What is a hip thrust? The hip thrust with chains is a phenomenal exercise for improving the strength and development of the glutes, and for the overall function and health of the entire body. Strong glutes matter!!
You will need a chain for this hip thrust variation as well as a bench, box, step, or actual hip thrust bench. For shorter lifters, a lower bench/box/step works best.
Beginners should start out with bodyweight hip thrusts. Once they have mastered the form and mechanics, they can add a light chain.
Intermediate lifters should start out with a medium to heavy chain. If this feels too easy, additional resistance can be used. If you’re doing a lower body workout, you can use the hip thrust with chains as a warm-up to prepare your body for the compound movements, or you can perform this exercise after a squatting, lunging, or hinging exercise as part of a lower body superset. If you’re doing a full-body workout, you can pair the hip thrust with chains with an upper body pushing or pulling exercise. You can also use it at the end of the workout, as a glute finisher. Intermediate lifters might perform 2-4 sets of 6-12 reps of the hip thrust with chains, or can do up to 25 reps if the exercise is being used to really work the glutes hard at the end of the workout. You can also perform this exercise as part of a hip thrust workout.
Women who are comfortable with the hip thrust with chains may choose to use additional resistance. You can also make the exercise more challenging by pausing for a longer time at the top of the lift and really challenging the glutes concentrically, or performing negatives and lowering in 3-5 seconds, really challenging the glutes eccentrically. Or, you can place a resistance band above and below the knees when you are performing this exercise, and should press your knees out against the bands for additional resistance. You can also perform any of the above options while using a single leg.
How a woman chooses to use the hip thrust with chains is highly dependent on her overall technical ability and experience, how much resistance is being used, the set/rep scheme used, where it falls in the workout, what it’s paired with, and what the rest periods are. This glute and hip exercise provides hip thrust benefits without requiring the use of a barbell, and can be performed anywhere, any time. In general hip thrusts with chain resistance can be used to do any or all of the following:
Video Transcription:
If you are looking for a transition from either a bodyweight hip thrust or the body weight glute bridge to a barbell hip thrust, but you not quite ready to put a big bar across your hips, you have a couple of options. One of my favorite ways to weight these is with chains and then also with bands. which I will show you in just a minute. It’s the exact same setup. You are going to get down - again I am tall enough to sit down on the ground and still have my upper back on the bench though, you might not be, so you might have to adjust a little bit. I am going to put the chains in my lap, drape them across my lap, and come up to do my hip thrust. My feet are underneath me, you want your shins to be at about a 90 degree angle when you’re up in the hip thrust position. I’m going to release my breath, get my rib cage down, tighten my core and then I’m going to go. Big breath in, blow out. So that’s the hip thrust with chains, and now I am going to demonstrate with the band.
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