For guys who lift weights, doing leg presses or kickbacks works the butt muscle just about the same — neither one gives you a bigger advantage in muscle activation.

If you're a guy who lifts weights, doing kickbacks might work your back thigh muscle way more than the leg press — like 76% more, according to one study.

For guys who lift weights, the inner thigh muscle works just as hard during leg presses and knee extensions — these two exercises use that muscle in a similar way.

When doing a hip thrust with a barbell instead of a squat, the butt and back of the thighs light up more on muscle sensors during the same level of effort.

When comparing hip thrusts and squats at the same effort level, the front thigh muscle (quadriceps) works just as hard in both exercises.

Measuring muscle activity with EMG doesn't tell us much about how much actual force the glute muscle is producing during different hip exercises — it only explains a tiny part of the difference, so it's not a reliable way to compare which exercises are harder on the muscle.