Hip joint kinetics during the barbell hip thrust

The barbell hip thrust is thought to overload the hip extensors near full extension. The aim of this study was to quantify the hip joint kinetics of a full repetition of the barbell hip thrust. Seven participants performed 3x3x70% 1RM barbell hip thrusts, during which external force (1000 Hz) and full body kinematics (250 Hz) were captured. Inverse dynamic analysis revealed a double peak in the hip extensor moment through the repetition, with maximum hip extensor moment (3.13 ± 0.48 Nm/kg) occurring early in the movement, when the hip joint was close to 90° flexion. Despite the changes in magnitude of hip extensor moment during the repetition, the moment remained extensor dominant throughout, which provided some support for the force vector theory and the previous suggestion that the hip thrust effectively overloads the hip extensors near full extension.