Glutes exercise
Smith Machine Hip ThrustHow to do it, with form in numbers
- Main muscles
- Glutes
- Also works
- Hamstrings
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
How do you do the Smith Machine Hip Thrust?
- Set a bench crosswise under the Smith bar and sit against it.
- Rest the padded bar in your hip crease, feet shoulder-width apart.
- 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.
- Let your back glide a little on the bench.
Common mistakes
- Arching your lower back to lift the hips higher.
- Setting the bench so the bar lands on your thighs.
- Letting the bench slide up towards your neck.
Form in detail
What does good form look like?
Starting position
Place a flat bench, about 40 cm high, crosswise under the Smith machine, its long side parallel to the bar and a little behind the bar's line. Set the safety stops just below the bar's lowest point. Sit on the floor with the upper back against the bench edge, which sits across the lower tips of the shoulder blades. Slide the legs under the bar and wrap it in a foam pad. The bar rests in the hip crease. Feet flat, about shoulder-width apart, toes forward to 15° out, placed so the shins will be vertical at the top. Hands hold the bar overhand just outside the hips; they unhook it with a twist of the wrists at the first lockout and re-hook it at the end. 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
As the barbell hip thrust. 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 bar can only move straight up and down, while the hips swing in a slight arc round the bench edge, so the back slides a few centimetres along the bench (away from the feet on the way up) to keep the bar on its line. The trunk and thighs rise together until the shoulders, hips and knees form one straight line, parallel to the floor. Chin tucked, ribs down. Lower under control until the buttocks are just above the floor.
End position
Top: hips fully extended (0°), body flat from shoulders to knees, shins vertical, knees bent about 90°. On a Smith machine that drift has to come from the back sliding along the bench instead.
Tempo
1 s up, 1 s squeeze at the top, 2 s down, no rest at the bottom.
Form in numbers
What are the angles and distances?
| Measure | Target | Good range | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bench height | 40 cm | 35–46 cm | |
| Bench edge on the back | lower tips of the shoulder blades | lower half of the shoulder blades | [1][3] |
| Stance width (heel centres) | shoulder-width | hip- to 1.2× shoulder-width | [1][3] |
| Bar position | hip crease, padded | across the hip bones to the top of the thighs | [3] |
| Hip extension at the top | 0° | −5° to +5° (no lumbar arch) | [1][2] |
| Knee flexion at the top | 90° | 80–100° | [1] |
| Hip range of motion, bottom to top | 75° | 60–90° | [2] |
| Trunk angle from the floor at the bottom | 45° | 35–55° | |
| Vertical bar travel | 36 cm | 28–40 cm | [2] |
| Head | chin tucked, gaze forward at the knees | neck neutral | [3] |
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 Smith Machine 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
Sources
- University of Hertfordshire (Performance Herts), Exercise of the Month: Hip Thrust
- Brazil et al. 2021, PLOS ONE, A comprehensive biomechanical analysis of the barbell hip thrust
- NFPT, Hip Thrusts: Advanced Glute Bridge Progression
- Schwanbeck, Chilibeck and Binsted 2009, J Strength Cond Res 23(9):2588–2591, A comparison of free weight squat to Smith machine squat using electromyography
