There has been many times that I have been proven wrong or I have completely changed my mind about a health and fitness concept over the past 17 years as a trainer. The value of the barbell hip thrust is one of those instances where I originally thought little of this as an exercise and saw it more as a gimmick or an exercise for those who were not skilled enough to do deadlifts, squats, and single leg exercises. However, in recent times and I have suffered several health setbacks that forced me to change my training program and exercise selection that led me to experiment with this exercise. Much to my pleasant surprise I uncovered some hidden gems with the hip thrust that I never fully appreciated previously. In this article, I will share with you what these secrets are and how you can use this to great benefit in your own training.

Most people are aware of the need to strengthen the glutes. Weak and dysfunctional glutes are associated as a contributing factor with almost every lower limb injury and even lower back injuries, so it makes sense you know how to keep these muscles strong and firing correctly. I have written so many articles, and filmed a stack of videos about the importance of strengthening the glutes for weakness in this area is so common.

For a long time I had focused most of my training for the glutes around the big functional multi-joint lifts like deadlifts, squats, lunges, and the various single leg squats and single leg deadlift exercises. My rationale was, and still is, that it is best to use the more functional movement based exercises that use multiple joints and muscles to produce efficient movement patterns.

I would still use various regressions like clamshells, crab walks, hip extensions etc to build strength with body-weight and low intensity for those with injury but my main focus was to get to the standing stuff as soon as I could. I never saw the barbell hip thrust as a useful exercise to bridge the gap between remedial isolated exercises and integrated movement, and I definitely did not see it as a good way to build incredible strength for those who were not injured either.

You can read a detailed article that features 15 of the best glute exercises ranked in order of easiest to hardest here – Analysing the pros and cons of 15 glute exercises

My Personal Battle with Hip & Back Pain

My thoughts on the barbell hip thrust began to change considerably over the past 12 months after I suffered several catastrophic injuries to my right hip and lower back that left me battling to do any functional movement without pain.

In the beginning I thought this was due to me training too hard or using poor form, but after months of not getting anywhere with more pain and injuries developing, I eventually found out all these various injuries were due to an auto-immune disease called Psoriatic Arthritis affecting my joints. I was really struggling with my right hip and sacroiliac joint and I realised I could not continue to try and train the way I used to. I had to find other exercises that were less taxing on my joints but could still help me maintain some muscle.

At first I was only using body-weight exercises and resistance bands but I knew I needed something a bit harder as I missed the way I used to move. However, every time I tried to progress to more rigorous standing exercises it would aggravate my back or my knees. This is where I started to load up the hip extension using a barbell to see if I could strengthen my glutes with something that did not cause pain. After a few weeks I noticed some massive improvements and for the first time in months I was able to progress to some of the standing exercises without causing any problems.

As I am a bit of a research junkie I wanted to know more about this exercise and this led me to the book “The Glute Lab” by Bret Contreras. I knew Bret was known as the glute guy as I had read several of his articles over the years and I also knew he was a massive fan of the hip thrust. As I dug deeper into the research I found a lot of things I never knew about this exercise that I wish I knew earlier.

Here are some of the things I learned.

The Hip Thrust Strengthens the Upper Glutes Better Than Squats or Deadlifts

I always believed the standing exercises like squats and deadlifts outperformed the hip thrust for glute strengthening and one of the main reasons was due to the extreme muscle soreness (DOMS) I felt after doing a workout that included these. Even if I loaded the hip thrust to a massive load I was never as sore as the workout that included the deadlifts so I assumed that it was not doing as much which explained why I was not that sore.

What I failed to remember is being sore does not necessarily mean better, it just means you have create more damage which is usually from the muscle fibres being stretched with load. The hip thrust is different in that the muscles are challenged when in a shortened position as opposed to a lengthened position as used in squats, deadlifts, lunges etc.

For this reason the glutes are activated to a much greater degree at end-range hip extension when the muscles are at short muscle lengths. Bret Contreras has stacks of research papers and EMG experiments to back this up too.

 Another interesting concept that Bret found out using EMG studies, and something I did not know, is that the hip thrust activates the upper glutes to a much greater extent than squats, and even to a greater extent than deadlifts. This does not necessarily mean it is better, it just means that if you are able to combine squats, deadlifts, and hip thrusts you will cover a greater area of the glutes. As opposed to only using standing exercises that may target the lower glutes well but miss out on the upper glutes.

