Hip thrust: the setup, the versions and where it fits

The hip thrust is a hip extension done with your upper back on a bench: a weight sits across the crease of your hips, and you drive your hips up until your body is flat from your shoulders to your knees. It's hardest at the top, the point where a squat gets easiest, which is the case for training it beside the squat rather than in place of it.

This page covers the setup, the rep, the versions for a gym, a dumbbell and no equipment, how the hip thrust compares with the squat and the glute bridge, and how many sets to do. Where it sits in a full lower-body session is on the leg day; the squat itself is on squat form.

What the hip thrust trains

Mainly the glutes, with the hamstrings helping. In a study of 13 trained women, each lifting an estimated 10-rep max, the barbell hip thrust produced more than twice the average upper-glute activity of the back squat (69.5% against 29.4% of a maximal contraction), and more hamstring activity. Activity in the outer front of the thigh didn't differ between the two.¹ A 2020 review of 16 studies of glute activity listed several hip thrust versions among the exercises with very high glute activity, alongside step-ups, lunges, split squats and deadlifts.²

Activity is measured during a set; it isn't growth over weeks. What the hip thrust does for muscle size has been tested in only a few trials, covered below.

How to set up a hip thrust

1. The bench. Sit on the floor with your back to a flat bench, the edge just below your shoulder blades. A standard flat bench fits most people; a couch edge or a sturdy chair pushed against a wall works at home.
2. The weight. With a barbell, roll it over your legs until it sits in the crease of your hips, with a pad or a folded towel under it. With a dumbbell, hold one end across your hips with both hands.
3. The feet. Flat on the floor, about shoulder-width apart or a little wider, toes turned out slightly. Set them so that your shins will be vertical when your hips are at the top.
4. The head. Chin slightly tucked, eyes forward rather than up at the ceiling, so your ribs stay down as your hips rise.

The rep

1. Brace as you would for a squat, then push through your whole foot, heels heavy.
2. Drive your hips up until your thighs are level with the floor and your shins are vertical. Your body is now a flat line from shoulders to knees.
3. Finish with your hips, not your lower back. Keep your ribs down and your back in a neutral position; arching to get higher adds nothing.
4. Pause for a second at the top, then lower under control until your hips are near the floor.

That's the standard a 2023 training trial used: a rep counted when the shin was vertical and the thigh level with the floor, with feet 1 to 1.5 times shoulder width apart, about a second up and two seconds down.³

Foot position changes the feel. In a study of seven experienced trainers lifting 40% of their max, four hip thrust versions that changed where the feet were and how they pushed changed the activity of every muscle measured except the gluteus medius.⁴ The study didn't name a best position. A common rule of thumb: if you feel the rep mostly in the front of your thighs, move your feet a little farther away; if your hamstrings take over, bring them closer. Vertical shins at the top is a good starting point.

Barbell, dumbbell, at home and the machine

A machine or a bar fixed on rails runs the same pattern, so the same checkpoints apply. With dumbbells, the load runs out first. When it does, slow the lowering, pause longer at the top, or move to the single-leg version.

Hip thrust vs squat: what the research says

• More glute activity in the set. In eight men with at least a year of lower-body training, lifting their one-rep max, the hip thrust showed more glute activity than the back squat. It wasn't significantly different from the Romanian deadlift, and the squat worked the front of the thigh more than either.⁵
• Similar glute growth in untrained lifters. In a nine-week trial, 34 untrained young men and women trained twice a week with either back squats or hip thrusts, with the same number of sets. Glute growth, measured by MRI, was similar; the squat group grew more in the front and inner thighs, and the hamstrings barely grew in either. The hip thrust's higher glute activity in the first session didn't consistently predict glute growth. Strength rose most on whichever lift each group trained.³
• The squat ahead in trained women. In a 12-week trial of 22 well-trained women, the squat group's glute thickness rose 9.4% and the hip thrust group's 3.7%.⁶ A 2025 review notes that the hip thrust in that trial was done through a partial range of motion.⁷
• Added on top. The same review, which covered 12 studies of glute growth, reports a trial in untrained young women in which adding the hip thrust to a leg press and a Romanian deadlift grew glute thickness more than the program without it (9.3% against 6%). Its conclusion: many exercises, single-joint or multi-joint, alone or combined, can grow the glutes.⁷

So the hip thrust is a good second glute exercise and a weak reason to drop the squat. The trials are few and small, and the results point in different directions depending on who trained and how. A deep squat or a hinge still covers the thighs, which the hip thrust mostly doesn't.

Hip thrust vs glute bridge

The glute bridge is the same hip drive with your shoulders on the floor instead of a bench, so the range is shorter. Two small studies disagree on which works the glutes harder:

• In 10 men, the barbell glute bridge produced more glute activity than the barbell hip thrust, and the hip thrust more front-of-thigh activity.⁸
• In 20 healthy men, the hip thrust produced more glute activity than a standard bridge.⁹

Neither study trained anyone over weeks. Use the bridge when there's no bench or you're learning the movement, and the hip thrust when you want the longer range and room to add weight.

How many sets and reps, and where it goes

• Two or three sets of 8 to 12, or 10 to 15 with a dumbbell, stopping with a rep or two in reserve. (How to judge reps left.) The American College of Sports Medicine's 2026 position stand advises at least two sets per exercise, and found muscle growth was enhanced by ten or more sets per muscle group a week.¹⁰
• After the squat or the hinge. Those lifts carry the most weight and the most skill, so they go first; the hip thrust follows.
• Count your glute sets across the week. Squats, lunges and Romanian deadlifts train the glutes too, so the hip thrust adds to that total rather than carrying it alone.
• Add weight when the reps are easy. At the top of the range with reps to spare, add a little load. (Progressive overload covers how much.)

The trial above ran 8 to 12 reps to failure, twice a week, building from three to six sets a session;³ that's study design, not a target to copy. On a machine day, the leg press covers the thighs, and the hip thrust adds the top of the hip drive.

Common mistakes

• Arching the lower back at the top. The hips stop rising and the back keeps going. Stop when your body is flat, ribs down.
• Stopping short of flat. A half rep skips the top, the part the lift is for.
• Feet in the wrong place. Shins slanting forward or back at the top. Move your feet until they're vertical.
• Pushing through your toes. Keep your heels down and your whole foot on the floor.
• The bar rolling or digging in. Use a pad or a towel, and hold the bar with both hands.
• Pushing through pain. Sharp pain is not soreness. Stop, and see a doctor or a physical therapist.

If you'd rather not plan it alone

The setup is the easy part; deciding how many glute sets your week already has, and what to swap so the hip thrust fits, is the part a page can't do. Coaching is the version where your workouts are built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. Coaching to build muscle explains how that works, and here's how to apply. Otherwise: set up against a bench, find vertical shins, and do three sets of 10 after your next squat.