Barbell Hip Thrust
The Elite Hockey Drills app builds drills like this into your personalized off-ice program, week by week. Your first week is free.
How to Do It
Sit on the floor with upper back against a sturdy bench, knees bent, feet flat. Roll a loaded barbell over your hips. Use a barbell pad — do NOT skip this. Drive feet through the floor, extend hips upward. Squeeze glutes HARD at the top. Ribs DOWN, chin tucked — don't hyperextend the lower back to fake range of motion. Pause 1-2 seconds at the top. This is where 80% of the glute work happens. Lower under control, don't crash the bar to the floor.
Why It Works
The barbell hip thrust isolates the glutes with the bar's resistance vector horizontal — exactly the direction of force production in skating push-off. It produces roughly 3× higher glute activation than back squats at equivalent loads. For hockey players, strong glutes mean better stride length and reduced knee/lower-back injury risk.
Hockey Transfer
Directly trains glute extension — the primary muscle in skating push-off. Most hockey players are quad-dominant. Hip thrusts are how you flip that. Train the glutes, train the skating.
Coaching Cues
- "Upper back on bench"
- "Bar on hips"
- "Drive through heels"
- "Squeeze glutes at top"
Common Mistakes
Hyperextending the lower back to fake higher hips — defeats the exercise. Ribs DOWN. Feet too close — converts it to a quad exercise. Heels should be ~12-18 inches from glutes at top. Pushing through toes — should feel mid-foot/heel pressure for glute engagement. No pad on the bar — stops you from using meaningful loads. Get the pad.
Progression / Regression
Single-leg hip thrust (foot elevated on bench) — highest hockey transfer due to unilateral loading.
Bodyweight glute bridge first. Learn the squeeze pattern before loading the bar.
Primary Muscles
Energy System
Strength/neural
Put it to work
on the ice.
The Elite Hockey Drills app builds exercises like this into a personalized off-ice program — created by a sport scientist and former national-team coach. Your first week is free.
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