Research

Mixed

Nine weeks of set-volume equated hip thrust training produces gluteus maximus hypertrophy equivalent to back squat training, despite higher acute gluteal muscle activation during hip thrusts.

If your goal is glute growth, you can use either hip thrusts or back squats. They produce similar muscle growth when you do the same number of sets and reps. Don't feel pressured to only do hip thrusts just because they 'feel' like more glute work; squats are equally effective for building the glutes over time.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Nine weeks of squat versus hip thrust training elicited similar gluteal hypertrophy... All measured gluteal sites showed greater mean sEMG amplitudes during the first bout hip thrust versus squat set, but this did not consistently predict gluteal hypertrophy outcomes.
Daniel L. Plotkin et al. · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2023

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with MRI-measured hypertrophy, though limited to untrained individuals and a short duration (9 weeks).

Source

Hip thrust and back squat training elicit similar gluteus muscle hypertrophy and transfer similarly to the deadlift

Daniel L. Plotkin et al. · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2023

DOI 10.1101/2023.06.21.545949

preprint · n=34Cited 5×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →