I have been doing your exercises for only a few weeks and my butt has lifted dramatically. I never thought I would have a nice butt. Thank u soo much for all the time and research u have put it has really helped me a lot. Thanks bret!!!! Oh and my boyfriend loves the results too lol
Same here! I used to do plain old school bodybuilding exercises for my lower body. While I had quads, I didn't have a booty to match....😓 until I found Bret Contreras! Now I do a mix of mostly glute pumpers, limit my compound lifts to certain days and do hip thrusts!!! My butt has changed!!!
This is the most underrated exercise ever. Hip thrust increases stability, throwing power and punching power if you initiate from the hip when throwing. Also useful in wrestling and BJJ. This should be a key exercise.
There was only one low step up free in the gym today so i had to do it low like this ,and man its sooo much better,my glutes was on fire and much better on my lower back. Thats why i searched for low bench hipthrust after i got home,and found this. Followed you for couple years now,but never seen this.💪😜
This video is amazing. I wish more trainers talked about what people do wrong in their how to. Typically I follow a video and I think I'm doing it right, it's only when it's pointed out what's going wrong that I realize I'm messing things up.
Thank you for this! I have been working on heavy glute training recently and have a hard time using the bench with heavy weight loads. Now I can use my riser like you do and use heavier weight. I am excited to try all this information and variations.
You can also hip thrust using a smith machine if you can't start off with 45lbs weights. Use the smith machine for lower weights so that you can move underneath the barbell. :)
I feel my back too much when I go over 200 lbs and I think it's because of the bench height. Will have to try the aerobic steps. The Rest Pause and American versions might also help me contract glutes even more and go further into PPT.
The hip thrust enables more range of motion since you have to get your leg-torso parallel to the ground at the end of the movement. while the glute bridge, your torso is in a more or less 45 degree angle. Hope this helps
Hey Bret, I was trying to find an email for you so I could put in a "request." I have been reading through your t-nation articles, specifically the "emg articles" that give all the emg data for specific muscles. I find these articles and results very interesting and informative. There is so much speculation involved in lifting topics, everyone has their personal "favorite exercises" that they "swear by" or swear "gives them great results..." But not often do we have such specific, numeric data as you show in those emg articles. I think you could do a video going over the emg results from each of your emg articles. It would make an interesting video.
*** YOU CAN START HIP THRUSTING ON A LEG CURL MACHINE!!! *** I'm not strong enough yet to do a barbell with the biggest plate, so I can't get under it. I recently discovered that you can do hip thrust on the leg curl (hamstring) machine. You put your back against the ledge used to put your upper legs, and position yourself so that the weighted bar (it's cushioned too, so that's nice) is across your hip flexors. I'm currently at about 60-80lbs so hopefully once I reach about 130, I can switch to the barbell. :)
Czarinov Leg curl machine is: 1. Very convenient to use. No need to set up a barbell and add/remove weights. 2. Very comfortable to use. Has thick padding and no need to buy a pad to use on a barbell. 3. I can use a heavier weight to make using a barbell easier if I decide to transition over to using only a barbell. Weightless is too easy for me to the point it's only useful to use it as a burnout at the end of training, and even then I may be doing up to 100 reps. One leg is a bit more difficult but I could still do over 20 reps. It's just more efficient to use leg curl machine to be able to comfortably use weight :) I've gone from doing 60lb to 180lbs since I started thrusting.
Sophia Kim yes but you aren't really thrusting 180 it's doing most of the work for you since it's not free weight. And I know this was two years ago just saw it
It's fine to do them back to back. Contreras holds that hip thrusts are an activator exercise, as opposed to squats and deadlifts, which are stretchers. You're generally not shooting for heavy reps on your activators.
Hi Bret, I’m a little bit confused. I think you mentioned that we need to have constant fluid motion in our reps, but then how does the (6) pause method work? Wouldn’t that not be a constant fluid method? Thank you so much! Regine
thanks for this video, but you forgot to mention rep ranges for specific training purposes. what rep range would you say works best for progressive overload, im doing 3x8.
