How To Do Hip Thrusts The Right Way

The hip thrust is a powerhouse movement for anyone serious about building lower-body strength, especially targeting the glutes. Whether you’re a powerlifter, strongman, or just someone looking to enhance athletic performance, incorporating hip thrusts into your training routine can yield massive benefits. Let’s break down how to perform hip thrusts properly, explore variations, and understand why this exercise is crucial for strength and stability.

Why You Should Do Hip Thrusts

Hip thrusts primarily work the gluteus maximus, which is the largest and most powerful muscle in your body. This muscle is responsible for hip extension, a critical movement pattern in squats, deadlifts, sprinting, and jumping. While squats and deadlifts do work the glutes, they don’t provide the same level of constant tension and full lockout activation that hip thrusts do.

By adding hip thrusts to your program, you can:

• Increase glute strength for improved power and athletic performance
• Enhance deadlift and squat lockout strength
• Reduce the risk of lower back injuries by reinforcing hip stability
• Improve explosive movements in sports like sprinting and jumping

How to Perform the Traditional Barbell Hip Thrust

The classic hip thrust is typically done with a barbell, using a bench to elevate your upper back.

Here’s how to do it correctly:

Step-by-Step Guide

Starting Position: To begin, set up by sitting on the ground with your upper back resting against a bench. Roll a loaded barbell over your hips, ensuring it is positioned comfortably across your lap. To minimize discomfort, place a pad between the barbell and your hips.

Positioning: Next, focus on positioning by planting your feet firmly on the ground, roughly shoulder-width apart. Your knees should be bent at a 90-degree angle, ensuring optimal force transfer during the movement.

Engage the Core: Before initiating the lift, engage your core by bracing your midsection and keeping your chin slightly tucked. Maintaining a neutral spine throughout the movement will help prevent unnecessary strain on the lower back.

Drive Through The Heels: To execute the movement, drive through your heels and extend your hips upward until your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. This ensures full hip extension and maximizes glute activation.

Lock Out Position: At the top position, focus on a strong lockout by squeezing your glutes hard and holding the contraction for a second. This moment of peak engagement reinforces proper muscle activation.

Controlled Descent: When lowering the weight, control the descent, bringing your hips down slowly without completely resting them on the ground. This maintains tension on the glutes and prevents momentum from taking over.

Repeat the movement for 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps, ensuring proper form and full engagement throughout each repetition.

What Muscles Do Hip Thrusts Work?

The standard barbell hip thrust primarily targets the gluteus maximus, which is the largest and most powerful muscle in the body. This muscle plays a crucial role in hip extension, allowing the hips to move from a flexed to an extended position within the sagittal plane.

While the glute max is the primary mover, the hip thrust also engages the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus, which assist with hip stabilization. Additionally, the hamstrings contribute to the movement, particularly during the eccentric (lowering) phase, though their involvement can vary based on individual mechanics. It also works the quadriceps and hip adductors.

According to Human Kinetics, hip thrusts are more effective than back squats for gluteus maximus and biceps femoris exercise.

Not feeling your glutes during hip thrust? Here's what to do.

A More Effective Alternative: The Standing Band-Resisted Hip Thrust

While the traditional barbell hip thrust is effective, some lifters find it uncomfortable due to the setup and pressure on the hip joint. An excellent alternative is the standing band-resisted hip thrust, which mimics real-life movements more closely and allows for better activation of the glutes while minimizing discomfort.

How to Perform the Standing Band Hip Thrust

1. Set Up the Band – Attach a resistance band to a squat rack at hip height.
2. Step Into Position – Walk into the band so it sits across your hips, with your feet positioned shoulder-width apart.
3. Engage Your Core – Maintain a neutral spine and keep your core braced.
4. Hinge at the Hips – Push your hips back slightly, keeping your knees soft.
5. Drive Forward – Extend your hips forward against the band’s resistance, squeezing your glutes at the top.
6. Repeat – Perform 3-4 sets of 10-15 reps.

