Key Takeaways

1. The rack pull is a barbell deadlift performed with a shortened range of motion. The strength you gain from the rack pull transfers to the standard deadlift.

2. The rack pull strengthens the lockout (or top half) of your deadlift by allowing you to pull heavy weights in that specific range of motion.

3. The shortened range of motion ensures your torso stays more vertical, reducing the stress placed on your lower back compared to full-range-of-motion deadlifts. 

4. Remember these cues when performing rack pulls: Keep your chest up, don’t round your back, and drive your hips forward—hard—to complete the lift. 

What Are Rack Pulls and What Are Their Benefits?

(See 00:27 in the video.)

The rack pull is a deadlift performed from the safety bars of a power rack in order to shorten the range of motion (ROM). The lifter starts the pull with the barbell set just below his or her knees, as opposed to the bottom of the shin, as would be the case with a deadlift done from the floor. Basically, you’re doing the top half of a regular deadlift.

Because the range of motion is shorter, and you begin the lift in a stronger biomechanical position, you’re able to use a heavier weight than you could deadlifting from the floor. Rack pulls, therefore, let you acclimate to handling more weight, and they train you to extend your hips more powerfully, strengthening the lockout portion of your deadlift. If you have a sticking point in your normal deadlift—that is, trouble getting the weight over your knees and to lockout—rack pulls can be beneficial. Using heavier than normal weights can also build up your grip, and that can translate to stronger deadlifts from the floor as well.

Additionally, the rack pull can be a friend to folks with an achy lower back, as the shorter range of motion allows you to stay more upright and takes some pressure off your lumbar region versus the more bent-over position of a conventional deadlift. If you’re trying to train around a back injury, you could use the rack pull in place of a deadlift for a while. This would allow you to train the same basic movement pattern and muscles, but with less risk of further injury.

How to Do Rack Pulls: Correct Form to Avoid Injuries

(See 01:55 in the video.)

Step 1. Set the safety bars of a power rack to just below knee level. The barbell should sit just below your knees when laid across the bars.

Step 2. Stand in front of the barbell with your shins touching it and your feet about hip-width apart. Tuck your chin and push your hips back until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings and you can reach the barbell. Think: “long spine” from your head to your tailbone. Grip the bar firmly with your hands placed right outside of your knees. (If you perform conventional deadlifts regularly, set up just as you would for a conventional deadlift.) 

Step 3. Take a big breath into your belly, and contract your abdominal muscles. 

Step 4. Keeping your spine long and your core braced, pull the barbell off the safety bars, driving your hips forward until your hips are completely locked out and you’re standing tall. Squeeze your butt at the top of the rep. Slowly lower the barbell back to the safety bars by reversing the motion—don’t let it just crash down. 

Common Mistakes and How To Correct Them

(See 02:59 in the video.)

Mistake #1: Using different form than your deadlift.

“One of the most common mistakes I see with the rack pull is people altering their deadlift mechanics to perform it,” explains CJ McFarland, CSCS (@cjmcfarland17 on Instagram), a competitive powerlifter and the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the football program at Temple University in Philadelphia.

In an effort to lift as much weight as possible, people will often incorrectly treat the movement as a kind of shrug, or even try to squat the weight up by overbending their knees, when all they have to do is think of the exercise as a deadlift done from the halfway point.

“Replicate the position your body is in during the deadlift, where your shoulders end up over or slightly in front of the bar,” says McFarland, and begin the pull from there. That’s the strongest position and will help you lift the most weight possible.

Mistake #2: Choosing the wrong weight.

Go too light, and you defeat the purpose of performing the rack pull, which is (typically) for you to pull heavier weights than you can deadlift. By the same token, if you lift too heavy, you’ll round your back and risk injury to your lower and/or upper spine. McFarland suggests starting out with 100–110% of your deadlift max for one to three reps. (I.e., use the most weight you can deadlift from the floor, full range.) Take your sets to failure, or close to it (the point at which you can’t perform another rep with good technique, or stop one rep shy of that point).

Mistake #3: Not creating enough tension.

Before you begin the lift, screw your feet into the floor without actually moving them. Think of your legs as screwdrivers and tighten them down into the floor. If you do it right, you’ll feel the arches in your feet rise and you’ll feel very rooted into the ground. Your butt, hamstrings, and quads will tighten. This cue creates more tension in the active muscles, helping you produce more force when you begin the pull while maintaining good form. 

Mistake #4: Letting the bar drift away from you.

Keep the barbell tight against your shins and thighs as you lift and lower it. Maintaining a consistent bar path ensures your form stays intact. If the bar strays from your body, you’ll round your upper back and potentially tweak something in your spine. 

Muscles Worked By Rack Pulls

(See 06:59 in the video.)

The primary movers in the rack pull are the glutes and hamstrings. Secondarily, the traps, spinal erectors (lower back), forearms, and core will work hard.

Your glutes and hamstrings extend your hips as you lift the barbell from the safety bars to the lockout position, while your traps and lower back work to keep your back from rounding during the movement. Even if you’re wearing lifting straps (which improve your grip), your forearms will still get strong under the immense load of the barbell. And while rack pulls won’t chisel out a six-pack, you’ll develop a stronger core through the bracing required during every repetition.

Professionals’ Instructions For Setting Up The Rack

(See 07:45 in the video.)

The classic rack pull is performed inside a power rack with the bar set below your kneecaps. However, you can use various setups to mimic the rack and shorten or lengthen the movement’s range of motion.

“The closer to the ground the rack pull is, the stronger it correlates to your actual deadlift max,” says McFarland, but the harder it will be to perform. “The higher the height of the rack pull, the more weight you will be able to lift,” but the less it may transfer to your deadlift max.

Be sure to lift inside the power rack from the safety bars. If you set the bar on J-hooks outside the rack, you’ll risk banging the bar against the posts, interfering with your lift. Another tip is to check the weight capacity of the power rack that you’re using. Some power racks can only handle loads up to 500. If you’re a competitive powerlifter who can pull above 700 pounds (or you aspire to be one soon), you must ensure the rack can safely support the weights you’re using. 

It’s also worth mentioning that many gym owners and gym goers may frown upon you performing rack pulls on safety bars inside a power rack. For one thing, gym equipment is expensive, and repeatedly slamming a barbell against a power rack can damage the bar and the rack and wear down the barbell’s knurling (the cross-hatch pattern you hold on to that enhances your grip on the barbell). Also, depending on how crowded the gym is, people may not appreciate you hogging a rack that might otherwise be used for squatting.

Alternatively, you can elevate a loaded barbell to knee height by placing one or two 45-pound bumper plates under each end. Some strongman and powerlifting gyms offer 26-inch-diameter plates, which place the bar around the middle of your shins when loaded onto the barbell. (See below for more information about those variations.)

If your gym has stackable rubber mats, they provide another option for performing the rack pull movement with the added advantage of being movable and usually more adjustable when it comes to choosing a height. Rubber mats can also absorb the force of the bar when you lower it so that there’s less rattling and noise. Another option is wooden blocks, which work the same way.

How To Warm Up For The Rack Pull

(See 09:00 in the video.)

Use these exercises to warm up your hips and back before performing the rack pull in your workouts.

1. Bodyweight Hip Hinge

Step 1. Stand with feet parallel and bend your knees slightly.

Step 2. Now drive your hips back as far as you can while keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone. When you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, or you can’t push your hips back any further without losing your spine position, come back up to standing. Do 2–3 sets of 5–15 reps.

2. Table Top With Reach

Step 1. Sit on the floor and plant your hands under your shoulders; place your feet flat. Extend your spine so it’s long from your head to your tailbone. Drive your shoulders down away from your ears.

Step 2. Raise your left hand in front of you as you extend your hips to lockout. Your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to your hips (brace your core so you don’t hyperextend); keep your hips square as you squeeze your glutes.

Step 3. Reach your arm across your body to your right side, allowing your torso to twist but keeping your hips square and locked out. Feel your upper and middle back stretch. Reverse the motion and repeat on the opposite side.

Alternatives To The Rack Pull

(See 11:30 in the video.)

The rack pull has two main limitations: it can damage the equipment you’re using (the barbell and power rack), and it can be difficult to set up when the gym is crowded (good luck getting a free rack at 6:00 p.m. on a weekday). Try these two variations to reap benefits similar to rack pulls. You can do them when a rack isn’t available, or sub them into your program for four to six weeks for variety’s sake.

Trap Bar Deadlift

Why Do It: The trap bar features elevated handles. This means you don’t have to bend over as far to reach the bar as you would deadlifting with a straight bar, and the reduction in range of motion is similar to what you get with a rack pull (for the sake of saving your low back). And, like the rack, the trap bar puts you in a stronger position so you can lift heavier loads.

How To Do It:

Step 1. Step into the center of a loaded trap bar (aka hex bar). Ensure that you’re using a trap bar with elevated handles. Place your feet in your normal deadlift stance.

Step 2. Keeping a long spine, bend your hips back and then bend your knees until you can reach the handles. Your chest should face forward. 

