Barbell Hip Thrust
The barbell hip thrust is a hip extension exercise with your upper back on a bench and a bar across your hips. It trains your glutes directly, with hamstrings assisting, and keeps tension high at full hip extension. Pick it when you want to load your glutes heavily without the balance or back demands of squats.
Muscles worked
The barbell hip thrust trains the glutes, with hamstrings helping.
Primary
Helpers
Weekly sets for glutes
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for glutes, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the barbell hip thrust
- 01Sit with your upper back against the edge of a bench and roll a padded bar over your hip crease.
- 02Plant your feet hip width apart, close enough that your shins are vertical at the top.
- 03Brace your trunk, tuck your chin and drive through your heels to lift your hips.
- 04Lock out with your hips level with your knees and shoulders, squeezing your glutes hard.
- 05Lower your hips under control until they nearly touch the floor, then repeat.
Coaching cues
- Chin tucked, ribs down.
- Drive through your heels.
- Squeeze your glutes at the top.
Common mistakes
- Arching your lower back to finish gives you fake lockout, so keep your ribs down and tuck your pelvis at the top.
- Placing your feet too far away shifts work to the hamstrings, so bring them in until your shins stand vertical at lockout.
- Skipping a bar pad makes heavy sets painful on your hips, so use a pad or folded mat across the bar.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers compound lifts toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Barbell Hip Thrust alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
Free programs that use it
Ready-made splits from the Swole.fit library. Pick one and the app runs the progression.
- Deadlift Religion3 days a week, back, hamstrings, glutes
- Glute Lab3 days a week, glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps
- Leg Destroyer3 days a week, quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes
- Squat Science4 days a week, quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings
- Leg Destroyer5 days a week, quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes
- Leg Legends5 days a week, quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your barbell hip thrust free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.