Add a dumbbell to your thrust and watch the glutes light up.
Keep the dumbbell pinned to your hips and finish with a hard glute squeeze.
The dumbbell hip thrust delivers the same hips-up glute squeeze as the barbell version with a setup that takes seconds, just a dumbbell resting across your hips and a bench behind you. Driving through the heels to full extension loads the glutes at their strongest point, with the hamstrings assisting from the bent-knee position. It's the ideal entry to loaded glute work, and a high-rep burner long after you've graduated to heavier tools.
Dumbbell for fast setup and higher-rep sets, barbell once the heaviest dumbbell stops being a challenge. The movement is identical, so start here and move up when the squeeze gets easy.
Hold it steady with both hands and keep it pinned to your hip crease the whole set, as the steps describe. A towel or pad under it kills the digging and stops the wobble.
Until your torso is parallel to the floor and your hips are fully open, finished off with a hard glute squeeze. Higher than that just becomes a back arch, which is exactly what to avoid.