Step 3. Brace your core by squeezing your abs and imagine crushing some oranges in your armpits—drive your shoulders back and down. Now drive through your heels to stand up with the bar, pushing your hips forward. 

Step 4. Lower the weight back to the floor by bending your hips back. Maintain a straight back with your chest up. 

Banded Deadlift

Why Do It: Attaching a resistance band to a barbell helps strengthen your deadlift lockout similarly to the rack pull. As you pull the bar off the floor, the band will stretch, increasing the resistance where the deadlift is normally easiest—when your hips are approaching lockout.

How To Do It: 

Step 1. Drape a loop resistance band evenly over the loaded barbell so both strands lie flat on the floor at the middle of the bar. Place each foot over both strands of the band at hip width (or your normal deadlift stance). Make sure the center of your foot pins the band down. If you cover it with only your heel or toe, the band may pop up while you’re pulling.

Step 2. Bend your hips back and hinge your torso over just like you’re doing a regular deadlift until you can grasp the bar just outside of your knees.

Step 3. Keeping your chest up and back flat, drive through your heels to lift the bar. Thrust your hips forward explosively to fight through the band tension and complete the rep.

Step 4. Drive your hips back and lower the weight to the floor under control.

Rack Pull Variations

(See 14:23 in the video.)

You can modify the training effect you get from the rack pull by adjusting how far off the floor the bar sits. The closer the barbell is to the ground, the more you’ll engage your glutes, hips, and lower back. The higher off the floor you start, the stronger the position you’ll be in and the more weight you can use, but the strength you build may not translate to your deadlift lockout as powerfully.

If you want to strengthen your deadlift lockout as directly as possible, set the barbell to just below the knees as we explained above; this is where most people run into issues finishing their deadlifts, and you can work to bring up this weak point. If you want to train your body to deadlift heavier weights, experiment with rack pull variations that have you start with the barbell closer to the middle of your shins. 

Sumo-Stance Rack Pulls

Why Do It: “Doing the rack pull with a sumo deadlift technique will allow you to train other muscles that will aid in building your conventional deadlift,” says McFarland, such as the adductors (inner thighs). Of course, if you do your deadlifts sumo style rather than conventional, the carryover to your sumo deadlift is obvious. Note, however, that because you’re pulling with a wide stance, you may need to lower the safety bars of the power rack even further to ensure the barbell continues to sit just below your knees.

How To Do It: 

Step 1. Set the safety bars of a power rack so the barbell sits just below your knees. 

Step 2. Assume a sumo stance by setting your feet wide, near the plates on the bar, and turn your toes slightly outward. Sit back into a quarter squat so you can get low enough to grasp the barbell with a shoulder-width grip, hands inside your thighs.

Step 3. Squeeze your butt and drive your hips forward to stand up with the barbell.

Step 4. Bend your hips back and lower the weight back to the safety bars under control. 

Who Should Do Rack Pulls?

(See 16:09 in the video.)

Anyone can perform rack pulls, but whether you should or not depends on your goals. Strength athletes—powerlifters and strongmen—or anyone looking to increase their one-rep maxes on deadlift variants will benefit the most from including rack pulls in their programs (see below for more details on how to do that).

Bodybuilders (competitive or hobbyists) can probably skip the rack pull. While it can build muscle in the glutes, hamstrings, and back, there are better exercises for targeting these muscles individually for maximum growth. The rack pull’s limited range of motion is one hindrance that makes it suboptimal for building muscle, as muscles seem to grow best when trained through a full range of motion, and possibly with specific emphasis on lengthened positions.

A 2023 systematic review published in the International Journal of Strength and Conditioning studied the effects of full and partial range of motion training on various outcomes (muscle hypertrophy, i.e. muscle growth, and muscular strength and power). The researchers found that training with a full range of motion was more effective than using a partial range of motion. 

Another 2023 study published in Sports had 19 women perform biceps curls in two different ranges of motion—from full extension to partially flexed (bottom-half reps), and partially flexed to fully flexed (top-half reps). After eight weeks, the bottom-half rep group saw greater biceps hypertrophy and strength gains, leading the researchers to believe that more muscle growth occurs in ranges of motion where the muscle is most stretched.

Another problem with the rack pull is the lack of focus on the eccentric, or lowering phase, of each rep. Muscles are stronger when they’re lengthening under load than when shortening (ever notice how you can control the weight easier on the way down than you can lifting it up?). That means that they don’t have to work as hard. So, in order to work the tissue maximally, you need to slow down the speed and emphasize tension as you lower the weight, so it gives your muscles the same stimulus on the way down as it did on the way up. This is why you often see bodybuilders lowering weights more slowly than they raise them up. While you can try to control your descent on a rack pull, the fact is that using heavy weights makes it impractical and dangerous to try for eccentrics that are two to three seconds long. Therefore, keep your rack pull reps controlled, but emphasize getting the weight up fast and explosively.

How and When To Incorporate Rack Pulls Into Your Training

(See 16:54 in the video.)

“Rack pulls are one of my favorite exercises to perform as a main movement, so perform them immediately following your warm-up,” says McFarland.

If you want to hit a new PR on your deadlift and have determined that your lockout is holding you back, McFarland recommends replacing your deadlift with rack pulls in three-week cycles. Gradually add weight for a series of warm-up sets, keeping your reps under 5, and work up to 100% of your deadlift max for a single rep. In Week 2, work up to a single rep with 105%, and then perform a single with 110–115% in the third week. For example, if you can currently deadlift 405 from the floor for one rep with good technique, use 405 on the rack pull in Week 1, 425 in Week 2, and 445 or more in Week 3.

In Week 4, deload by going back to your regular deadlift and working up to a single rep at 80–85% of your deadlift max. This will give your body a little break and keep your regular deadlifting skills sharp. The next week (Week 5), try for a new deadlift PR.

“Programming rack pulls closer to when you’re looking to max out will give your body the stimulation needed to prime the central nervous system [for greater strength],” says McFarland, “without fatiguing the muscles as much as the standard deadlift.”

The post How To Do Rack Pulls Like An Expert (The Complete Guide) appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Key Takeaways

1. The glutes are the most important muscles for full-body power, and a strong set will make you more athletic.

2. Warm up for a bodyweight glute workout by stretching your hip flexors and performing lateral band walks.

3. The hip thrust is a powerful glute-max exercise. Be careful not to hyperextend your lower back as you lock out your hips.

4. Kickbacks can work the glute max or the glute medius, the muscle on the side of your posterior.

5. The hip thrust and glute bridge are similar exercises that both work the glute max, but the bridge uses a shorter range of motion while offering more isolation.

4 Great Glute Exercises For Building Your Butt

(See 02:54 in the video above.)

The following bodyweight glute exercises come highly recommended by Juan Leija, an Onnit-certified coach and co-founder of Onnit Gym in Austin, TX (@juannit247).

1. Bodyweight Hip Thrust

Sets: 3–5  Reps: 8–12

(See 02:58 in the video.)

Step 1. Lie against a bench perpendicularly, so your shoulder blades are supported on the edge. Place your feet on the floor so that they’re in line with your hips. Your hips and knees should be bent about 90 degrees. Tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is perpendicular to your spine, and brace your core like you were about to get punched in the gut. Tuck your chin to your chest and drive your elbows into the bench for extra stability.

Step 2. Drive through your heels to raise your hips until they’re locked out. Be careful not to go so high that your lower back arches—stop when your hips and torso are level with the floor.

If 8–12 reps isn’t challenging enough with your bodyweight alone, you can increase the rep number to as high as 25. “Four sets of 25, or 100 total reps, would give you a killer glute workout,” says Leija. Another way to make the hip thrust more challenging with bodyweight alone is to do it one leg at a time. See our guide to the B-stance hip thrust.

The hip thrust, popularized by Bret Contreras, author of Glute Lab, works hip extension, the glutes’ primary function. While its mechanics are similar to that of a squat or deadlift, the hip thrust better isolates the glutes (although the quads and hamstrings are still involved to a degree).

2. Banded Glute Bridge

Sets: 3–5  Reps: 12–15

(See 04:39 in the video.)

Step 1. Place a circular resistance band just above your knees and lie on the floor with your hips and knees bent about 90 degrees. Place your feet in line with the hips or slightly wider so there’s tension on the band. Tuck your tailbone under and brace your core.

Step 2. Drive your legs apart to put more tension on the band. Now extend your hips to lockout as you did in the hip thrust.

The banded glute bridge trains two of the glutes’ functions simultaneously: moving the legs out to the sides and hip extension. “Be careful with your foot position,” says Leija. “The advantage of a glute bridge is the way it isolates the glutes. If your feet are placed too far forward, you’ll bring more of the hamstrings into it. If your heels are too far back toward you, you’ll use more quads,” and that defeats the purpose.

As with the hip thrust, if 12–15 reps doesn’t fatigue your glutes, take the reps up as high as 25. You can also do the glute bridge without a band and using one leg at a time, as we explain in our article guide to the single-leg glute bridge.

3. Banded Kickback

Sets: 3–5  Reps: 12–25 (each leg)

(See 06:51 in the video.)

