What Do Hip Thrusts Work On?

Juicy glutes are all the rage right now, and hip thrusts are one of the best exercises to target your butt muscles. Aesthetics aside, building strong glutes can also help with improved mobility and stability throughout your body. Hip thrusts are a compound exercise, meaning they involve multiple joints and muscles. They come in many variations, but the basic movement involves a barbell across your hips with your back on the ground. In this article, we’ll review the muscles worked, benefits, technique, and variations. At the end, you should have a good understanding of how to use this exercise in your workouts. 

Which Muscles Do Hip Thrusts Work?

Most exercises have two targets: the primary muscles that are doing the work and the secondary muscles that are helping stabilize. 

Hip thrusts are no different. Primarily they work your glutes and hamstrings, along with the hip flexors. Secondarily, you’re using your core muscles to stabilize, as well as your back muscles and the adductors in the inner thigh.

In more detail, this exercise recruits:

Gluteus Maximus

This is a large muscle in your buttocks that does the majority of the work. 

When you lift the barbell, you’re using your glutes. In day-to-day activities, this muscle helps you extend and rotate your hips, which is particularly important for everyday activities like walking, running, and jumping (6).

Gluteus Medius And Gluteus Minimus

Both of these muscles are located on the side of your hip and they help you to stabilize during the hip thrust movement. In day-to-day activities, they help you to control the movement of your hip while standing and walking (2) (3).

Hamstrings

These are located in the back of your thighs. They work in tandem with the glutes to help you extend your hips and move the barbell up off your body. For everyday activities, they’re responsible for helping you control the motion of your lower leg while walking (9).

Hip Flexors

These are located in the front of your hips and they help you to lift the barbell off your body. In day-to-day activities, these muscles help you move your leg forward and up while walking (7).

Adductors

These are located in the inner thighs and help to stabilize the hip thrust movement. In everyday activities, they help you align your legs while walking (8).

Core

This is an overall term for the muscles that make up your abdominal wall. During a hip thrust, these muscles help keep you stable as you lift the barbell off your hips. In day-to-day activities, the core muscles help keep our spine in an upright position while we move (5).

Back

This includes all the muscles along your spine. During a hip thrust, these muscles help you to stay stable and upright as you move the barbell off your hips. In day-to-day activities, these muscles help you maintain good posture and control the movement of your spine (1).

With all these muscles working together, hip thrusts can be a great exercise to target your lower body and core muscles. Now, let’s talk about the benefits of this exercise. 

What Are The Benefits Of Hip Thrusts?

Hip thrusts have a wide range of benefits, including:

Build Size In Your Glutes

Most people look to hip thrusts to build size and shape in their glute muscles. This exercise is great for stimulating growth in the glutes and can help you get the round and shapely look you’re looking for. 

Increased Strength

Performing hip thrusts regularly can help to increase your glute strength, which is essential for everyday activities like walking, running, and jumping (4). This exercise can also help you lift heavier weights during other exercises, such as squats and deadlifts.

Improved Power & Speed

Hip thrusts can help to improve your power and speed, which is important for athletes (10). This exercise helps increase the speed at which your muscles can generate force, allowing you to accelerate more quickly and powerfully.

Better Mobility & Stability

Hip thrusts can help improve your mobility and stability, which are important for everyday activities. This exercise helps strengthen the muscles around the hip joint, allowing you to move more freely and with better control.

Better Body Composition

As part of a healthy diet and exercise routine, hip thrusts can help you achieve a better body composition. This exercise helps tone the muscles in your lower body, which can help you look leaner and stronger.

Now that we’ve discussed the benefits of hip thrusts, let’s talk about the proper form for this exercise.

How To Do Hip Thrusts

When performing hip thrusts, it’s important to use proper form and technique to get the most out of this exercise. Follow these steps for optimal results: 

1. Start by sitting on the floor with your shoulders and back against a bench. 
2. Place a barbell across your hips, and make sure it’s centered and secure. 
3. Brace your core, and press through your heels as you lift the barbell. 
4. Keep your spine neutral and avoid arching your back as you thrust up. 
5. Slowly lower the barbell back to the starting position, and repeat for desired reps. 

By following these steps, you’ll be able to safely and effectively perform hip thrusts. Now, let’s talk about some variations you can do to make this exercise more challenging. 

Hip Thrusts Variation

In addition to a barbell, there are a few other tools you can use to make hip thrusts more challenging, such as: 

• Dumbbell: Place a dumbbell on your hips instead of a barbell for an added challenge. 
• Resistance Band: Loop a resistance band around your hips for extra resistance. 
• Weighted Plate: Hold a weighted plate in your hands for added weight. 

Adding weight is just one way to make hip thrusts more challenging. You can also add tempo and reps to increase the difficulty of this exercise. Or if you don’t have specific equipment, you can try these variations:

Glute Bridge

With its roots in yoga, the glute bridge is a great variation of hip thrust. 

1. Start by lying on your back with your feet flat on the floor.
2. Then, press through your heels as you lift your hips off the ground. 
3. Squeeze your glutes at the top, and then slowly lower your hips back to the floor.

Single-Leg Hip Thrust

The single-leg hip thrust is another variation that you can try. 

1. Start by sitting on the floor with your back against a bench. 
2. Then, extend one leg out in front of you and place your other foot flat on the floor. 
3. Brace your core, and press through your heel as you lift your hips off the floor. 
4. At the top, squeeze your glutes and pause for a few seconds before slowly lowering back to the starting position. 

Elevated Glute Bridge

The elevated glute bridge is another variation that you can try. 

1. Start by lying on the floor with your feet elevated on a bench. 
2. Then, press through your heels as you lift your hips off the ground. 
3. At the top, squeeze your glutes and pause for a few seconds before slowly lowering back to the starting position.

Common Hip Thrusts Mistakes To Watch Out For

Although hip thrusts are a relatively safe exercise, there are a few common mistakes you should watch out for that could lead to injury: 

• Using your toes: Be sure to press through your heels when performing this exercise, instead of pushing off with your toes.
• Arching your lower back: Make sure to keep your spine neutral at all times. When your ribs are up and your lower back hyperextended you won’t be working your glutes to their fullest.
• Incorrect foot placement: Make sure your feet are firmly planted on the floor or bench, and that they’re positioned at hip-width. It will shift the focus away from your glutes if they are too far forward.
• Incomplete range of motion: Make sure to fully extend your hips at the top of every rep, and do not just partially raise them off the ground. 

By avoiding these common mistakes, you’ll be able to perform hip thrusts with good form and maximize the benefits of this exercise. 

The Bottom Line

Hip thrusts are an effective exercise for strengthening your glutes, hamstrings, and core muscles. With the variation and tools discussed in this article, you can make this exercise more challenging and add some variety to your workouts. 

Just be sure to use perfect form when performing hip thrusts and avoid the common mistakes discussed above.