Fire Hydrant Exercise: Benefits and Muscles Worked

Fire hydrant exercise tends to be one of the best bodyweight exercises that will effectively work on your gluteus maximus. When done properly, the fire hydrant exercise will help in lowering the risk of back injuries, improving back pain, and sculpting your glutes.

This exercise can be done easily without requiring any equipment and when done correctly, it will provide you with a multitude of benefits. There are also several modified versions of the fire hydrant which will help in targeting your core muscles.

In this article, we will discuss fire hydrant exercises, including the muscles worked, benefits, techniques, and more.

Glute exercise (Image via Unsplash/Sergio Carpintero)

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Fire Hydrant Workout

Here are the steps that should be followed to perform the fire hydrant exercise effectively to maximize the benefits.

• Start a fire hydrant workout by assuming the position on all fours, including both knees and hands on the ground.
• Position your shoulders above your palms and hips straight above your knees for proper alignment.
• Your gaze should be towards the floor and tighten your core muscles. Next, raise your right leg on the side and away from your body at forty-five degrees while maintaining a ninety-degree angle on your knees.
• Lower your right leg back to the starting position on the ground. Repeat the same before swapping your leg and doing the repetition on your left leg.

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Tips for Fire Hydrant Workout

Make sure that your pelvis and core muscles remain stable. To properly activate your glutes and hips, only your hips should be moving throughout the exercise.

To rotate your hips correctly, point your foot to the opposite side of the wall as you lift your leg.

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Fire Hydrant Exercise Benefits

Here are the benefits of fire hydrant exercise:

1. Improved Hip Stability

The increased strength of the glutes with this exercise will help in building greater hip stability. Muscle movements with this exercise tend to be a great way to open your hip joints by stabilizing the core muscles and butt.

Greater hip stability with fire hydrants will also help in maintaining balance, preventing injuries, and simplifying several other advanced workouts involving lower body and core muscles.

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2. Greater Strength of Glutes

Fire hydrants will help in increasing the overall strength of the glute muscles by targeting your thighs, quadriceps, and glutes. Some of the fire hydrant variations will also help in building core strength and toning your abdominal muscles.

Fire hydrant variations that you can try include fire hydrant kick, fire hydrant with pulses, fire hydrant with ankle weights, and fire hydrant with resistance bands.

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3. Better Functional Movement

Fire hydrants will help in improving the functional movement of the body by strengthening and toning your body. Your glutes are responsible for three major hip movements like hip external rotation, hip abduction, and hip extension. Therefore, this exercise will help in improving movements like walking, going on stairs, sitting down, and stepping to the side.

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4. Athleticism

Fire hydrant exercise will also help in improving athletic performance and is highly beneficial for sportspeople. This exercise will work on your glutes from multiple angles and will help in boosting the range of motion.

Plank (Image via Pexels/Viktorya Sergeeva)

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Fire Hydrant Muscles Worked

Major muscles worked through the fire hydrant exercise include hip abductors, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, gluteus maximus, and core muscles.

The aforementioned article discusses everything about the fire hydrant exercise, including the techniques that should be used as well as the benefits that it provides. This lower body workout will engage the sides of your glutes effectively along with tightening your abs and belly.

Fire Hydrant is an effective lower body exercise that will help in engaging and toning your glutes. This exercise will also tone your outer thighs along with building functional strength on your backside.