Squats vs. Hip Thrusts: The Ultimate Glute-Building Showdown

December 19, 2021

by Cathe Friedrich

One of the most popular exercises for building lower body strength and working the booty muscles is the squat. No wonder! Squats are a total body movement that works multiple muscle groups, including your quadriceps muscles, hamstrings, glutes, calves, and core. Squatting is also an important movement for improving mobility and performance. Squats develop hip and ankle mobility, improve balance, flexibility, coordination, and posture. They’re also great for building explosive power in your hips and lower body, which can improve speed, agility, and jumping ability.

If you’re looking for functional strength, squats will help you build it. Functional strength is the capacity to conduct daily movements: lifting furniture, squatting to pick something up, or getting up from a chair. Squats are the ultimate functional exercise because they improve your ability to stand, walk and move with strength and confidence. They work their magic because when you squat multiple muscles work together in tandem to complete the exercise.

But what if your main goal is to build stronger, more defined glutes? The hip thrust is another effective exercise for strengthening and hypertrophying glute muscles. You’re already familiar with glute bridges, an isometric exercise that targets the glutes and is popular as a booty builder. The hip thrust is a more dynamic variation of the glute bridge.

Here’s how to do one:

Sit down on a mat in front of a bench with your feet firmly on the ground.
Lean your shoulders against the bench.
You can place a weight, like a barbell, just below your hips for more resistance, but start with no weight.
As you drive with your heels, thrust your hips toward the ceiling so that your knees form a 90-degree angle, and your body is straight.
Pause and squeeze your glutes at the top of the movement.
Slowly, lower down to the starting position in a controlled manner.
Keep repeating.

Now that you know how to do a hip thrust, you might wonder whether it’s a more effective movement for building strong, defined glutes.

Squat vs. Hip Thrust for Glute Development

The squat is a multi-joint exercise that works multiple muscle groups simultaneously, but it doesn’t precisely target the gluteus maximus, the largest muscle that makes up the glutes, and the one that gives your backside its shape. In contrast, hip thrusts isolate the gluteus maximus muscle in a focused way. Plus, hip thrusts keep the force on your glutes through the full range of motion of the exercise. That’s not true with the squat since the muscle tension falls off during certain phases of a squat.

So, which is more effective for your glutes? A study looked at this issue. For 12 weeks, subjects performed a squat workout or a hip thrust workout. At the start of the study and at the end of 12 weeks, researchers used ultrasound to measure the thickness of the glute muscles and maximum strength.

The results? The squat group gained strength and experienced increased muscle thickness in both the quadriceps and glutes. The hip thrust group also gained size and strength, but the glutes were the only part of the body that grew. Plus, strength and muscle size gains were greater in the squat group than the group who did hip thrusts.

The Battle of the Glute Builders

This study suggests that squats build more strength and muscle size in the glutes than the hip thrust. However, previous research shows the opposite; hip thrusts are better for building glute size than squats. How can you explain this discrepancy? In the current study, participants did full squats to maximize glute activation. In some other studies, participants didn’t do full squats. Plus, not everyone can do full squats. So, hip thrusts are an excellent alternative for people who can’t go deep into a squat with good form.

Overall, there’s a lack of compelling evidence that one exercise is a better glute builder than the other, since the studies conflict. With hip thrusts, you get a more targeted glute workout, but squats are ideal for building functional strength, as all the muscles in your lower body work together. Squats build strength in the glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps, but hip thrusts only benefit the glutes. However, hip thrusts increase the force with which you can thrust your hips the most.

Why Not Do Both Squats and Hip Thrusts?

When creating your glute-training routine, you don’t have to choose between squats and hip thrusts. An effective lower body workout that works the glutes should include both. One is primarily glute training, while the other builds functional strength and focuses on other lower body muscles. Squats are more complex and require adequate mobility to get the most benefits and avoid injury, while hip thrusts are easier to master.

Correct a Glute Imbalance with Hip Thrusts

Once you’ve mastered a hip thrust, you can also add single-leg thrusts to your routine. With this variation of a hip thrust, you raise only one foot off the ground when you do the exercise. This targets the glute muscle on the opposite side more. Exercises like this are ideal for correcting glute strength imbalances. In addition to two-legged squats, you can also do one-legged squats to target one side only, but it’s a more advanced exercise that requires good balance.

The Bottom Line

Hip thrusts build your glute muscles by keeping them under sustained tension, and they’re the perfect complement to squats for getting a strong lower body. Squats are an essential part of any glute-building program, and they have functional benefits you won’t get from doing hip thrusts. But why choose? Both exercises have a place in your lower body workout.

References:

“Squat vs. Hip Thrust: Muscle strength and hypertrophy.” 04 Feb. 2020, sci-sport.com/en/articles/Squat-vs-Hip-Thrust-Muscle-strength-and-hypertrophy-191.php.
“Squats Versus Hip Thrusts Part II: The Twin Experiment ….” 11 Aug. 2015, /bretcontreras.com/squats-versus-hip-thrusts-part-ii-the-twin-experiment/.
Pallarés JG, Cava AM, Courel-Ibáñez J, González-Badillo JJ, Morán-Navarro R. Full squat produces greater neuromuscular and functional adaptations and lower pain than partial squats after prolonged resistance training. Eur J Sport Sci. 2020 Feb;20(1):115-124. doi: 10.1080/17461391.2019.1612952. Epub 2019 May 15. PMID: 31092132.