Step 1. Loop a circular resistance band around your feet and slide it to just above your knees. Stagger your stance so one leg is in front of the other. Grasp onto a bench or other sturdy object for balance, and bend your hips back about 30 degrees while keeping a long spine. Bend your front knee slightly. Brace your core.

Step 2. Kick your rear leg straight back until your glute is fully contracted, and control it on the way down. Keep tension on the band at all times.

The kickback trains the glutes in hip extension just as the hip thrust does, but one side at a time. This allows you to get a little extra range of motion for more muscle recruitment. You can also aim your leg 30–45 degrees from your side as you kick back to put more emphasis on the glute medius muscle (the side of the butt cheek).

4. Sumo Pulsing Squat

Sets: 3–5  Reps: 10–20

(See 08:16 in the video.)

Step 1. Stand with feet outside shoulder width and your toes turned out about 30 degrees.

Step 2. Bend your hips back and squat as low as you can without your pelvis tucking under. Drive your knees out as you descend, and keep your torso as upright as possible (people should be able to see the logo on your T-shirt).

Step 3. Come back up about three quarters, and lower your body back down. Finish by coming back up to standing. That’s one rep.

“The glutes lose tension toward the top of a squat,” says Leija, “so spending more time in the bottom half of the movement keeps the glutes working where they work hardest.”

How To Stretch Your Glutes

(See 00:26 in the video.)

Warming up your hips on the front and sides will help reduce the risk of injury in your workout and may help you to feel your glutes better when you train them. Research has shown that being able to mentally connect to the muscles you’re working during an exercise may help to promote muscle recruitment and boost the results you see.

Leija recommends these two drills.

1. Hip Flexor Mobilization

(See 00:31 in the video.)

Step 1. Kneel on the floor with one knee. Both hips and knees should be bent 90 degrees. Now tuck your tailbone under so your pelvis is level with the floor. Brace your core.

Step 2. Shift your weight forward, moving your front knee past your toe, until you feel a stretch in the front of the hip on the back leg. Keep your hips and shoulders facing forward. Your front foot must also stay flat on the floor. Rock your weight back to the starting position and repeat for 2–3 sets of 5–10 reps on each side.

“Avoid leaning back and arching your back,” says Leija. “Keep your core engaged. Otherwise you’ll get the range of motion from your back and not your hip, which is the goal.”

2. Banded Lateral Walk

(See 01:41 in the video.)

Step 1. Loop a circular exercise band around your feet and pull it up to the thickest part of your calves—but if you feel more glute activation with it at your ankles or knees, try it there instead. Place your feet hip-width apart or wider, so that you put some tension on the band and feel your glutes starting to work.

Step 2. Hinge your hips back and bend your knees so you’re in an athletic stance—think: ready to catch a ball, tackle an opponent, or jump up in the air. Take a small step to your right, keeping your foot facing straight forward (don’t let your toes turn outward).

Step 3. Step your trailing foot in toward your lead foot so you’re back in a hip-width stance. Keep walking in that direction, keeping tension on the band the whole time. (If your feet come too close together, the band will go slack and your glutes will get to rest). Walk 5–10 yards each direction—that’s one set. Do 3 sets total.

Bridge Vs. Hip Thrust

(See 10:44 in the video.)

Many people use the terms “bridge” and “hip thrust” interchangeably when discussing glute training, but this isn’t accurate. Leija points out that while a hip thrust is intended to target the glutes very directly, it also works the hamstrings and quads to a certain degree, mainly because the range of motion is large. The glute bridge, on the other hand, uses a short range of motion (your back is on the floor, so you don’t have as far to extend your hips versus when you’re supported on the bench). As a result, the bridge won’t challenge all your glute muscle fibers, but it takes the hamstrings and quads out almost completely, better isolating the glute fibers it does hit. So the glute bridge is, arguably, a better option for mucle gain/physique transformation. Meanwhile, “the hip thrust is better for training hip explosion,” says Leija, making it the smarter choice for athletic applications (i.e., if you’re an athlete, you should probably spend more time thrusting than bridging).

Ultimately, both are solid exercises and build muscle and strength in the glutes, so use them in combination.

Benefits of Working Out Your Glutes

(See 00:15 in the video.)

The glutes are the most powerful muscles in your whole body. They’re also the biggest (the glutes are dense, so they may not look as broad as your quads or lats, but if you could flatten them out on the floor you’d see they’re huge). In day- to-day life, the glutes allow you to stand up, walk upstairs, and pull things up off the floor, so strengthening them is key for keeping quality of life as you get older. If you’re an athlete, “strong glutes help you run faster, jump higher, and lift more weight,” says Leija.

Since you’re reading this article, you’re probably also aware that the glutes are very aesthetic, sexy muscles, and that training them is one of the biggest trends in fitness. Unless you descend from the same gene pool as Jennifer Lopez or Kim Kardashian, the only way you’ll be able to get a rear that looks half as fine will be to build it with exercise—hence the reason we put this article together.

Master another great glute-building exercise with the B-stance RDL.

The post Bodyweight Glute Exercises & Stretches To Build A Bigger Butt appeared first on Onnit Academy.

What Are B-Stance RDLs and What Are Their Benefits?

(See 00:22 in the video above)

First, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about what regular old Romanian deadlifts are. The RDL is very similar to a conventional deadlift, but rather than picking the bar up off the floor, you start from a standing position with your hips locked out, and then bend your hips back as far as you can while keeping a little bend in your knees.

The RDL trains the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back, making it a great exercise for building muscle in those areas, as well as a good supplemental lift for the deadlift itself. Many lifters like to progress from the RDL to a single-leg RDL, where you perform the same basic movement but on one leg. Being able to do a single-leg RDL, or single-leg deadlift, demonstrates great balance and stability, so it’s arguably a good exercise for athletes to work on, but it takes a lot of practice for most people to achieve. It’s also not really a great choice for building muscle in your glutes and hamstrings, because you expend most of your energy trying to stabilize the movement—that is, keep from losing your balance and falling over. Single-leg deadlifts can’t really be loaded heavy, so there’s a diminishing return as far as gaining muscle and strength from them.

Now here’s where the B-stance RDL comes in. By taking your normal RDL stance and sliding one foot back and using it as a sort of kickstand, you can shift the load to your front leg, making the RDL more of a unilateral movement like the single-leg deadlift, but keeping most of the stability that makes the RDL such an effective muscle and strength exercise.

Therefore the B-stance RDL is a good progression from the bilateral RDL as well as a prerequisite or alternate for single-leg deadlifts.

Also, if you suffer from lower-back pain and find that regular two-legged RDLs are uncomfortable, the B-stance RDL may be a good alternative. You can’t lift as heavy with a B-stance as you can using a normal, two-legged stance, but in this case, that can be a good thing. Using lighter weight will place less strain on your lower back, but it will still be heavy enough to train one leg at a time effectively. The B-stance will also allow you to improve the mobility in your hips, one side at a time, so it may help to relieve the source of your back pain in the first place.

How To Do B-Stance RDLs

(See 02:20 in the video)

You can perform B-stance RDLs with a barbell, dumbbells, kettlebells, or a trap bar. We like the trap bar because it allows you to keep the weight very close to your center of gravity, which is easier on the lower back, so that’s the version that is depicted here. But the same mechanics apply to a B-stance RDL with any implement.

Step 1. Take the bar off the floor or a rack—if you’re going off the floor, you have to deadlift the bar up and into position, so be sure to do it with a flat back and lift with your legs. Now stand with your feet hip-width apart and soften your knees. From here, slide one foot back so that your toes are even with the heel of the other foot. Some people like to move the foot a little further backward or keep it more forward, but the toe-to-heel alignment seems to work best for most. Experiment and see what feels right to you.

Step 2. Brace your core, and bend your hips back as far as you can while keeping a little bend in your knees. You want your front knee to stay soft and just bend as needed to give your hips the greatest range of motion. The knee on your kickstand leg will bend a little more, but don’t try to bend either leg like you would in a squat.

Keep a long spine from your head to your tailbone as you push your hips back. You’ll feel a strong stretch in your glutes and hamstrings on the front leg. You want that stretch, because that means you’re working the muscles, but it shouldn’t be really uncomfortable. You also shouldn’t go to where you feel your lower back is beginning to round forward.

Step 3. As soon as you feel a strong stretch, and you know your hips are as far back as they can go with that stance, extend your hips to stand back up tall. Watch that you don’t hyperextend your back at the top. You want to be standing tall, not leaning back in an effort to push your hips forward even more.

Complete your reps (sets of anywhere from 5–10 reps are generally fine), rest, and repeat on the other leg.

What Muscles Do B-Stance Deadlifts Work?

(See 03:54 in the video)

B-stance RDLs will primarily target the gluteus maximus, your main butt muscle. But they will also hit your hamstrings and spinal erectors (the muscles in your lower back). Your core, of course, has to brace your spine throughout the whole movement, so you could argue that any RDL is an ab workout too.

Finally, if you go heavy on B-stance RDLs, they will demand a lot of work from your upper back and grip as well, just in supporting the load.

