Hip Thrust Instructional Video
In the past several months I’ve seen so many bad hip thrust videos on Youtube that it occurred to me that I’ve never filmed a hip thrust instructional video.
In case you didn’t know, in September of last year I started writing about the hip thrust and incorporating the exercise into articles for various strength training websites. The exercise has already become very popular around the world. I receive multiple emails daily from individuals who have begun using hip thrusts and have seen excellent results in terms of better butts, faster sprints, and improved deadlift strength.
To date, I know that strength coaches Dave Tate, Christian Thibaudeau, Kelly Baggett, Mike Boyle, Nick Tumminello, Eric Cressey, Tony Gentilcore, Jason Ferrugia, Martin Rooney, Mike Young, Mark Young, Patrick Ward, Joe DeFranco, Charlie Weingroff, Sam Leahey, and Brad Kaczmarski have been performing and prescribing variations of hip thrusts. Famous celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson programs them into his celebrities’ workouts. There are probably many more gurus and athletes using them but I have yet to receive feedback. Furthermore, strongman Kevin Nee and powerlifter Andy Bolton have used variations of them in their training. The hip thrust has been featured on TMuscle.Com, StrengthCoach.Com, Elitefts.Com, Men’s Health Magazine, and Oxygen Magazine, not to mention numerous blogs and forums around the world.
If you’ve studied the history of the bench press, you know that it took many years – around fifty years to be more precise, for the lift to evolve into the world’s most popular upper body exercise. It started off as the “back press,” “press from back,” or “floor press,” morphed into the “bridge press” or “belly press,” and finally evolved into the modern “bench press.” Many weightlifters from back in the day did not like the bench press because it was performed while lying supine. These folks felt that all “manly” lifts were performed from a standing position – barbell military press, cleans, jerks, snatches, squats, deadlifts, curls, and bent over rows. The weightlifters would see people performing the bench press and would scoff at those who wanted to “expand their pecs.” Despite the close-mindedness of the weightlifters of that era, the bench press caught on because it works! The hip thrust is catching on very rapidly because like the bench press, it works too! If you do the hip thrust correctly your glutes will burn like they’ve never burned before.
When you think about it, the hip thrust is very much like the bench press. One could consider the hip thrust “the lower body bench press.” You can perform a floor press but a bench allows you to perform the movement with a full range of motion. Similarly, you can perform a glute bridge, but a bench allows you to perform the movement with a full range of motion. Lying supine allows you to train the pecs optimally which are best worked from a horizontal load vector. Similarly, lying supine allows you to train the glutes optimally which are also worked best from a horizontal vector.
Although standing exercises will always reign supreme, sometimes we need to throw in supine, prone, or quadruped exercises in order to train different angles. The bench press correlates very well with the shot put. Similarly, the hip thrust seems to correlate well with top speed sprinting. In my opinion, the hip thrust is getting popular faster than any other new exercise I’ve seen since I’ve been following the fitness field.
In order to perform proper hip thrusts, you must move at the hips, not at the low back. You must feel the glutes doing the work, not the lumbar erectors and hamstrings. Finally, you must control the weight, which means no flinging.
Do yourself a favor and watch this ten minute video. It will really pay off in the long-run. I’ve been performing hip thrusts for three-and-a-half years now, so I can provide you with some pretty darn good advice! Ironically, Soviet and American scientists Yuri Verhkoshansky, Mel Siff, and Tudor Bompa thought up variations of hip thrusts decades ago and prescribed them to athletes and sprinters. Although these exercises didn’t “stick,” it appears that the more modern variations I’ve come up with are here to stay.
Yep! That’s the best thing about hip thrusts; you’ll never get too strong for a loaded barbell. I like some of the machines at my gym but I can only use them for endurance training as I can do 30 reps with the entire weight stacks.
Brett, this video was much needed. As the creator of the hip thrust exercise it’s always best to get it “straight from the horses mouth” on the excecution of the lift.
I hope this articles gets circulated alot because far too many people point to the fact that lumbar compensation is frequent and here you clearly showed that it IS possible to drive motion with the glutes. It just comes down to same issues as every other exercise —> COACHING! As the person instructing someone how to perform the lift its important we get our athletes/clients to make the concious decision to keep the lumbar spine “natural/neutral” and actively use your glutes to drive the motion in the same way we get our athletes/clients to conciously “push the knees out” during the decent in a squat.
Keep discovering and educating buddy!
Great video! I have been doing more and more hip thrusts in my fitness classes that I teach, and doing more on my own as I train for marathon season here in Minnesota (I have three coming up this summer; I feel as if I have gotten as much use as I’ll ever get out of the Cybex Multi-Hip machine (the equipment at the fitness center here is stamped ‘November 1995′ so it’s pretty outdated!). I saw one other club that has equipment called ‘Med-X’ and their hip extension machine has you laying on your side and using your glutes/hamstrings and squeezing the pad just under your knees in an arc. I got a good pump from that but again, after a few weeks, it got old. Doing hip thrusts I think will be something I can build on and improve my strength (and recovery improvement) after this years marathons.
Thank you for the video Bret. I have implemented the hip thrust with some of my clients who feel uncomfortable performing Trapbar deadlifts or Rdl’s. After educating them to drive through the floor and recruit their glutes without using excessive lumbar extension they really feel the difference and notice the difference in
1.running
2. other exercises
3. Just every day walking without back pain
Thanks for the great information and keep pumping ideas out there.
Brilliant! This is a true service, Brett – thanks.
By the way, you left out one other very important reason for doing this exercise – to relieve and prevent lower back pain.
Thanks Steve, glad you liked the video. I can’t believe I left out relieving and preventing back pain. Duh!!! Thanks again.
