Barbell Hip Thrust — 25 min
Four working sets of barbell hip thrusts with two accessories — a 25-minute strength block that loads hip extension at end range, which squats and deadlifts do not.
Four working sets of barbell hip thrusts with two accessories — a 25-minute strength block that loads hip extension at end range, which squats and deadlifts do not. Hip-extension strength is what carries you up stairs at seventy, and end-range loading is the shortest path to it.
The session at a glance
- Focus: strength
- Intensity: moderate
- Duration: 25 minutes
- Equipment: barbell, plates, bench, band
The protocol
- Warm-up — 5 min. Glute bridge 2×15, banded lateral walk 2×10 each way.
- Barbell hip thrust — 4×8. Pause 1 s at lockout, ribs down, chin tucked.
- Bulgarian split squat — 3×8 each leg.
- Back extension — 2×12. Squeeze at the top, no lumbar hyperextension.
Why this works
- End-range hip extension. The hip thrust loads the hip at full lockout, the exact position squats and deadlifts leave under-trained.
- Unilateral balance. The Bulgarian split squat trains one leg at a time, exposing and correcting the side-to-side asymmetry that bilateral lifts hide.
- Posterior-chain finisher. Two sets of back extensions at the end target the hamstrings and spinal erectors that support every hip-hinge movement outside the gym.
How to scale it
- New to the barbell hip thrust? Start with a bodyweight glute bridge and add a dumbbell before loading the bar.
- No bench? Sub in a floor glute bridge with the bar across the hips over a folded mat.
- Sore lower back? Drop the back extension and finish with a 30-second glute bridge hold instead.
Sources
AgeGen workouts cite authoritative landing pages, not anecdote. If a claim isn't in the linked source, we don't make it.
