How to Do a Barbell Hip Thrust
A barbell hip thrust is a glute exercise. Rest your upper back on a bench, roll a padded bar into your hip crease and drive your hips up until your body is straight from shoulders to knees. It mainly trains the gluteus maximus, with the hamstrings and adductors helping. Most lifters do 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps.
- 1Bottom. Upper back on the bench, bar on a pad across your hip crease, feet flat. Lower until your hips are just above the floor.
- 2Top. Drive through your whole foot until your body is straight from shoulders to knees, shins close to vertical and ribs down.
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How to do a barbell hip thrust
- Sit on the floor with a flat bench behind you, its long edge just below your shoulder blades. Load the bar with full-size plates so it clears your thighs.
- Roll the bar up your legs until it sits in your hip crease, with a bar pad or folded mat under it. Hold it with both hands just outside your hips.
- Put your feet flat, hip to shoulder width, toes turned out slightly, far enough out that your shins will be close to vertical at the top.
- Tuck your chin and keep your ribs down. Push through your whole foot and drive your hips up until your body is straight from shoulders to knees, pivoting on the bench edge.
- Hold the top for a second without arching, then lower until your hips are just above the floor and drive up again.
Barbell hip thrust setup: bench, bar and feet
The bench is what makes it a hip thrust. The floor version, the barbell glute bridge, drew more glute activity per rep in one study of 10 men, and the hip thrust drew more quad activity (Kennedy 2024), but the bridge moves the bar less than half as far. Moving the feet away from the body and pushing the knees out each changed which leg muscles worked most in a barbell hip thrust study (Collazo García 2020). Start with shins vertical at the top and adjust from there.
Hip thrust claims the research does not back
Hip thrust guides repeat a few claims the studies do not support:
- It keeps constant tension on the glutes. The demand on the hip extensors peaked early in the lift, with the hips bent about 83 degrees, and fell toward lockout (Brazil 2021). Glute activity is highest at the top (McCurdy 2021), which is why the top feels hardest, but the load peaks low.
- It is easy on the lower back. In sprinters lifting a 6-rep max, the peak load at the base of the spine was 24% higher in the hip thrust than in the back squat and similar to the deadlift (Otsuka 2021). Your back holds that load without moving: 4 weeks of hip thrusts raised lifters' hip thrust max 25% but did not raise their isolated lower back strength (Hammond 2019).
- Your torso and thighs should form 90 degrees at the top. The 90 degrees is at your knees. At the top your torso and thighs are in one straight line.
- It builds more glute than squats. Over 9 weeks, hip thrusts and back squats grew the glutes by the same amount (Plotkin 2023). It does add to other lifts: untrained women who added hip thrusts to leg presses and stiff-leg deadlifts grew their glutes 9.3% in 10 weeks, against 6.0% without them (Kassiano 2024).
Lower until your hips are just above the floor on every rep, where the load peaks. Squeeze at the top without arching, and brace as you would for a deadlift.
How much weight should you barbell hip thrust?
On Gravitus, the median man lifts 190 lb (85 kg) for 10 reps on the barbell hip thrust, and the median woman 155 lb (70 kg).
- Most lift
- 130 to 255 lb
- Top 10% lift
- 325 lb or more
- Starting out
- under 130 lb
- Most lift
- 100 to 220 lb
- Top 10% lift
- 275 lb or more
- Starting out
- under 100 lb
- Most lift
- 60 to 117.5 kg
- Top 10% lift
- 147.5 kg or more
- Starting out
- under 60 kg
- Most lift
- 45 to 100 kg
- Top 10% lift
- 125 kg or more
- Starting out
- under 45 kg
Muscles worked
Barbell hip thrust vs glute bridge vs squat
| Attribute | Barbell hip thrust | Barbell glute bridge | Back squat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper back on | A bench | The floor | Nothing, bar on your back |
| Bar travel | 36 cm (14 in) | 15 cm (6 in) | Full squat depth |
| Glute activity | More than a squat | More than a hip thrust | Less than a hip thrust |
| Best for | Heavy glute work, full range | No bench, top-range work | Quads, adductors and glutes together |
The hip thrust for glute work you can load and progress. The bridge drew more glute activity but covers less than half the range (Kennedy 2024, Zabaleta-Korta 2024). Keep a squat or lunge too: it grew the glutes as much and the quads and adductors more (Plotkin 2023).
