There is a good chance that 2018 was peak Insta-Ass.

What’s Insta-Ass?

Insta-Ass is the fitness subcategory (which I kinda just made up) that is nothing more than girls in leggings doing “Booty Workouts” and ass shots on Instagram.

Actually, lets face it, until the fairly recent and kinda small backlash against the Instagram Fitfluencer thing, the whole Insta-Ass thing was at least 70% of all fitness related posts on Instagram since about 2015.

Butt, here’s the thing:

Glutes REALLY are Important.

I have would argue that glutes are the MOST IMPORTANT muscle group in the human body.

“for us, for athletes, glutes are everything — the absolute epicenter and powerhouse of all athletic movement. It’s all about the ass.“ – Mark Verstegen

I say this, and some jack off always goes,

“what about the heart. That’s important too…”

to try and prove a point. So, if you’re that Jack-Wad, way to go man.

You got me.

Any way, butts are the DRIVERS of human movement.

If you want all of the functions of just the glute max, click here.

But for me, there are 2 main functions that I focus on:

Hip Extension

Femoral/ Hip External Rotation

and if you can do those well, you’ll usually get a third (and all the rest)

Pelvis Stability in Single Leg Stance

Butt InstaAss is All About Aesthetics?

Lets face it 99% of us workout to look better and get laid.

*and the other 1% are lying.

And it doesn’t matter if its men (it’s actually the lumbar curvature and not necessarily glute mass, but certain angles of curvature make the glutes look “better” more suitable from an evolutionary perspective)

“men prefer women who exhibit specific angles of spinal curvature over buttock mass”- Eric Russell 

or women,  butts matter and the Hip Thrust has become one of the go-to glute builders.

Why?

Cause it works, REALLY DAMN WELL.

Not only when it comes to aesthetics butt the Hip Thrust does a nice job of training PURE hip extension and allowing for overload.

I mean, it’s basically a kneeling squat EXCEPT (and this IS important) the vector of movement is in direct opposition to gravity which allows for grater stretch and overload (both important factors in mechanical tension, a key to muscle hypertrophy) through the range of motion.

Butt, the hip thrust has some drawbacks.

#1: Eventually getting  the barbell on the hips is a pain in the ass to get into place and shoulders set up on the bench 

#2: You’ll need adequate hip padding 

Plus, any time you’re in a double leg stance you’re not going to be using the “stabilizing” muscles to the same extent as a single leg stance..

So, Captain Obvious, we hit the easy button and enter the:

Single Leg Hip Thrust

Checklist:

• The edge of the bench should be just below the bottom edge of the scapula
• Arms out wide, never close, never bent. <—this always leads to the elbows driving into the bench and screws the movement up.
• Front shin should be vertical at the top. <—this usually means a 90 degree knee angle also.
• Hinge through the hip to get to the bottom, don’t just let the low back go and overach.

Bro Tips:

• Bend the “up”/ nonloaded knee to 90 degrees at the knee and hip and think “Drive the Knee to the Ceiling” 
  • This helps keep the unloaded side of the pelvis up and neutral.
• A shorter bench is almost always better,

  • Full hip extension > Range of motion

• Chin to the chest helps drive hip extension  <—— Yes, this is the ONLY time I’ll say this. DO NOT DO THIS if it bothers your neck. 
• Hold max glute contraction at the top for a second each rep. It’ll produce a better training effect and you’ll FINISH the rep.

Sure, you can get by with a flat, flaccid, chicken breasts looking set of glutes,

But you’re leaving a TON of function (and form) on the table.

*BTW for the purposes of this article I’m saying “glutes” but really mean all the muscles of the posterior hip.