5 Effective Hip Thrust Alternative Exercises

Targeted Muscles: Glutes, Hamstrings, Quadriceps, Adductors

Equipment: Weighted Plates, Barbell, Kettlebell

No of Reps: 12-15 per Set

Hamstring and Glutes are the fundamental muscles of a human body and we must tone them. Many athletes and sportsmen prefer toning of these muscles to perform best on the ground. For an ordinary person, these muscles are also so worthy for day-to-day activities. Hip Thrust is a common and well-known workout for your hamstrings and glutes. In this detailed article, we will come to explore hip thrust benefits, how to perform it, and hip thrust alternative exercises. Stay tuned!

Hip Thrust

Hip Thrust has gained popularity amongst fitness lovers due to different reasons. For running, jumping, and other such activities, strong glutes play a vital role. Without glute power, a human body is nothing than a paralyzed person.

From youngsters to old aged people, everyone can perform this exercise but according to their capacity of bearing pain. However, if you have joint pain or suffering from knee injury, then avoid doing such activity.

Benefits of Hip Thrust:

As Hip Thrust is famous exercise and offers plenty of benefits for all and sundry. Some of the major advantages of this exercise is as follows:

Stronger Butt: for proper curving in the hips and leg muscles, strong butts are important. Hip Thrust focuses on the butt and make them stronger.

Back Strengthening: However, your back also bears pressure during the workout. While doing domestic activities, we need to bend down and up that causes back pain issues. But this exercise is so much beneficial for reducing the back pain.

Better Posturing: Hip Thrust is beneficial for offering better posturing and is valuable for all ages. When your legs and back are fully engaged in this workout, you can pose better.

Increases Cardiovascular Health: Somehow, this workout increases your heart rate and lets heart pump more than normal. Due to this, your heart beat becomes high and blood starts to flow across the bodty rapidly.

How to Perform:

Here are some steps that you need to learn for performing this workout accurately:

• Set up the bench in such a way that it will not move backward during the exercise.
• Place your mid-back on the bench and ensure to have chin parallel to the chest.
• Place the barbell on the thighs and lift it upward.
• Repeat the process for desired number of times. Make sure to perform at a slow pace for better gains.

Common Mistakes to Avoid:

While performing this workout, we must follow some important steps and avoid making mistakes. A single mistake can lead to heavy injury. So try to perform this workout with intense care:

Setup and Posture: As you need a simple bench to carry this workout. But make sure that the height of the bench is similar to your shinbone and must have a stability. It is better to utilize a soft product like foam along with barbell to avoid pain.

Feet Placement: In every exercise, proper body angling is very useful. In this workout, feet plays a dominating role and you must have feet placed apart from shoulder width. Make sure to have toes angling outside.

Proper Form: During the entire workout, you must position yourself in a proper shape. When you will extend the thighs to upwards, your knees must be directly proportional to the toes.

Range of Motion: Glute movement is very important aspect for proper hamstring activation. When you will lift barbell upward, make sure to extend it to the highest point for maximum output.

Hip Thrust Alternative Exercises

No Doubt, Hip Thrust has nothing bad for developing stronger glutes and butts. It is easy to perform and flexible as well. But here are some Hip Thrust Alternative Exercises for fitness lovers to tone their glutes.

1. Glute Bridge

Glute Bridge lies amongst the Hip Thrust Alternative Exercises due to its similar targeted muscles. As the name suggests, this exercise is best for the glutes. This workout requires a barbell and a flat surface. Instead of using a bench, you can carry this workout from the floor of your home/office. All the activity is same as you have done with Hip Thrust.

Moreover, this exercise also focuses on developing your back strength. If you are suffering from back pain or feeling bad with the knees, don’t try to perform this workout.  It is better to start without any weight to learn proper angling.

2. Cable-Pull Through

This exercise is best as Hip thrust alternative workouts as it also targets the same muscles. Here, you can use cable machine instead of barbells and benches. If you are looking to tense your glutes along with toing of the spine, then Cable-pull through is the best choice ever.

All you need is to attack rope with the cable machine and stand against the pillar. Make sure to set the cable level parallel to the mid-section of your knees and toes. Now pull the cable until you feel pressure in the hamstrings and glutes. Make a proper contraction and then return to the starting position. If you are feeling pain in the shoulders and arms, then stop doing it.

3. Cable Kickback

Not only barbell is good for your hamstrings but Cable also has importance in this matter. Using cable machine, you can maintain your fitness for different muscles and glutes are one of them.

Cable Kickback is less effective to your glutes so it is best for people who are looking for a moderate exercise for glutes. At the same time, only one leg muscle will get activated making this exercise a unilateral in property. Adjust the cable to the lowest point and lean downward towards the machine.

Now kick the leg backward and feel contraction in the glutes. Now bring the leg to the starting position and repeat kicking it for desired number of times.

Read More: 6 Suitable Alternatives to Preacher Curls

4. Deadlifts

Another hip thrust alternative is barbell deadlift requiring you to bring only barbell in use. however, this exercise is slightly different from hip thrust but targeting the same muscles leads this to be in the list.

People don’t prefer this exercise as the chances for back pain are very high. Bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts love to build muscle mass and increase body strength.

Deadlifts is suitable for developing core and is best as fully functional exercise. Stand on the floor and hold the barbell firmly. Lower the bar to the ground level and feel pressure in the hamstrings and hip flexors.

5. Kettlebell Swings

Another hip thrust alternative exercise is kettlebell swing that requires you to use kettlebell or other weighted product. This exercise also targets your hamstrings and glutes but the angle of performance and range of motion is completely different. If you are finding hip thrust painful or feeling any discomfort, then give this exercise a try.

Hold a kettlebell in hand and stand on the floor with a bend in the back. Now lift the weight up enough to meet the chest level with a bend in the back. Now lower the weight to the starting position and repeat the process.

Conclusion

Everyone aims to have stronger glutes and hamstrings for specific reasons. Daily activities like running, swimming, etc. demands toned glutes and stronger leg muscles. Hip Thrust is one of the prime exercises that contributes well to provide toned legs.

But due to unavailability of the equipment or want to perform less intensive exercise, you must try some hip thrust alternative exercises discussed above in the blog.  Give all the workouts a try daily and make stronger glutes.