Dominant Hips

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Dominant Hips

6 Best Hip Dominant Exercises to Build Glutes/Hamstrings
Legs 5 min Read




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Hip dominant exercises are movements that target both the glutes and hamstrings. These exercises are also referred to as lower body pulling exercises.
The opposite of hip dominant/lower body pulling exercises are knee dominant/lower body pushing exercises, and those are covered in the article below:
Hip dominant exercises are a critical part of developing your lower body and cause tremendous growth in the posterior chain. This growth in the posterior chain will lead to big deadlifts, and strong low bar squats.
Primary movers are the muscle groups in an exercise that produce most of the force. They will also grow the most and build strength.
Hip dominant exercises consist of three primary movers:
The interesting part is that different hip dominant exercises will activate these muscles to various degrees.
Some lower body pulling exercises will target the hamstring very well but not lead to great growth in the low back muscles. Others will work the glutes hard while largely ignoring the hamstrings.
You need to include a variety of hip dominant exercises to ensure you grow as strong as possible.
I’ll outline in each section which muscles the move hits well.
Deadlifts are the ultimate hip dominant exercise.
Use them to build full-body strength with an incredible carry over to life outside the gym .
Deadlifts hit the hamstrings, glutes, and spinal erectors (the muscles on both sides of the spine and travel from the base of the skull down to your butt).
You can use the deadlift to measure your strength, and to diagnose which hip dominant muscles need more work.
This move isn’t a great hypertrophy move unless you stress the lowering portion (eccentric phase) of the lift. Instead, focus on building strength with a powerful concentric phase (the lifting part).
Just make sure you are doing them right by reading the article below.
Nothing, and I mean nothing , will build your glutes like good hip thrusts.
You can do hip thrusts with bodyweight only. Then you can up the ante and add weight to your lap. If you want a good glute workout, put weight on your lap and a band around your knees.
If you are interested in more targeted glute work you can download the free guide below for a dedicated glute training program.
Romanian deadlifts will destroy your hamstrings in the best way.
Since the hamstrings cross two joints: the hips, and the knees, hinging at the hip is an excellent way to force growth. The other way to work the hamstrings is with a lying hamstring curl machine–this is a much less functional exercise and should not be the primary exercise for your hamstrings.
If you do Romanian deadlifts with great technique you will also get an excellent mid-back workout.
Learning to do these with the perfect technique will help your deadlifts tremendously.
Romanian deadlifts are the best single exercise for improving your conventional deadlift.
Good mornings follow a very similar pattern to Romanian Deadlifts.
The critical difference is that instead of having the weight in your hands, it is across your shoulders like a squat.
The good morning shifts the posterior chain focus from your hamstrings to your low back and glutes.
The key to great good mornings is to hinge at the hips, and when you reach the point that going any lower would force you to lose tightness in your back, squat just a little to get max range of motion in the hip.
My favorite way to do good mornings is with a safety squat bar. If you have access to a safety squat bar I suggest giving it a try.
Like all unilateral exercises, single-leg Romanian deadlifts are great for exposing asymmetries.
This exercise will challenge your balance and let you know if you have one leg stronger than the other (most of us do).
The key is to hold the dumbbell or kettlebell in your left hand when using your left leg and your right hand for the right leg. Holding the weight in the same arm as the leg you have on the ground will help balance the leg you are holding in the air by adding a counterweight.
The goal is not to get the dumbbell or kettlebell all the way to the ground. Your goal should be to get as much stretch in your hamstring as possible as early in the movement as you can.
These are tough and great for your glutes and hamstrings.
The hardest part about this exercise is keeping your balance while using a weight heavy enough to challenge your posterior chain.
Keep the weight lower and use high reps, an extensive range of motion, and slower reps to challenge yourself while staying balanced.
You can do these with a cable machine like we do in the video below, and you can also substitute a resistance band. Resistance bands are great because you can bring them anywhere and they are cheap to buy.
If you’re reading this list of hip dominant exercises you may also be looking to improve your conventional deadlift skills.
The deadlift will challenge how well you can muster the strength of your entire body.
If you want to become a deadlift pro you need to check out the article below.
Glutes are essential for hip dominant exercises, and you need to target them to build your other lifts.
If you find that you feel deadlifts the most in your low back you may have weak glutes.
Check out the Serious Guide to Glute Training to maximize their development.
Keith was an All-State wrestler in high school and in 2007 hung up his singlet to attend Florida State University to pursue a B.S. in business management. He wasn't sure what industry he wanted to be involved in at the time, but soon realized after graduating in 2011 that fitness was the ever-constant activity in his life. Keith began studying to become a personal trainer and in 2013 earned the National Strength and Conditioning Association's Personal Trainer certification. After a short stint as a big box gym trainer he realized he wanted to bring something different to Tallahassee. Keith competes in Powerlifting, Olympic Weightlifting, and Crossfit.