The Hip Thrust Is More Stable Allowing For Greater Strength Gains

The improvement in stability with the hip thrust allows for greater glute activation as you have three points of support as opposed to only two. This is kind of like the lower body equivalent to the bench press where you have three points of support and take advantage of gravity to work the hips in a horizontal position. The massive increase in stability always allows for greater increases in strength which is also seen with machine training that make it much easier to lift heavier loads.

Now, this is where I don’t always agree with Bret in thinking this is always a good thing, and assuming a strength increase with a simple exercise translates into changing a stability problem standing up. Many people skip past learning the skills and how to stabilize so they can strengthen muscles which is never a good idea. This is regularly seen with people loading the leg press but can barely squat or lunge.

It is always in the standing position that many problems will be encountered. You can become great at exercises lying on the floor but it is of no good to you if you are unstable the minute you stand up. In a four point position we are mechanically much stronger with the hips and shoulder in extremely strong positions to move. However once we stand up these two joints, which need a lot of mobility to perform their function are now at a much more vulnerable position and the need for stability is significantly greater.

I see many rehab programs use so many floor exercises that lead to nowhere other than more strength orientated floor exercises. There is no progression from kneeling to standing, and rarely is the timing anywhere what it needs to be.

You can read more about this in the article – Stability training what it is really and how to do it correctly

However, you can go too far the other way and neglect the use of simple exercises and this where my bias and ignorance to isolated training at times leaves me missing out on the benefits that they can provide. As long as you are working on your stability weaknesses in conjunction with isolated training you can have the best of both methods.

The way I like to overcome this is by using simple stability exercises like the Romanian Deadlift with a kettlebell for hip mechanics and the Toe Touch Drill for single leg stability in combination with exercises like the hip thrust for developing glute strength. This way the person can learn the skills they need with the complex movements, but at the same time build some strength into their glutes with the hip thrust. As time goes by you can begin to increase the difficulty and demands of the complex exercises that will have a bigger effect on the long term.

More on this later.

The Hip Thrust Overcomes Hamstring & Quad Dominance over the Glutes

One of the most frustrating parts about trying to strengthen the glutes with the integrated movements of squats, lunges, and deadlifts is the dominance of other muscle groups over the glutes that steal their workload. While squats work the glutes in a stretched position, and also build good core stability, their primary target is quads. This is seen a lot with lunges and step-ups as well.

The deadlifts on the other hand also work the glutes and core but are known for building tremendous strength into the hamstrings. You see this a lot with Romanian Deadlifts and even squats to some degree. While the glutes play a big part in both exercises you often see a dominance of the hamstrings or quadriceps over the glutes due to the specific body position of the hips and knee. While it is good to build strength into the glutes and hamstrings you do not want this to dominate over the glutes for it will lead to a stack of problems later on.

These problems are significantly reduced by using the hip thrust due to the unique position of the knees. As the knees are forced to remain bent it slackens the hamstrings and reduces their ability to take over movements. The higher up you rise in the hip thrust, the more the hamstrings shorten making it difficult for the hamstrings to contract to their full force potential. The glutes are forced to pick up the slack to provide the necessary hip torque to finish the movement. In simple language this means that the hip thrust creates less hamstring force and more gluteus force.

This same benefit is seen with the quads as they require the knee to extend further to contract to their full potential and develop more strength. As the knee never extends they are severely limited and restricts their influence over the movement. You can see when the quads are trying to kick in and dominate as the person will move their body backwards instead of straight up and down.

For this reason this exercise can be very useful when working with people suffering with back pain or hip pain and glute weakness is obvious. Many of the “big” exercises like deadlifts and squats that are often triggering pain due to glute weakness can be very difficult to correct if that is all you do. The weakness in the glutes forces the body to compensate to other muscle groups to help execute the movement which only serves to contribute to creating more pain. Finding alternatives like the hip thrust is essential in getting the glutes to fire so you can progress more safely to the more risky standing movements that need to be corrected.

