What’s Better For Glutes — Thrusts or Bridges?

Study review comparing muscle activity between hip thrusts and glute bridges

When it comes to booty gains, the hip thrusts have reigned supreme over the last half decade in the fitness industry. For good reason too, as they are a great exercise to really hitting the glutes.

At times I do think the obsession with them can be overhyped and personally I just find the set up to be one of the bigger downsides of the exercise. Regardless, I still like them and think if you’re trying to maximize glute gains, they should be a staple in your programs.

With that being said, a new study by Kennedy et al. 2022, just came out comparing the barbell hip thrust to the barbell glute bridge in terms of hip extensor (glutes/hamstrings) and quad activation and I thought it would be worth briefly breaking down.

Here are videos of each exercise in case you don’t know what they are: