Lifters and athletes associate the hip thrust with glute development and horizontal force enhancement. But a recent study in the Journal of Sports Science shows that it's also effective at increasing your 1 rep max back squat.

The Study

The study recruited 20 male collegiate baseball players with an average back squat of around 188 pounds. They were split into two groups for the 8-week study:

1. One group performed hip thrust training with increasing intensity.
2. One group performed normal baseball training.

After 8-weeks, the hip thrust training group increased squat max an average of 31%. The baseball-only training group saw an insignificant change.

The most interesting part of this was that the hip thrust took athletes from 185 pounds to 237 pounds on their squat WITHOUT any squat training! So the hip thrust isn't just for booty gains or horizontal force. If you're looking to bring your squat up, give it a shot.

Reference

1. Kun-Han, L., Chih-Min, W., Yi-Ming, H., & Zong-Yan, C. (2017). Effects of hip thrust training on the strength and power performance in collegiate baseball players. Journal of Sports Science, 5, 178-184.