Sets, reps and progression
Stop each set 1 to 2 reps short of failure. Sets taken close to failure build muscle across a wide range of reps (Schoenfeld 2021), so pick a range where every rep still reaches full hip extension.
Twice a week is enough. The hip thrust group in Plotkin 2023 trained 15 to 17 sessions over 9 weeks. Add reps first: when every set reaches 12, add 10 lb (5 kg) to the bar and go back to 8.
Common mistakes
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Bench edge at mid-backYou slide down the bench as you drive up. Sit so the edge is just below your shoulder blades.
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Bar on your stomachIt digs in and rolls. Put it across your hip crease on a pad.
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Arching at the topYour ribs flare and the lower back takes over. Stop when your body is straight from shoulders to knees, chin tucked.
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Throwing your head backIt pulls your back into an arch. Tuck your chin and look forward toward the bar as your hips rise.
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Cutting the bottom shortThe load peaks with your hips low (Brazil 2021). Lower until your hips are just above the floor on every rep.
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Pushing through your toesYour heels lift and the quads take over. Keep your whole foot flat, heels heavy.
Barbell hip thrust variations
Questions people ask
What do barbell hip thrusts work?
Mostly the gluteus maximus. The hamstrings and adductors help extend the hip, the quads hold the knee angle, and the lower back and core hold your spine still.
How to set up a barbell hip thrust?
Sit with the bench edge just below your shoulder blades, roll a padded bar into your hip crease and put your feet flat, far enough out that your shins are close to vertical at the top.
Where should the bar sit for hip thrusts?
Across your hip crease, where your thighs meet your hips, on a bar pad or folded mat. Not on your stomach, where it digs in and rolls.
Are hip thrusts push or pull?
You push the floor with your feet, but the movement is hip extension, the same job as a deadlift or RDL. Most programs group it with the hinges on a leg or pull day.
Is the barbell hip thrust better than the squat for glutes?
Not for growth. Over 9 weeks, hip thrusts and back squats grew the glutes by the same amount, and the squat grew the quads and adductors more (Plotkin 2023). The hip thrust draws more glute activity per rep (Contreras 2015) and is a good addition to squats.
How much weight should I barbell hip thrust?
For 10 reps, the median on Gravitus is 190 lb (85 kg) for men and 155 lb (70 kg) for women. The strongest quarter lifts 255 lb (117.5 kg) and 220 lb (100 kg) or more.
Log every set and see your percentile on every lift, barbell hip thrust included.
Get GravitusRelated exercises
- Brazil et al. 2021. PLoS One 16(3):e0249307.
- McCurdy et al. 2021. J Strength Cond Res 35(5):1201-1207.
- Otsuka et al. 2021. PLoS One 16(7):e0251418.
- Hammond et al. 2019. PeerJ 7:e7337.
- Plotkin et al. 2023. Front Physiol 14:1279170.
- Kassiano et al. 2024. Int J Strength Cond 4(1).
- Zabaleta-Korta and Fernández-Peña 2024. Cult Cienc Deporte 19(59).
- Kennedy et al. 2024. Sports Biomech 23(12):2935-2949.
- Lehecka et al. 2017. Int J Sports Phys Ther 12(4):543-549.
- Collazo García et al. 2020. J Strength Cond Res 34(9):2449-2455.
- Contreras et al. 2015. J Appl Biomech 31(6):452-458.
- Schoenfeld et al. 2021. Sports 9(2):32.