Barbell Hip Thrust
The hip thrust has your upper back resting against a bench with a padded barbell across your hips, driving your heels down to extend your hips until your body forms a straight line at the top. Elevating your shoulders on a bench instead of lying flat on the floor gives your hips a longer range to travel through than a floor-based bridge, which is why it's one of the most direct ways to load the glutes through a full range of hip extension.
Why it works
The extra height from the bench lets your hips drop lower at the bottom of the rep than a floor glute bridge allows, which means the glutes stretch through a longer range before contracting to drive the hips back up. That combination of load and range at the end position, hips fully extended and glutes fully squeezed, is a big part of why the hip thrust is used so widely for building glute strength and size. The hamstrings and calves come in as secondary muscles, the hamstrings assisting the hip extension and the calves stabilizing through the heel drive.
Set up
- Sit on the floor with your upper back against the edge of a bench, a padded barbell rolled up to rest across your hip crease.
- Walk your feet in until your shins are roughly vertical at the top of the movement, feet flat and hip-width apart.
- Grip the bar on both sides to keep it from rolling.
- Brace your core before your hips leave the floor.
How to do it
- Drive through your heels to lift your hips up, letting your upper back roll slightly along the bench edge.
- Continue until your hips are fully extended and your body forms a straight line from shoulders to knees.
- Squeeze your glutes hard at the top for a brief pause.
- Lower your hips back down under control until they're just short of touching the floor.
- Keep tension on before starting the next rep rather than fully relaxing at the bottom.
Form cues
- Drive through your heels, not your toes.
- Chin tucked, don't crane your neck looking up.
- Squeeze your glutes hard at the top.
- Shins roughly vertical at the top of the rep.
Breathing: Exhale as you drive your hips up and squeeze at the top, inhale as you lower back down.
Common mistakes
Overextending the lower back at the top instead of stopping once the body forms a straight line.
Fix: Stop the lift the moment your ribs flare or your lower back arches; the glutes, not the lower back, should be finishing the movement.
Setting the feet too far forward or too far back, which shifts the load toward the hamstrings or quads instead of the glutes.
Fix: Adjust foot position until your shins are roughly vertical at the top of the rep, then keep that spot consistent across sets.
Craning the neck to look up and forward during the lift.
Fix: Keep your chin tucked and your gaze forward and slightly down, which helps keep the rest of your spine in a safer position too.
How to program it
- 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 reps at a challenging weight builds glute strength and size well, since this movement lets you load heavily without much lower back involvement.
- Twice a week works well for most lifters when it's programmed alongside a squat or hinge pattern rather than replacing one, since the glutes recover relatively quickly from this movement.
- Place it after your main squat or deadlift work in a session, since it's demanding enough to warrant fresh legs but doesn't need to come first.
- Add a resistance band above the knees on later sets to bring the glute medius into the movement without adding more axial load.
Safety notes
- Use a barbell pad; an unpadded bar across the hip crease under a heavy load is genuinely painful and can bruise.
- Stop adding weight once your lower back has to arch to complete the lift, rather than chasing a heavier number with worse form.
Exercise profile
- Force
- Push
- Mechanics
- Compound
- Category
- powerlifting
Frequently asked questions
How many sets and reps of hip thrusts should I do?
3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 reps at a challenging weight works well, since this movement allows heavy loading with relatively little strain on the lower back.
How often should I do hip thrusts?
Twice a week works well for most lifters, since the glutes recover fairly quickly from this movement compared to a heavy squat or deadlift.
Can I do a hip thrust without a bench?
The barbell glute bridge keeps your whole back on the floor instead of elevated, which shortens the range of motion but works well if a bench isn't available.
Hip thrust vs glute bridge: what's the difference?
The hip thrust elevates your upper back on a bench, letting your hips drop lower and travel through a longer range before the squeeze at the top. The glute bridge keeps your back flat on the floor, which limits that range but is simpler to set up.
Why does my lower back hurt during hip thrusts?
This usually means the weight is heavy enough that your lower back is arching to finish the rep instead of your glutes doing the work. Reduce the load and focus on stopping at a straight body line, not overextending.