How Do B-Stance RDLs Compare To Other Romanian Deadlifts?

(See 04:20 in the video)

We already said that B-stance RDLs are easier on the low back than conventional RDLs. They also offer more range of motion than a bilateral RDL, so you can bend your hips back a little further and put a little bit more stretch on your glutes and hamstrings. Of course, the B-stance RDL is also more stable than a true single-leg deadlift, so you can lift more weight and provide a better stimulus for size and strength gains.

With all that said, the B-stance won’t allow you to go as heavy as conventional RDLs, so they’re not an ideal choice for building up your deadlift like regular RDLs are when done as an assistance lift. It’s good to use B-stance RDLs as an alternate exercise for the sake of variety, or if you’ve been experience low-back problems and want to train around them.

How To Stretch Before Doing B-Stance Romanian Deadlifts

(See 04:42 in the video)

The B-stance RDL is really just a hip hinge—you bend your hips back as far as you can while keeping a straight, flat back. For that reason, any hip hinge motion can serve as a warmup for it. A basic bodyweight hip hinge can do the trick.

Bodyweight Hip Hinge

(See 04:55 in the video)

Step 1. Stand with feet parallel and bend your knees slightly.

Step 2. Now drive your hips back as far as you can while keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone. When you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, or you can’t push your hips back any further without losing your spine position, come back up to standing. Do 3 sets of 10 reps.

Another warmup move that will stretch out the muscles you’ll use on the B-stance RDL is the reverse lunge.

Reverse Lunge

(See 05:21 in the video)

Step 1. Stand with your feet parallel.

Step 2. Now step back and lower your body toward the floor until your front knee is bent 90 degrees. 

Keep your torso upright and avoid twisting to either side. Perform 2 sets of 6 reps on each leg.

B-Stance RDL Exercise Alternatives

(See 05:38 in the video)

The B-stance RDL emphasizes the glutes when they’re at their most lengthened position—a deep hip hinge with your butt pushed all the way back. A nice complement to this kind of exercise is the B-stance hip thrust, another unilateral glute exercise that emphasizes the muscles when they’re in a shortened position—that is, they contract hardest when you’re near the end of the hip hinge and about to lock your hips out. Click HERE for a full tutorial on the B-stance hip thrust.

Another alternative exercise is the braced single-leg deadlift, as recommended by Bret Contreras, PhD, a glute-training expert and author of the book Glute Lab. Here, you hold onto something sturdy for support and perform a single-leg deadlift motion. The braced single-leg deadlift is a little more challenging than using the B-stance, and a little closer to doing a real, unassisted single-leg deadlift, so consider it a progression from the B-stance once you’ve got that down.

Braced Single-Leg Deadlift

(See 06:36 in the video)

Step 1. Set up a bench or other sturdy object so it’s at about arm’s length in front of you when your arm is at your side. You will hold onto it for stability. Now stand with your feet close and a light dumbbell in the opposite hand.

Step 2. You’ll start by working the leg that’s closest to the bench. Keeping a slight bend in that knee, push your hips back and extend your other leg behind you as you bend your torso toward the floor. Try to keep your hips square to the floor and maintain a long spine.

Step 3. Extend your hips to stand up tall again.

As you get more comfortable with the movement, you can reduce the support you get from the bench. 

For example, start the single-leg deadlift unassisted and then reach out and touch the bench only if you begin to wobble.

Want to conquer the single-leg deadlift next? See our guide to the single-leg deadlift in another recent blog post.

The post How To Do B-Stance Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs) Like A Pro appeared first on Onnit Academy.

What Are B-Stance Hip Thrusts and What Are Their Benefits?

(See 00:46 in the video above)

The B-stance hip thrust is sometimes called a “hip thrust with a kickstand,” or a “staggered-stance hip thrust,” because you use one leg for balance while the other one thrusts. Like the conventional bilateral hip thrust, you lie back on a bench (your body perpendicular to it), and raise your hips up to lockout, but in the B-stance thrust, you push with one foot while the heel of the other one stays grounded for extra support.

You see, most people start out with the regular bilateral hip thrust, where you work both glutes at the same time. Later, they try to progress to the single-leg hip thrust, which has you holding one leg up in the air while you thrust with the other one. The problem is, going from two-legged hip thrusts to single-leg thrusts is too big a leap for most people. It can be very hard to stabilize your hips and avoid twisting to one side when you’re doing true single-leg hip thrusts, and many people find that even their bodyweight alone is too difficult to control for more than a few reps.

That’s where the B-stance hip thrust comes in. It’s a nice intermediate exercise that’s more challenging than the basic two-legged hip thrust, but more stable than the single-leg hip thrust, so you can work one side at a time and build your balance without having to work too hard to keep your body aligned and on the bench.

In addition, because it’s a unilateral exercise, it allows you to isolate one glute at a time, which helps correct any imbalances you have between sides. Also, focusing on one muscle area at a time recruits more muscle in that area, which can help you add muscle size more easily. So, if you want a big, round butt, the single-leg hip thrust is a very good exercise choice.

Lastly, if you have lower-back pain, and you find that two-legged hip thrusts hurt to perform—maybe because you hyperextend your back at the top of the movement—you may find that the B-stance hip thrust is more comfortable to do. Because you’re essentially working one leg at a time, you can’t thrust as hard or as high, so it’s harder to overextend your range of motion. The single-leg hip thrust keeps the force where you want it—in your glutes—and out of your lower back.

How To Do B-Stance Hip Thrusts

(See 03:00 in the video)

The B-stance hip thrust builds off the conventional two-legged thrust. Once you’ve found a comfortable position for bilateral thrusts, it’s an easy transition to B-stance thrusts.

Step 1. Secure a bench against a wall or rack so it doesn’t slide; you can also weight it down with heavy dumbbells. Lie back on the bench, perpendicular to its length, so that the edge of the bench supports your body right under your shoulder blades.

If you’ve tried hip thrusts in the past and felt them too much in your lower back, you can try sliding your body up a little higher so the bench supports your mid-back rather than the bottom of your shoulder blades. 

Now extend your hips to get into the top position of the double-leg hip thrust, so your shoulders, hips, and knees are aligned. Adjust your feet so that they’re directly below your knees. Now when you lower your hips down, your stance should be set so that you can thrust with the greatest range of motion and good form.

Feel free to play around with your foot position, angle, and spacing a little more, and do a few practice reps, until you find a setup that’s the most comfortable and lets you feel your glutes working more than any other muscle. This will be your normal bilateral hip thrust setup.

Step 2. Now you’ll transition from the bilateral hip thrust to the B-stance. Extend one leg forward so the heel lines up with the toes on the planted foot. This partially-extended leg is called your kickstand leg. Keep the toes on your kickstand leg elevated so the weight of your leg is resting on that heel.

Step 3. Tuck your chin to your chest, and make fists with each hand, driving the back of your arms into the bench for stability. Tuck your tailbone under, and brace your core. Now drive through the foot of your planted leg to extend your hips until they’re locked out and parallel to the floor. Push both knees out a bit as you extend your hips, and keep your ribs pulled down so you don’t bend at the spine.

Your shoulders, hips, and knees should form a straight line in the top position.

According to Bret Contreras, PhD, author of Glute Lab and arguably the world’s foremost expert on glute training, the kickstand leg should only apply about 30% of the force in your B-stance thrust. Most of the work should be done by the leg that’s closest to your body. Remember, the kickstand leg is only supposed to provide some stability, so make your other leg’s glutes do the majority of the work.

Use your bodyweight alone until you’ve mastered the B-stance hip thrust technique. But when you think you’ve got it down, you can add a barbell to your lap for resistance, just as you do with the normal two-legged hip thrust. However: “I suspect that as you lift more weight,” Contreras writes in his book, “you will inevitably use your extended leg more to counterbalance the weight, which defeats the purpose of trying to load mostly one leg. So, as with the single-leg hip thrust, it’s better to keep the load light.” If you get to the point where B-stance hip thrusts for higher reps (north of, say, 10) don’t challenge you much anymore, it’s probably time to progress to the true single-leg hip thrust (with the non-working leg up in the air), which we explain in the B-Stance Hip Thrust Alternatives section below.

What Muscles Do B-Stance Hip Thrusts Work?

(See 05:40 in the video)

The B-stance hip thrust really works the gluteus maximus, which is your main butt cheek muscle, responsible for extending your hips. But it also trains the gluteus medius, which is on the side of your butt cheek, and the glute minimus, which lies under the glute medius. Both the medius and minimus work to stabilize the pelvis, so they will get trained by any variation of the hip thrust too.

While all variations of the hip thrust are fairly new exercises in the fitness world, research on them is mounting, and pointing to positive benefits both in terms of athleticism and glute muscle gains. A 2019 trial found that hip thrusting with a barbell improved subjects’ sprint performance. Meanwhile, in a landmark 2023 study, subjects were divided into two groups, with one team training the hip thrust and the other doing the barbell back squat—no other lower-body work was performed. After nine weeks, glute growth in both groups was roughly the same, indicating that the hip thrust is at least as good a glute exercise as the much beloved, age old, and tried-and-true squat.

