Are hip thrusts really better than squats for glute growth?

Take-aways

1. The hip thrust and squat appear to result in similar glute growth.

2. The squat grows the adductors and quadriceps substantially more than the hip thrust.

   1. If you’re looking for a “gluteus maximus isolation” movement, the hip thrust can serve that role. Alternatively, if you also want quadriceps/adductor growth, the squat is a better option.

3. It’s possible that training the glutes at shorter-muscle lengths reduces growth of the adductors without decreasing growth of the glutes.

4. Squat to improve squat strength. Hip thrust to improve hip thrust strength. For the deadlift, both the squat and hip thrust were equally effective.

A recent study by Plotkin and colleagues tried to answer the question on many people’s minds: what’s better for growing the glutes - squats or hip thrusts?

Untrained participants were assigned to either a squat or hip thrust group for 9 weeks. The same sets, reps and relative intensity were used in both groups; the only difference was the exercise used.

Participants in the squat group were instructed to go as deep as possible and generally squatted slightly above parallel.

Glute, hamstring, quadriceps and adductor hypertrophy were measured using MRI. 3RMs (maximum weight for 3 reps) on the squat, deadlift and hip thrust were also assessed.

Here are their findings.

Let’s get the important stuff out of the way. Glute growth was similar between groups. This was true both for the gluteus max and the medius/minimus. As expected, the gluteus medius/minimus didn’t grow much, which makes sense: they don’t contribute to hip extension.

Quadriceps growth and adductor growth was notably larger in the squat group vs the hip thrust group. Additionally, the hamstrings didn’t grow much in either the squat or hip thrust group.

As far as strength improvements go, specificity appeared to apply: squat gains were greater in the squat group while hip thrust gains were greater in the hip thrust group. For the deadlift, both the squat and hip thrust resulted in similar improvements, suggesting both are equally effective deadlift accessory exercises. The same went for wall push strength.

Why?

While the squat does train the gluteus maximus at longer-muscle lengths than the hip thrust, it didn’t grow the glutes more; but it did do a better job of growing the adductors and quadriceps.

This may be due to differences in internal leverage at different degrees of hip flexion. When the hips are more flexed, the adductors have better leverage and may be involved to a greater extent. When the hips are more extended (like a hip thrust), the glutes may be involved to a greater extent.

Alternatively, the lack of differences could be down to how hard participants trained in the two groups. Especially for untrained participants, going to failure on the squat can be a lot more daunting than going to failure on the hip thrust. So, on average, participants in the hip thrust group may have been training closer to failure. A difference in how close to failure the groups trained could easily mask a difference in growth stemming from different muscle-length training.

Finally, the squat was generally performed to slightly above parallel (you can see a silhouette of each participant’s depth in the supplementary materials). This depth might not have been sufficient to train the glutes at much longer-muscle lengths than they are during the hip thrust.

So, some questions do remain.

If you’d like to chat about this study, feel free to comment below.

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