Well it seems I wasn’t quite as better as I thought.
I managed to complete my workout on Monday although I was really unhappy with my hip thrust form – my lower back was driving most of the movement, rather than my glutes. Chris thinks I may have increased the weight too far for the number of reps I’m adding each workout, so I’m going to only increase this by 2kg next week, and I’m also going to work in the 6-10 rep range now instead of 8-12 reps.
On Wednesday I thought I might try to do my squats so that I could get in three workouts, but all through my warm up I felt a bit weak and, more worryingly my lower back was screaming at me – leftover sore muscles from the hip thrust abuse on Monday. I gave up at the end of the warm up, not wanting to injure myself.
On Friday I thought I would have another go. My lower back didn’t hurt at all this time but I felt as weak as a small child, even under my first warm up weight of 50kg. I was a couple of inches off my full depth by the time I did 60kg and proceeded to do two sets of two reps and a single before calling it a day. I just couldn’t get anything to fire. Perhaps I was under proteined again? I have to confess I haven’t been eating my usual sorts of meals although I suspect it’s also got something to do with last week’s flu.
I’ll see if next week goes any better.
Plan and results for last week
Workout 1: Monday – all completed as planned
- RDL: 102kg – 2×2, 4×1
- Hip thrusts: 90kg – 5×11 (30s rest)
Workout 2: Friday
- Back squat: 82kg – 2×2, 4×1 – 2×2, 1×1
- Concept 2 intervals: 5x30s (30s rest) – I didn’t even get to these
Plan for this week
Workout 1:
- Back squat: 82kg – 2×2, 4×1
- Concept 2 intervals: 5x30s (30s rest)
Workout 2:
- RDL: 102kg – 3×2, 2×1
- Hip thrusts: 92kg – 5×6 (30s rest)
personally, I don’t do any “unnatural movements” such as hip thrusts, since they are not functional IMO, usually other muscles kick in to assist as synergysts.
Hip thrusts messed my low back muscles pretty bad, PT performed deep tissue massage and recommended doing standing only exercises, such as RDL and squats.
I would have to disagree with you about hip thrusts being an unnatural movement. When performed correctly they isolate specific parts of wider movement patterns, such as the push through of the hip and glute area when sprinting or the drive through at the top of the deadlift or RDL. Not only that but in Krav Maga (a self-defence technique) the way you are taught to get an attacker off you (if they are on top of you and you are on your back on the floor) is a glute bridge manoeuvre which is essentially a hip thrust with a smaller range of movement. You can’t get much more functional than that and I’m pleased to say that when I was last training that move I sent my “attacker” flying across the room!
As with any other exercise it is always possible to do them with bad form and allow other muscles to take much of the strain – something that I was guilty of doing the other week, sacrificing correct muscle use for the sake of “getting the reps out”. It is just as possible (if not more so) to squat and RDL with poor form, letting stronger muscles take over and support or even override the weaker muscles – depending on which muscle it is that takes over instead this can easily lead to injury as well.
If you got to the stage with your hip thrusts where they actually gave you a minor injury in your lower back then it is likely that you had been doing them with non-perfect form, letting your lower back take the strain, for some time. This is something that happened to me a couple of years ago and is the reason that my body now defaults to this poor movement pattern when it is struggling with a new weight or when I am near my limit on my reps these days.
However, if squats and RDLs are working for you then keep at it! They’re both excellent total body exercises.