Perhaps even more impressive, however, was another 2023 study that had two groups perform a full-body workout. One group did leg presses and stiff-legged deadlifts for their lower body in the session, while the other group did those two movements and then two sets of hip thrusts at the very end of the workout. Both groups saw gains. The non-thrusting group enjoyed a six percent increase in glute growth, but the ones who ended their workouts with thrusting grew their glutes by more than nine percent.

This gives us a little to think about. On the one hand, the subjects who hip thrusted did end up performing more work for their glutes than the other group did, which may account for their extra gains. However, you have to factor in that their hip thrusts were done dead last in the session, after they had trained both upper and lower body and accumulated a lot of fatigue. The body’s ability to recruit muscle fibers is greatly diminished for exercises that are done late in a workout—i.e., exercises done at the end of your workouts will never be as effective as those that are done at the beginning—so this suggests that the hip thrust may have outperformed the other glute exercises in the session (the leg press and stiff-legged dead), regardless of fatigue.

Note that all of the above research was done on the TWO-legged hip thrust, NOT the B-stance exercise, so it’s hard to say how B-stance thrusting compares to back squats, single-leg squats, leg presses, deadlifts, or anything else. But, until further research emerges, it’s a good bet that any hip thrust variation is going to be a solid choice for building the glutes.

How Do B-Stance Hip Thrusts Compare To Other Hip Thrusts?

The B-stance hip thrust is essentially the middle man between the bilateral thrust and the single-leg hip thrust, helping you progress from the former to the latter. It won’t allow you to train as heavy as the more stable, two-legged thrust will, but the B-stance will help you to better isolate the glutes on one leg at a time, while providing enough stability for you to train hard and safely. It’s also likely safer for the lower back than the bilateral thrust, because it lessens the risk of hyperextending the spine when you lock your hips out.

How to Stretch Before Doing B-Stance Hip Thrusts

(See 07:45 in the video)

Warm up and stretch out your glutes and hips prior to a B-stance hip thrust session with these moves, courtesy of Onnit-certified coach Eric Leija (@primal.swoledier). Do 2–4 sets each.

Pelvic Hip Circle

Reps: 3–5 reps

Stagger-Stance Hip Hinge

Reps: 5–10

Hinge Jump

Reps: 3–5

B-Stance Hip Thrust Alternatives

(See 06:12 in the video)

When you think you’ve got the B-stance hip thrust down, you can move up to the single-leg hip thrust, where you raise one leg in the air and work the other one without any support.

Single-leg Hip Thrust

Step 1. Set up as you did for the B-stance hip thrust but raise one leg off the floor entirely and bend that knee, bringing it toward your chest.

Step 2. Push your working foot into the floor and raise your hips until they’re roughly in line with your working knee and your shoulders. Remember to keep your ribs down and core braced.

Single-Leg Glute Bridge

If you want to isolate the glutes a little bit more, you can do a single-leg hip thrust motion on the floor, without a bench. This is known as a glute bridge. Bridging your hips up from the floor will decrease the range of motion some, but it will ensure that only your glutes do the work to move your hips (as opposed to the hamstrings, which do contribute a little bit to the hip thrust, while the quads kick in a little as well to extend the knee).

Luckily, we have a whole video tutorial on how to do the single-leg glute bridge in a separate article.

The post How To Do B-Stance Hip Thrusts Like An Expert appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Keep scrolling, and you’ll learn how to perform the single-leg glute bridge correctly, when to use it, and what to do instead if you find it too challenging (or too easy).

What Is The Single-Leg Glute Bridge?

In any glute bridge exercise, you lie on your back on the floor and use your glutes to extend your hips. In the single-leg version, just one leg works at a time while the other is tucked near your chest. Supporting your bodyweight on one leg is very challenging—your hips will have a tendency to tilt, and your lower back may want to take over the movement to compensate for your glutes (if they’re weak). Therefore, the single-leg glute bridge is not a beginner’s movement. If you’re new to glute training, or bridging specifically, you should start with the two-legged version (and we’ll go over it below).

The single-leg glute bridge doesn’t offer as much range of motion as other glute exercises, such as the hip thrust or Romanian deadlift. It works the glutes in a more shortened position, focusing on the lockout of your hips to extension. For this reason, it serves as a nice complement to other glute exercises. It can also be a good option for when you’re traveling, or other times that you don’t have access to heavy weights or other gym equipment. For most people, their bodyweight alone makes for a challenging workout and will only allow them a handful of reps.

How To Properly Do A Single-Leg Glute Bridge

(See 00:44 in the video above.)

Step 1. Lie on your back on the floor and set up to do a regular, two-legged glute bridge. Place your feet flat on the floor close to your butt so your shins are nearly vertical. Tuck your chin toward your chest. Bend your elbows and make fists with both hands, actively driving your arms into the floor. This will help brace your upper body. At the same time, tighten your core, pulling your ribs down.

Step 2. Push through your feet to raise your hips up to full extension and squeeze your glutes as you come up. It’s important that you don’t hyperextend your lower back at the top of the movement, so keep your abs braced (think: “ribs down”) and focus on pushing your feet hard into the floor rather than trying to drive your hips up as high as possible.

Step 3. Lower your hips back to the floor with control.

Do a few practice reps and think about how it feels. If you feel the exercise more in your hamstrings than in your glutes, move your feet in a little bit closer to your butt. If you feel it more in your quads or knees, move your feet further away from you. You may also want to experiment with where your toes point and how wide your stance is. When you find a comfortable position where you feel like you’re balanced and working mostly glutes, you’re ready to do the exercise with a single leg.

Step 4. Raise one leg off the floor and bend that knee 90 degrees. “Your single-leg glute bridge stance should look like your standard glute bridge stance,” says David Otey, CSCS, a trainer, gym consultant, and fitness book author (OteyFitness.com). Some people like to keep the non-working leg extended straight from the hip, but Otey says this makes the exercise unnecessarily harder, turning it into more of a balancing act when you really just want to focus on glute bridging. So keep the non-working leg bent.

Step 5. Drive through the foot that’s flat on the floor to raise your hips up. Your shoulders, hips, and working knee should all move in alignment. Now control the way back down.

Many coaches suggest pushing through the heel of your foot as you bridge, and sometimes even letting your toes raise off the floor, but Otey recommends thinking of your foot as a tripod and pushing through the heel, ball, and pinkie toe knuckle. “To develop the glutes, hamstrings, and the rest of the posterior chain muscles in a way that will translate to your other activities,” says Otey, “your body has to learn to push with full foot contact. That gives you the most stability and activation. When you do athletic movements, you can’t sit on your heels, so learn to press through the ground.”

Otey also suggests wearing flat-soled shoes, or no footwear at all, to facilitate stable contact with the floor. “Fluffy shoes like running shoes or other types with a big heel or padding will make it harder,” says Otey.

You’ll immediately notice how much more unstable the single-leg bridge is than the double-leg, so be extra careful to drive with your elbows and keep your core braced. Your hips shouldn’t tilt or twist.

Aim to do as many reps as you can, which may be a lot or only a few. That makes the single-leg glute bridge both a good strength exercise to do if you don’t have weights as well as a good high-rep burnout exercise for the end of a lower-body workout.

What Muscles Do Single-Leg Glute Bridges Work?

The single-leg glute bridge works (surprise!) the glutes, but Otey notes that it engages the glute medius and minimus more than most other glute drills. These muscles act as stabilizers for the pelvis and keep the head of the femur in the hip socket.

Your back extensor muscles and core have to work as well to keep your pelvis level throughout the motion, and your upper back has to engage to prevent your torso from collapsing.

Further down the chain, the hamstrings, calves, and anterior tibialis (the muscle on the front of your shin) can’t help but get involved too.

Difference Between A Single-Leg Glute Bridge and A Regular Glute Bridge?

Again, the regular glute bridge is done with two feet on the floor while the single-leg bridge uses one leg at a time. Since it’s more stable, the regular glute bridge will allow you to add more external load (such as a barbell) when you’re ready to progress it, whereas the single-leg bridge requires more balance and may be challenging enough for you with bodyweight alone. Both exercises train the glutes, but the single-leg glute bridge is a more advanced progression, and the better choice for developing the smaller glute muscles that provide stability for everyday life activities like running and jumping.

“It’s important to do single-leg movements,” says Otey. “It benefits smaller muscle groups that support a limb when it’s working on its own. When you do bilateral [two-legged] exercises, it’s like doing a group project in school: one or two kids do all the work and the others coast. But when you do single-leg stuff, every muscle has to do its job or the movement will fail. If you force the body to use weaker muscles, it will use them, and make them stronger.”

Because of its benefits to balance, Otey says the single-leg glute bridge is good for kids as well as people in their 90s who are trying to stay active. It can also improve range of motion in the hips, which is helpful for relieving or preventing lower-back pain. The more your hips can move, the less the lower back will involve itself in various exercises, and that takes pressure off the spine.

Difference Between a Glute Bridge and a Hip Thrust?

