hip thrust

Hip Thrusts are widely recognised as one of the most effective exercises for sculpting and strengthening the glute muscles. Because they use a barbell for weight, you can load these to your maximum potential, resulting in the fastest possible glute gains.

Here we will delve into the muscles worked, how to perform Hip Thrusts, 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 Hip Thrusts

Hip thrusts are known for primarily targeting the following muscle groups:

Gluteus Maximus: A.K.A, the glutes. These are responsible for achieving toned and shapely buttocks. From a practical perspective, they are the largest muscle in your body, responsible for keeping you upright.

Hamstrings: Situated at the back of your thighs, the hamstrings work in conjunction with the glutes and other muscles below to help you perform your Hip Thrusts.

Quads: The quad muscles at the front of your thighs are recruited to assist with this thrusting motion.

Hip Flexors: As with most exercises that involve movement of the hips, the hip flexor muscles are recruited.

Core: We often forget how crucial a role the abs and core play in most exercises. There is no exception here, your core will be recruited throughout this exercise.

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

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How to Perform Hip Thrusts

*Beginners are advised to master this exercise with shoulders on the floor first as pictured above. Add the bench when you feel confident to progress.

1. Equipment: To perform Hip Thrusts, you’ll need a barbell, some weight plates and a bench. You might also want to consider using a flexible mat or a bar pad for added comfort when the barbell is placed across your hips.

2. Set Up: Begin in a seated position on the floor with the bench positioned directly behind you. Place the barbell across your lap, ensuring it rests just above your hips. Shift your shoulder blades back onto the top of the bench to provide a stable foundation to rest your body weight on.

3. Start Position: Lift your hips until they align with the height of the bench, ensuring your shoulders remain flat on the bench. Keep your feet planted firmly on the ground at a shoulder-width apart distance. This is your start position.

4. Core Engagement: Before proceeding, engage your core muscles as this will help you to maintain stability and minimise unnecessary strain on the lower back.

5. Thrust: From your start position, gradually lower your hips toward the floor while keeping them just above the ground. Then, powerfully drive the weight upward through your hips in a controlled and explosive motion.

6. Hips High: Finish the movement by lifting your hips as high as possible, shifting the weight toward your toes, and squeezing your glutes at the top for full engagement. Come back down in a slower and more controlled movement.

7. Go for reps.

*If the barbell's position is uncomfortable, consider using a pad or a flexible mat for extra cushioning.

Other Weight Types You Can Use to Perform This Exercise

Besides the traditional barbell across the hips, you can also use a kettlebell, dumbbell, medicine ball or a sandbag to add weight to this exercise.

Benefits of Hip Thrusts

Advanced Glute Development: Hip Thrusts are an advanced compound exercise worked through a much wider range of motion when compared to other similar exercises, you can really excel your glute development with this exercise.

Progression: Hip thrusts are easily progressed by increasing the weight, allowing you to continuously challenge yourself as you grow stronger gradually over time.

Hip Thrusts: Common Mistakes to Avoid

Form: Improper form doesn’t just result in inefficient muscle engagement, it may even lead to injury, either acutely or gradually over time if you are repeatedly performing this exercise wrong. Pay close attention to proper execution to maximise the benefits of Hip Thrusts.

Muscle Focus: Mind muscle connection works because it is your way to be sure that you are targeting the intended muscle group. Make sure you concentrate on engaging your glutes throughout the exercise, as this is the primary muscle group you intend to work.

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 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 Hip Thrusts More Challenging

You guessed it, you can make this exercise more challenging by adding more weight to the bar. Alternatively you can play around with weight distribution, for example a dumbbell in your lap will feel different to the barbell across the hips.

Another way to make the Hip Thrust more challenging is to slow down the movement, this will increase the time under tension and result in more muscle gain. If slowing down the entire move feels like too much, you can slow down half of it, so push up at the same tempo, but then come back down in half tempo, or vice versa.

How to Incorporate Hip Thrusts into Your Workouts

This exercise belongs in your lower body, leg or glute-focused workouts. If you’re loading a lot of weight you should do these towards the beginning of your workout. If you’re just getting started with them, or you’re not loading a lot of weight, you should do them towards the end of your workout. Exercise order matters, you can learn more about that here.

Exercises that Work Similar Muscles to Hip Thrusts

As far as compound exercises go, consider incorporating exercises such as Squats, Romanian Deadlifts and Bulgarian Split Squats. These exercises complement Hip Thrusts because they target the glutes as a compound exercise, meaning you can load more weight and grow faster. This in turn builds lower body strength and definition which in turn will boost your Hip Thrust performance.

For isolation or assisted exercises, you can work in Elevated Hip Thrusts, Cable Kickbacks, Leg Extensions or Leg Curls, all of which will support your overall lower body development.

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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