If you’ve been following me for the past few years you’ll know that I have long abandoned barbell squats as a means of growing my lower body in my off-season. You’ll often find that people are very strongly in one camp or the other: Squats are a must or squats are to be avoided. My stance on squats has been that if you enjoy them and are able to perform them safely and pain free then it’s fine to keep them in your programming. However, I also maintained the stance that squats were not the most effective movement to grow the glutes and you’d be better off picking exercises that isolate the glutes more effectively like the hip thrust. This was something that was previously supported in the available literature but has been challenged in 2020.
According to Barbalho et al:
‘’Previous studies suggested that hip thrusts could be performed to maximize hip extensor activation, developing strength by increasing horizontal force production, and supposedly bringing potentially greater hypertrophic gains for the gluteus maximus when compared to other exercises. However, the comparison between this single joint exercise and multi joint exercises has been limited to electromyographic analysis. Contreras et al. reported greater muscle activation of the upper and lower gluteus maximus during the hip thrust compared to the front squat. Such findings were confirmed by Williams et al in a study in which the hip thrust was superior to the back squat and lunges, despite presenting lower values of muscle activation than those reported by Contreras et al. However, Andersen et al. reported that hip thrusts promoted superior gluteus maximus muscle activation, but similar muscle activation in comparison with the hex bar deadlift. Nevertheless, it is important to note that large electromyographic responses do not necessarily imply higher recruitment of motor units, and neither can infer hypertrophic potential.’’
So what they were saying is that even though previous studies showed greater glute activation from the hip thrust via electromyographic analysis that doesn’t necessarily mean that the lift is going to grow your glutes better.
They also mentioned the fact that the only other study that compared muscle hypertrophy between single joint and multi joint exercises was performed in men. Women respond differently to resistance training in terms of recovery, muscle activation and fatigability so the previous findings may not apply to women.
In light of this, Barbalho et al took 22 trained women and divided them into 2 groups. One group performed 6 sets of hip thrusts only for 12 weeks and the second group performed 6 sets of back squats only for 12 weeks and the difference in muscle growth and strength gains were measured at the end of the 12 week program. I’m not going to address the strength aspect of this study because the focus of this article is hypertrophy. Having said that, the results of this study was as follows:
”The back squat group presented statistically significant gains in all 1RM tests and in the muscle thickness assessment, whereas the hip thrust showed significant increases only in gluteus muscle thickness and hip thrust 1RM. Between-group comparisons revealed significant a difference between groups in the back squat 1RM (F = 54.610, P < 0.001), quadriceps (F = 81.640, P < 0.001) and gluteus muscle thickness (F = 18.091, P = 0.001), with greater increases for the back squat group. There was no between-group difference for hip thrust 1RM (F = 2.606, P = 0.122).''
So basically, the group doing the back squats got stronger in both their back squats and hip thrust 1RM but also they saw greater increases in muscle thickness in their glutes and quads. The hip thrusts grew the glutes only but not to the extent that the back squat did.
What I absolutely loved about this study is that they used trained females between the ages of 18 and 35 years and these women had been lifting for a minimum of 3 years and were familiar with both lifts. A major gripe that I have about many studies on resistance training in women is that they use untrained individuals which doesn’t translate to what would happen in an experienced lifter. Another thing that I loved about this study was that they used only 6 sets of one exercise per week and it still resulted in growth which flies in the face of a lot of high volume and frequency recommendations that are often pushed on women.
What I didn’t like about this study was that diet was not controlled and that could have affected the growth response. They simply told the women not to change their current eating habits (and made sure that they didn’t) but there didn’t seem to be any assessment as to whether their current eating habits were sufficient in protein, carbs and/or calories. Since the results suggested growth in all groups we can assume that a calorie surplus was present but it would have been nice to have had all women sustaining a similar surplus percentage with their protein and carb intakes set using the same calculations based on their weight and body composition.
Another limitation mentioned by the authors is that the method by which they measured muscle hypertrophy only measured the thickness of a single point which ‘cannot precisely define hypertrophy of the whole muscle.’
With that being said, in the case of this study, rep for rep squats produced significantly better glute hypertrophy. They suggested that the reason that the barbell back squat may have produced greater results is due to range of motion:
‘’In general, a larger range of motion is associated with higher muscle hypertrophy. If we analyze both exercises, the hip thrust has a short range of motion (~45°), because it starts from around 135° of hip flexion and ends with the hip extended. During the back squat, on the other hand, the hip approaches the near full range of motion. In addition to the greater range of motion, the back squats promotes greater stretching of the hip extensors, which can result in greater muscle tension, whereas the hip thrust works with shorter muscle lengths, which might compromise muscle tension.’’
So, it’s important to also note that the squatting was performed with a very large range of motion and may be required in order to see these same results.
All in all, this study definitely sways my previous stance that hip thrusts are the king of all glute exercises. But is this enough to get me barbell back squatting again?
The answer is no.
The reason why I stopped squatting under the barbell years ago was due to the fact that I would invariably hurt myself performing this lift. I am someone with long legs and a short torso which means that in order for me to sit back into my squats my chest ends up folding forward which ends in me squatting with my back more than my legs. When I am able to keep my chest up, my knees drive forward excessively and ends up in me having knee pain. I tried adopting a wider stance in my squats to help with this. This allowed me to keep my chest up while sitting back into the movement better but this stance ended up hurting my hips. I went in this roundabout fashion cycling different ways of squatting for years and eventually traded in my free squats for other lifts such as the leg press and dumbbell deadlifts which don’t cause me any pain and have allowed me to grow my legs all the same. When I do throw squats into my programming I only perform them in the Smith machine as it allows me to adopt the narrower stance that doesn’t hurt my hips while helping me keep my chest upright so I can sit back into the movement and press out with my legs and not my back.
What can you take from the information in this study if you are a woman interested in growing your glutes?
1) Barbell back squats may be a good choice for you if you are after both glute and quad gains and are able to perform the movement safely and efficiently through a large range of motion ie. at least to parallel if not lower.
2) The Hip Thrust may be a better choice if you are someone who wants to grow your glutes without growing your quads as much.
And what can I add to this?
3) If you want to perform barbell back squats but are unable to do them safely and pain free make sure that you have tried varying stances before giving up entirely. Consider hiring a professional to assess your squat to help you work on weak areas that may be limiting your ability to perform this movement.
4) If you have tried the above and continue to feel pain you can try other variations such as Front Squats, Smith Machine Squats, Hack Squats or just stick to the Leg Press.
5) Just because you are not squatting doesn’t mean you can’t grow your lower body and glutes through other movements, including the hip thrust. If you remember, the hip thrust still produced gains in the glutes even if it didn’t show to produce as much as the barbell back squat in this study. Sometimes the movements that you can perform well and for the long term will ultimately be the better choice for you even if the literature doesn’t suggest that it is the most effective lift for your goals.
References:
Neto WK, Vieira TL, Gama EF. Barbell Hip Thrust, Muscular Activation and Performance: A Systematic Review. J Sports Sci Med. 2019
Barbalho M, Coswig V, Souza D, Serrão JC, Campos MH, Gentil P. Back Squat vs.
Hip Thrust Resistance-training Programs in Well-trained Women. Int J Sports Med.
2020
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