The glute bridge and hip thrust are two distinct exercises that are often confused. Glute bridges are always done with the back on the floor, and that means their range of motion is fairly short. A hip thrust is done with the upper back supported on a bench (shown in the photo above), and that allows you to sink your hips to the floor and then extend them to the height of the bench. This takes the glutes through their full range of motion, so many coaches argue that the hip thrust is a better glute exercise for glute muscle gains than a glute bridge.

However, because the hip thrust’s range of motion is so wide, it does recruit some hamstring and quad muscle as well, and can be done to bias those areas even more depending on how you set it up. For those reasons, some coaches counter that the glute bridge is a better glute exercise, as it isolates the glutes to a greater degree.

The truth is, both the glute bridge and hip thrust should be done for complete, balanced glute development, and that includes their single-leg versions.

Kas Glute Bridge vs. Hip Thrust vs. Single-Leg Glute Bridge

The Kas glute bridge is yet another glute exercise that often gets spoken of interchangeably with hip thrusts and glute bridges, but it’s really a separate exercise entirely. Named for the coach who popularized it, Kassem Hanson, founder of N1, an online training education course, the Kas bridge is a hip thrust with a shortened range of motion. (If you’ve been paying attention, you know by now that the term “bridge” implies that you do it on the floor, but this is NOT the case with the Kas glute bridge.)

You set up on a bench (usually with a barbell in your lap) and start with your hips locked out; then lower your hips about a third of the way down to the floor (or until your knees start to drift backward), and lock out again. This keeps the tension of the exercise squarely on the glutes, rather than involving the hamstrings and quads, as the basic hip thrust does.

You can perform the same movement with one leg (a single-leg Kas glute bridge), but the single-leg bridge on the floor achieves mainly the same thing.

Single-Leg Glute Bridge Alternatives

(See 02:16 in the video.)

The single-leg glute bridge is a lot harder than the two-legged glute bridge, so if you find that you can’t bridge up all the way or keep your balance, take it down a notch with a simpler exercise. One option is the B-stance glute bridge, which uses your non-working leg like a kickstand, providing a little more stability but still allowing you to work one side of the hips at a time.

B-Stance Glute Bridge

(See 02:28 in the video.)

Step 1. Set up as you did for the single-leg glute bridge and slide your non-working leg forward until the heel of that foot is even with the toes of the working foot.

Step 2. Now bridge up as you did for the single-leg glute bridge. The heel of the non-working leg shouldn’t really push into the floor—it’s just there to help your balance. Try to keep most of your weight on your working leg when you bridge.

Glute March

(See 03:00 in the video.)

Another alternative to the single-leg glute bridge that’s a little easier is the glute march. Here, you’ll bridge up with both legs and, keeping your hips elevated, raise one leg at a time like you’re marching your feet. When you master this move, you should be able to do the single-leg glute bridge with no problem.

Bret Contreras, PhD, a coach and world-renowned expert on glute training (@bretcontreras1 on Instagram) uses glute marches as his preferred regression of the single-leg glute bridge. In his textbook, Glute Lab, a comprehensive guide to glute training, he says that he often has clients do this movement as a warmup before they attempt the single-leg glute bridge, performing 2 sets of 20 reps (10 on each leg).

Two-Up, One-Down Glute Bridge

(See 03:16 in the video.)

A third option is to bridge up with both legs and then raise one leg off the floor and lower your body back down with the other leg. This will help you build control in your hips and set you up for a full-range single-leg glute bridge down the line.

Progression: Single-Leg Hip Thrust

(See 03:52 in the video.)

When you feel like you’ve mastered the single-leg glute bridge, Otey recommends you try the single-leg hip thrust, which increases the range of motion by resting your shoulders on a bench.

Step 1. Rest your upper back on a bench with your body perpendicular. The bottom of your shoulder blades should line up with the edge of the bench. Place your feet in front of you and find your comfortable stance. Bend your elbows and dig your arms into the bench for stability, making fists with your hands. Raise one leg off the floor and bend that knee, bringing it toward your chest.

Step 2. Push your working foot into the floor and raise your hips until they’re roughly in line with your working knee and your shoulders.

For more glute exercises and movements that build power and muscle on your back side, see 5 Posterior Chain Exercises for Stability and Strength.

The post How To Do The Single-Leg Glute Bridge Like A Pro appeared first on Onnit Academy.

– The posterior chain is the collective term for the muscles on the backside of the body that are the main drivers of explosive power.

– The posterior chain includes the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back, but also muscles of the upper body and core.

– Due to imbalanced training, the posterior chain is often weak in relation to muscles on the front of the body, especially the quads.

– Targeting the glutes and hamstrings with different exercises for power, strength, and muscle size will develop the posterior chain as a whole and build athleticism, as well as help to prevent injury.

5 Posterior Chain Exercises For Stability And Strength

What you can’t see can hurt you. Or, it can take your strength, muscle gains, and athletic performance to the next level.

What you can’t see, at least not without contorting in front of the mirror, are all the muscles on the backside of your body. The glutes, hamstrings, spinal erectors (lower back), lats, and a ­handful of other key movers. Collectively, these are known as the posterior chain.

Developing the pecs, abs, and biceps—aka, the “beach muscles”—might make you look good (at least from the front), but it’s the muscles on your backside that are most responsible for producing power, helping you dominate in sports and in the gym, and keeping you injury-free.

“On the front of the body are the ’show’ muscles,” says Jim Smith, CPPS, a strength coach and owner of Diesel Strength & Conditioning (Dieselsc.com). “The posterior chain is the ’go’ muscles.”

If you’re currently dedicating more time and intensity to your pecs and abs than your glutes and hams, it’s time to start focusing more on your rearview. This article provides a simple yet thorough guide to exactly why and how to train your posterior chain for better gains, better performance, and a better overall physique.

What is the Posterior Chain?

Some confusion exists as to what exactly constitutes the posterior chain. The glutes, hamstrings, and lower back muscles are the centerpieces, and represent the musculature most trainers are referring to when they use the term posterior chain. But it doesn’t stop there.

“There’s more back there than hamstrings and glutes,” says Jeff Jucha, owner and head coach at West Little Rock CrossFit in Arkansas (westlittlerockcrossfit.com). “The traps, lats, and other muscles along the spine are also part of the posterior chain.”

Smith adds a few more muscles to the count, including the adductors (which span from the front of the thigh to the rear), calves, and core musculature (not including the rectus abdominis, your six-pack muscle, which is obviously on your front). But basically, he says, “When you look in the mirror, [the posterior chain is] all the muscles you can’t see.”

Major Posterior Chain Muscles

– Upper, middle, and lower trapezius

– Posterior deltoids

– Latissimus dorsi

– Rhomboids

– Spinal erectors (erector spinae)

– Transverse abdominis

– Gluteus maximus, gluteus medius

– Hamstrings (biceps femoris, semimembranosis, semitendonosis)

– Calves (gastrocnemius, soleus)

The reason it’s called a “chain” is because these muscles all work together to create movement.

“The posterior chain works synergistically to propel the body forward, perform reactive agility, and initiate throwing, jumping, sprinting, acceleration, and deceleration of athletic movements,” says Smith. “The fancy term for how they work together is ’intermuscular coordination.’”

Why is Working Out the Posterior Chain Important?

Jumping, sprinting, and all the foundational gym lifts require posterior chain action. Squats, deadlifts, lunges, and their many variations, naturally use the muscles of the core and lower body, but classic upper-body lifts like rows, presses, and chinups call on the backside muscles too. If you’re bench-pressing properly, your glutes should be clenched and your feet driving into the floor. These actions help stabilize the torso.

The posterior chain is mainly responsible for hip extension (pushing your hips to lockout, which uses the glutes and hamstrings), knee flexion (bending your knees, working the hamstrings, primarily), and plantar flexion (raising up onto your toes, performed by the calves). While the pulling and retracting motions provided by the traps, lats, rear delts, and rhomboids are part of the chain, they get worked in most back and pull day workout routines (see examples HERE and HERE), so we won’t spend more time on them here. The lower-body posterior chain muscles are more often ignored, so they’re the focus of this article.

If you’ve been paying attention, you might be wondering about the quads. They’re not part of the posterior chain, but knee extension, initiated by the quadriceps, is obviously important for sports and strength athletes as well; it makes up one-third of the all-important “triple extension” sequence—the simultaneous extension of the hips, knees, and ankles to produce explosiveness. The problem is, lifters commonly overemphasize knee extension in their training. Most gym warriors like to do squats and leg presses (it’s fun to see the legs get a big pump). The posterior chain can also get undertrained simply because the lifter doesn’t see it in the mirror, and so working it is an afterthought. In any case, the result is quads that overpower the glutes and hamstrings, and a posterior chain that’s disproportionately weak. Therefore, most athletes would do well to prioritize the posterior chain and put the quads on the back burner for a while.

