10 Critical Muscles You’re NOT Training (It’s Costing You YEARS of Progress!)

If you like this video, you'll LOVE Fitness-Tip Friday! My extremely popular FREE weekly e-mail newsletter & podcast! 👉 https://www.dr-gains.com/fitness-tip-... Be sure to subscribe before you go! 👉    / drgains   **LINKS** Training Programs & Memberships 👉 https://www.dr-gains.com/home Content Requests & Feedback 👉 https://www.dr-gains.com/content-requ... Instagram 👉   / michael_kamalu   TikTok 👉 https://www.tiktok.com/michael_kamalu Anatomy animations powered by Muscle & Motion! 👉https://muscleandmotion.pxf.io/6b46Nr === Key Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:07 #10—Tibialis Anterior 0:56 #9—Serratus Anterior 2:07 #8—Flexor Digitorum Profundus (FDP) 3:15 #7—Soleus 4:16 #6—Teres Minor 4:54 #5—Sartorius 6:04 #4—Erector Spinae 7:06 #3—Gluteus Medius 8:38 #2—Neck Flexors 9:12 #1—Quadratus Lumborum (QL) 10:47 Integrating Them All 10:56 Fitness-Tip Friday Newsletter & Podcast === Here are the 10 most underrated and underworked muscles that you NEED to start training! #10) The tibialis anterior, which lies next to the tibia or shin bone. It's the primary dorsiflexor of the ankle, which brings your foot up towards your shin. Training the tibialis anterior dramatically increases explosivity, and the ability to quickly stop, move laterally, and absorb shock during heavy landings. It increases ankle mobility, balance and coordination, and prevents and rehabs injuries to the achilles tendon, calves, knees, and shin splints. You train the tibialis anterior with toe raises! #9) The serratus anterior. A weak serratus anterior is one of the most common causes of shoulder injuries, and causes winged scapula. A strong serratus anterior is essential for all overhead movements and range of motion, opens up the chest and improves posture, preventing neck and back pain. To get a strong, developed serratus, you need to directly train its 3 different movements: stiff-arm scapular protraction, scapular abduction, and scapular upward rotation #8) The flexor digitorum profundus, or FDP!! It sits on the underside of the forearm, and is the largest of all 19 forearm muscles. It’s also the primary determinant of your grip strength, which basically determines how well you can work your arms and back, and the firmness of your handshake. Unlike all the other forearm muscles, the FDP inserts on the very tips of your fingers. So to really hit it, you need to work flexion of the last digits of your fingers, ideally with your wrist in a hyperextended, bent-back position! #7) The soleus deep calf muscle! You train it via calf raises with your knees bent to at least 90 degrees, which puts the stronger gastrocnemius calf muscle into active insufficiency. Soleus training can raise whole-body fat metabolism by 300%! Plus, it’ll make your calves bigger. The soleus also has the highest percentage of slow-twitch fibers of any muscle in the body, so use a high volume of slow tempo reps. #6) The Teres Minor, which sits on the back of the shoulder, and is one of the 4 rotator cuff muscles. A weak teres minor is THEE most common cause of rotator cuff tears! The teres minor is ONLY significantly engaged via external shoulder rotation when your arm is abducted / raised to the side. #5) The longest muscle in the entire body, the sartorius. It assists in 7 different movements: Hip flexion, Hip abduction AND adduction, Hip external rotation, Anterior pelvic tilt, Knee flexion, and Knee internal rotation. It's pivotal for sprint speed and explosivity, and hip and knee stability and injury prevention. #4) The erector spinae muscles, which extend and hyperextend the back, especially the upper and middle spine. So, if you ALWAYS keep your back straight, you’re NEVER training the erector spinae. That makes them weak and stiffens your spine, which ironically makes you MORE susceptible to injury! #3) The Gluteus Medius. Gluteus medius is a laterally-based muscle, so it's only engaged in side-to-side movements. A strong gluteus medius is essential for hip and knee health and stability. To train gluteus medius, you need to work two movements due to the principle of regional hypertrophy: hip abduction, which targets its front region, and hip external rotation which targets its back region. #2) The deep neck flexors. Almost everyone these days has weak, shortened neck flexors, thanks both to smart phones, and to people completely neglecting to train them. And weak neck flexors leads to “tech neck” with cervical spine misalignment, which creates neck and back pain, and chronic headaches. #1) The quadratus lumborum, or QL!! It’s located deep in the lower back, and not training it is one of the gravest mistakes you can make. A weak QL is the most common mechanical cause of lower back pain! It also causes poor sitting posture, and drastically increases your risk of lumbar spine injury during lifts like the deadlift and squat! Train it via lumbar extension and lateral flexion of the lumbar spine.