Hip Thrusts
..will change your life
Yes, hip thrusts will change your life.
Why? The glutes (Gluteus Maximus, Gluteus Medius, and Gluteus Minimus) not only include the largest single muscle in the body, the “glute max,” but they also are the main driver of hip extension, one of the most important and functional of all movements.
Let me put it this way, if you want to be strong, you need strong glutes. They perform the hip extension needed to complete squats, deadlifts, and Olympic lifts. If you want to be fast, you need powerful hip extension to power through your stride. If you want to jump high, you need to generate force on the ground through hip extension. I would even postulate, if you want to be healthy and reduce injuries, you need to rely more on the gluteus muscle group.
To not use this huge muscle (and it's associates) to their full potential is to miss out on huge gains in strength, power, and speed. As we age, and these muscles atrophy, we have to rely on smaller muscles to do the job and are much more prone to injury. I learned this the hard way. After ACL surgery I worked hard to regain all size lost on my thighs only to neglect the glutes. This lead to a near complete loss of my vertical jump and has subsequently lead to repeated bouts of patellar tendonitis as I rely more on knee flexion than hip flexion/extension in my poorly re-learned movement patterns.
And I see that all the time. How many people use hip flexion to pick something up off the floor??? No one. We all bend in the lumbar spine to rely on the tiny erector spinae to do the work. That might be fine with a piece of paper, but translate that over to a deadlift and that ingrained movement pattern leads to low back pain and/or injury.
DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!!!
Instead, train your glutes. Chances are, if you're into working out (and reading stuff like this), you probably already are. Squats and deadlifts and cleans and lungs all train the glutes very well. I do many plyometric versions of these exercises to specifically train for basketball. Just sprinting alone is an awesome glute training exercise. BUTT IT"S JUST NOT ENOUGH!
Here is where your life is going to change. Have your glutes ever been sore?? Like really sore? Sore like your quads get when you can't sit down on the toilet the next day, or sore like your biceps get when you can't pick up a glass of water after working out??? NO. Your amazing glutes laugh at leg day. Your low back is screaming the day or two after deadlifts while your bum is happy as a clam.
Honestly, don't do it like this!!
Now, if you're purely into asthetics then you have already looked up videos on how to train glutes and might even do hip thrusts already. Big butts are in fashion and everyone want to look good in those yoga pants and jeans. But, if you're a functional fitness fanatic or just into power lifting or simply love to run and barely pump any iron, there is NO WAY you are going to go to your gym or box to look ridiculous doing hip thrusts. It's hard to imagine doing this in front of your friends without laughing nevertheless in front of strangers without feeling awkward.
GET OVER IT!!!
Remember I said this was going to change your life??? No matter what type of fitness outlet you prefer, you need hip thrusts in your life, and here's why.
CrossFitters - Everything is axial loaded and you don't do enough lateral movements. Most exercises are front to back, not side to side, and most loads are axial (top-down) barely fatiguing the glutes. Lunges, deadlifts, squats, etc are great glute builders but only at the bottom of the movement. By the end of hip extension the load is much easier. When you put your body parallel to the floor, the force vectors on the glute muscle change so that the exercises are hardest in full extension with maximal contraction. Just try this now in a glute bridge with only body weight on that couch you are sitting on. Feel the burn in the glutes? Of course you did. Trust me, all of your PR's are going to go up because of a stronger gluteus maximus and a more stable base by working the glutues medius.
Power lifters - Same as above and CrossFitters read this too! Your gluteus medius is way too weak. You NEVER train hip abduction. Thus, your knees want to cave inwards when going for your max lifts. You must train and warm-up (i.e. connect your brain to your glute medii, yeah that's the plural). This can be done with band exercises if you never want to get on that machine.
Runners - You hate weights and are probably not reading this, but if you were, you could have a HUGE benefit from stronger glutes. If you could activate your glutes more, you could put more of the stress on these huge muscles and take it away from weaker joints and muscles. The glutes tie in with the lower back and hamstring muscles to accomplish similar actions. Stronger glutes means less stress on knees and lower back leading to less fatigue/injury as well as a more powerful stride and base.
