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.
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:
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).
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).
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).
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).
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).
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).
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.
Hip thrusts have a wide range of benefits, including:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
In addition to a barbell, there are a few other tools you can use to make hip thrusts more challenging, such as:
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:
With its roots in yoga, the glute bridge is a great variation of hip thrust.
The single-leg hip thrust is another variation that you can try.
The elevated glute bridge is another variation that you can try.
Although hip thrusts are a relatively safe exercise, there are a few common mistakes you should watch out for that could lead to injury:
By avoiding these common mistakes, you’ll be able to perform hip thrusts with good form and maximize the benefits of this exercise.
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.
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