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By Trevor Thieme C.S.C.S. Published: Feb 28, 2022
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The distinction can help you plan more balanced lower body training.
This is Your Quick Training Tip , a chance to learn how to work smarter in just a few moments so you can get right to your workout.
Everyone wants chiseled pecs, six-pack abs, sleeve-busting arms, and a V-shaped back, but there’s a reason why “leg day” is a thing and “chest day” largely isn’t. Some of your largest muscle groups are located below your waist, after all, and even if you don’t give each of them their own dedicated day in your weekly routine, emphasizing those lower body muscles in your workouts can help you pack on more lean mass and burn more fat—not to mention boost total-body power and athleticism. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about your leg-focused workout splits.
The wrong way is to give the muscles you can see in the mirror preferential attention. Trainers refer to these muscles collectively as the “ anterior chain ” since they run along the front of your body. Moves that target the biggest muscles below your waist (i.e., your quads) are called “knee-dominant exercises,” because that’s the primary joint they flex. The squat, lunge, and step-up all fall into this category.
On the flip side are the muscles of the posterior chain . The glutes and hamstrings are both members of this group, and since one of their primary functions is to flex the hips, moves that work these muscles are known as “hip-dominant exercises.” Examples include the deadlift, good morning, and hip thrust.
If you’re looking to build balanced musculature and strength in your lower body, it’s important to not give these rear-focused exercises short shrift in your workouts just because they're not facing the front.
Your move: Include an equal number of knee-dominant and hip-dominant exercises in your training program. Skewing the balance one way or the other can result in muscle imbalances that can not only affect your performance in and out of the gym, but also increase your risk of injury.
For most guys, hip-dominant moves are what’s lacking. You can that around with 12 of the best exercises for working your glutes and hamstrings .
Trevor Thieme is a Los Angeles-based writer and strength coach, and a former fitness editor at Men’s Health. When not helping others get in shape, he splits his time between surfing, skiing, hiking, mountain biking, and trying to keep up with his seven year-old daughter.
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Matt has been a personal trainer for more than 18 years. He is also a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, has a master's degree in teaching, and is a former competitive powerlifter and CrossFit athlete. His passion is helping others get in shape from mid-life and beyond.
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Understanding the differences between knee dominant and hip dominant exercises is important when it comes to structuring your training program.
Without this understanding, you can end up overtraining certain muscles, especially your areas of strength, and developing strength and muscle imbalances.
So, what is the difference between knee dominant and hip dominant exercises? Knee dominant exercises primarily train the quadriceps , working through knee flexion and extension. A prime example is the leg extension. Hip dominant exercises primarily train the glutes, hamstrings, and adductors , working through hip flexion and extension. A very specific example is the hip thrust.
And your own limb length can determine which of these movement patterns you are more comfortable with, often leading to imbalances.
By the end of this article, you will understand the difference between knee dominant and hip dominant patterns of movement, exercises that fit each category, how your limb length affects your dominant movement pattern for lower body exercises, and how to design your own strength training program to maximize balance.
Heads up: this page includes affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products or equipment I have personally vetted.
Knee and hip dominance describe the muscle groups and joints that are targeted by specific exercises.
Hip dominant exercises require movement (flexion and/or extension) about the hip joint, with minimal extension or flexion of the knee joint. This movement pattern primarily targets the glutes and hamstrings.
Knee dominant exercises involve movement (flexion and/or extension) about the knee joint, with minimal movement of the hip joint. This movement pattern primarily targets the quadriceps .
It’s important to understand that while some movements do isolate the quadriceps, glutes, or hamstrings by focusing on one of these movement patterns, most exercises train both of these patterns simultaneously.
How you perform an exercise and the length of your legs relative to your torso can also affect how hip or knee dominant an exercise is. We’ll cover this later.
There are 4 key differences between knee dominant and hip dominant exercises.
The biggest difference between knee dominant and hip dominant exercises is the muscle groups they primarily target.
Hip dominant exercises primarily train the glutes, hamstrings, and adductors.
Knee dominant exercises primarily train the quadriceps through knee extension, but can also train the hamstrings through knee flexion.
Hip dominant exercises are designed to maximize the range of motion occurring at the hips, while limiting it at the knee.
Quad dominant exercises, on the other hand, are designed to maximize the range of motion at the knee, while minimizing it at the hip.
With the Romanian deadlift, for example, we can maximally stretch the glutes and hamstrings while causing very little flexion or extension of the quadriceps.
While there are knee dominant free weight exercises, such as the short-step split squat, knee dominant exercises are more commonly performed on machines.