“There should be a balance,” says Smith. “Many athletes and lifters become quad-dominant, and begin their squatting patterns by initiating knee flexion first, instead of sitting back into their hips to engage the glutes. When lifters can’t sit back in a squat, the glutes get even weaker, the knees push forward, and that puts even more focus on the quadriceps.” It also shifts more of the load to the lower back, which can lead to injury. “The development of the quads is important for all things, including athletics,” says Smith, “but the hamstrings, glutes, and other posterior chain musculature must also be strengthened to create a balance of forces across the ankles, knees, and hips.”

Imbalanced development due to weak hamstrings, glutes, and other posterior muscles is a recipe for not only diminished strength and athletic performance, but also injury. Lower back and knee pain, just to name a couple common issues, are the debilitating byproducts of neglecting the posterior chain. This is because of the improper squatting Smith described above, as well as a general imbalance that has a domino effect on all movements and exercises.

“A weak posterior chain, especially in relation to the rectus abdominis, quads, and hip flexors, can create an increased potential for injury,” says Brian Strump, DC, a licensed chiropractor, certified strength coach, and owner of Live Active Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina. “The risk of low-back pain, hip pain, and knee pain are often greater with increasing imbalances in musculature. The body does best with similar push and pull capability of the muscles and tendons on the joints.”

Further down are five posterior chain-focused exercises to incorporate into your training to improve (or avoid) these issues, and boost your gains and performance.

How To Stretch Your Body Before and After Training

Perform the following exercises from Onnit Durability Coach Natalie Higby (TheDurableAthlete.com) before training the posterior chain. Complete each exercise in sequence. Work for 45 seconds on each move (don’t rush), and then repeat for 3 total rounds.

Sumo Squat

Step 1. Stand with feet outside shoulder width and feet turned out as far as you can. Tuck your tailbone under slightly so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor, and brace your core.

Step 2. Squat down while driving your knees out as much as you can. Keep your shoulders stacked over your hips. Note: don’t hinge at the hips as you would for a back squat movement—keep your body as vertical as possible.

Half Mountain Climber to Full Mountain Climber

Step 1. Get into a child’s pose—sitting back on your heels with both arms stretched in front of you. From there, come up to all fours, and then raise your right knee up to your chest, and plant your foot on the floor outside your right hand (your hands should be directly under your shoulders now).

Step 2. Extend your spine as much as you can, striving to create a long line from your head to your pelvis. Drive your shoulders back and down (think “proud chest”), and keep your right foot flat.

Step 3. From there, extend your left leg, raising your knee off the floor. Your torso may want to round forward, forcing you to lose your spine position. Fight it, and try to maintain extension.

Step 4. Lower your knee to the floor, return to child’s pose, and repeat the entire sequence on the opposite side.

Lying Sphinx

Step 1. Sit upright with your legs extended and rotated out 30–45 degrees.

Step 2. Twist your torso to the left, placing your hands on the floor outside your left hip and driving your shoulders back and down (“proud chest”). Keep your left leg as straight as you can, but allow your right leg to rotate inward as you turn.

Step 3. Bend your hips, trying to bring your torso closer to the floor. Feel the stretch in your left glutes. Come back up, and then twist to the opposite side and repeat.

After training, try this move from Onnit’s Director of Fitness Education, Shane Heins. Hold the position for 30 seconds, and repeat for 1–3 rounds.

Downward Dog

Step 1. Get on all fours, and push through your hands and feet to raise your knees off the floor.

Step 2. From there, push your hips back and high into the air, straightening your legs as much as you can while keeping your head, spine, and hips aligned. Don’t put your heels flat on the floor at the expense of your spine position—focus on length.

Top 5 Posterior Chain Exercises

These moves can be inserted into virtually any lower-body workout. As Smith mentioned, balance is the key—a balance between movements as well as muscles used. There’s no one-size-fits-all description for how to juggle your exercise selection, but a good rule of thumb is to include one of the below movements for every quad-dominant exercise in your program (i.e., back squat, front squat, leg press, leg extension).

If your training has been imbalanced for some time, or you consider your glutes, hamstrings, or lower back to be a major weak point, do twice as many posterior-chain exercises as you do lifts for the quads. For instance, if you want to barbell squat, you might begin the workout with cable pull-throughs and then follow the squat with Romanian deadlifts. (See more on placement of exercises below.) If you follow a body-part split, and find it hard to fit enough posterior chain moves into your leg day, you can add some of them (say, Romanian deadlifts or kettlebell swings) to your back day for some extra pulling—just space it two or more days apart from any leg day you do. Glute/hamstring/lower-back training pairs well with lat and upper back training, as both sets of muscles perform pulling motions and overlap to a degree.

1) Romanian Deadlift

Many will contend that the traditional deadlift is the “king of posterior chain exercises” (as if such a thing existed). It’s a great exercise, and it will absolutely build your posterior chain, but we’re putting the crown on the Romanian deadlift for this list. The conventional deadlift (and, really, the sumo deadlift as well), is very difficult for most people to do with good form. As a result, it’s been the cause of many back injuries. It also takes a lot of drilling to perfect the technique. The Romanian deadlift is more user-friendly, and works nearly all the same muscles (mainly the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back), so we’re giving it the edge here.

The Romanian deadlift (RDL for short) is performed with lighter loads than traditional deadlifts, and doesn’t involve pulling a barbell off the floor. You start at the top, hips locked out, and bend your hips into flexion. That means you’re less likely to round your lower back, regardless of any mobility restrictions you have in your hips. There’s also virtually no strain on the front side of the knee, because the knees remain only slightly flexed throughout the movement.

These features make RDLs a good alternative to traditional deads for those getting up in age, those who have a lot of miles on their joints already, or anyone else that’s concerned about wear and tear on the knees and lower back.

How To Do Romanian Deadlifts

Step 1. Place a barbell on a rack set to hip level. Grasp the bar with your hands at shoulder width, and pull the bar out of the rack. Step back, and set your feet at hip width; hold the bar at arms length against your thighs. Draw your shoulders back and down—think “proud chest,” and keep this upper body tension throughout the lift.

Step 2. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core. Begin bending your hips back. Keep your head, spine, and pelvis aligned as you slide the bar down the front of your body—keep it in contact with your legs. Allow your knees to bend slightly as you hip hinge. Continue until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings. On the way back up to standing, squeeze your glutes.

For most people, the bar will end up somewhere between the knees and lower shins in the bottom position.

Exercise Variations

The RDL can also be done with one leg at a time using a barbell, one or more dumbbells, or a barbell in a landmine unit (all of which are discussed in our guide to the single-leg RDL HERE). Single-leg RDLs are a must-do for ensuring balance between the right and left legs; with the standard double-leg version, a stronger side can potentially compensate for the weaker side and further magnify strength imbalances. One good strategy is to alternate between double- and single-leg RDL variations every other time you do RDLs. 

Sets/Reps/Load

Perform 3–4 sets of 6–10 reps on heavy days, and anywhere from 12–20 reps on light days.

2) Cable Pull-Through

Like RDLs, cable pull-throughs are a great way to zero-in on the glutes and hamstrings. But that’s not to say they’re just the same exercise with different equipment. Running the cable between your legs and behind your body creates a unique line of pull. On any deadlift variation, the resistance is pulling straight down; but with a pull-through, it’s going backward.

“Pull-throughs are great for teaching the hip hinge,” says Smith—your ability to bend your hips while keeping your head, spine, and pelvis in line—“because the line of pull of the cable drives the athlete’s hips back. The exercise also teaches a powerful lockout of hip extension at the top of the rep, which is important for jumping, deadlifts, and squats.” Another benefit to pull-throughs is that they’re easy on the lower back. You’re not loading it directly as you do in a back squat, deadlift, RDL, or good morning, so you’re not likely to aggravate it. You can just concentrate on extending the hips.

Because it’s something of an isolation move done with a cable instead of free weights, the pull-through may seem like a natural finishing move for a leg workout, but Smith actually prefers to program it early, before the big lifts. “Pull-throughs create a neural drive to the glutes, and work well as a primer before a loaded lower-body strength workout with exercises like squats and deadlifts,” he says. In other words, if you start your workout with pull-throughs you may feel your glutes and hams working harder on your other exercises, as well as feel that you have better control over them.

How To Do Cable Pull-Throughs

Step 1. Stand in front of a cable column, facing away from it, with a rope handle attached to the pulley. If possible, set the pulley height to where it’s right below your crotch, which will make for the most direct line of pull. Otherwise, use the low setting.

Step 2. Straddle the cable and grasp the ends of the rope in front of your thighs so that the cable runs between your legs and behind you. Step forward to raise the weight off the stack, far enough so that it won’t touch down at the bottom of the rep. Space your feet shoulder-width part.

Step 3. Push your hips back to slowly your lower torso, keeping your back flat throughout, and your knees slightly bent. Lower until you feel a stretch in the hamstrings.

Step 4. Extend your hips, focusing on contracting your glutes and hamstrings, to return to the standing position.

Exercise Variations

Pull-throughs can also be done with a resistance band. When using a band, anchor it to a sturdy object, and step far enough away from the anchor point to create a good amount of tension. As with the cable version, there should still be tension on the band at the bottom of each rep.

