Why The Hip Thruster?

Let’s take a look at the Hip Thruster (Glute Bridge).

So let’s imagine you are lying on the floor and your feet are flat  and approximately hip width apart. At this bottom stage of the exercise, your hips and knees are flexed. You are going to move from this position by raising the hips (extension) and your knees will also extend.

When this happens, the prime mover for hip extension becomes the Gluteus Maximus! 

The two muscle groups that are mostly involved in hip extension are the glutes and hamstrings. The difference that is important in this example, is the glutes essentially only work at the hip whereas the hamstrings work at both the hip and the knee.

That’s great news because the glute max is forced to do most of the work at the hip and contract more forcefully minimizing hamstring contribution. 

The result is a greater training adaptation of the glutes and you gotta love that!

Some great examples of Fixed Bent Leg exercises:

•  Glute Bridges
•  Hip Thrusts
•  Bent leg back extensions
•  Bent leg reverse hypers
•  Pendulum quadruped hip extension

Give them a go and watch your glute strength go through the roof!