In 2006, I designed the hip pushing process and added it to many clients’ plans. In this post, I want to discuss the most important aspect of hip push – what’s the point if you can’t feel the huge tension or pumping feeling of your hips during training?

This article is suitable for all fitness enthusiasts

Content tag: hip push Ugly Standardized Complementary

Original work: Bret Contreras

006, I designed the hip push work and added it to the plans of many customers. Needless to say, I've seen all kinds of hip pushes: good, bad, ugly.

In this post, I want to discuss the most important aspect of hip push – if you can’t feel the huge tension or pumping feeling of your hips during training, what’s the point?

There is no 1RM hip push championship in the world. You won't get any prizes for creating a 1RM record of hip push. Although super heavy butt push is a good way to install X, the purpose of butt push is to train gluteal maximus .

If you have to pursue 1RM data, you must follow these strict requirements:

●Keep spinal neutral

●Achieve complete hip extension

●Use hip dominance, lock at the highest 1 second

I can further expand the above elements into 10 details:

1. Push

through the heel to exert force through the heel, instead of the forefoot, so that muscle activity can be transferred more from quadriceps to glutes and hamstring . Make sure your heels never leave the ground, you can keep your soles flat; or dorsiflex the ankle and keep your toes off the ground and maintain this position throughout the process.

2. Make sure the top of the calf is perpendicular to the ground

makes the calf perpendicular to the ground to maximize the activation of the hips. If your feet are too close to your hips, it will transfer more pressure to the quadriceps, and if you are too far, it will transfer more pressure to the hamstrings.

3. Keep both knees outwardly

Both knee abduction can increase hip activation and maintain knee health. Control the tendency of knee abduction through the tension of the gluteus maximus, do not let it buckle inward, and the thigh femur and foot are always in the same line.

4. Achieving complete hip extension

Complete hip extension (the highest point of action) is the most tense position of the movement amplitude. If this highest point cannot be reached, even if the weight is too heavy, it will significantly weaken the stimulation of the hips.

At the same time, don’t make the amplitude smaller and smaller in order to make it more and more flush. If you can't fully stretch your hips, end this set.

5. Slightly tilt the pelvis at the top

pelvic tilt at the highest point can prevent overextration of the lumbar spine and protect the health of the spine. In addition, it will also increase hip activation (one of the functions of the gluteus maximus is to allow you to lean back rather than lean forward!). You can lean back by consciously bringing the pelvis closer to the chest at the top.

6. Pressing down the ribs

Pressing down the ribs can prevent the spine from overstretching, and lifting the ribs may cause damage to the spine over time.

Many coaches like to suggest "punching" when squat deadlifts, but the opposite is true for hip push. You must be conscious of "ribs down", so that your ribs will be knotted with the pelvis throughout the movement.

7. Eyes looking forward

Forward gaze can promote backward pelvic tilt, prevent forward pelvic tilt and overextend lumbar spine, and at the same time weaken the force of erection spinal muscles and hamstring muscles.

looks forward at the bottom of the movement and maintains this line of sight as you lift it, which will eventually cause your cervical spine to bend slightly forward.

8. Hold the barbell tightly and press the bench with your arms

When setting the posture, tighten your body and twist it to the appropriate position. Hold the barbell tightly and press the bench with your arms. This creates a "radiation effect" to increase the tension of muscles throughout the body.

9. Before each pushing the weight, inhale a lot of air into the core and hold it after sucking in

. This can increase spinal stability and prevent the spinal from overstretching. By holding your breath, the rectus abdomen, the external oblique muscle, and the transverse abdominal muscle become stronger. Exhale at the top of the action.

10. Pause at the top for 1 second and squeeze the hips hard

to increase the duration of tension, ensuring proper movement rhythm and control. Count it silently for one second before decreasing.

If you can do this, 1RM hip push is perfect. The problem with

is that almost no one does it.Instead, many people experience a false locking state, they only rise to about 80% of the movement, with excessive arches on their backs (the pelvic tilts forward and the spine overextends), and pressure transfers from the gluteus maximus to other muscles, such as erector spinal muscles, hamstrings, and quadriceps.

My favorite hip push method

hip push has various practical changes and various group plans. From personal experience, most of my clients do the best when they use barbells and keep the number of times 5 or more. If the frequency is low, they won't feel that strong tension in their gluteus maximus.

In turn, you can certainly do many high times to pursue extremely strong hip metabolic stress - and do this from time to time during my own training and coaching clients. I especially like to do elastic band hip push and self-weight goat stand up. We often do 2-4 sets at the end of the training, 20-30 times to contribute to a strong buttock burning and pumping sensation.

but I don't think this is the best way to develop hip volume.

barbell hip push 5-12 times per set is the most ideal, while elastic hip push 10-20 times per set is the most ideal. These parameters allow the gluteus maximus to control enough weight, creating incredible tension, and creating certain metabolic stress.

Of course, you can also perform a mixing scheme, such as pyramid training method (first do a set of 10 times, then a set of 8 times, then a set of 6 times, and finally a final group of 15 times).

or you can do low times on one day (such as Monday), medium times on another day (such as Wednesday), and high times on another day (such as Friday).

If you also practice basic movements such as squats, deadlifts, and arrows, then just adding a medium number of elastic hip pushes can bring you great benefits. The reason is that the squat deadlift will specifically increase the hip strength of your "bottom position" (that is, the strength when you bend your hip to the lowest point). On the other hand, the elastic band hip push will enhance the strength of your "top position" (that is, the strength when you stretch your hip to the highest point) - because the highest point is the range of the amplitude that the hip push most requires muscle tension, and the variable resistance of the elastic band will further strengthen the tension at the highest point.

Therefore, elastic hip push can complement those common basic movements, allowing you to develop sufficient strength throughout the entire range of motion.

Is this just a theory? Is there any evidence to support it?

I recently conducted an experiment in which I did not do barbell butt push in 3 months. Just do very hard elastic hip pushes a few times a week, while also focusing on the back and front squats.

You see, when I got back to the barbell hip push, I found a significant increase in strength - without barbell hip push for 3 months, its strength was significantly improved due to the Squat & Elastic Band Hip Push program.

Now, I have used elastic belt hip push more frequently, and the training volume is also greater, and I am increasingly convinced of its effectiveness. When I do elastic band hip push, I like the range of 10-20 (while barbell hip push is 5-12).

to grow your "best point data" instead of surface data

My students Kellie and Marianne once told me that even if they can easily lift 225 pounds, they still like to use 185 pounds for grouping (and, Kellie's hip push limit is 385 pounds, while Marianne is 315 pounds). After discussion, these girls agreed that 185 pounds seemed to be the best point and that they could feel the contraction of the gluteus maxillus.

So, the focus of this article is not to tell you exactly what weight, number of groups and number of times to use.

instead tells you that you need to pay close attention to the muscle contraction and practice repeatedly during training, so that you can find your best .

- I can be sure that the most sensation of your gluteus maximus is not the local amplitude + pelvic forward tilt mentioned at the beginning of this article.

This article does not mean that "gradual load" is not important.

instead reminds you: you should learn to continue to become stronger in the perfect form of action, so that your "best point" will rise steadily every year, rather than pursuing the rise of surface data.