Glutes exercise
Barbell Hip ThrustHow to do it, with form in numbers
- Main muscles
- Glutes
- Also works
- Hamstrings, Quads
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
How do you do the Barbell Hip Thrust?
- Sit with your shoulder blades on the bench edge, bar padded in your hip crease.
- Plant your feet shoulder-width apart, knees bent.
- Drive through your heels and squeeze your glutes to lift the bar.
- Stop when your shoulders, hips and knees form a flat line.
- Lower your hips under control and go again.
Cues
- Shins vertical at the top.
- Chin tucked, eyes on your knees.
- Ribs down, squeeze your glutes hard.
Common mistakes
- Arching your lower back to lift the hips higher.
- Placing your feet too far away or too close.
- Letting the bench slide up towards your neck.
Form in detail
What does good form look like?
Starting position
Sit on the floor with the upper back against the long side of a flat bench, 40 cm high. The bench edge sits across the lower tips of the shoulder blades. Feet flat, about shoulder-width apart, toes forward to 15° out. The barbell (with a foam pad round it) rests in the hip crease, across the top of both thighs. Hands hold the bar just outside the hips, overhand, only to keep it steady. Feet are placed so that the shins will be vertical at the top. At the start the hips hover 5–10 cm above the floor, the trunk tips back about 45° from the floor and the chin is tucked.
The movement
Drive through the whole foot (weight towards the heels) and squeeze the glutes to push the bar straight up. The upper back pivots on the bench edge; the shoulder blades stay in contact and do not slide up or down the bench. The trunk and the thighs rise together until the shoulders, hips and knees form one straight line, parallel to the floor. The chin stays tucked so the eyes look forward at the knees at the top, not at the ceiling. The ribs stay down. Lower under control by pushing the hips back down towards the floor, without resting.
End position
Top: hips fully extended (0°), body flat from shoulders to knees, shins vertical, knees bent to about 90°. With the shoulder blades fixed on a 40 cm bench and a 1.75 m body, a trunk at 45° puts the hips about 12–15 cm off the floor; the hip crease (and bar) rises roughly 30–36 cm.
Tempo
1 s up, 1 s squeeze at the top, 2 s down, no rest at the bottom. (Trained lifters in [2] took about 0.8 s to lift.)
Form in numbers
What are the angles and distances?
| Measure | Target | Good range | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bench height | 40 cm | 35–46 cm | [3] |
| Bench edge on the back | lower tips of the shoulder blades | lower half of the shoulder blades | [1][4] |
| Stance width (heel centres) | shoulder-width | hip- to 1.2× shoulder-width | [1][4] |
| Toe angle | 10° out | 0–15° out | [1] |
| Hip extension at the top | 0° | −5° to +5° (no lumbar arch) | [1][2] |
| Knee flexion at the top | 90° | 80–100° | [1] |
| Shin angle from vertical at the top | 0° | ±10° | [1] |
| Trunk at the top | parallel to the floor | ±10° | [1] |
| Hip range of motion, bottom to top | 75° | 60–90° | [2] |
| Trunk angle from the floor at the bottom | 45° | 35–55° | [3] |
| Vertical bar travel | 36 cm | 28–40 cm | [2] |
| Head | chin tucked, gaze forward at the knees | neck neutral | [4] |
The targets our 3D demo was built to, from the references below. Bodies differ, so treat the ranges as a guide for your own build.
For coaches
Use this demo in your clients’ programs
The Barbell Hip Thrust is in Trainaq’s exercise library. Add it to a workout, and your client sees this demo in the free Trainaq app above the sets they log.
Sources
