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Monthly searches for hip thrusts are up, with hundreds of millions of views of videos tagged ‘hip thrust’ on TikTok, and thousands of #HipThrust posts on Instagram.
Studies put this down to the surge in evidence that hip thrusts may be superior to the standard squat when it comes to exercises for a stronger butt.
Plus, it seems like practically everyone is in pursuit of growing their glutes, and hip thrusts are apparently the way to go. For this reason, WH UK Fitness Director Bridie Wilkins tasked me with doing them every day for two weeks, to show all of you hardcore hip thrusters how to do them safely and effectively.
For context, I’m a personal trainer, and while I’m familiar with hip thrusts, they’re not a mainstay in my exercise routine—purely because I don’t enjoy them as much as other exercises. But I do know that they can be effective, so I agreed to take on my first hip thrust challenge: to do hips thrusts every day for two weeks. I included three different types – barbell, single-leg and bodyweight. I know that doing barbell hip thrusts every day is basically a recipe for injury, so I did these every three days, woven in with the different variations and accessory work (which I’ll come onto in more detail below). Here’s everything I learned during my hip thrust challenge.
First of all, what is a hip thrust?
Think of a hip thrust and chances are you think of a barbell variation, so that’s what we’ll stick to here. It’s a move that targets the following muscles:
Gluteus minimus
Gluteus medius
Gluteus maximus
Hamstrings
Adductors
Quadriceps
It’s also super beneficial for back and knee rehab – if you’re injured in either of these areas – since hip thrusts help to stabilize your pelvis, lower back and knees.
Make your warm-up specific
I had a movement assessment with Coach Ash Grossmann (@ashgrossmann.coach), who told me all about the importance of mobility exercises to warm up, but, more importantly, making sure these exercises mimic the strength moves you’re about to do. In turn, you’ll warm up the muscles that are about to be put under load.
“The more similarity we can get in our mobility/movement work, the better the carryover to our target movement and therefore, the better our results. For example, training your glutes with a lunge would work better to prepare for walking or running than doing mobility hip thrusts, since lunges involve standing on one leg at a time, while hip thrusts involve lying down and the use of both legs at once,” she says.
The best mobility moves for hip thrusts? According to Ash, bodyweight elevated single-leg hip thrusts and half kneeling hip pulses are ideal, and I can concur that they certainly worked – my muscles didn’t feel half as stiff as they usually do when I do hip thrusts.
Structure your workouts strategically
This might seem like an obvious one, but doing hip thrusts at the start of your session could help you progress faster. Personal trainer and owner of BTX London James Cooper (@jamescooperbtx) explained that this is because it’s a compound exercise, i.e. one that recruits several muscles groups at the same time, so they’re essentially harder than isometric moves, i.e. ones that only recruit one specific muscle at any one time.
I followed mine up with Romanian deadlifts and squats – both compound movements that also target the gluteus maximus, and both of which require more energy than you’ll probably have if you leave them until the end of a workout.
Then it’s time for single-leg movements. Use these to strengthen each individual muscle needed for hip thrusts. I focused on single-leg hip thrusts, single-leg glute bridges, glute bridge isometric holds and hamstring walk-outs, as well as hip hinges. Cooper tells me these all contribute to strengthening the muscles needed to do heavier hip thrusts, and I can vouch that they definitely work. I felt much stronger and more confident when it came to adding in a barbell.
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Allow time to properly set up
Quite possibly the worst thing about barbell hip thrusts is how long it takes to set up, but make sure you’ve got the time to do every set properly afterwards. I learnt the hard way. The very first time I came to do a set for my hip thrust challenge, I spent so long setting up that I ended up rushing my reps. This turned into sloppy form, where I could feel my quads working more than my glutes (not where you should feel it, FYI – check my list of muscles worked above). From then on, I vowed that I’d only do barbell hip thrusts when I had the time to set up.
Top tip: Put a plate on the floor at either side of your hips, under your barbell, so that you can roll the barbell back onto the plates and you can easily maneuver yourself out. Otherwise, the barbell is often so close to the floor that your legs and feet get stuck. Not exactly elegant.
Eat informatively, for performance and recovery
I knew from past experience that it’s basically impossible to build strength if you don’t eat enough, and, handily, I’d recently signed up to PT and nutritionist Chloe Salter’s female performance nutrition plan, which taught me more about the quality of food I needed, as well as the quantity. I touched base with her to find out exactly how I should be eating to aid my hip thrust challenge, and she had three key tips:
Time your pre-workout meals to suit you
For every session, I wanted to feel like I was fueled enough to be able to lift. This meant I needed to consider timing of my meals, as well as the type of food I consumed. Naturally, this varies person to person, but I found my sweet spot was eating 90 minutes before a session, and my go-to pre workout meal was greek yogurt, blueberries, and a sprinkle of dark chocolate. *Chef’s kiss*.
Don’t wait too long to eat post-workout, to aid recovery
If I knew I wasn’t having dinner until two hours or more after my workout, I always had a protein shake. Why? In one of Chloe’s weekly lessons, she described how my blood sugars would deplete in those two hours, making me feel sluggish for the rest of the day and increasing my risk of injury.
Get enough protein in
I had a daily protein goal to hit and as long as I met that target, I felt like I was on the right path to increasing muscle mass (protein is the building block of muscle). I didn’t measure my body composition before or after, since I prefer to use my intuition, and if we go off that, I’d wager that I’d definitely built more muscle in my glute and hamstrings by the end of week two, which Chloe tells me almost definitely wouldn’t have been the case if I hadn’t eaten enough protein.
Use your breath to help you
By day nine, I’d done 300 reps of hip thrusts, whether that be bodyweight, single-leg or barbell. As I got used to the mechanics and started to nail the technique, I began to focus on my breath, and this was game-changing. I’d take a massive inhale on the eccentric phase (going down) and would breathe out hard on the concentric phase (thrusting up). This was super beneficial as it helped me control my tempo, stabilize the movement and maximize my power output. It also makes for a good distraction when your muscles are literally trembling.
My hip thrust challenge verdict
Hip thrusts certainly weren’t my favorite move when I started this challenge, but I can now say I genuinely enjoy them. Don’t get me wrong, they’re hard, but working on my weaker areas with accessory work (single-leg moves and mobility exercises) and other compound movements that also target the glutes helped. And small changes like how I breathe and which order I did certain exercises in really did go a long way.
So, if hip thrusts are a regular in your workouts, take my word for it that these tips are worth a try. Trust.
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