Hip Thrusts: Technique, Muscles Worked and Evidence

A hip thrust is a hip-extension exercise performed with your upper back supported on a bench. Your gluteus maximus contributes strongly to raising your hips, while other muscles help control your legs and trunk.

It is a useful exercise for training the glutes, but neither a mandatory part of every program nor an inherently inferior substitute for squats. The appropriate choice depends on what you are trying to train and which movements you can perform and progress comfortably.

Set up the exercise

Use a sturdy bench that cannot slide or tip. Rest your upper back against it, approximately around the lower part of your shoulder blades, and place your feet flat on the floor.

Start with body weight while learning the movement. For barbell hip thrusts, use appropriate padding and a setup that lets you position and remove the bar without difficulty. The load should rest across the front of your hips, not your abdomen.

Bench height, foot distance and stance width may need adjustment. A position with your shins approximately upright at the top can be a useful starting point, rather than a rule that fits every body.

How to perform a hip thrust

1. Brace your trunk gently and keep your feet securely planted.
2. Drive through your feet and raise your hips by extending them.
3. Finish with your trunk and thighs approximately in line. Stop before additional height comes mainly from arching your lower back.
4. Lower under control and repeat without bouncing the load.

Keep your head and neck comfortable as your torso changes angle. You do not need to forcefully tuck your chin or squeeze your shoulder blades throughout the movement.

The aim is repeatable hip movement, not the largest possible bar displacement.

Common mistakes

Using your lower back to finish the repetition: reduce the load or the top range and practice stopping when your hips are extended. More height is not automatically more glute work.

An unstable bench: fix the setup before adding resistance. Do not assume your body weight will hold a loose bench in place.

Feet repeatedly moving: adjust their position between sets and use a surface with adequate traction.

Loading before you can control the movement: begin with a glute bridge or an unloaded hip thrust. Add resistance after the movement is consistent.

Pain: do not use a generic form cue as a diagnosis. Stop or modify a painful variation; persistent symptoms need individual assessment.

Are hip thrusts better or worse than squats for glute growth?

A randomized study assigned previously untrained, college-aged participants to nine weeks of hip-thrust or back-squat training. MRI measurements showed similar gluteal muscle growth between groups, while squats produced greater growth in some thigh muscles. Strength gains were partly specific to the trained lift.¹

This does not prove that the exercises are interchangeable for every person or goal. It does show why dismissing hip thrusts as poor for hypertrophy simply because their movement looks shorter is not justified by that comparison.

Squats and hip thrusts can also coexist in a program. One exercise need not win every comparison to be useful.

What can muscle-activation measurements tell us?

Surface electromyography, or EMG, measures electrical activity associated with muscle activation. It does not directly measure future muscle growth.

In the same study, higher initial gluteal EMG readings during hip thrusts did not consistently predict greater gluteal growth. Direct training outcomes are therefore more informative for a claim about hypertrophy than an activation ranking alone.¹

That is a limitation of what the measurement can establish, not a reason to call all EMG research worthless.

Variations and progression

A floor glute bridge is often a convenient starting option. A bench-supported hip thrust provides a different movement setup. You can later use external load, pauses or a single-leg variation, depending on your goals and control.

Progress one element at a time. Add repetitions or a small amount of resistance while keeping a comparable range and setup. Do not use a much shorter movement merely to record a heavier lift.

Bottom line

Hip thrusts are a legitimate glute-training option. Choose them for practical reasons such as comfort, loading and exercise selection, not because an activation graph proves they are the best exercise or because a short range supposedly makes them ineffective.

Sources

1. Plotkin DL et al. Hip thrust and back squat training elicit similar gluteus muscle hypertrophy and transfer similarly to the deadlift. Front Physiol. 2023;14:1279170. Randomized, nine-week training study in previously untrained participants. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37877099/ DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2023.1279170. ↩ ↩²