Athletes (who run around and hit balls and stuff, sorry CrossFitters who also consider themselves "athletes") - Every sport outside of swimming relies on pushing off the ground to gain power. Pitchers need strong glutes to push off the mound, hitters need to get power from torque that comes from the hips. You will sprint faster and jump higher with stronger glutes. Same as the power lifters, you need to prime these muscles to contribute to your movement with band training and as with everyone, you will perform better with stronger glutes by including the exercises below.
Aspiring fitness models/anyone who wants to look better in a swimsuit - You're probably already doing this training. Unless you're blessed with Kardashian genes that put all the fat in just the right places, you want a bigger butt. Big means you want hypertrophy. If you want hypertrophy then you need to stress the muscle by putting in under tension and it just so happens the hip thrust is probably the best way to stress this muscle. Although, don't neglect the other glute muscles that can make, um, round out your routine.
I got turned on to all of this by listening to Bret Contreras (aka "the glute guy" no kidding, check out his website). This guy invented the weighted hip thrust and is the real deal with a PhD and dozens of studies to back up his training techniques. You should definitely nerd out on his site for more definitive info. I've included a couple of his videos below, and he's referenced in a few more.
HOW DO I START???
Well, hopefully you've done a glute bridge on the edge of your couch or a few body weigh hip thrust to start to feel the contraction of the glutes that we hardly pay attention to. This is probably helping you "turn on" the mind-muscle connection which is just retraining your brain to use different muscles in a movement pattern. As I've said, unfortunately we seem destined to "turn off" the glutes and rely on other muscles. Here are a few tips and there are many more in the videos below.
You should train glutes 3-5x/wk. This might mean every time you go to the gym. For heavy lifting, you need to train your glute medius to maintain good form, and for training through full range of motion you need some hip thrust variation.
Body weight exercises is a great starting point. First feel the muscles being activated with slow body weight contractions, then focus on that as you add weight. It also might help you get over that awkward feeling in the gym.
You must do hip extension and hip abduction to fully train the glutes. The gluteus maximus primarily does hip extension but also ties into the tensor fascia and contributes to abduction, while the glute medius and minimus mainly do hip abduction and external rotation. Don't stop at hip thrusts. Use bands or cables to resist abduction. Check out the list below to add exercises to your glute training. Pick 2-4 exercises each from different categories. Change it up often.
If you want hypertrophy, you're going to have to go heavy. If you're going for size (i.e. round butt), endless light loads are probably not going to get you there.
Finally, do all this in addition to what you are already doing. Adding glute training to what you do will make you stronger, but don't stop what you're doing and what you love. Keep squatting and lunging and running. Don't trade your foundational exercises for exclusive glute training. Training any one muscle exclusively is dumb, and even within your glute training, don't just use the hip thrust. Include lateral movements and abduction
I have added glute training to every workout session because I almost always do full body circuits. This is usually going to include a compound movement like squats or cleans. I now love to warm up with banded squats and banded lateral shuffle as a way to prime my gluteus medius, and now that I include hip thrusts (all variations from single-leg to heavy barbell), I can actually feel my glutes sore, not just my hamstrings and quads.
I first realized how weak my glutes were when trying to rehab my knee, as mentioned, but also when adding yoga to my weekly workout routine and realizing how incredibly weak my gluteus medius was in not being able to hold the half moon pose. I also then trying some YouTube yoga/glutes/pilates videos when I couldn't train legs because of patellar tendonitis and found I couldn't last because of my weak glutes. This could also be place to start, and I recommend Boho Beautiful on YouTube.
Finally, you check out the videos below.... I apologize that most of the emphasis is on the aesthetics and there are many not so subtle sexual innuendos as well as the possible objectification of women. I really do think these are actually good to add to your routine beyond the overused jokes and obscene gestures. Let's grow up a little.