Brett, you mention tight hip flexors being a potential problem when trying to get full hip extension. That’s true. But I’d add a caveat – training oneself (with just body weight as you suggest) to properly activate the glutes and not the lower back actually facilitates the de-activation of the hip flexors. (This is more effecvtive than endlessly stretching them.)
Yet another benefit of your exercise!
Once again, I agree! Kind of like the chicken or the egg…we always say that tight hip flexors inhibit the glutes but weak unactivated glutes tighten the hip flexors as well. Great point!
This was a very useful video. One thing I noticed is that when doing just the bodyweight thrusts I see to have trouble completely arching up at the top through my hip flexors. I assume they are tight or my glutes are weak. Is the best course of action to keep stretching the hip flexors and doing this exercise, or dare I ask, should I be doing a even more beginner type exercise (I think in a previous post you discussed standing glute isolation exercises…)
Thanks Amanda! Great question. In your case I would do the following:
1) Lot’s of foam rolling and trigger point therapy for the various hip flexors
2) Static stretches and mobility drills for the hip flexors
3) Basic glute activation exercises…glute bridges, quadruped hip extensions, bird dogs, side lying clams, side lying abductions, etc.
4) Focus on squeezing the glutes as hard as possible and rising at the hips not the low back.
5) Move up gradually over time and progress to more difficult exercises
Thanks! I am going to do that.
thanks for the video. my question is about back placement on the bench.
are you rotating up at your shoulder blades? is back placement crucial and what about height?
say performing this exercise at home on the edge of a couch which a little higher than the bench.
also, how much does weak glute strength affect lower back pain?
thanks.
got to get back to ready more.
Tony
Tony, good questions! Yes, right around the shoulder blades is best placement.
Height is not that critical, as it is a double-edged sword. The higher you go the more ROM you get about the hip joint (which is great) but optimum glute activation occurs when the shoulders are around 12 inches higher than the feet. Best case scenario you’d be able to elevate both the shoulders and the feet to allow for the best of both worlds (maximum hip ROM and glute activation) but you’d have to worry about the object at your feet sliding away from the bench so it’s not very practical.
Your last question is a great one. I believe that glute strength is even more important than core/abdominal strength in preventing low back pain and injury. Strong glutes encourage proper form and take the brunt of the load when squatting, deadlifting, or simply bending over to pick stuff up.
Hope this helps!
Bret
Bret
thanks for clearing that up. i will have to incorporate this into my training and see if i can get the wife to start as well.
thanks
[...] coaches to stop looking toward squats for maximum glute strength and instead start incorporating hip thrusts into their programming. Many weren’t ready for the change at the time, but nowadays more and [...]
I’ve been trying to add hip thrusts and extensions into my program, but I feel them in my quads instead of my glutes. I am able to engage my glutes successfully in deadlifts, squads, lunges, etc, so I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Any advice?
Bree this is more common than most people think. For some reason many women (not men) tend to feel hip thrusts mostly in their quads at first. I move them to barbell glute bridges and it solves everything – they feel it in their glutes and after a month or so we transition back to the hip thrust and they’re able to feel hip thrusts in their glutes. Hope that helps!
[...] exercise that will take some time to master is the ever so popular Hip Thrust. This exercise evolved from the standard glute-bridge which is popular in pilates across the [...]
I’ve been doing a lot of hip thrusts lately, and really like the exercise now as my technique has improved (great video!).
I’d like to set a goal for myself, so can you tell me how much weight should one be able to hip thrust (in relation to BW) in order to get the seal of approval from The Glute Guy ?
Thanks!
You should be able to hip thrust what you can squat. A good goal would be 1.5 times bodyweight. Double bodyweight is even more impressive. But just take things slow and progress gradually.
Hello, Bret.
Is it possible to build the glutes with just the barbell hip thrust? I recently started doing barbell hip thrust and it is the only exercise that I feel in the glutes. Squating, deadlifting, and dumbbell step ups have done nothing for my glutes and have only built my quads.
Thanks,
Joe
Joe, of course! One of my clients was an extremely strong squatter and deadlifter and her glutes never grew until she started doing hip thrusts.
[...] For the bending add in a hip extension exercise such as hip extensions or even better try the hip thrusts that Bret Contreras made [...]
I just got my Hampton Extra Thick Bar Pad, so today I did my first set of elevated hip thrusts (I’m a 48 year old sprinter). Popped 250 on the bar and did 2 sets of 9 with a 3/3 tempo. Man, that last rep was a glute KILLER! LOVE IT. Thanks for the ideas, Bret!
You’re welcome Steven!!! Glad you liked it. Cheers.
[...] thrust instruction is Bret Contreras, also known as the “Glute Guy.” Here’s an instructional blog post and video from the Guy himself. Basically, the hip thrust is done with your scapula resting against [...]
[...] go to for hip thrust instruction is Bret Contreras, also known as the “Glute Guy.” Here’s an instructional blog post and video from the Guy himself. Basically, the hip thrust is done with your scapula resting against [...]
[...] those wimpy 1/4 squats that Mr. Brovey Brotastic does to jack up his quads!). Why not try the Hip Thrust? Come on people… stop falling for fads. You aren’t going to see results unless you put [...]
[...] [...]
Is the iliopsoas muscle activited by the hip thrust?
And to what extend?
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[...] billen hoor Ziet er iniedergeval een stuk minder ongemakkelijk uit als vrouwen het doen Bret Contreras Hip Thrust Instructional Video __________________ 110 kg squat 150 kg deadlift 70 kg [...]
[...] Originally Posted by Fadi Not at all, thank you for introducing me to something new Mr Graeme. Fadi. The bloke that made these type of exercises popular said something like that after a year or so you should be doing these with weight basically in same ball park as your squat. Here is a bit of info on it. http://bretcontreras.com/2010/03/hipthrust/ [...]