 Question is from Erika in Texas, thoughts about the barbell hip thrust. Does it have any benefit besides the aesthetic or of a larger butt? I mean, uh, it sells a big hip thrust guy these days here. You're one of them hip thrusters. I'm looking forward to the Instagram posts. Yeah. I wouldn't, uh, I wouldn't say I'm a big hip thrust guy. Oh, you're. Does it help the way you walk now? Big hip thrust guy. Yeah. No, I've been, I've been, um, I've been incorporating it into my routine, um, differently than I ever have before. In the past, I've primarily used it for correctional purposes for clients. I have used it for, uh, people who want to build a bigger butt or again, for correctional, uh, exercise purposes, but I've never really programmed it. Like in a, in a full on workout and I've never programmed it the same way I would program squats or a deadlift by adding weight to it and getting stronger at it, but I've been doing it. It's now, I'd say probably week five or six. And what I noticed is, um, what you would expect to notice from getting stronger in that, that top portion of the hip extension, which is I'm strong on my deadlifts. I'm stronger with my, my squats. Uh, I feel more stable. I think it's just, it's a great hip movement. I really do. I don't, glutes are just more engaged, right? Yeah. I, I appreciate you noticing that. Um, yeah, I do. It is funny getting a really crazy butt. I'm an ogler. It's crazy, it's crazy getting a glute pump and walking around the gym though. It's a weird feeling. Is that true? Is it all like bubbly? Yeah. You walk around like, what the hell, but you know, I wouldn't put it up there with a squad or a deadlift. I think people, especially today, there's this talk about the hip thrust being like this crazy foundational movement. No, I don't see it. I don't see it that way. Well, I think it's good though. We got Brett Contreras coming in a week or two. So argue that for sure. Yeah. Well, I mean, he did all kinds of research and study around it. And I remember there was a lot of, uh, debate around, uh, the carryover from that into like sprinters and other, uh, other aspects of training. I mean, I think it's, I think it's awesome. I think it's a great exercise. It is. Um, I think there's, there is some people that are trying to make a case for it, that it is king and that it's better than, um, squatting or deadlifting. I, I 100% disagree with that. Um, just because when you talk about things that are the most, that, in fact, that was a debate I had some in our forum like a year or two ago about this, because I said this statement that I did not think that the hip thrust was more functional than a squatting a deadlift and some kid wanted to argue that it was. And, uh, my statement back to him was, when will you ever find yourself lying on the floor with a bar across your waist and you have to thrust it up. You get a 300 pound body up. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Well, refrigerator falls on you. That's the only time I could think that that, or maybe if you're in jiu-jitsu and you've got to hip thrust somebody off of you, but for about 99% of the population, it's not more functional than a squat or a deadlift. You will, in your lifetime, 100% squat down and pick a child up or pick something out. It's just a small range of motion. It feels a lot to me. And I know it probably has a little more benefits in terms of what they studied than like, you know, the leg press, but to me, it's very similar. I mean, the range of motion anyways, in terms of the functionality of it. Um, but yeah, I know it's great. It's, and I think mainly because it's highlighting one of the most important muscles in the body, which is the glutes. Right. The glutes is so central to all movement and all, uh, you know, power output. It's, it's all, it's all starts there. So I think that's why it's such a, uh, you know, an effective, uh, way to, way to like really isolate that. I will say this. If your goal is to build your butt, 100% should be incorporated. Yeah. I mean, if you're, if your primary goal, uh, you're a girl, I mean, I get for your guy too, but I mean, most of my clients that asked for this were mostly my female clients. And you want to build your butt, uh, hip thrust should be a staple movement. And I would say if I were to list the top 10 or 15 exercises of all time, it would be, um, it would be up there. I definitely think it belongs in most people's routines at some point, um, you know, in the rotation. I don't think, again, I don't think it's as functional, foundational as a squad or a deadlift, but it's definitely up there. Um, and it definitely does provide some, some carryover value. You know, it's funny. Well, strong men used to do perform, uh, feats of strength and one of the feats of strength that they would perform that was quite common back in those days was a hip bridge, which is kind of like a, like a glute bridge or a hip thrust. What they would do is they would support themselves though with their hands. So they weren't on a bench. So there were hands behind them, legs on the floor, and then they would support tremendous amounts of weight. And so there were strong men who would do thousands of pounds while bridging up into this position. Is that true? Yeah. And the reason why you've seen that? Yeah. And you can look it up. Yeah. You'd be able to, was that where they'd have like benches of people just on top of them? Yeah. We're an elephant. Yeah. They'd have like a, they'd have like a big plank on them and an elephant would stand on it. And the, wow, I've never seen that before. And the reason why it was a popular feet of strength was because you can get really strong in that position. And so it's a great way to impress your audience with the amount of weight that you can support. That's right, boys. Nothing impressed chicks more than hip thrusting 500 pounds in the gym and your spandex tights. Well, that's the other thing too. Like it's also become one of those exercises where people are bragging about how much they can lift. I mean, whatever. I mean, it's cool. I guess you can lift a lot of weight, but, you know, it's not cool. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it's necessarily an exercise you want to brag on. It is one that you can get strong and really quick. I went from, you know, practicing it with a 135 to 500 pounds very quickly with that lift is right away. I felt and that, that strength increase definitely gave me a carryover to my deadlift. Didn't make, it didn't make me deadlift tons of more weight. It just made me feel more stable in my deadlift, especially at the, in the bottom position. And, you know, again, in terms of aesthetics, you're talking about one of the biggest, most, I guess, foundational muscles of your body, which is the glutes. If you look at primates, for example, look at all primates besides humans. They all have really small, weak glutes. Humans have, in comparison, have these really big muscles and it's because we stand upright. It's one of the muscles that helps us with locomotion. It keeps us upright. It's very important and a lot of our everyday emotion gives, it gives us speed and stability and athletes, the hip muscles and the glute muscles are imperative almost, almost any sport that I can think of. So giving yourself a stronger butt definitely has a lot of function and value. It just does and hip thrust is one of the better exercises to do that.