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If feeling the glutes work (sensation) and getting the glutes sore ( muscle damage) doesn’t mean your glutes are growing, WHAT DOES?
I agree about Bret being the one promoting hip thrust as the number one glute builder. But Hip thrust do not cause as much muscle damage to the glutes as Bulgarian split squats, lunges, and one leg at a time leg press with foot placed high on the platform. Hip thrust do cause a lactic acid burn in the glutes. It’s like comparing dumbbell kick backs to over head rope extensions for the long head of the triceps. EMG studies show cable kick backs being the most effective exercise for the long head and they can create a burn in the muscle. But real world results prove over head tricep rope extensions get the long head sorer and make it grow a lot more than cable kick backs. Furthermore, heavy hip thrust can herniate a disc in the lower back.
You have to do leg presses one leg at a time to really work those glutes!!! For example, if you’re trying to work your right glute: put your right foot up high on the platform ( to the right of the center) and put your left left on the bottom of the platform ( to the left of the center) to keep the hips/body in proper alignment. It’s like doing a lunge on a leg press. Go down deep and it will make your glutes very sore. Try doing 6 sets to failure 10-15 reps per set while controlling the negative and focusing on a glute contraction on the way back up. My wife does 10-12 sets to failure but she’s a cardio machine. I run out of gas after 6 sets.
True, totally get your point. I just think its a trade off.
I believe hip thrust are good for adding more muscle in the glutes without making the thighs bigger. I think that’s why a lot of bikini competitors like them.
Thinking about this more the only solution for stepping backwards blindly, is to use the ‘step mill’ 2 steps at a time, moderate speed. Incredible workout. Skip the science, up the desire I say. Too easy? Throw a pack on your back or hold two db’s. Slow and deep. And try not to use the handrails but be smart and safe. You will hate me later
but your legs will grow, guaranteed. Time is a variable you will have to sort out for by yourself. My balls are not crystal.I have done one legged presses off and on for 25 years and gave up on them some time ago as i never got any benefit from them no matter what i did. I found RDL's better then most things for glutes. Mostly things that stretched and contracted them through a full range of motion worked best. That is what i have found for most every body part. Doing partial range of motion i have found to be less productive for the most things in general for achieving more mass. For 20 years i had a day dedicated to glutes/hams and calves. As glutes were the body part hardest to grow for me even though i could squat decent weight.
He (Bret Contrares) started calling himself that in the mid 2000s I believe. He was trying to brand himself. He did write a book and pretty much got the whole internet gluten-free thrust train going. You know how the internet has seemed obsessed with that move for the last five or so years? Well, Contrares was writing a lot about it and its benefits at least fifteen years ago. That and his feud with Charles Poliquin got him a bit of attention. He was a writer on T-Nation I believe and IMO has put out solid information. Just nothing Earth-shattering or way out there like some of Poliquin's stuff, although I think Poliquin has been one of the greatest contributors to info regarding training of the 90's and 2000's.
Recumbent Bike twenty-thirty seconds on the highest resistance possible with intervals, 8-10 rounds absolutely crushed my quads. I tried to keep the rest between thirty and forty seconds. I haven't done it in awhile because for some reason it tends to aggravate my sciatica but it was a great way to finish a leg session or even used as a standalone or anything in between.Thinking about this more the only solution for stepping backwards blindly, is to use the ‘step mill’ 2 steps at a time, moderate speed. Incredible workout. Skip the science, up the desire I say. Too easy? Throw a pack on your back or hold two db’s. Slow and deep. And try not to use the handrails but be smart and safe. You will hate me later
I remember talking to Danny Padilla briefly at Golds when it first moved to Santa Monica. The AAU Mr. America was held in LA that year and the promoter(?) Ken Sprague staged a huge parade downtown.
Just crazy, so many of the greats of that era were in town training all in one place.
Don’t remember if Joe had opened his World Gym yet intended to compete with Gold’s but he was eventually successful at poaching some of greats. Great gym but you had to put shit away and no music. Very hardcore.
Anyway, one day I was on Gold’s just hanging out after working out (remember, I am a nobody, not even a pimple on life’s ass) I see Danny come walking through the gym with two bodybuilder’s, one on each side of him. To this day I could not tell you who they were, Danny was that impressive, the most heavy muscled, densely packed with muscle bodybuilder I had evere seen. And he redefined the meaning of the word proportion.
When he was walking by I looked up at him and said “Hi Danny, how are you doing?” “You look amazing.” He said “Do I know you?” I said “No.” He said thanks then he lamented the fact, was disappointed, that the gym did not have a stationary bike. He said it helped him lean up and also made his legs grow, get huge.
I heard him repeat as much on a podcast. He would sit and peddle for hours at a time at a high resistance and a slow speed. His legs would just explode all the while he got leaner and leaner. A freak among freaks.
Fuck if I know what brought me down this rabbit hole, perhaps the fear that people have about losing muscle while doing cardio, like the step mill for instance, even without additional weight. It is still my go to piece of cardio equipment. Did it build my glutes, unfortunately not to any appreciable degree but you sure can feel it in the glutes and without the safety issues associated with step-ups and then blindly stepping backwards.
My wife, who was a world class long distance cyclist swears the biking is responsible for her (great) ass. (I have posted a foto of it here.) I happen to think the opposite . . . her butt is responsible for making her a great cyclist not the other way around. Chicken or the egg thing.
It wasn't that I had the guts. It's that I was so nervous and fearful about completely gassing out in the wrestling room. I mean, everyone gasses at some point but I kept thinking I was going to gas out like every single time I got onto the mat. I was trying to recreate that feeling of being completely out of breath, lungs on fire, chest beating to the point where it hurts...because that's how it often feels on the mat. I was hoping I could almost get used to it. Well, I never got used to it. Still gas. Still hate it.
What the hell is tone? That’s not even a word you should be using when you refer to anything.
This is bc the hip thrust loads the glutes in the shortened position and not the LENGTHENED position. We can agree to disagree but I'll listen to Bret all day over your feelings.WRONG! Biomechanics doesn’t account for everything. For example, go do 15 work sets of weighted hip thrust and tell me how sore your glutes get the days following the workout. The following week do 15 work sets of Bulgarian split squats or one leg at a time leg presses and tell me what you learned.If done properly, you will learn that the split squats and one leg at a time leg presses made your glutes a whole lot sorer than hip thrust. Like Arnold stated: do a bunch of sets for a particular exercise (to the point of getting sore afterward) in order to learn which part of the body it’s working the most. Hip thrust are NOT as effective as Bulgarian split squats and one leg at a time leg presses when it comes to stimulating the muscles of the glutes. Wide stance bench squats also nails the glutes/posterior chain. But the first two exercises I mentioned are the absolute best—along with lunges.
MeasurementsIf feeling the glutes work (sensation) and getting the glutes sore ( muscle damage) doesn’t mean your glutes are growing, WHAT DOES?
Yes, she has a high tolerance for pain and me. She has the ability to focus on the ‘now’, (something I am working on). She walked from Mexico to Canada solo so she has a strong and focused mind. Yes, she does lift weights and a host of other things at the gym.
Tone= muscle growth.
You obviously haven’t seen photos of my wife’s legs & glutes…lol..She never does hip thrust.