Sets/Reps/Load

Perform 2–3 sets of 12–15 reps using a moderate weight. As mentioned above, you can slot pull-throughs early in a lower-body workout, before compound moves like squats or deadlifts, but they also work well done for high reps to finish out a session.

3) Medicine-Ball Throw for Height

This exercise works similar to a jump squat, but don’t let the squat fool you into thinking this is just a dynamic quad move. As Smith puts it, what you have here is a “full-body expression of explosive power, utilizing the major joints of the body and the entire posterior chain working together as a single unit.”

This version of the med-ball throw first teaches you to decelerate. You drop into the squat quickly to generate power, but you put the brakes on fast so you don’t sink too low. Then it builds your ability to change direction on a dime, as you have to come back up out of the squat fast and jump up while launching the ball overhead. The ankles, knees, and hips do this, just as they work in any other triple extension movement.

In other words, with one powerful, lightly loaded move, you’re training your ability to absorb, redirect, and explode, all the way up the backside of your body, from calves to upper traps.

How To Do the Medicine-Ball Throw for Height

Step 1. Pick up a 10- to 20-pound medicine ball and go to an open area (no people or equipment close by), either outdoors, or a room with high ceilings. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, and hold the bottom portion of the ball at arms’ length in front of you.

Step 2. Keeping your head, spine, and pelvis in a straight line, quickly bend your hips back, and squat about halfway down.

Step 3. Rebound out of the bottom of the squat explosively, extending your hips and knees to propel you upward. As you do, throw the ball straight up in the air as high as possible. The movement should be so powerful that your feet leave the floor by a few inches at the top.

Step 4. Land with soft knees, and keep an eye on the ball to make sure it doesn’t hit you on the way down. Let it fall to the floor (don’t try to catch it), and then pick it up and perform the next rep. Don’t rush between reps—settle yourself and get back into proper position.

Exercise Variations

Medicine-ball throws can be done several different ways. The ball can be thrown out in front of you for distance, or even back behind you. You can also change the exercise by holding the ball in front of your upper chest and performing an overhead pressing movement as you come up from the squat, again releasing at the top and letting the ball fall back to the floor.

Sets/Reps/Load

Perform 2–3 sets of 5–8 reps using a 10-20-pound ball. The purpose of med-ball throws in this context is to develop explosive power; it’s not about building muscle directly or even conditioning. Keep the volume low, the weight light, and recover fully between sets with 2–3-minute rest periods. Do this move early in a lower-body strength session, before loaded squats, deadlifts, and/or lunges.

4) Kettlebell Swing

Kettlebell swings have become a poster child for posterior chain development in the last couple decades, thanks in part to the popularity of CrossFit and kettlebell training. When performed correctly, swings check off several important boxes.

“Not only does the kettlebell swing work your hamstrings and glutes, it also requires explosiveness and coordination from the trunk, core muscles, and shoulders,” says Jucha. “You’ll work the posterior chain, but you’ll also practice the essential hinge movement pattern for explosive power.”

The kettlebell swing is a unique exercise in that it’s effective for developing explosiveness, but it’s also commonly done for high reps to improve conditioning (as in CrossFit WODs). If doing the latter, proper form is paramount for keeping the lower back safe.

How To Do Kettlebell Swings

Step 1: Place a kettlebell on the floor and stand about two feet behind it with feet shoulder-width apart. Draw your shoulder blades together and downward (think: “proud chest”). Draw your ribs down, and tuck your tailbone slightly to make your pelvis level with the floor. Brace your abs.

Step 2: Bend your hips backward to lower your torso and grasp the handle of the kettlebell with both hands, overhand. Keeping a long line from your head to your pelvis, and your shoulder blades pressing downward toward your back pockets, shift your weight to your heels. Bend your knees slightly and lift the kettlebell off the floor and hike it back between your legs.

Step 3: When your wrists make contact with your inner thighs, forcefully contract your hamstrings and glutes and thrust your hips forward, coming into a standing position. The momentum you generate will swing the kettlebell forward and up to about eye level. Allow the kettlebell to swing back between your legs, folding at the hips and bending your knees slightly as the kettlebell swings down and back to begin the next rep.

Do not lift the kettlebell with your upper body, as if performing a front raise shoulder exercise. The swing is an explosive movement and the glutes and hamstrings must perform almost all of the work.

Exercise Variations

Kettlebell swings can be performed holding the weight in only one hand, and they can also be done holding one kettlebell in each hand (but that’s advanced). Swings can be done with a dumbbell in place of a kettlebell (holding it in one or both hands), but a kettlebell generally offers a better grip and is more practical.

Sets/Reps/Load

Kettlebell swings are most often programmed with relatively high rep counts—anywhere from 15 up to 50+ reps per set. That said, if you’re new to the exercise, start at the low end to build good technique without fatigue setting in.

Beginners to the swing (or lifting in general) should do 2–3 sets of 10–15 reps using a light kettlebell (10–15kg, or 22–33 pounds). More experienced lifters can work up to 3–5 sets of 25–50 reps using a heavier kettlebell (up to 24kg/53 pounds, or more for very advanced individuals).

5) Hip Thrust

When you want to target one particular group of muscles, isolation exercises are best. Three of the aforementioned posterior-chain moves—RDLs, pull-throughs, and kettlebell swings—focus on the hip hinge, with the upper body moving freely in space. To better isolate the glutes, the shoulders and upper back can be locked into place with a flat bench while the feet are anchored to the floor.

The hip thrust is an exercise utilized as much by physique athletes wanting to develop their glutes as it is powerlifters looking for a relatively safe way to load up the posterior muscles with heavy weight. As with the pull-through, there’s little stress on the lower back with hip thrusts.

We’d be remiss not to reference Bret Contreras here, aka “The Glute Guy,” and arguably the leading torchbearer of the hip thrust exercise. (He even invented a special piece of equipment, The Hip Thruster, specifically for this movement.) Research performed by Contreras and others has shown greater muscular activation by the hip extensor muscles (glutes, hamstrings) during the barbell hip thrust compared to other major exercises like the front squat and traditional deadlift.

“The hip thrust is incredibly functional,” Contreras states on his website BretContreras.com. “Not only does it safeguard people from injury to the knees, hips, and low back, it also transfers quite favorably to performance. Lifters and athletes who employ the hip thrust notice improved gait function at all speeds, increased hip power, stronger squats and deadlifts, increased throwing/striking power, and more. They build glute hypertrophy [muscle growth] incredibly well, and this added glute mass does wonders for improving functional fitness.”

How To Do Hip Thrusts

Step 1. Load a barbell on the floor. Lie with your upper back resting on a bench and your legs flat on the floor in front of you. Your torso should make a roughly 45-degree angle with the floor. Roll the bar into the crease of your hips (you may want a pad or towel to cushion it), and hold it firmly on each side. Place your feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart, and turn your toes out slightly.

Step 2. Tuck your tailbone so that your lower back is flat. Take a deep breath into your belly, and brace your abs. Drive through your heels to extend your hips, finishing when your torso and hips are parallel to the floor, and your shins are vertical. Hold the position for a moment.

Exercise Variations

Hip thrusts can (and should) also be done one leg at a time. When doing so, the technique and equipment is the same, only the non-working leg is lifted off the floor in front of you. You will, of course, have to use much less weight.

Single-leg hip thrusts are ideal for promoting balanced development between the right and left sides. Alternate between double-leg and single-leg versions every time you do hip thrusts.

Sets/Reps/Load

Perform 2–4 sets of 12–15 reps. Make sure you use a weight that allows you to reach full hip extension on every rep.

The post 5 Posterior Chain Exercises For Stability And Strength appeared first on Onnit Academy.

The Heavy Kettlebell Swing 10x10x10 is a quick workout, and by utilizing the Kettlebell Swing, you will hit every muscle in your entire body. Perform 10 rounds of 10 reps of work. Try and complete the entire workout in less then 10 minutes. This will require that you perform approximately 10 reps every minute.

Other Exercise Info

Tip Writer: Mark de Grasse
Demonstrator: John Wolf

The post Mach 10 Workout: Heavy Kettlebell Swing 10x10x10 appeared first on Onnit Academy.

This is a demonstration of the Forward Fold Pedal Drill Bodyweight Exercise. The Forward Fold Pedal Drill Bodyweight Exercise, is a great warmup for the glutes and hamstrings before any lower body training session.

The post Forward Fold Pedal Drill Bodyweight Exercise appeared first on Onnit Academy.

The Explosive Alt-leg Body Row is the next variation of the body row. Not only are you working your upper back and conditioning, but the lower body is working extremely dynamically. Targeting the glutes and hamstrings, while building explosive power.

The post Suspension Exercise: Explosive Alt 1-Leg Body Row appeared first on Onnit Academy.

The Battle Rope Anchored Squat Stance Traveling Row is a challenging full body movement combining a traveling squat with an upper body row. You are sure to feel a serious burn in your quads, glutes and upper back after a timed set of this brutal TUT exercise.

The post Battle Rope Exercise: Anchored Squat Stance Traveling Row appeared first on Onnit Academy.