It’s all about your bottom.

If you follow a few ladies into their fitness on Instagram you’ll have noticed a recent trend – pictures of posteriors. Where once we saw pictures of strong shoulders or fabulous abs we now get shots of butts and talk of firing glutes. The focus on the rear has even made its way to The Guardian So is this a good thing?

First of all what does that area do? It supports us, literally. The minute you get out of bed in the morning you need to hold yourself up, and that’s what that backside is doing first and foremost – turning you into a walking human from a four-legged animal. It’s doing a lot more besides though.

All those muscles in your backside are connected to the pelvis and in your pelvis are the structures that control your bladder and your bowels. When working the muscles that give that strong rear you are also contributing to strength in the pelvis, particularly the pelvic floor, which supports your internal organs and helps gives you control over your bladder and bowels.

If you come to one of my sessions in my personal training studio in Cholsey, you’ll find that I spend a lot of time on some basic moves such as lunges and squats and variations on them, so that my clients can develop strength in the upper legs and pelvic muscles. It’s something I first learned about nearly ten years ago, long before I became a PT.

I had prostate cancer at the young-ish age of fifty, and to remove my dodgy prostate the surgeon had to cut through my lower abdomen the reach under my bladder. In raking out my prostate the procedure also took away one of the two urinary sphincters that control the bladder output. And that’s when I found that men too have to understand the importance of their pelvic floor, as without strength their I’d be far more likely to have urinary incontinence, a common side-effect of prostate cancer surgery. Being younger and fitter than many I had and still have no issues thankfully, but incontinence is a growing problem, particularly with the impact of cancer, obesity and people living longer, as this article describes that global sales of incontinence products are rising at 20% a year. I can help you with your rehab needs, working with your GP to help you achieve recovery.

While we all want to live in the here and now the fitness work that I do with people today is really an investment in their future health, ensuring that they can continue to do all that they want for many years to come. So that’s why I’m bothered about your bottom. It really is your greatest asset.