What do you think about holding the position 10 seconds or more before dropping back to the ground (time under tension), while doing hip thrust and glute bridge?
i heard that one legged targets the glute a lot better. but i prefer two legs for balance. is the one legged thing not true? also, where exactly should the bar go? i'm guessing over the hip bones and over the junk are not comfortable.
I have been doing hip thrusts for about 6 mo now and the other day I got into position (with no weights) knees bent....when I went to push my glutes up, I had extreme pain at the outside of my knee. I could not straighten the knee, I had tingling down to the toes, a warm sensation at the side of the leg, could not put weight on the leg was taken to ER and xrays and MRI showed nothing was put into leg compression sleeve that helped and the pain left within 48 hours. Since docs cant find anything can I assume it was due to not enough warm up or something simple? I need to figure it out before I resume thrusts because that is a pain I prefer to avoid. Can you help?
Is there any way you can do hip thrusts with a fixed weight bar? I feel like its unorthodox doing hip thrusts in a commercial gym (well at least MY gym) and I feel like it's not "gym friendly" to take the olympic bar off the squat rack for my hip thrusts. Maybe I'm just a bit over reacting but I was researching but saw nothing about hip thrusts being possible with a fixed weight bar and wanted your opinion :-)
good explanation. do you have any videos on deadlifts, cuz I'm getting pain from those. can you do the hip thrusts with smith machine?? And what to do if the gym benches are too high?
I'm currently doing the hip thrusts using the Smith machine until I'm strong enough to lift with 45lb plates so that I can roll the bar onto my hips. Right now I'm using 25lb + 10lb + 5lb plate on each end for a total of 125lb (including barball weight). So it won't be long before I'm no longer co-dependent on the Smith Machine.
I tried this and i feel it more in the muscles above my knees, i feel my legs working when i lift my hips up.. Is that normal? Am i doing something wrong? Thanks:-)
Those would be your Quads. This means that your glutes are not fully activating. You should do some body weight glute bridges/hip thrusts to warm up your glutes before you start your work out. Also, in his book, he recommends elevating your feet so your glutes do more of the work. You can do this by putting weight plates or anything else (like one of those step-up benches shown in this video) under your feet when you do the exercise.
I have been doing hip thrusts, with and without a barbell. When I do hip thrusts, I feel it most in my lower back and somewhat in my gluteus medius, but not really that much in the bulk of my glutes. And on top of that, I'll get a sort of maxing out pain and soreness in my lower back, which inhibits me from doing more hip thrusts. It's like a sharp, tight feeling. I always do glue activation/firing exercises beforehand too, so I don't know what I am doing wrong...do you have any advice for me? I'd really appreciate your thoughts. I can't imagine I'm the only one who has this issue.
+IntoBlackHouse you are hyperextending. You torso is not staying ridged, but instead bending at the lower back. Go to 6:20 and watch that part. Very important to roll the hips under and try to make your lower back flat on the floor first and then focus on pushing your hips up and lower down. Never bend or move the hips at all once they are set. Better to start with your back on the floor with no weight to really feel this. Also when you push up make sure to only go until your body is basically a straight line. Don't go super high because you are actually bending the lower back even tho it may feel like the glutes are working more.
Thanks guys for your comments and tips! I've been to a physical therapist, because I was also getting knee pain while doing hip thrusts, and he said that it is because I have IT band problems. I also apparently have very tight hamstrings and quads. So I have been doing stretches for the issues, which is helping I think. I haven't specifically heard anything from him about my back, so I guess I don't have a very strong back, or perhaps because of my not strong core, which then transfers all the work to my lower back, which causes it to overwork and inflame. I also have teeth grinding problems, which my chiro said can be caused by or cause lower back problems. So thats something to think about. Recently though the pain in my lower back has been coming back more, and I'm pretty sure its from kettle bell swings.
+IntoBlackHouse Try an experiment: stand up straight, relax your glute, bend back and hyper-extend your lumbar. It hurts. Now go back to standing up straight, squeeze your glute, then hyper-extend again, doesn't hurt so much. Your problem comes from lack of glute contraction at the completion of hip extension on hip thrust. Your physio is bullshiting, I guarantee if you go to see another physio, he will give you a complete different diagnose, because when they don't know what's wrong, they blame the most common issues.