Why the Standing Hip Thrust Works

One of the biggest advantages of the standing band-resisted hip thrust is its functional carryover to athletic performance. Since most sports and powerlifting movements occur from a standing position, this variation better mimics real-world movement patterns, making it a more effective option for improving strength and power.

Driving the barbell upwards during the hip thrust requires a couple of key actions to take place: hip extension and knee extension.

The primary one here is hip extension: an action almost entirely handled by the gluteal muscles (gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus). Since the knee is bent, there is little hamstring activity during this exercise.

Unlike traditional barbell hip thrusts, the band provides constant tension throughout the entire range of motion. This ensures that the glutes remain fully engaged from start to finish, maximizing muscle activation and improving overall strength development.

Additionally, this variation requires minimal setup time, eliminating the need to maneuver under a barbell or load and unload heavy plates. This makes it a more efficient and convenient option, especially for lifters who train in home gyms or have limited access to equipment.

Additional Variations for Targeting Glutes

If you’re looking to maximize glute activation and build serious strength, incorporating variations of the hip thrust can take your training to the next level. These alternatives help target the glutes from different angles, improve lockout strength, and provide options for those who find the traditional barbell hip thrust uncomfortable or impractical. Here are a few powerful variations to consider.

Kneeling Band-Resisted Hip Thrust

If you feel too much activation in your hamstrings during the standing version, performing the movement from a kneeling position helps isolate the glutes more effectively. By lowering the band, you reduce hamstring involvement and force the glutes to do the majority of the work.

Horizontal Band Romanian Deadlift

This variation blends the benefits of a hip thrust with a Romanian deadlift (RDL). It’s an excellent tool for improving lockout strength in deadlifts by reinforcing hip extension under load. There are also worthwhile Romanian deadlift alternatives to check out.

For the horizontal band Romanian Deadlift:

1. Walk forward into the resistance band while holding dumbbells or a barbell.
2. Hinge at the hips, lowering your torso slightly.
3. Drive through the glutes to return to a fully upright position.

This variation builds glute and hamstring strength while reinforcing proper hip-hinge mechanics.

How does a hip thrust differ from a glute bridge?

A hip thrust differs from a glute bridge primarily in its setup, range of motion, and loading potential. In a hip thrust, the upper back is elevated on a bench, allowing for a deeper hip extension and greater activation of the gluteus maximus. This variation is often performed with a barbell, enabling the use of heavier resistance for strength and hypertrophy.

A glute bridge is done lying flat on the ground, which limits the range of motion and typically involves bodyweight or lighter resistance. Because of this difference in positioning, the hip thrust provides more tension throughout the movement, making it a superior option for developing glute strength and power.

While both exercises target the gluteus maximus, the hip thrust places more consistent tension on the muscle due to its extended range. The glute bridge, on the other hand, recruits more core and lower back stability since the movement originates from a flat position.

Those looking to build maximum glute strength should stick with hip thrusts. That's better for progressive overload with heavier weight.

How to Integrate Hip Thrusts Into Your Program

For individuals focusing on strength development, performing 4 to 5 sets of 5 to 8 reps with heavy weight or high resistance is ideal. This rep scheme maximizes force production and improves overall power, making it particularly beneficial for athletes and lifters looking to increase their deadlift and squat lockout strength.

For those aiming to build muscle hypertrophy, structuring workouts around 3 to 4 sets of 10 to 15 reps with moderate resistance ensures sustained time under tension, which is crucial for muscle growth. This approach enhances glute size and endurance while maintaining a strong mind-muscle connection throughout each repetition.

Athletes looking to improve power and performance should incorporate lighter weights with explosive reps, typically 3 to 5 sets of 5 to 8 reps. This method enhances speed and power output, making it particularly useful for sports requiring rapid hip extension, such as sprinting, jumping, and Olympic lifting.

And yes, you can do glute exercises two days in a row.

Final Thoughts

The hip thrust is an essential movement for glute development, strength, and athletic performance. While the traditional barbell hip thrust is a great option, band-resisted variations offer additional benefits, including improved functionality, comfort, and ease of setup.

Use hip thrusts to improve your deadlift, squat, or overall lower-body power. Standard or standing variations will deliver massive gains.