If you want to get stronger at squats, you need to squat; if you want to get stronger at hip thrusts, you need to do hip thrusts—training makes you better at the exact movement you practice.

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Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

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

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2023 Jul 5

People who trained squats got better at squats, and people who trained hip thrusts got better at hip thrusts — each group improved most in the exact exercise they did, proving strength gains are movement-specific.

Contradicting (0)

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No contradicting evidence found

Source Study

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

Score: 53

DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.21.545949

Similar Assertions

If you want to get stronger at squats, you need to squat; if you want to get stronger at hip thrusts, you need to do hip thrusts. Training one doesn’t make you much stronger at the other.

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Squats make your thighs bigger—especially the front and inner muscles—while hip thrusts don’t really change your thigh size, making squats better if you want to build overall leg muscle.

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Doing hip thrusts or squats for 9 weeks with the same total work builds your butt muscles just as much, even though hip thrusts feel like they work your butt harder during the exercise.

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Squats build your thigh muscles (quads and inner thighs) more than hip thrusts do, because squats involve more knee and hip movement that engages those muscles more.

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