00:00Okay, welcome everyone to a new episode of Technique Tuesday. This week my girlfriend
00:12Stephanie and I are going to be looking at how to perform the hip thrust with perfect technique.
00:16But before we jump into the technique itself, let's take a quick look at what muscles we're
00:21going to be targeting. So with the hip thrust, we're training almost pure hip extension. So when
00:25you take your hips from a flexed or bent position to a straight or extended position. And we can also
00:30target the glutes through hip abduction by placing a hip circle or glute loop around the knees. And
00:35the hip thrust is a unique exercise because it not only has a huge capacity for overload, but it can
00:40also be used to establish a strong mind muscle connection with the glutes. You can see Dr.
00:45Brett Contreras hip thrusting over 700 pounds with perfect technique. And this is Katie Saunier doing
00:51over 500 pounds for reps at 120 pounds body weight. The hip thrust has also become a very well studied
00:57exercise. In 2015, Dr. Contreras and colleagues found that the hip thrust elicited higher glute EMG
01:03activation than the back squat, which was then followed up with the first ever hip thrust twin
01:08case study, where across a six week timeframe, the twin that did the hip thrust saw significantly more
01:13upper and lower glute growth than the twin who did squats. Now these results probably come from the
01:18fact that the hip thrust loads the glutes at and beyond the neutral hip position, whereas vertically
01:24loaded movements like the squat and deadlift tend to lose tension at the top when the glutes are in or
01:29near full hip extension. Now the biggest downside to the hip thrust is probably the setup. There are
01:34pieces of specialty equipment like the hip thruster, which can make it much easier. But if you don't have
01:39access to these, here's a simple three-step setup. First, find a bench that matches your tibia or lower leg
01:46height. A decline bench often works for this. And set it up against a rack, wall, or other stable base
01:52of support so it doesn't slide back. Second, you want to wrap a thick pad or towel around the bar for
01:56cushioning. And third, you can load up the bar in front of the bench. Now the hip thrust is very
02:01versatile in that you can go quite heavy on it in the four to eight rep zone if your primary goal is to
02:06build strength. However, I think you should stick to a more moderate to high rep range around eight to
02:1115 reps if your main goal is hypertrophy. And as you master technique, it's important to start light
02:16and gradually work your way up so that you don't let your form slip just to set PRs. So you want to
02:22position yourself between the bench and the bar, making sure the bar is centered on your hips and
02:26the pad is centered on the bar. Place your upper back up against the bench and take a slightly wider
02:31than shoulder width stance with about 15 degrees of foot flare. And as you warm up with lightweight,
02:36you can adjust your feet and hip placement so that your tibia or lower leg and femur or upper leg
02:42make a 90 degree angle at the top of each rep. Before initiating the thrust, you should flex your
02:48glutes and then focus on squeezing your glutes to move the weight straight up. And unlike the squat,
02:53rather than thinking about driving your feet through the ground, you can just focus on fully
02:58extending your hips until you can't move the weight up any further. And you should feel an extremely
03:02strong contraction in your glutes doing this. Now throughout the positive, you should be gazing
03:07straight ahead, not up with your chin and rib cage tucked down. And at the top, you should be squeezing
03:13your glutes together as hard as you can as if there's a coin between your butt cheeks and you're
03:17trying to prevent it from falling out. This may take time to master, but you should also focus on
03:22posteriorly rotating your pelvis at the top by contracting down on your abs slightly, which is
03:27going to help pull your glutes into full hip extension and prevent undesired hyper extension of the
03:32low back instead. Now throughout the positive, you want to use your hands to stabilize the bar from
03:37wobbling from side to side, but you don't want to use your arms to help jack the weight up. Now if
03:41you're feeling it more in your quads than in your glutes, then you can try shifting your feet further
03:46forward. However, for some, this is just going to shift the emphasis onto the hamstrings as you want
03:51to play around with your stance width and your hip position and degree of foot flare to find a position
03:56that feels best for your proportions. As an intensity technique, you can use a one to three second pause
04:02at the top. However, when training for strength, I just recommend a quick squeeze at lockout and
04:08then immediately begin the negative by lowering the weight under control as your glutes stretch under
04:13the load. And because the temptation to just let the weight fall on the hip thrust is stronger than on
04:18many other movements, I generally recommend a slower eccentric tempo so the negative should last for
04:24just about a two second count on each rep so that you can actively focus on this crucial lowering
04:30phase of the movement. I would say the most common error that I see here is failure to fully lock out
04:35the hips at the top. Failure to fully lock out can result from using too much weight, but I think it's
04:40much more common for people to avoid lockout just because it really does burn. And if you aren't feeling
04:45that burn in your glutes at the top, then you most likely aren't fully extending your hips and your hips
04:50should be above your knees at the top of every rep. Another very common error is to extend your lower back
04:56instead of the glutes. And you want to remember from earlier that you should try to rotate your
05:00pelvis posteriorly at the top by crunching your abs slightly. And even just keeping your chin down
05:06will help with this. So I want you guys to try this really quickly. So what I want you to do
05:10is intentionally have an arch in your lower back and try squeezing your glutes together as hard as you
05:15can. And I want you to contract your abs a little bit. I'm just going to flatten out your lower back
05:20and then try squeezing your glutes as hard as you can like this. You should feel a much stronger glute
05:25contraction when your lower back is flat as opposed to when it's arched. So the same thing applies for
05:30the hip thrust. When you're locking out at the top, you really want to avoid that arch in your lower
05:34back, crunch down on your abs, and then that way you'll get your glutes to fire the hardest at the
05:39top. I'm actually not sure if there is a truly equal alternative to the hip thrust. If you're using
05:44higher reps, then you can set up the hip thrust on the leg extension machine. Glute bridge is a good
05:49option if you're tight on time, which is the same basic movement except here you're setting up with your
05:53upper back on the ground rather than on the bench, which will limit the range of motion a bit. That
05:58is probably the next best thing. Also variations on the hip thrust like the single leg hip thrust or the
06:03knee banded hip thrust are great to include, which is going to challenge the glutes through hip abduction,
06:08hitting the side and upper aspects of the glutes a little bit more as well. So guys, that's all that I
06:13have for the hip thrust. I've decided I'm going to put my glute hypertrophy program and women's
06:18specialization programs on sale for the launch of this video. I've discussed the differences between
06:22those at the end of my last video on the glute kickback if you want to check that out. But really
06:27quick, the glute hypertrophy program is a five day per week intermediate program and the women's
06:32specialization program is a six day per week advanced program, both with a focus on the glutes but with
06:37the full body being targeted in a balanced way. So you guys can grab those at the discounted price
06:43for the next week only at jeffnipper.com and I'll have that at the first link in the description box below
06:48if you'd like to read more. So thank you guys so much for watching. Please leave me a like if you enjoyed the
06:52video. Don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss future Technique Tuesday episodes and I'll see
06:56you guys all here next week as if there's a coin between your butt cheeks and you're trying to
07:02prevent it from falling out.
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