What muscles does the kneeling landmine hip thrust work?

Hip extension drives it, so the glutes are what move you, with the hamstrings assisting. Your abs and lower back stop the torso folding or arching, and your arms and shoulders carry the bar at your chest for the whole set.

Is this the same as a hip thrust?

Same joint action, different arrangement. In a hip thrust the bar lies across your hips and a bench takes your shoulders. This holds the bar at your chest with your knees on the floor, so the weight has to travel through your trunk before it reaches the hip that is working.

Does kneeling make it better for your glutes?

There is no evidence that it does. The closest thing measured is a comparison of squats done standing, kneeling and half kneeling, in which the fully kneeling version produced the least muscle activity of the three. Different exercise, so it settles nothing, but it argues against assuming that removing your feet helps.

Why do my knees hurt doing this?

Because you are kneeling with a load on. Padding is the answer and a thick pad beats a thin one. If something hurts and keeps hurting, that is a question for a physiotherapist.

How far back should you sit?

Far enough that the back of your hips takes the load, and not so far that you land on your heels. Once you are sitting on your shins, the hips have stopped working and the next rep starts from nothing.

How heavy should the bar be?

Less than you expect, and much less than you would put on a bench hip thrust. What holds the bar is your chest and your arms, so the limit turns up long before your glutes are finished.

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Barbell · intermediate · upper legs

Barbell kneeling landmine hip thrust

Also called Tall kneeling landmine hip thrust, Kneeling landmine squat, Tall kneeling hip thrust, Landmine hip thrust.

The short answer

From a kneeling position facing an anchored barbell, you hug the loaded end to your chest, sit back toward your heels, then drive your hips forward until you are upright on your knees. The glutes open the hips and that is what the exercise is for, with the hamstrings assisting. Two things separate it from a hip thrust on a bench: the weight is held at your chest instead of resting across your hips, and your feet are behind you doing nothing.

How to do it

Step onePlace a barbell in a landmine sleeve and kneel in front of it, holding the bar end at your chest.
Step twoSit back onto your heels with the bar hugged to your chest and your torso upright.
Step threeDrive your hips forward explosively, pressing the bar upward through hip extension.
Step fourSqueeze your glutes at the top of the movement.
Step fiveReturn to the starting position with control.

What usually goes wrong

Each starts with what you would notice.

You finish every rep leaning back, and it is your lower back you notice afterward.

WhyThe bar is pulling forward from your chest all set, and tipping backward is the least effortful reply to that. Once you go past upright, the extra travel is coming from your spine instead of your hips.

FixFinish with your shoulders stacked over your hips and your hips over your knees, then stop. If you need the lean to feel like the rep ended, take a plate off.

Your knees are what stop the set.

WhyYou are kneeling under load, so everything goes through the front of the knee and whatever happens to be underneath it.

FixKneel on something thick. A folded mat or a proper pad is the standard answer and it is not optional on a hard floor.

The bottom of each rep feels like a rest.

WhyYou have sat all the way down onto your heels, which parks your weight on your shins and lets the hips off entirely.

FixStop just short of the heels, at the point you can still feel the back of your hips holding you up. The useful range is shorter than it looks and shorter than it feels good to use.

You cannot get much weight on before the bar itself becomes the problem.

WhyYour arms and trunk carry the load at chest height for every second of the set. The weight only reaches your hips by going through your torso first, so your torso decides how much of it gets there.

FixExpect a much lighter bar than a bench thrust and stop putting the two numbers next to each other. What limits this one is the route the load takes to your hips.

Kneeling landmine hip thrust or barbell hip thrust

What separates them is the route the load takes. On a bench the bar lies across the hip that is doing the work, so the weight is applied at the joint resisting it. Kneeling, the bar is at your chest, and it only reaches your hips after passing through your arms and your trunk. Both of those become part of what ends the set.

The bench version has been measured, in 13 trained women, and produced roughly double the glute activity of a back squat at a matched load. Nobody has measured the kneeling version, and guessing at it would be the same trick every other page about this movement is already pulling. Nobody has measured where the kneeling version is hardest, and guessing at it would be the same trick every other page about this movement is already pulling.

And the assumption that kneeling hands more of the job to the glutes has been poked at once, in a related movement. When squats were measured standing, kneeling and half kneeling, glute activity came out highest in the half kneeling position, and fully kneeling was no better than standing. That is not this exercise and it settles nothing. It does mean taking your feet out is not automatically an upgrade.

Sparing the lower back, which nobody has measured

This gets sold as a way to isolate the glutes and spare the lower back. Neither has been measured, here or against anything else, and the second one deserves a second look before you accept it. The load is applied above the hip rather than at it, which is not obviously the gentler arrangement.

You cannot load hip extension here the way a bench thrust does. The ceiling here is your arms and your trunk holding a bar out at chest height, and that ceiling arrives early.

What it does offer is hip extension with no feet involved and no bench needed, which is a real thing to have if you own a landmine and nothing to lie back on. If you have a landmine and nowhere to lie back on, that is a real thing to have.

What it is for

The landmine kneeling hip thrust is a glute-focused exercise that uses the landmine to add resistance to a hip thrust performed from a kneeling position. It isolates the glutes and hamstrings while reducing lower back strain compared to a standard hip thrust.

Questions people ask

What muscles does the kneeling landmine hip thrust work?: Hip extension drives it, so the glutes are what move you, with the hamstrings assisting. Your abs and lower back stop the torso folding or arching, and your arms and shoulders carry the bar at your chest for the whole set.
Is this the same as a hip thrust?: Same joint action, different arrangement. In a hip thrust the bar lies across your hips and a bench takes your shoulders. This holds the bar at your chest with your knees on the floor, so the weight has to travel through your trunk before it reaches the hip that is working.
Does kneeling make it better for your glutes?: There is no evidence that it does. The closest thing measured is a comparison of squats done standing, kneeling and half kneeling, in which the fully kneeling version produced the least muscle activity of the three. Different exercise, so it settles nothing, but it argues against assuming that removing your feet helps.
Why do my knees hurt doing this?: Because you are kneeling with a load on. Padding is the answer and a thick pad beats a thin one. If something hurts and keeps hurting, that is a question for a physiotherapist.
How far back should you sit?: Far enough that the back of your hips takes the load, and not so far that you land on your heels. Once you are sitting on your shins, the hips have stopped working and the next rep starts from nothing.
How heavy should the bar be?: Less than you expect, and much less than you would put on a bench hip thrust. What holds the bar is your chest and your arms, so the limit turns up long before your glutes are finished.