Watch Kate Upton Set a New PR While Doing Hip Thrusts in Her Gym

Philip Ellis

July 26, 2020 at 8:34 a.m.·4 min read

Photo credit: Amy Sussman - Getty Images

Model and actress Kate Upton is no stranger to a gym video, and regularly posts clips of her strength training to social media. Earlier this year, she shared several posts detailing her progress in mastering the landmine reverse lunge, a beginner-friendly leg day move, and the more advanced landmine deadlift.

Most recently, Upton has been working on her hip thrusts, and she just set a personal record on the exercise, cranking out 12 reps at a weight of 205 pounds. While she seems apprehensive about attempting the PR at the start of the new Instagram video, posted by her trainer Ben Bruno, she soon gets her game face on and delivers the reps, demonstrating "spot-on" technique at the same time.

"She pauses each rep for a second at the top too, which makes it much harder, but also makes it more effective," says Bruno in the caption. "Seriously impressive work. Kate has been working her ass off during this quarantine, and she’s getting really strong. I love it. To the people who still say that lifting weights will make women bulky, well, I don't know what to tell you. Her hip thrust form is spot-on."

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Okkkkk @kateupton, new personal record for hip thrusts—205 pounds for 12 reps. She pauses each rep for a second at the top too, which makes it much harder, but also makes it more effective. Seriously impressive work. Kate has been working her ass off during this quarantine, and she’s getting really strong. I love it. To the people who still say that lifting weights will make women bulky, well, I don’t know what to tell you. Her hip thrust form is spot-on, so I just want to highlight a few coaching points if you want to do this exercise on your own. *** - Pause each rep for a second at the top. This ensures that you’re controlling the weight and not going too heavy, and you’ll also feel it more in your butt. *** - Engage your core as if your doing a mini crunch. This helps to ensure that you don’t overarch your back and helps encourage a slight posterior pelvic tilt, which puts maximal stress on the glutes and also protects the lower back. Along these lines, it helps to look straight ahead rather than up at the ceiling. *** -Use a full range of motion. Between each rep you should come all the way down so you’re almost sitting on the floor. No half-repping. *** - Placing a mini-band around the knees is optional, but for people who have a tendency to go into valgus (knees caving in), it’s a good reminder to keep the knees pressed out. And anecdotally, a lot of people feel it more in their glutes doing it this way. Your call, but definitely try it.
A post shared by Ben Bruno (@benbrunotraining) on Jul 23, 2020 at 9:23am PDT

Bruno continues to offer some coaching advice on how people can emulate Upton's success and incorporate the hip thrust into their own workouts.

"Pause each rep for a second at the top," he says. "This ensures that you’re controlling the weight and not going too heavy, and you’ll also feel it more in your butt... Engage your core as if your doing a mini crunch. This helps to ensure that you don’t overarch your back and helps encourage a slight posterior pelvic tilt, which puts maximal stress on the glutes and also protects the lower back. Along these lines, it helps to look straight ahead rather than up at the ceiling."

Finally, he advises his followers to exploit the full range of motion in the exercise. "Between each rep you should come all the way down so you’re almost sitting on the floor," he says. "No half-repping." He also suggests using a mini-band to keep the knees in position, as Upton does, to ensure correct form throughout the move.

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