The following is a guest article from powerlifter Quinten Cody.
The glutes and neck are often ignored, with trainees relying on the core exercises to work them. I used to reside in this camp. I’m glad I no longer do.
My redemption from such simple thinking began with my purchase of a neck machine – the kind that works it from all sides. And when the muscles on the sides of my neck – just behind the lower portion of the ears – were mistaken for large lymph nodes, my curiosity turned to my backside.
I knew I had to turn my cheeks into studs.
I began researching relentlessly – as I often do – and came upon articles by Contreras. I had read his work before. It was controversial. Why I did not incorporate the humpty-humps years ago I’ll never know. But, I do use them now, and that is what I call them, probably because it’s just the name that sticks.
I found out my glutes were weak. They were big, but weak. I was training for a competition: The Pittsburgh Monster Meet. It was the 15th year for the meet, so I knew it would be competitive. I made my goal and I was dead-set on winning. If the hoopla about my lymph nodes and neck muscles had taught me anything, it was to leave no movements by their lonesome. A few months prior to the meet was when I brought hip thrusts and glute bridges into the pack.
I started with bodyweight, laying my shoulders on the edge of a bench. My white socks came in contact with the gym’s floor and were thus white no more. I set my base and began thrusting. The first rule of Thrust Club is to not talk about Thrust Club. The second is to not give a damn about what others think. So, I kept thrusting.
I was doing them right, but when I added weight, I was doing them wrong. My thrusts started to work my lower back – not my tumultuous glutes – and so I knew I had to appease them quickly. This is when I contacted Contreras directly.
Here is how he helped me, in his words: “My guess is that you’re hyperextending your lumbar spine. Lighten the load and keep your torso flat. As the hips rise upward, use the glutes to tilt the pelvis forward (the pelvic bone will come closer to the ribcage as if you’re doing a crunch). Does this make sense? Try it with light loading and see if you can get it right.”
That advice worked for the bridges and the thrusts, and soon I was on my way to feeling the burn where I should be: the buns – that when swell – look great on the opposite sex. As a side note, doing the thrusts and bridges barefoot has also helped me. I find that when wearing socks I slip and struggle for footing, but without them the soles of my feet act as traction.
The journey commenced with bodyweight, moved to a bar and a pad, reverted back to bodyweight, and now moves swiftly forward with a bar and a pad and some weight. My glutes have progressed to thrusting 135 lbs for sets of twelve, adding muscle and definition while at it. This led up to the Monster Meet on March 30th where, undoubtedly, the work of Contreras gave me an edge. Bret’s Note: Quinten is the second powerlifter to post his story on my blog; Greg Nuckols noticed similar findings HERE, and what’s interesting is that they both relied on very light hip thrusts loads, focusing more on feeling the glutes squeeze rather than using heavy weight.
There were 105 deadlift competitors. I weighed in at 197 lbs, competing in the RAW 198 lb junior (20-23) division. My opener was 630. I would have to wait until the last flight to pull. When I did, though, the weight flew up something fierce:
Next was 675. My glutes felt powerful, especially in getting the weight off the ground and locking it out:
And now, 705 – the winning lift that netted me the cash prize and overall win:
This is something I’m very proud of, and am glad Contreras so willingly helped me with my questions. I’m definitely a believer in glutes.
And you should be, too. Join the Thrust Club! Just remember – don’t talk about it. 😉
Author BIO
Quinten Cody is a writer who resides near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His debut novel, The Everto Addo, was published when he was 20-years-old. Growing up, he was an avid reader of horror and fantasy, and avoided trouble by joining a dank dungeon-gym unknown to most who pass it by. Within its confined walls he learned of perseverance…and darkness; as a teen, he set a world record in the deadlift. Most of what he’s accomplished can be contributed to straying away from the pack, and the free time to better one’s self that comes with it. His mind can be found looking down from the moon but only when he’s not writing or delving into the dark place. Hopefully he’s made it home safe.
Q: How to turn a good article into a great one?
A: Insert “Fight Club” reference!
Dear Quinten,
Congrats on the deadlifts! I can’t imagine what that type of weight might even feel like! Ha!
I noticed in the videos how your lower back never seemed to take the weight, even when it was extremely heavy. Many lifters, round the back and perform what appears to be “deadlifts” alright, definitely killing their lower backs. Your glute strengthening showed and you kept proper form the entire way. I suspect you will exceed your 705 in the near future…
I concur with your comments above, I feel hip thrusts with lower weight more than when the weight is really heavy. I do both, in order to build strength and size, but I get the best glute pump from lower weights and slow, deliberate form.
I appreciate you supporting Bret (and all of us who religiously follow his work) in promoting the hip thrust… i find it interesting that people find the move so weird and unusual yet they find a barbell squat so normal?! Isn’t that bizarre?!
Michael T.
Hey Bret love your work you do! I was wondering I’m doing a workout program using upper and lower body splits..how would you incorporate hip thrust and other glute activation work? Also I don’t want to bulk up my legs especially my thighs I read your article about this but was wondering could I just hip thrust and bridge and drop squats?
He made it look easy!
BC wrote: “both (GN and QC) relied on very light hip thrusts loads, focusing more on feeling the glutes squeeze rather than using heavy weights.”
well, GN actually used heavy partial sumo pulls, not hip thrusts.
and my own experience is that BB supine glute squeezes (using “a fast, dynamic impulse”, to quote Dalton Oliver) followed by sets of 20-rep ATG Zercher squats produce rock hard, rotund buttocks. try it!
and BTW good article, QC.
point 1) “BB supine glute squeezes using a fast dynamic impulse” is a bit of a mouthful, so I’ll just call them “Hip Hops”;
point 2) by “ATG”, I simply mean “below parallel”, not necessarily “hamstrings touching calves”
This is the hard part: “The second is to not give a damn about what others think.”
I was in a small military gym and I had to borrow a bench from a man and a woman lifting together to finish off with the HT. When I dragged it back over they both said “Uhhhh, no thanks, don’t think we need that any more”. Hahahaha. We have some more education to do out there!
observation 1) the main problem with HTs is that they build a backside worthy of a rhinoceros! ; one gigantic amorphous mass.
observation 2) if you look in Muybridge’s book “Human and Animal Lococmotion”, volume 1 (published in 1887) pages 124-125 and 152-153, you will see rock-hard rotund buttocks, and they were not using HTs then. In those days, people did a LOT of walking and carrying stuff.
Moss, of course they weren’t using the most updated methods for building glutes, we advance our knowledge over time. I’ve seen some pics from that book and was surprised at how muscular one of the guy’s glutes were for back then. He could have been an outlier – I’m sure that not everyone from back then looked like him. People these days walk a lot and carry stuff, and their glute development is typically very poor.
thanks for your reply BC! but with respect, i have to disagree. people nowadays don’t walk as much as they used to. People today are fatter, have cars, eat more, use public transport…