The Hip Thrust Requires Less Skill and Coordination

This is very similar to the first point we discussed earlier where less stability is required. One of the biggest problems with beginners and people suffering with injury is coordination. They can take a long time to learn how to find a neutral pelvic and spinal position during integrated movements like single leg exercises, squats, and deadlifts. Even when they developed these skills they also need to learn how to breathe correctly to brace the core and avoid buckling under load. All of this takes considerable time.

I really love using single leg exercises but I find these are really hard to teach and take people a long time to master. I know that they make a huge impact over the long term but they are not going to be too useful if I am trying to help a person get out of pain in the short term. I need to find other ways to build some foundation strength while they continue to develop their skills.

With the hip thrust they are not limited by core stability and spinal extension strength or by balance and coordination. There is no learning curve to the hip thrust and many people can master the technique in their first training session, whereas single leg exercises, squats, and deadlifts can take years to truly master.

The beauty of the hip thrust is it doesn’t require much coordination or the need to learn how to find a slight anterior pelvic tilt torque that is essential with squats and deadlifts. Once again this is very important to know when working with hip and back pain as often a person will have a difficult time trying to maintain a neutral pelvic tilt. As the position is simplified it allows them to find the perfect spot and therefor allow for greater activation of the glutes.

It is not just beginners who can benefit from this simplicity as even the advanced lifter will find tremendous strength gains from using this lift. It can be a fantastic way to use progressive overload to develop strength with less risk and it works really well in a superset to create longer time under tension. 

This brings me to the next point.

It Is Safer To Take the Glutes to Failing Point with the Hip Thrust

It is very risky and even dangerous to push squats and deadlifts to ultimate muscular fatigue since the chance of losing form is extremely high. The incredible demand on the spine during squats and deadlifts helps to build tremendous strength and core stability, but these loads and high intensity comes at a price as it also increases the risks of severe injury.  Even the hips and knees can blow out if something goes wrong from being too fatigued. This means most people will finish their sets far short of failure on squats and deadlifts even though their glutes aren’t fully fatigued. The risk of injury is just not worth it.

This means many people may never progress very far in squat and deadlift strength, and therefore miss out on a lot of room for glute development if these are the only two lifts they perform.

However, with hip thrusts this risk is significantly reduced due mainly to the increased stability and horizontal position. This means you can push the glutes to the point of no return where they are burning so badly that they can’t complete another rep! Therefore, the hip thrust leads to greater fatigue of the fibres and greater intensity of effort for the glutes, and this fatigue is critical for maximal hypertrophic gains.

For these reasons, the glutes fire 1.5-3 times harder in a hip thrust compared to a squat depending on whether examining the mean or peak activation levels. The main component of muscle growth is to maximize mechanical tension and be able to recruit as many muscle fibres as possible during a set. The more reps you use or the greater the load that pushes you closer to failure during a set, the more motor unit recruitment and overall muscle activation your muscles experiences.

Now this is not to say you have to take every workout or exercise to failing point which is something I covered in great detail in one of my recent articles – Do you need to take your muscles to failing point to build strength?

However, it is fair to say most people never take their muscles to this point and they could be missing out on some significant gains. Perhaps it is because they do not like the intensity of training this way, but in most cases it is because they find their body will not tolerate loads to this extreme with their main exercises.

If you train a lot of people like I do, you realize that a lot of people have trouble squatting and deadlifting the way they need to. This is not from a lack of knowledge but a mobility restriction affecting their range of motion or even their anatomy that does not suit lifting heavy during a squat or a deadlift. It is common to see someone good at squats find deadlifts difficult, and vice versa.

If you ignore their limitation and load up on squats and deadlifts, you could be inadvertently leading them toward injury.

This the beauty of adding the barbell hip thrust to their workout for you can go to these limits but without the risk of injury that is usually associated with other exercises.

How to Do the Barbell Hip Thrust

Okay, we have covered a ton of information about the benefits of the hip thrust, how do you actually do it? Well there are several ways you can do this and you can watch the video below to see me explain these different alternatives.

The only problem with this exercise is the set up. If you have a hip thruster machine as seen in the video below it makes it a lot easier, but if you don’t you can easily use a bench to do the same job. It is important to ensure you have a very stable base to work with when doing this exercise to avoid any injury. This is particularly important if you are working with extreme loads. Sometimes I will use a Swiss ball instead of a bench but this when I am there to help the person and guarantee the ball does not slip. If I am on my own I will use the hip thruster machine or the bench.

