Rear Wheel Drive: Why the Muscles You Don't See Matter Most

Estimated Time to Read: 8–10 minutes

Humans are built "rear wheel drive." The muscles that truly power performance, protect your spine, and keep you athletic for life live on the back side of your body — the posterior chain. If you train mostly what you see in the mirror (chest, abs, quads), you're building a front-wheel-drive machine with a rear-wheel-drive engine. Train your glutes, hamstrings, and spinal extensors properly, and you'll move better, hurt less, and perform at a higher level — safely and efficiently.

At TNT Strength, we work with athletes. We also work with busy professionals, parents, retirees, and everyday adults who simply want to look better, feel stronger, and function at a higher level.

The problem we see isn't effort. It's direction.

Most people who "fail at fitness" train too often and don't train hard enough. Worse, they train the wrong things. There's an obsession with mirror muscles — chest, arms, quads, abs. Add in the social media circus of endless "core" drills and unstable circus tricks, and you end up with lopsided development and underpowered performance.

Let's simplify this.

If the human body were a car, it would be rear wheel drive.

The true drivetrain — the engine that produces force, speed, and resilience — lives in what we call the posterior chain :

• Gluteus maximus
• Hamstrings
• Hip external rotators
• Lumbar extensors

These muscles extend the hip, stabilize the spine, and transfer force from the ground through the body. Sprinting, jumping, throwing, lifting, even standing tall — all rely heavily on hip extension strength and posterior chain integrity.

Research consistently shows that hip extensor strength is strongly associated with sprint speed, jump performance, and overall athletic power (Contreras et al., 2015; Seitz et al., 2014). Meanwhile, weakness in these same muscles is linked to low back pain and knee dysfunction (Cooper et al., 2016; Hamstra-Wright et al., 2017).

You don't need 45 minutes of "core activation." You need strong hips.

The glutes are the largest and most powerful muscle group in the body. When they are weak or undertrained, the body compensates. The lower back works overtime. The knees take more stress. The quads dominate. Posture shifts forward.

Over time, that imbalance catches up.

Balanced strength — not just aesthetics — is what allows you to:

• Decelerate safely
• Absorb force
• Produce speed
• Protect your spine
• Maintain independence as you age

And here's the irony: train the back side properly and your "core" improves automatically. The abdominal muscles co-contract during heavy hip-dominant movements to stabilize the spine (McGill, 2010). Your abs are made of the same tissue as every other muscle. They respond to progressive overload, not magic exercises.

You don't need to make every workout "glute day." You need smart inclusion and balance.

At TNT, some of our favorite posterior chain movements include:

• Deadlift variations
• Romanian deadlifts
• Hip thrusts
• Glute-ham raises
• Back extensions
• Cable or band pull-throughs
• Hip-dominant lunges and step-ups
• AB / AD-duction machine exercises
• Single-leg work (King deadlifts, box squats, single-leg press)

Research supports hip-dominant strength training as effective for improving power and athletic performance while also enhancing structural resilience (Suchomel et al., 2016).

Train these movements hard, briefly, and with excellent form. Recover properly. Avoid fluff.

Efficiency and intensity beat volume and chaos.

When you build the posterior chain, good things happen:

• Sprint speed improves
• Vertical jump improves
• Back discomfort often decreases
• Posture improves
• You look more athletic

Yes — building your rear wheel drive often improves how you look from the front.

But more importantly, it improves how you function in life.

We don't train for beach photos.
We train for longevity, resilience, and real-world strength.

Next time you walk into the gym, ask yourself:

Are you polishing chrome...
Or building horsepower?

Choose rear wheel drive.

The posterior chain refers to the muscles on the back side of the body that extend the hips and spine — primarily the glutes, hamstrings, and lumbar extensors.

These muscles generate force for sprinting, jumping, lifting, and daily movement. They also protect the spine and knees by distributing load efficiently.

No. But "core training" doesn't mean endless crunches or unstable balance drills. Properly loaded compound movements train the core effectively through spinal stabilization.

Most people benefit from including hip-dominant exercises 1–3 times per week, depending on overall volume and recovery capacity.

Research suggests that adequate hip and hamstring strength reduces risk factors associated with knee and lower back injuries (Cooper et al., 2016; Hamstra-Wright et al., 2017).

Contreras, B., Vigotsky, A., Schoenfeld, B., Beardsley, C., & Cronin, J. (2015). A comparison of gluteus maximus activation between barbell hip thrust and back squat. Journal of Applied Biomechanics , 31(6), 452–458.

Seitz, L. B., Reyes, A., Tran, T. T., Saez de Villarreal, E., & Haff, G. G. (2014). Increases in lower-body strength transfer positively to sprint performance: A systematic review. Sports Medicine , 44(12), 1693–1702.

Cooper, N. A., Scavo, K. M., Strickland, K. J., et al. (2016). Preseason hamstring strength predicts in-season hamstring strain injuries in male athletes. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research , 30(2), 344–349.

Hamstra-Wright, K. L., Bliven, K. C., & Bay, R. C. (2017). Risk factors for lower extremity injuries in athletes. Sports Health , 9(1), 58–64.

McGill, S. (2010). Core training: Evidence translating to better performance and injury prevention. Strength and Conditioning Journal , 32(3), 33–46.

Suchomel, T. J., Nimphius, S., & Stone, M. H. (2016). The importance of muscular strength in athletic performance. Sports Medicine , 46(10), 1419–1449.

If you're in Oakland, Rockridge, or the greater East Bay and want to train like a high-performance rear-wheel-drive machine — safely, efficiently, and intelligently — we're here to help.