This week’s guest is Dr. Bret Contreras. Bret rose to fitness fame a decade ago when he showed the world the “hip thrust” exercise, and wrote a series of excellent articles for T-Nation on hip extension training. Since then Bret has been pumping out top-notch information through his blog bretcontreras.com on not just glute training, but a variety of areas related to sports performance, including that of speed and sprinting.
Bret has been a major contributor to the field of sport science on all things hip extension. Although Bret has done a lot on the scientific side of things, it is out of his experience as a trainer that things like the hip thrust were born, and Bret continually makes it a point to have an active clientele to train.
On the podcast today, I’ll ask Bret questions on many aspects of strength, speed training, and transfer. If you work with anyone who wants to run faster, the hip thrust often finds its way into the conversation. Bret’s unbiased mind in the arena has allowed him a clear view of how to look at research and factors that make people fast (and corresponding special exercise considerations).
I feel a lot of coaches (including myself) have heard things in the speed training world for so long that we take them for granted, but Bret’s knowledge of current research and open-mindedness on the topic is what makes this podcast is a must-listen for anyone interested in the role hip extension and the hamstrings play in athletic speed, along with ideas on how to best train it.
Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.
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Key Points:
- Bret’s background, and how he became the “Glute Guy”
- Movements other than the hip thrust Bret likes for glute development
- Finding the optimal load for hip thrusts for sprint development
- The superiority of hip thrusts for horizontal force, and pushing force, production
- Single vs. double leg hip thrusts and individualization and application towards optimal glute development
- The process of finding optimal exercises for individual glute activation
- Discussion on band-vector based deadlifts
- Ideas on squat depth, strength development and athletic performance
- Nordic hamstrings and hamstring training ideals for athletes
- Dynamics of bi-articular muscles in athletic performance and training
- Bret’s research on front squats vs. hip thrusts in adolescent male rugby players and effects on sprinting and jumping
- Vertical vs. Horizontal forces in sprinting
- The role of external vs. internal focus and cueing
“With EMG, back extensions get super high levels of (glute) activity”
“Some people get increased (glute) EMG activity as they increase in load on hip thrusts, some people do not”
“Hip thrusts might be even better for distance running than sprinting”
“The hamstrings are the most important muscle for sprinting speed”
“I think we’ll find over time that some of our methods… we probably do go too heavy in our training”
“We can say what’s best for the masses, but (for best results) you have to individualize one’s training (in respect to their place on the force velocity curve)”
“There have been three training studies now on single vs. double leg squats vs. Bulgarian split squats and lunges and stuff like that on performance, and they always tie each other. There is no strong reason to do one or the other, so I suspect it would be similar with hip thrusts, but what I will tell you is that it depends on the individual”
“I never do combination movements; you can have someone do a deadlift with a band behind them, so they’re being pulled into hip flexion so you are combining an axial and posterior vector. Theoretically you get the best of both worlds, but it doesn’t work out that way, it feels awkward.”
“(The hamstring quadrant of doom): If you have poor eccentric hamstring strength, along with short hamstring fascicle length, you have a much higher chance of injuring yourself. Guess what Nordic hamstrings do, they increase eccentric hamstring strength and they increase fascicle length.”
“There’s research showing specific growth factor release during eccentrics, not only in the muscle, but also the tendon, you get greater IGF1 and lower myostatin release inside the muscles”
“As you speed up from 3m/s to 10m/s the joint power that rose the most in sprinting was hip extension and knee flexion… JB Morin’s paper found that the fastest athletes were those that had activated their hamstrings to the highest degree just prior to touchdown and also had the greatest eccentric knee flexion torque production”.
“(In adolescent rugby players) Hip thrusts transferred better to acceleration where the front squat transferred better to vertical jump”
“What you’ll find is that vertical forces top out around 60-70% of max speed, but horizontal forces increase linearly as you speed up”
“There’s no horizontal or vertical force in a sprint, it’s ground reaction force, you put force into the ground, there’s a magnitude and a vector”
“You don’t need to look at force production in max speed, you need to look at rate of force production”
“If NASA wanted to figure out this (sprint force debate), they could do it in one week”
“I don’t like black and white, in science, things aren’t black and white”
“I believe internal cueing is best in fixing (lifting) form; the goal is not only to lift the most weight in training, you don’t want the development of bad habits; I have yet to find a good external cue for valgus collapse”
“(talking bodybuilding) There’s all these studies showing higher EMG reading when using internal focus”
Show Notes:
Frog pump exercise:
Nice article by JB Morin highlighting many of the things Bret talked about:
Sprint Acceleration Mechanics: The Major Role of Hamstrings in Horizontal Force Production
About Bret Contreras
Bret Contreras, PhD is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) from the National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA) in the USA.
He graduated from Arizona State University with a Masters Degree before achieving his PhD in sports science, in the field of biomechanics from Auckland University of Technology. He since contributed to the field of sports science extensively, with his primary contributions being regarding hip extension joint actions, specifically the hip thrust exercise, as well as in relation to the contribution of the gluteus maximus muscle to lower body sporting movement.
A famous strength coach, speaker, and researcher, Bret is widely regarded as the world expert on the gluteus maximus and in the resistance training exercises used in its development.
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