This is often because they require a large amount of knee flexion and extension, which can be difficult to control with free weights. Machines lock you into position, allowing you to make adjustments to focus on your quads. With free weights, you often have to rely on your hip hinge to balance you out.
The leg press and hack squat machine are two knee dominant exercises that come to mind, both of which can be easily adjusted to focus on the quads.
The lying leg curl machine is another, although it focuses on your hamstrings. This is a movement that is much more difficult to perform with free weights.
On the other hand, there are plenty of hip dominant free weight exercises, such as the deadlift and glute bridge. Even the barbell back squat, which is traditionally viewed as a knee dominant exercise, is often executed with a high degree of hip hinge, causing significant stretching of the glutes and hamstrings and often minimal stretch on the quads.
If you train at home, you likely don’t have access to some of the knee dominant machines found in most gyms.
Don’t worry though, there are plenty of effective knee dominant exercises that can be done with your body weight, minimal equipment, or free weights.
Your hip extensors are larger and more powerful than your knee extensors. Compare your glutes, hamstrings, and adductors to just your quads.
Adjusting your form to use more of your posterior chain can help you move more weight. Just look at the difference between a front squat and a low-bar back squat. Most people can lift far more weight with the back squat than with the front.
The following are reasons you may want to include hip dominant exercises in your training.
Hip dominant exercises target your glutes, hamstrings, and adductors, primarily through the muscle damage and mTOR hypertrophy pathways.
If your goal is to improve the strength, explosiveness, or size of your glutes, hamstring, and adductors, then including hip dominant exercises in your training is a must.
It will also be important how you train this movement pattern. The muscle damage and mTOR pathways are involved mostly during the eccentric phase of the lift, and when stretching a muscle under load.
Stretching under load is a huge one. The muscle that gets stretched the most gets activated the most . This is why free weights can be so effective at building the posterior chain through the hip hinge.
The best exercises for this are the ones that have a large range of motion and allow you to really get a good stretch on your glutes and hamstrings. The Romanian deadlift is one of my favorites, as it allows you to maximize the stretch on your glutes and hamstrings while keeping the load relatively light.
One common issue I see with knee dominant lifters is weak hip extensors. This can lead to all sorts of knee, ankle, and hip issues.
If you find that your knees cave in when you squat or your hips feel tight when you deadlift, then chances are you have weak hip extensors. Or if you tend to fail lower body exercises at the top end range of motion, like locking out a deadlift.
Including some hip dominant exercises in your training can help address this issue.
One way to do this is by including free weight exercises that allow you to get a good stretch on your glutes and hamstrings, such as the Romanian deadlift I mentioned earlier.
Another is to include unilateral exercises in your training. These are great because they force each side to work independently, which can help correct any imbalances you may have.
The single-leg RDL is one of my favorite exercises for this. It’s a great exercise for building strength and balance in your hips.
If your goal is to increase your deadlift, then you need to include hip dominant exercises in your training.
The deadlift is a hip dominant exercise, with the majority of the work being done by your glutes and hamstrings.
Your quads do play a role, but they’re not doing much compared to your posterior chain. This is why most people can Deadlift more weight with a conventional stance than with a sumo stance.
The conventional Deadlift uses more of your posterior chain, while the sumo Deadlift uses more of your quads.
If you want to deadlift big weights, then you need to train your posterior chain with hip dominant exercises. There is a wide variety of hip dominant exercises you can choose from that will allow you to improve your deadlift without excessive volume for your low back muscles.
The hip hinge is a movement pattern that is essential for daily life, and an absolute requirement for sports performance. It’s the basis for all lower body exercises, including the Squat and Deadlift.
If you want to improve your Squat and Deadlift, then you need to be able to perform the hip hinge correctly. This means keeping a neutral spine while moving about your hips.
Including some hip dominant exercises in your training will help you develop better technique and improve your strength in the squat and deadlift.
The more hip dominant exercises you master, the more precise you will become with the hinge, and the better you will get at effectively recruiting these muscles.
The following are reasons you may want to include knee dominant exercises in your training.
Knee dominant exercises are often quad dominant exercises. If you want to grow your quads, you’re going to need to include these in your routine.
Include plenty of knee dominant exercises, and adjust compound movements to make them more quad dominant and less hip dominant.
You’ll know if you have a quad weakness if you fail lower body exercises in the bottom range of motion. For example, if the hardest part of the squat is at the bottom.
One of the best ways to address this issue is to include single-leg knee dominant exercises in your training. These will help correct any imbalances and help build strength in your quads.
The split squat is one of my favorite exercises for this. It allows you to focus on each side independently and really target those quads.
Start with a light weight and focus on perfect technique. You can always ad
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