A couple of months ago, I put together this survey to get up-to-date data on all things hip thrusts. I promised I would share the results so I’ll be going through my thoughts on each question below.
In my experience, around 2/3 of people prefer the scoop method, and 1/3 prefer the hinge method.
That’s kind of how it came out with the data (59%/41% scoop to hinge, respectively), but the results coming in on the day I released the survey were more skewed towards the scoop method (around 70%). As the days went on, the percentage for the hinge method started to rise. I think this could be due to people having more experience with the hinge method, not the scoop. But I will say that I thought the scoop method would come out a little bit higher.
Man, the barbell hip thrust crushed this one – it just reigns supreme. I suspected this would have been the case.
Some people may not prefer the smith machine since some models don’t allow you to go down deep enough at the bottom. These results could be due to the fact that not many people have access to various machines.
I was so wrong with my predictions for this question. I really thought it was going to be more blended. If you would have asked me beforehand, I would have predicted maybe 50% for pauses and an even percentage of votes amongst the others. This one shocked me more than any of them.
Pauses crushed it at 71%. It’s funny – bar plus band hip thrusts are my absolute favorite variation, but they received the lowest preference (2%). This is probably because you need a Hip Thruster to perform them. I wish more people had a Hip Thruster so everyone could try it out. I thought hip thrust pulses were going to be more popular; that’s another favorite variation of mine, but things didn’t turn out that way.
I’m not really surprised by this one. From my experience, most people indeed prefer a medium stance with feet straight or slightly flared, whereas some people will go with a narrow stance and a few people will go wide.
90% of people prefer bilateral hip thrusts over single-leg, which falls in line with my experience as a coach. It makes sense, since you’re much more stable and you’re better able to focus on progressively overloading bilateral over time.
I know I stated to only answer this question if you’ve performed each one, but I think these results mostly reflect the fact that not many people can perform band hip thrusts since it’s not too common to have access to a Hip Thruster.
For those who have experience with both, it does kind of make sense because the band variation is focused solely on the lockout, whereas the barbell version creates more consistent tension throughout the range of motion.
I honestly thought smith machine would have fared higher due to the easier set up. Some people find them to be uncomfortable with the fixed bar path and possibly shortened range of motion.
But this is good to see because I definitely believe that the barbell is the most effective way to hip thrust out of any other modality.
This one isn’t shocking to me. People tend to like the BootyBuilder more than the Nautilus Glute Drive. In the group of women that I train (around 30 women), I only have one that prefers the Nautilus Glute Drive over the BootyBuilder. I personally love the Glute Drive and don’t like the BootyBuilder as much, but that’s just me. Perhaps my height has something to do with it.
There are only 2,000 responses here compared to around 11,000 in the first question, so this reflects a much smaller pool of people who have access to both devices.
A majority of the people prefer the 6-12 rep range. This is the standard rep range that most body builders stick to for increasing muscle size. I honestly thought that the 13-20 rep range would get more votes, but performing super high reps (20-30 range) is daunting and quite nauseating, so I didn’t expect much in favor of that category.
Not many people like heavy hip thrusts which I can’t relate to since I love going super heavy with these – even 1RMs. This definitely reflects upon where most people feel their glutes the most – with the heavier reps, you’re necessarily going to feel more quads, hammies, and erectors in comparison to lighter weight for higher reps. I wish more people liked heavier sets but I do understand it.
This one pleasantly surprised me! People just really seem to love pauses – they’re almost equal to standard reps. I really thought there would have been a larger gap in between the two with standard reps being much higher. It just goes to show you how effective pauses are. Most people probably pause a bit with their reps just naturally since the squeeze at lockout is where you get the greatest glute activation.
This was really cool to see – that most people (41%) will hip thrust twice per week and 36% of people will hip thrust three times per week – which was the majority of almost 11,000 responses. It looks like hip thrusting one to three times per week makes up around 94% of people. Good job BC followers!
Suboptimal equipment was the most common answer for not hip thrusting more often – at 33% , but right under it at 32% was that the set up takes too long. This goes to show that we need more hip thrusting equipment in gyms. If we did, more people would thrust! That just comes down to the gym goers demanding it from gyms and talking to their gym owners about it.
Only 3% were too embarrassed to hip thrust – I assumed that answer was going to be higher. That’s a good sign because it shows that this exercise is becoming more of the norm and more accepted. Ten years ago, that answer would have been far higher.
Thank you to everyone who participated in this survey! It’s so cool to get 11,000 respondents. This is huge! This is far more than you typically see in published studies. You guys are the ones who follow me and know how to hip thrust properly, you are the ones who care more about glute training than anyone else. It means a lot to me that you took the time to help me get an even better understanding of hip thrusting preferences and tendencies.
HERE is a link to the full survey.
