Episode 37 - Bret Contreras PhD

Sports Science Dudes

We had a fun discussion about the current state of science vis a vis Squats vs. Hip Thrusts

See this paper for more information:

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.21.545949v2

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

Timeline:

00:23 – About our special guest, Bret Contreras PhD

1:48 – Boca Raton is one big Seinfeld episode

3:48 – Bret explains how this study came about

3:56 – The infamous Barbalho investigation – to quote Elaine on Seinfeld, “fake, fake, fake.”

12:18 – Gluteus medius and minimus didn’t grow

13:00 – Gluteus maximus growth was the same between hip thrusts and squats despite the fact that sEMG data showed much greater activity when doing hip thrusts

13:56 – No hamstring growth in either group

14:11 – Quads and Adductors grew more for the squat group

14:30 – Strength gains were specific to the exercise – principle of specificity

15:00 – Both groups gained similar strength in deadlift and wall push

16:12 – Just do both exercises if the goal is skeletal muscle hypertrophy

17:57 – Sprinters have the best hamstring development – Bret opines

19:14 – Upper glute size – in the hip thrust group, you had 3 hyper-responders, but then you had 3 that actually experienced muscle atrophy. And you also had 3 that didn’t respond at all. So 1/3rd of the subjects had no response!

19:42 – Middle Glute size – in the hip thrust group, one individual actually atrophied.

20:45 – Squats produced much more consistent results

21:37 – Bret is now quite suspicious of EMG data in predicting skeletal muscle hypertrophy

26:12 – Bret talks about how training has changed or not; for men, not so much. For women, it has changed a bit.

26:40 – Focus on the basics: squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, chin ups, military press, and bench press

27:10 – Glute training is emphasized a lot more these days, particularly in women

31:13 – Targeting the Adductor Magnus! Folks seem to ignore this large muscle and focus on Quads or Hams

33:44 – Opening your hips – means hip abduction with external rotation

38:48 – For athletes, Tony opines on these issues

46:20 – In trained men and women, would there be a difference in hip thrusts vs. squats

46:36 – In the real world, nobody volume-equates hip thrusts vs. squats

47:10 – You can do more volume with hip thrusts than squats; so a study comparing them in trained people would necessarily result in greater volume in the hip thrust group

50:11 – Of course, doing both squats and hip thrusts would work better

51:13 – Volume equating training in the endurance world makes no sense either

54:30 – Bret has a bad ass gym in Fort Lauderdale. Don’t stop by unless you want bigger glutes.

Our guest:

Bret Contreras PhD – bretcontreras.com

· PhD in Sports Science from AUT University

· Master’s Degree from Arizona State University