Instructions:

If there is no bench available and your gym doesn't have a thruster, you can use an exercise step with 4 or 5 risers. After the bench is set up, you'll want to load the bar with weight. Always secure weight plates with a barbell collar.

1. Start seated on the floor, knees bent, feet slightly wider than hip-distance apart. The toes can be turned out just slightly. Make sure you upper back is resting just against the edge of the weight bench with your shoulder blades (scapula) just above the bench.
2. Place the weight bar across the hips. Hold onto the bar to keep it in place, but do not use your arms to lift it.
3. Squeeze the glutes and press the bar straight up until the hips are in line with the shoulders and knees. The bench should be supporting the mid-scapula area. Keep the core tight and maintain a slight chin tuck with your focus down your body (a few inches above the bar).
4. Slowly lower the bar down until the hips are just a few inches off the floor.
5. Squeeze the glutes and lift again.

The easier version of this without a barbell is to do the bridge or hip extension on the floor. You can watch a video of a couple of versions of how to do this below.

You can also use other isolated exercises like the clamshell or the crab walk to assist in your glute development and I would highly encourage you to do so. The more variations and different angles and equipment you use increases your chances of increasing your glute strength. For some people they can be real game changers and be the missing ingredient in their training.

This brings me to my last point.

Don’t Forget To Combine Your Hip Thrust With Functional Movements

Several times in this article I have explained how functional movements like squats, deadlifts, lunges, and single leg exercises may not be as effective at strengthening the glutes as the hip thrust but this does not mean they are not important. Some people can forget that moving well is more important than strength and forget to develop their skills which is never a good idea.

Strength cannot overcome poor movement. If you move poorly it does not matter how strong your muscles are your body will have to compensate and create an alternative way to move that is less efficient, weaker, and more unstable. Using exercises like the hip thrust to complement the main functional movement patterns is a great way to progress your body safely.

If you work on both things at the same time you can have the best of both worlds and see ongoing progression with strength and movement efficiency. Watch the video below to see more about this.

You can also read detailed articles about squats, deadlifts, lunges and single leg exercises in the links provided below.

• How to squat correctly
• How to deadlift correctly
• How to lunge correctly
• How to master single leg exercises

Do You Need More Help?

There is obviously a ton of information and additional exercises I have left out that I would use to help someone strengthen their glutes. If you currently suffer with hip, knee, or back problems you will find our online programs shown below a great resource that take you through all of the assessments and corrective exercises to get you back to full strength and out of pain.

Summary

There is no doubting the barbell hip-thrust is a fantastic way to build tremendous strength into the glutes. For such a massive muscle group it is amazing how lazy it is and how much harm it can cause if it weakens. While it is essential to learn the key movements of squats, deadlifts, lunges, and single leg variations having exercises like the hip thrust to complement them is vital.

As you can see in this article there is a lot more to it than many realize, me included. I hope this article provides you with some additional knowledge to use this effectively in your own training to build a stronger and more stable body.

For more ideas and information on specific topics I may not have covered in detail be sure to check out our INDEX PAGE on the website that has over 300 of our best articles. These are all sorted into categories for quick reference so you can find what you are after more easily. You can also subscribe to our FREE fortnightly newsletter by clicking here.

If you do need specific help with your exercise program please feel free to reach out to me for help and we can set you up with your individualised program.

About The Author

Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 17 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specialises in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.

References:

• Glute Lab - By Bret Contreras
• Built From Broken - Scott Hogan CPT, COES
• Movement - By Gray Cook
• Corrective Exercise Solutions - by Evan Osar
• Back Pain Mechanic - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes - By Shirley Sahrman
• Low Back Disorders - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Core Stability - by Peak Performance
• Athletic Body in Balance - by Gray Cook
• Anatomy Trains - by Thomas Meyers
• Motor Learning and Performance - By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
• Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance - By Vladimir Janda
• How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek
• Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course - By Paul Chek
• Advanced Program Design - By Paul Chek
• Twist Conditioning Sports Strength - By Peter Twist
• Twist Conditioning Sports Movement - By Peter Twist
• Functional Training For Sports - By Mike Boyle