Barbell Hip Thrust
Trains the Glutes.
- Equipment
- Barbell
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Sit on the floor with your upper back against the long edge of a bench, roughly at the bottom of your shoulder blades.
- Roll a loaded barbell over your legs until it sits across the crease of your hips. Use a pad or a folded towel — this is uncomfortable without one and that is not a matter of toughness.
- Bend your knees and plant your feet flat, about shoulder-width apart, far enough forward that your shins will be vertical at the top of the movement.
- Tuck your chin and look forward, and brace your stomach.
- Drive through your heels and push your hips up until your torso and thighs form a straight line, squeezing your glutes hard at the top.
- Pause for a moment at the top with the hips fully extended. This is the position the exercise exists for — the glutes are shortest and working hardest here, which is the opposite of a squat.
- Lower under control until the weight is just above the floor, then start the next repetition.
Common mistakes
- Arching the lower back at the top instead of extending the hips. The bar goes higher but the extra range comes from the spine, not the hip. Tucking the pelvis slightly and keeping the ribs down means the glutes produce the lockout rather than the lower back faking it.
- Feet too close or too far. Too close and the quadriceps take over; too far and the hamstrings do. Shins vertical at the top is the check, and it is worth adjusting between sets until it is right.
- Skipping the pause at the top. The whole reason to hip thrust rather than squat is that it loads the glutes in full hip extension, where a squat gives them nothing. Rushing through the top gives that away.
- Treating it as a replacement for squats and lunges. It loads the glutes where they are short; squats and lunges load them where they are long. Both positions matter and neither substitutes for the other.