“Not Quite the Glute Guy” or “Stunt Double for Bret Contreras” or simply, “How to Perform the Hip Thrust – Lessons from Bret Contreras” – by Eric Helms
This blog post will conclude my posts on “how to lift”, that address some of the more difficult to perform bodybuilding assistance exercises. These videos were all filmed during the SBS Academy annual conference hosted by Luke Johnson a few months back where Dr. Mike Zourdos and I were in London for a two-day conference.
Specifically, in this blog post I discuss the hip thrust. A more recent addition to the hip extension repertoire of physique competitors, this exercise was invented, popularized, and perfected by Dr. Bret Contreras, my friend and colleague. Probably 95% of everything I’ve said and learned about it has been learned from him. In my experience, the hip thrust is an excellent way to train the glutes (and hamstrings) without axially loading the spine. Not only is it a great movement on its own, I’ve found it’s extremely useful in the situation where a bodybuilder has a lumbar injury that prevents the more common vertically loaded hip extension movements (squats, deadlifts etc). So, check out the video below, and remember to control that eccentric on the way down!
Leave a Reply