How to get stronger fast in hip thrust

Geschatte leestijd: 3 minuten The hip thrust, also known as the queen of glute exercises, trains your glutes like no other. Moreover, the exercise contributes to better performance in other exercises such as the deadlift. Becoming stronger and mastering the movement is therefore a desired goal for many. Following the article “Heavy lifting alone is not enough,” I received some questions via email and Facebook. I mention that it is not advisable to use a lot of weight if your technique with the hip thrust is not correct. Nevertheless, I received some questions, such as: How can I get many of my female clients to hip thrust heavy weights with perfect technique in a short time?

Training for strength or muscle mass

When you do the hip thrust to simply become strong in it, it usually means that you aim to increase the weight you can perform 1 to 5 times each time. Perhaps you aim to be able to thrust 150 kilograms once or you want to do 5 sets of 110 kilograms. When training for hypertrophy, which probably includes the largest group of readers of this article, you should also (substantially) become stronger in the hip thrust. According to a 1973 study, your glute muscles consist of about 50% slow/fast twitch muscle fibers, which means that you should train them both with a high number of repetitions and with a lower number and (therefore) a lot of weight [2]. This way, you stimulate both types of muscle fibers for muscle growth, or hypertrophy. In a 1980 study, it was found that the ratio is 68%-32% for slow and fast twitch muscle fibers, respectively [3]. Whatever goal you are pursuing, performing the hip thrust with correct technique is challenging and provides a good training stimulus. In this article, I share my tips for getting stronger quickly.

Doing mobilizers

Due to the prolonged sitting we do daily, your glutes become lazy and inactive [1]. So, when you go to the gym after a day at the office, it is advisable to start with mobilizers. You help the “antagonists” (muscles with opposing action, in this case, the hip flexors) and the glutes themselves to function better through increased proprioception. Proprioception is the spatial perception of where the parts of your body are in space and in relation to each other. Some suitable exercises for this can be seen in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1m5Lxewz_A

Activation exercises

After doing the above mobilizers, it is valuable to do some activation drills for your glutes. By briefly activating your glutes in different functions, they will be more active when you start your training later. Some of these exercises are already shown in the video, but one of the best ways to activate your glutes is using a miniband as you see in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enNsvxPj23Q

Assistance exercises

The hip thrust requires you to be strong in hip extension with flexion in your knees. In other words: Bringing the bent leg backward. By doing other exercises that make you stronger in a similar function, this will contribute to better performance in the hip thrust. Think, for example, of the cable pull through, which also requires hip extension but now without knee flexion. Another example is the fire hydrant; this exercise requires hip abduction (moving outward) and primarily trains the gluteus medius. By regularly doing this exercise, you contribute to a more stable movement during thrusting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFUz03eL0Nw

• Bey et al. Suppression of skeletal muscle lipoprotein lipase activity during physical inactivity: a molecular reason to maintain daily low-intensity activity. Journal of Physiology. 2003.PubMed #12815182.
• Johnson MA, Polgar J, Weightman D, Appleton D. Data on the distribution of fibre types in thirty-six human muscles. An autopsy study. J Neurol Sci. 1973 Jan;18(1):111-29. PubMed PMID: 4120482.
• Sĭrca A, Susec-Michieli M. Selective type II fibre muscular atrophy in patients with osteoarthritis of the hip. J Neurol Sci. 1980 Jan;44(2-3):149-59. PubMed PMID: 6444440.

Other unilateral exercises (one limb at a time) like the one-leg landmine deadlift and one-leg glute bridge also help your glutes become stronger in the extension movement and, like the fire hydrant, are movements that can detect a difference in strength and mobility between left and right.

Hip Thrusting More Often

Of course, the more often you do something, the better you will become at it. Doing the hip thrust itself more than once a week is therefore a good idea. This could mean that you perform the exercise once a week with few repetitions and a lot of weight, and once with a lot more repetitions. Whether this second version is the hip thrust itself or its other glute builder, the glute bridge, doesn’t matter much. In any case, having one ‘leg day’ per week is not a wise idea. By training more often in the relevant hip extension movement, you will quickly notice that 130 kilograms is getting closer. If you want to get stronger in the hip thrust but haven’t been successful so far, you will notice that you can start using more weight quickly with the tips from this article. Note that 2 of the 4 tips are part of the warm-up. Achieving good results often starts with the right preparation. Or, as the “Yanks” say so beautifully:

“Poor preparation prevents perfect performance!”

Do you have other things that have helped you improve the hip thrust? Feel free to add to the article! References

• Bey et al. Suppression of skeletal muscle lipoprotein lipase activity during physical inactivity: a molecular reason to maintain daily low-intensity activity. Journal of Physiology. 2003.PubMed #12815182.
• Johnson MA, Polgar J, Weightman D, Appleton D. Data on the distribution of fibre types in thirty-six human muscles. An autopsy study. J Neurol Sci. 1973 Jan;18(1):111-29. PubMed PMID: 4120482.
• Sĭrca A, Susec-Michieli M. Selective type II fibre muscular atrophy in patients with osteoarthritis of the hip. J Neurol Sci. 1980 Jan;44(2-3):149-59. PubMed PMID: 6444440.