We had a fun discussion about the current state of science vis a vis Squats vs. Hip Thrusts
See this paper for more information:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.21.545949v2
Hip thrust and back squat training elicit similar gluteus muscle hypertrophy and transfer similarly to the deadlift
Timeline:
00:23 – About our special guest, Bret Contreras PhD
1:48 – Boca Raton is one big Seinfeld episode
3:48 – Bret explains how this study came about
3:56 – The infamous Barbalho investigation – to quote Elaine on Seinfeld, “fake, fake, fake.”
12:18 – Gluteus medius and minimus didn’t grow
13:00 – Gluteus maximus growth was the same between hip thrusts and squats despite the fact that sEMG data showed much greater activity when doing hip thrusts
13:56 – No hamstring growth in either group
14:11 – Quads and Adductors grew more for the squat group
14:30 – Strength gains were specific to the exercise – principle of specificity
15:00 – Both groups gained similar strength in deadlift and wall push
16:12 – Just do both exercises if the goal is skeletal muscle hypertrophy
17:57 – Sprinters have the best hamstring development – Bret opines
19:14 – Upper glute size – in the hip thrust group, you had 3 hyper-responders, but then you had 3 that actually experienced muscle atrophy. And you also had 3 that didn’t respond at all. So 1/3rd of the subjects had no response!
19:42 – Middle Glute size – in the hip thrust group, one individual actually atrophied.
20:45 – Squats produced much more consistent results
21:37 – Bret is now quite suspicious of EMG data in predicting skeletal muscle hypertrophy
26:12 – Bret talks about how training has changed or not; for men, not so much. For women, it has changed a bit.
26:40 – Focus on the basics: squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, chin ups, military press, and bench press
27:10 – Glute training is emphasized a lot more these days, particularly in women
31:13 – Targeting the Adductor Magnus! Folks seem to ignore this large muscle and focus on Quads or Hams
33:44 – Opening your hips – means hip abduction with external rotation
38:48 – For athletes, Tony opines on these issues
46:20 – In trained men and women, would there be a difference in hip thrusts vs. squats
46:36 – In the real world, nobody volume-equates hip thrusts vs. squats
47:10 – You can do more volume with hip thrusts than squats; so a study comparing them in trained people would necessarily result in greater volume in the hip thrust group
50:11 – Of course, doing both squats and hip thrusts would work better
51:13 – Volume equating training in the endurance world makes no sense either
54:30 – Bret has a bad ass gym in Fort Lauderdale. Don’t stop by unless you want bigger glutes.
Our guest:
Bret Contreras PhD – bretcontreras.com
· PhD in Sports Science from AUT University
· Master’s Degree from Arizona State University
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