I suppose this is a sort of “lessons learned” post, but only to the extent that I rave about Hip Thrusts and Weighted Glute Bridges. I’ve seen some amazing improvement to my glutes, both in strength and appearance since I started dedicatedly incorporating these into my program, so I decided it was time to do a post about them.
What’s so great about hip thrusts and glute bridges?
The greatest thing about these is the way they focus so much effort on the glutes. They aren’t an isolation exercise for the glutes but they might as well be for the amount of specific gluteal development I’ve seen while doing them.
As a woman the shape and size of my bum is crucial to the overall appearance of my figure – aiming for that perfect feminine silhouette. I can only get my waist slim to a certain point and, unless I want to start wearing a corset (uncomfortable and impractical with a bikini) or stripping ab muscle (not great for the powerlifting goals in my life), the best way to make my waist appear smaller is now to make my glutes and chest appear larger. For the glutes this means developing a smooth, firm and rounded form and for my tiny chest (I’m sure this is the reason I’m in such a low weight category for my height) this means building up the size of my pecs to push my chest out further.
Hip thrusts and glute bridges both use the glutes significantly with some additional strength required (and therefore developed) in the hamstrings. They are therefore the best exercises for improving the glutes without developing “thunder thigh” quads at the same time. When I tried to develop my glute strength using squats and deadlifts I found that my quads also increased in size. Without some additional glute-focused work I was ruining the good proportions that I was after.
Who’s the genius behind my knowledge about glute work?
I have to thank Bret Contreras, the “Glute Guy” for my increased understanding about the glutes. I’ve done a few blog-watch posts on glutes but I learned the hip thrust early on from Bret’s first superb post on T-Nation. I adopted the exercise immediately and quickly developed noticeable shape and strength to my glutes in comparison to my previous situation.
To find more of Bret’s posts about developing glute strength and the need to work on the glutes to get those hallowed female proportions have a browse through my previous posts on glutes. Links to them can be found in the Exercises section of my Training page.
This series
Today I’m going to briefly discuss glute bridges and next week I’ll do a similar post about hip thrusts before discussing how I incorporate them into my programs.
What are glute bridges?
Most people who have done glute activation exercises have done glute bridges or single-leg glute bridges.
They are done by lying on the floor on your back with your knees bent up and feet on the floor. Next, thrust your hips up in the air using your glutes so that your body forms a straight line from the knees to your shoulders. Hold this top position for a count of five before lowering to the ground and repeating.
For the single leg version, do the exercise in exactly the same way but hold one leg out in the air in front of you rather than resting it on the floor.
Chris recently did a post with images of these unweighted versions if you’re a pictures person.
Making glute bridges harder
What I find interesting is that a lot of people work on these basic versions of glute bridges until they have mastered them and find them easy. After that the glute bridge becomes “unnecessary” and people move onto other exercises. The glute bridge seems to be seen by many as a way to get the glutes activated to ensure they can use them in other exercises.
Most people miss the fact that glute bridges can be used as a progressive exercise within strength training programs, just like squats, deadlifts, rows or any other “usual” exercise. To achieve this simply lay a barbell across your hips and do the two-leg glute bridge as before. More weight can be added for each workout, just like any other exercise.
Weighted glute bridge - starting position
Weighted glute bridge - top position
I’ve found that I need to put a bar pad onto the bar (or wrap a thick towel around the bar) to avoid severe bruising to my hip bones. I also need to rest the bar on some other plates to get it high enough off the ground to fit my thighs under it!
What does it work?
I’ve found that when I do a really hard session of weighted glute bridges I feel the burn in the lower part of my glutes, near the gluteal fold, and on the outside edges. As such it seems to be a really good exercise for strengthening my glutes when I’m starting to find that I can’t push up out of the bottom of a deadlift or squat.
Next week I’ll explain how to do hip thrusts and cover the part of the glute that I find is worked hardest by the hip thrust.
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Hip thrusts // Jun 17, 2010 at 21:02
[...] week I explained that I rave about Hip Thrusts and Weighted Glute Bridges because I’ve seen such amazing improvements to my glutes, both in strength and appearance, since [...]