THE MOST COMMON HIP THRUST MISTAKE
ALLN-1 2k20 SR Edt. Functional Fitness Bench
Trust, me I doubt you’ve heard this before – but some of you have been THINKING it!
Because while the hip thrust is a complex compound movement that has been examined ad nauseam at this point, there are 3 basic things that you should ALWAYS focus on, and avoid the #1 mistake most people make.
HIP THRUST CHEAT SHEET
1. Tuck your chin to the chest, then find a spot in front of you to keep your eyes focused on throughout the movement.
2. The bench or backing used to support you during the hip thrust, should be NO HIGHER than your knee.
3. Strive for an approximate 90 degree bend at the knee when at full execution.
The most common mistake most people make is (and the reason for this post) is #2.
If you’ve ever done a search on how to do a bench hip thrust, 99% of the time you’re probably going to see them using a FIX POSITION BENCH, but at the same time they’ll tell you that your knee should be at a 90 degree angle; essentially perpendicular to a nice flat, horizontal back (or an upside down L). But if the bench you’re using to hip thrust is too high or too low, it’s bio-mechanically impossible to achieve that.
NOTE: When I shot this video it wasn’t to demonstrate sizing or foot placement, but since it’s the only thing I have at the moment I’ll use it to convey the concept. 1) The bench is aligned with the bend in my knee and 2) the horizontal stabilizer bar can be adjusted so that when you get into the hip thrust position, you’ll know exactly where to place your feet to achieve a 90′ knee bend.
he best way to tell, even before performing the exercise, is to stand next to the bench you’ll be using and see where your knee is in relation to the top of the bench. Because think about it, in order to have a flat back and a 90 degree bend at your knee, the highest point of the bench needs to ALIGN WITH THE BEND OF YOUR KNEE. Otherwise, if the bench is too high you’ll end up over arching and using more of your lower back to lift the weight, and if the bench is too low, you’ll also end up using more of your lower back and not get full range of motion. So the quickest way to guarantee proper hip thrust form is to ensure your bench is the right height. Yet, as critical as that is, you’ll commonly see people demonstrating hip thrusts on FIXED HEIGHT BENCHES as if we’re all the same height (or have the same tiba length).
I’ve been meaning to getting around to post about this for some time, but was finally thrust into doing it to help a customer select the right 2k20 Functional Fitness Bench for their hip thrust needs. And while this is about the 2k20, it actually addresses a much bigger issue in the fitness equipment industry that no one talks about. Specifically, fitness equipment is built (mass produced) primarily with cost and profit in mind—not, how well it FITS the consumer.
In short, a customer was interested in purchasing our 2k20 MINI because he saw the footplate and thought it was a cool feature. And in fact, when I designed it I intentionally wanted to incorporate the footplate because it’s cool—and yet, a practical—feature, IF YOU ARE DOING VERY, VERY, HEAVY HIP THRUSTS.
ALLN-1 2k20 Mini Edt. Functional Fitness Bench
Reason being, the footplate gives you more LEVERAGE to start a heavy lift. Which, the average person isn’t doing (and doesn’t need to be doing) in order to see glute results. Unfortunately though, as has always been the case, many people associate muscle growth exclusively on the amount of weight they lift, instead of focusing on what really causes muscle growth: CONSISTENCY. And if you get injured, while needlessly lifting heavy not only will you lose out on consistency…you’ll also run the risk of having a nagging injury for the rest of your life. (But, you can’t explain that to people until they’ve already been injured, or over 40).
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So after learning more about this customers needs I explained to him that purchasing the 2k20 with the footplate would be overkill for him at the moment. That said, the footplate is also designed for doing exercises donkey kicks on the 2k20 but that’ll be another post). But since this was somewhat complicated to articulate in words alone, I created the attached image and shared these YouTube clips that provide more in depth explanations. And since the work was done…I’m now passing the work along!
This is also great video explanation. If you don’t want to watch the entire thing go to 2:39https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDmFkJxPzeM
Bret Contreras Explains ithttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM8XHLYJoYs