***** Thanks dude. I agree, flexibility is SO important. I absolutely need more strength in my lower back and even more so my core/abdominals, which I always ignore.
AJ GOAT Interesting idea. I tried standing and then squatting with a hyper extended back and it didn't really hurt. If anything I have pain in my hamstrings, which is normal for me because they are tight and sore from barbell squats I do in the gym. So I don't know. I also definitely warm up the glutes before hand, and feel it during other exercises like on the butt blaster machine, but not that much in hip thrusts.I will say though that my setup for hip thrusts is not ideal right now. My new gym lacks the big rubber barbell weights used for deadlifting, and the bench is at a weird height (and pushes back when I lift the barbell with my hips!) so I have to make my own bench out of those light stackable step up things.
Thank you so much for doing this❤️ im still a little confused about the foot positions and which can target the glutes the most? I’ve heard that i should always push up the heels and make sure to make my toes secure on the ground and not lifting them up Is that true?
5:33 - If you deadlift w a rounded back you will eventually hurt ur lower back? Bold statement Bret. You will probably hurt your lower back by doing any movement with more load that you can handle in that spesific movement pattern. If you start with bodyweight and slowly progressive overload like any other exercise i dont see whats wrong w it. Your body can def adapt. Is it optimal in terms of projecting/generating the best power in the lift - Probably no. I just think its a bit bold to make such a statement without explaining further. Image a young person looking at the video, listening to that. He/her will probably be scared to death to actually attempt a deadlift cus he/she thinks its gonna injure them. These are just my thoughts on the subject, and im no professor. I would like to hear your thoughts tho. Anyways great video.
Bret. What's the deal with the muscle soreness on this exercise? I don't seem to be getting any the next day etc in the glutes. When I do squats or lunges it's totally different. Does that matter for glute growth?
yeah I understand well I think if you do it right then you will make gains even if you don't feel sore but soreness is better u just need to train with low rests in order to make them sore
Dave Irish Muscle soreness isn't a real indication of getting better. However, do you feel glutes tensed at top? You may be using your quads instead. Try "turning" your toes out when going up (it's on of the glute function - to rotate the hips). Even though you won't really be turning anything - you will give glutes a better activation.
Not sure. You need to ask a doctor. But it usually put no compressing strain on the lower back while strengthening the lower back. Your lower is not getting compressed.
How do you know your disc is almost done healing lol? Discs can take up to 10 years to "heal", they don't really "heal" they just stiffen and don't cause pain by moving around anymore.
Do you recommend or ever use a stability ball to rest your back on rather than the step? Could you do a video with it for those of us who get a sore back from the step
maybe put a balance pad around the step? I would think a stability ball would detract from the strength component of the exercise because if your environment is more unbalanced, it would be more dangerous to lift heavier loads. But the ball might be a good idea with just body weight!
So question... COULD YOU PLEASE ANSWER THIS. NOONE ANSWERS WHEN I ASK... maybe I’m not explaining correctly. But HOW DO YOU GET THE FAT TO LEAVE YOUR LOWER BACK AND TOP OF YOUR BUTT SO YOU GET THE STRAIGHT LINE CURVE FROM BACK TO BUTT THE STREAM LINE SEXY LOOK THAT GIRLS HAVE. CAUSE IM CHUBBY IM MU MID SECTION AND I GAIN WEIGHT LIKE A SMALL TIRE
I don't know if you're asking Bret that question or just anybody in general, but I'll answer in any case. You can't spot-treat specific areas of your body when it comes to fat. You have to lower your overall body fat percentage. And in terms of getting the streamlined look you're referring to, lower your body fat percentage to 20-22% (you can buy a body fat caliper on, say, Amazon, to figure out what your percentage is and then check every 1-2 months) and additionally do exercises that target the muscles in that area to create definition, such as deadlifts to really work your back and then hip thrusts for your butt. Hope this helps. :)
+Errr on the floor seams to engage the hamstring more than the glut, you can do both, but glut activation is the goal for most people as they overcompnsate with their hamstrings and dont use their glut much in every day life.
Yeah.... I get the same. It's annoying really. I think they believe that I don't know what I'm doing. Lol And I do it on the Smith Machine no less so it's always weird.
