butterfly hip thrusts

Butterfly Hip Thrusts are an advanced twist on the traditional Hip Thrust. With this exercise you are still targeting your glutes, and other hip muscles, just with more intensity. By incorporating this variation into your routine, you can further sculpt and strengthen your glutes as well as develop your hip function, which in turn will enhance your lower body aesthetics and functional strength.

Here we will delve into the muscles worked, how to perform the Underhand Grip Inverted Row, benefits, common mistakes to avoid, reps and sets, how to progress this exercise, how and where to fit it into your workout plan and finally other exercises targeting the same muscle groups.

Muscles Worked when Performing Butterfly Hip Thrusts

Glutes: The primary muscle activated during butterfly hip thrusts is the glutes, the largest muscle in the body, responsible for keeping you up right as well as hip extension, power, and of course giving you a shapely posterior.

Hip Flexors: Your hip flexors are engaged during the thrusting part of this exercise.

Hamstrings: Your hamstrings will be engaged from a secondary perspective.

Abs & Core: A strong core is vital for a wide range of exercises, so you’ll be pleased to learn that you will be developing yours with this exercise.

Inner Thighs: Because of the butterfly position, you will also feel this exercise on your inner thighs.

You can use the muscle highlighted image at the top of this page for a visual guide of the muscles worked.

How to Perform Butterfly Hip Thrusts

1. Start Position: Begin by lying on your back on the floor with your feet together and knees bent, creating a diamond (butterfly) shape with your legs, keeping your hands down by your sides.

2. Hip Thrust Movement: Brace your core and thrust your hips upward in a single controlled and explosive motion. Focus on driving the weight through your hips while maintaining the diamond shape with your legs.

3. Glute Squeeze: At the top of the movement, squeeze your glutes firmly to maximise muscle engagement.

4. Back to Start: Lower your hips back to the start position slowly. Then power straight back up into the next rep. Go for reps.

5. Add Weight: To intensify the exercise, you can place a barbell across your hips for added weight. This additional resistance challenges your glutes even further.

6. Use Padding if it Hurts: If the barbell's position causes discomfort, consider using a pad or flexible mat to protect your hips.

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Other Weight Types You Can Use to Perform This Exercise

If you’re not comfortable with the bar, you can use a dumbbell, kettlebell, medicine ball or sand bag clutched against your hips

Benefits of Butterfly Hip Thrusts

Glute Development: Butterfly Hip Thrusts are an effective exercise for building round, well-defined glutes, contributing to a more voluptuous lower body.

Hip Strength: This exercise enhances hip strength, which is crucial for various functional movements both in the gym and in your everyday life.

Core Stability: Butterfly Hip Thrusts also help you build more core stability.

Butterfly Hip Thrusts: Common Mistakes to Avoid

Core Engagement: Maintain a tight core throughout the exercise to prevent unnecessary pressure on your lower back. Neglecting core engagement can lead to improper form and poor muscle activation.

Don’t Add Weight to Poor Form: Perform butterfly hip thrusts with proper form first. Once you have mastered the technique in its entirety you can add weight to the exercise.

Mind Muscle Connection: Focusing on the intended muscle groups helps you stay focused through every single rep, ensuring you are getting targeted results.

Reps and Sets

The number of reps and sets you perform depends on your current strength with this exercise.

Beginners: Start with simply mastering the move. Keep in mind that if you’re just starting out, 3 reps is a valid set.

To determine how many reps/sets of Butterfly Hip Thrusts you should start with, you first need to figure out how many reps you can comfortably perform. Then add 2, and perform that number of reps for 3 sets.

For example; let’s say you can perform 4 reps comfortably. Add 2 to make 6 reps. Perform those 6 reps 3 times over, allowing yourself sufficient rest inbetween.

Experienced lifters: You know your body and its abilities better than anyone, use your own judgment.

We recommend that you avoid performing more than 12 reps per set. If you’re comfortably performing 12 reps for up to 6 sets, it’s time to make the exercise more challenging.

How to Make Butterfly Hip Thrusts More Challenging

You can easily make this exercise more challenging by adding weight, which can be in the form of your chosen preferred weight. Alternatively, if you’re using a barbell, switch to a dumbbell for weight and see how the distributed weight load targets your muscles differently.

Another way to make the Butterfly Hip Thrust more challenging is to slow down the move and hold for longer at the top, increasing the time under tension.

How to Incorporate Butterfly Hip Thrusts into Your Workouts

This exercise belongs in your lower body or glute-focused workouts. You can also perform it as a finisher on any plan if you’re keen to grow your glutes.

Butterfly Hip Thrusts can be placed anywhere in your workout, depending on how you’re performing it and what your goals are. If you’re using a heavily loaded barbell, do it towards the beginning of your workout, but after any bigger compound moves like squats or loaded lunges. If you’re performing the exercise without weight, you can do it as a finisher towards the end of your workout.

You can learn more about exercise order here.

Exercises that Work Similar Muscles to Butterfly Hip Thrusts

Complement this exercise with other key compound exercises that also target the glutes, such as regular Hip Thrusts, Squats or Lunges. You should also incorporate other assisted or isolation exercises like Leg Presses and Glute Bridges to hit similar muscle groups with a different distribution of weight.

You can find more Bum Exercises at the bottom of this page. Or you can check out our entire exercise database, broken down by muscle group here.

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