Jul 12, 2017All in the Hips
As a coach, you probably have your athletes engage in exercises to strengthen their legs. However, one of the most beneficial workouts is also one of the most often forgotten — the hip thrust. Whether your athletes need to gain speed or jump higher, the hip thrust helps build up the power to do so.
No matter what sport you coach, your athletes will need to engage in optimal hip extension at some point to be fully successful. According to an article for Stack.com by Chris Hitchko, CSCS, the hip thrust is the perfect exercise to teach this movement.
“What is ‘optimal hip extension,’ and why should you care about it?” he writes. “It’s all about the power in your glutes, which are among the most powerful muscles in your body. The glutes are designed to extend the hip or pull the leg behind the body.”
“If your glutes are underdeveloped, your speed, power and strength are all compromised,” he continues. “That means you’ll have weaker Squats and Deadlifts as well as slower 40-Yard Dash times and lower vertical jumps than you could have otherwise.”
But that’s not all this exercise does. In an article for The Glute Guy, Bret Contreras, PhD, CSCS, explains that the hip thrust also improves functioning of the entire body, as the glutes affect foot, ankle, knee, hip, pelvic, and lower back mechanics. Beyond the glutes, the hip thrust also activates the quadriceps, adductors, and hamstrings. In essence, it words the entire thigh musculature.
While common descriptions of the hip thrust include the use of a barbell and weights, it’s important that your athletes first learn the technique using only their body weight. Doing this lessens the chance of injury when the barbell is added.
Contreras suggests that athletes begin by lining the bottom of their shoulder blades up against a bench that is around 16 inches high. He then lays out a step-by-step process for this exercise in another article for The Glute Guy:
- Have your shoulder blades lined up, your bottom on the ground, and your feet directly under your knees.
- Take a deep breathe and brace your core by tightening the abs, obliques, and diaphragm muscles.
- Push through the heels. Do not allow the heels to rise off the ground.
- Push upwards until you are at the top of the hip thrust. Your shins should be vertical and perpendicular to the ground and your torso should be parallel to the ground.
- At the top of the exercise, make sure to keep your ribs down to prevent spinal hyperextension. Pause, squeeze your glutes, and count to one before descending.
- Repeat for desired reps.
Once your athlete has mastered the bodyweight hip thrust, they can move on to adding a barbell. Hitchko suggests placing the bar on your upper thigh. The amount of weight you use depends on how comfortable you are. If your form begins to fail, chances are you need less weight. According to Contreras, excessive arching of the lower back at the top of the exercise can be a sign that the weight is too heavy.
How do you incorporate the hip thrust into your athletes’ weightroom workout? For Hitchko, the best method involves performing 4-6 sets of 6-12 reps, with a rest time of 1-3 minutes between each set.
“I suggest an initial warm-up set and then 4-6 sets in a pyramid style, increasing the weight and lowering the reps on sets 1-3, resting 1 minute between sets until set 3, then resting 2-3 minutes between additional sets,” he writes. “On sets 4-6, lower the weight and increase the reps. It’ll look like this:
- Set 1= 12 reps (rest 1 minute)
- Set 2=8 reps (rest 1 minutes)
- Set 3= 6 reps (rest 2-3 minutes)
- Set 4= 8 reps (rest 1 minute)
- Set 5= 10 reps (rest 1 minute)
- Set 6=12 reps.”
To see the hip thrust in motion, check out this video from Contreras.
