A moment for our society that now praises big ass booties, but used to praise no shape, pancake butts. Let us please do better. Sweet Jesus. No matter your genetics, or societal standards (which will change in 10 years), the hip thrust is the mother of all glute exercises. And I am here to help you get the most out of them.

Swipe for the cues (prepare for some humor as well).

Here are some hip thrust tips not covered in the cue slides:

Bench should be shorter than your knee pit, 18 inches seems to be golden.

These can be performed: On the ground, on a hip thrust stand or machine, on a decline bench, in a smith machine. I truly suggest messing around until you find what FEELS best for you.

With any exercise, especially one that you’re using to elicit GROWTH, we want to find the strongest mind-muscle connection. Considering you can’t actually conduct an EMG (Electromyography) test to see which variation gets the highest glute max fiber recruitment, we’ll go by feel.

Keep the feet planted, OR raise the toes and drive through the heels – all allowed.

The weight doesn’t need to touch the ground between each rep – work within the range of motion that makes sense with your set up.

Bench should be just above the bottom of your sports bra/scapulae. I like to set up on the end of a bench, as shown in these photos. Whatever you do, make sure you’re pressing up against something that is STABLE and won’t move.

Feet width can vary – I like a slightly wider stance, but narrow is just fine. Same goes for feet. Point them straight forward, or turn them out a bit. Up to you. If I missed anything, drop a question below! Happy to help! What do you focus on most when thrusting?

For me, it’s the squeeze at the top, and not completely losing my shit on the way down.

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