Research
Mixed
Back squat training produces greater thigh hypertrophy (quadriceps and adductors) compared to hip thrust training.
If you want bigger quads and inner thighs, you need to do squats. Hip thrusts are great for glutes, but they don't build the rest of your legs as well as squats do.
GoodSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Thigh mCSA changes were greater in SQ for the quadriceps [3.6 ± 1.5 cm2] and adductors [2.5 ± 0.7 cm2].
Why this rating
RCT with MRI-measured hypertrophy.
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
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