Barbell Hip Thrust
Also works: Calves · Hamstrings
Shoulder blades on a bench, feet planted, a padded bar across your hips: you extend from roughly 90 degrees of hip flexion to a flat lockout against horizontal resistance. It is the heaviest way to load the glutes at full extension, and the bench is what buys you the extra range a floor bridge cannot give.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Set a flat bench against a wall or rack so it cannot slide, with the pad edge at roughly the height of your shoulder blades when seated.
- Sit on the floor with your back on the bench, legs straight, and roll the loaded bar up until it sits in your hip crease over a thick pad.
- Plant your feet flat, roughly shoulder-width, close enough that your shins end up vertical at lockout.
- Slide up the bench until the top edge sits just under your shoulder blades, not under your neck.
- Tuck your chin, pull your ribs down, and hold the bar just outside your hips before the first rep.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Inhale and brace at the bottom, exhale as your hips reach lockout. Two seconds down, one second squeezed at the top, no bouncing off the floor.
Before you load it
- Secure the bench against a wall or rack before you load the bar. A bench that shifts under a heavy set drops the bar onto your pelvis.
- Roll the bar into position over your hips with the plates on the floor, and roll it off the same way. Never lift a loaded bar onto your lap.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Start with the empty 20 kg bar and a proper pad, and learn the lockout before anything else. Ten strict reps with bodyweight on the bar is a reasonable intermediate marker; 1.5x bodyweight for reps is strong. Add 5 kg only when every rep in the set ends with a one-second squeeze at a flat lockout — if the pause is the thing that breaks, the weight is wrong.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Tuck your ribs down and tilt your pelvis under before you press. Stop at the flat line between thigh and torso — extra height that comes from your spine is not extra glute work.
Use a bench around 35-40 cm high and set its edge just below your shoulder blades. If your neck is loaded at lockout, you are too far up the bench.
Wedge it against a wall or rack upright, or load one end down. Chasing a moving bench is the fastest way to lose the top position on a heavy set.
Film one set from the side. If lockout is not a flat line and the bottom is not a full hip flexion, strip 20% and rebuild the range before the number goes back up.
Why bother
Resistance here acts horizontally on a lever that is longest at lockout, so the glutes face their hardest moment arm exactly where they are shortest. Squats and deadlifts do the reverse — they are brutal in the hole and nearly free at the top — which is why lifters with good squat numbers often still cannot lock out a heavy thrust cleanly.
Elevating your shoulders on a bench roughly doubles the starting hip flexion compared with lying on the floor. That extra range costs you load but buys you work: you are training the glute through a stretched position as well as a shortened one, and you keep the spine out of the loading path entirely.
Where it fits
Either as the first movement of a glute-focused day, or after squats when you want more hip extension without more spinal loading. Three to four sets of 6-12, twice a week. Do not stack it behind heavy deadlifts on the same day — both hammer the same tissue, and whichever comes second gets the worse session. Put it on the day where it is the priority, not the leftover.
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When this gets easy
Asked and answered
How high should the bench be?
Around 35-40 cm — a standard flat bench works for most people. The test is where the edge sits: just under the shoulder blades, so it acts as a pivot for your upper back. Too high and it catches your neck; too low and you lose the top of the range and may as well be bridging from the floor.
Is the hip thrust better than the squat for glutes?
It is better at loading full hip extension, which the squat barely trains. It is worse at everything else — the squat builds quads, trunk bracing and total-body strength that a thrust cannot touch. Run both. If you only had one, squat.
Why does my lower back ache instead of my glutes?
You are finishing the rep by extending your spine rather than your hip. Tuck the chin, pull the ribs toward the hips, and consciously posterior-tilt the pelvis at lockout. If the ache persists at lighter weight, walk your feet in a little and shorten the top of the range until you feel the glutes take over.
Do I really need a barbell pad?
Yes. There is no toughness argument here — the pressure at the hip bones limits your working weight long before your glutes do, and bruising there takes days to settle. Use a purpose-made thick pad, and if the bar is still biting, add a folded mat under it.