Hip thrust is an amazing exercise for the posterior muscle chain, which will work out your glutes.
Among “iron lovers”, jokes about athletes who prefer to train their arms and chest several times a week and score on leg day are very popular. I hope that you are still systematically working on your body and you know, that you can get a beautiful and healthy body only through regular training aimed at all muscle groups. Including the quadriceps, biceps of the thigh and calf.
To make your leg training even more productive, I suggest you include one exercise in the training program.
I often come across the opinion that only girls need to work out the gluteal muscles. But let’s not forget that the gluteal muscles are part of a large muscular system that is responsible for your posture, for the health of the knee joints, and also directly affects the effectiveness and power of squats, running and jumping.
The name of this exercise is: hip thrust with a barbell, or a glute bridge from a bench.
How the hip trust is performed:
-
- Find a heavy bench in the gym.
- Sit on the floor, pressing your shoulder blades to the bench, and put your feet on the floor, slightly wider than your shoulders, knees bent.
- Direct your gaze at the object in front of you at an angle of approximately 45 degrees upwards and do not take your eyes off this point throughout the entire movement.
- Squeeze your glutes to push your hips up, forming a bridge.
- You should feel how your heels rest on the floor, and your shins are perpendicular to the ground. In this upper position of the hip joint, squeeze the glutes as much as possible, while maintaining the position of the head.
Now that you have worked out the technique, you can add a load to the exercise.
If possible, find a shorter bar, for example, with an EZ-neck, so that you do not have to spend a lot of effort to keep your balance at the top point of the movement. The barbell should be placed across the body, slightly above the pelvis. So that the neck does not put too much pressure on the pelvic bones, put a soft roller under it. Hold the neck with a straight grip.
One of the key points in performing hip thrust, which should not be forgotten, is that your head or shoulders should not lie on the bench (in a neutral position) at the lower and upper points of the movement. The movement should be carried out at the expense of the gluteal muscles.
Another key point is to keep your knees apart to the sides. They should not wrap inside when you push up or down. If you keep them wider, this will contribute to the removal of the hips and even more elaboration of the glutes.
Finally, don’t worry about how high you lift your hips. Most likely, in the upper position, they will be slightly lower than the shoulders and knees.
But if it is difficult for you to perform this exercise with additional weight, doing the hip thrust without a barbell can still be very effective.
To begin with, I recommend doing 3 sets of 5 repetitions with a five-second compression of the glutes at the top point.