocketopia Capri in Holiday Print, Wonder Girl Tank. Use code 166Conn for 15% off full price and most sale items. You can read about my relationship with Skirt Sports here. I receive no commission on your purchases. Basically, I receive a discount and get to give you one.

PS In doing research for this article, I came across this article. She certainly battled her own demons when she was younger, but I admire her approach to healthful living as she’s aged. Check it out.