How to Use a Hip Thrust Machine
A machine hip thrust is a glute exercise. Rest your upper back on the pad, set the roller or belt across your hips 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 pad, roller across the hip crease, feet flat. Lower until your hips are low and the stack almost rests.
- 2Top. Drive through your whole foot until your body is straight from shoulders to knees, shins close to vertical and ribs down.
Watch 3 video demonstrations
Find more video demonstrations in the Gravitus app
How to do a machine hip thrust
- Set the back pad so its edge sits just below your shoulder blades, and the roller or belt sits across your hip crease, not your stomach.
- Put your feet flat on the platform, hip to shoulder width, toes turned out slightly. At the top of the rep your shins should be close to vertical.
- Tuck your chin, keep your ribs down and push through your whole foot, heels heavy. Drive your hips up until your body is straight from shoulders to knees.
- Hold the top for a second. Stop there; arching your lower back does not lift your hips any higher.
- Lower over 2 seconds until your hips are low and the stack almost touches, then drive up again.
Hip thrust machine foot placement
Foot distance changes the hamstrings far more than the glutes. In single-leg bridges, hamstring activity was 75% of maximum with the knee bent 90 degrees and 23% with it bent 135 degrees, feet closer in, while glute activity barely moved (Lehecka 2017). Of four barbell hip thrust variations, trying to turn the feet outward drew the most glute activity (Collazo García 2020, reviewed in Krause Neto 2020).
Where the hip thrust is hardest
Not at lockout. When trained men thrust 70% of their max on force plates, the demand on the hip extensors peaked early in the lift, with the hips bent about 83 degrees, and fell by about two thirds by the top (Brazil 2021). The top feels hardest because the glutes are fully squeezed there, not because the load peaks there.
What sets the hip thrust apart from the squat is the other end of the rep. It still loads the hips at full extension, where a squat's hip demand drops to zero. It does not beat the squat for glute growth: over 9 weeks of matched training, hip thrusts and back squats grew the glutes by the same amount. The squat group grew more quad and adductor, and each group got stronger mostly at its own lift (Plotkin 2023).
Those numbers come from barbell thrusts. On a machine the lever or cam changes the curve, so two brands can feel hardest at different points.
Lower until your hips are low on every rep, because that is where the load peaks. Squeeze at the top without arching, and keep a squat or lunge in your week for the quads.
How much weight should you hip thrust on a machine?
On Gravitus, the median man lifts 165 lb (75 kg) for 10 reps on the machine hip thrust, and the median woman 130 lb (60 kg).
- Most lift
- 100 to 250 lb
- Top 10% lift
- 330 lb or more
- Starting out
- under 100 lb
- Most lift
- 80 to 200 lb
- Top 10% lift
- 265 lb or more
- Starting out
- under 80 lb
- Most lift
- 47.5 to 112.5 kg
- Top 10% lift
- 150 kg or more
- Starting out
- under 47.5 kg
- Most lift
- 37.5 to 90 kg
- Top 10% lift
- 120 kg or more
- Starting out
- under 37.5 kg
Muscles worked
Machine hip thrust vs barbell hip thrust vs squat
| Attribute | Machine hip thrust | Barbell hip thrust | Back squat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | Sit in, pad on, go | Bar, pad and bench, rolled over your legs | Bar on your back in a rack |
| Hardest point | Depends on the machine | Early in the lift, hips low | Bottom, hips deep |
| Glute activity | Same as the barbell | Same as the machine | Lower than a hip thrust |
| Best for | Glute volume, sets close to failure | Heaviest loads, any gym | Quads, adductors and glutes together |
The machine and the barbell drew the same glute activity. The machine drew more hamstring and less quad, and 93% of the lifters tested recommended it for beginners (Petrizzo 2023). Use whichever you can load and repeat, and keep a squat for the quads.
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), and a machine makes that safe because there is no bar to roll off your hips.
Twice a week is enough. The hip thrust group in Plotkin 2023 trained 2 days a week with 3 to 6 sets a session. Add reps first: when every set reaches 12 clean reps, move the pin down one plate and go back to 8.
Common mistakes
-
Pad on your stomachThe roller should sit across your hip crease. Slide down until it does, or it digs in and shortens your range.
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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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Feet too far outThe hamstrings take over and can cramp. Move your feet in until your shins are close to vertical at the top.
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Cutting the bottom shortThe load peaks with your hips low (Brazil 2021). Lower until the stack almost rests 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.
Hip thrust machine variations
Questions people ask
What muscles does the hip thrust machine work?
Mostly the gluteus maximus. The hamstrings and adductors help extend the hip, the glute medius keeps your knees out and the quads hold the knee angle.
Is a hip thrust machine effective?
Yes. It drew the same glute activity as a barbell hip thrust (Petrizzo 2023), and hip thrust training grew the glutes as much as back squats over 9 weeks (Plotkin 2023).
Why do I feel my hamstrings in hip thrusts?
Your feet are probably too far out. Move them in. In single-leg bridges, hamstring activity fell from 75% to 23% of maximum when the knee bent from 90 to 135 degrees, and glute activity barely changed (Lehecka 2017).
Is the hip thrust machine better than barbell hip thrust?
Not for the glutes; both drew the same glute activity. The machine sets up faster and drew more hamstring and less quad (Petrizzo 2023). The barbell is in every gym and allows smaller weight jumps.
Should I be doing hip thrusts twice a week?
Twice a week works. Training hip thrusts 2 days a week with 3 to 6 sets a session grew the glutes over 9 weeks (Plotkin 2023).
How to do a hip thrust on a cable machine?
A cable does not load a hip thrust well. A low pulley pulls your hips toward the stack instead of down against them, so little of the cable's weight resists the hips rising. For glutes on a cable, do a cable pull-through or a kickback instead.
How much weight should I hip thrust on a machine?
For 10 reps, the median on Gravitus is 165 lb (75 kg) for men and 130 lb (60 kg) for women. The strongest quarter lifts 250 lb (112.5 kg) and 200 lb (90 kg) or more.
Log every set and see your percentile on every lift, machine hip thrust included.
Get GravitusRelated exercises
- Brazil et al. 2021. PLoS One 16(3):e0249307.
- Plotkin et al. 2023. Front Physiol 14:1279170.
- Contreras et al. 2015. J Appl Biomech 31(6):452-458.
- 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.
- Krause Neto et al. 2020. J Sports Sci Med 19(1):195-203.
- Petrizzo et al. 2023. Med Sci Sports Exerc 55(9S):749 (conference abstract).
- Schoenfeld et al. 2021. Sports 9(2):32.