FitnessMash

Q&A: Hip Bridge: Push or Pull?

In the midst of a project related to the curriculum at FPTI, a healthy debate arose last week amongst my colleagues: What determines whether a lower-body exercise is termed a “push” or a “pull?”

With the upper body, it’s pretty clear: A push is a vertical or horizontal movement that involves moving a load AWAY from the body (either overhead or to the front, respectively), whereas a pull is a vertical or horizontal movement that involves bringing a load TOWARD the body (either from overhead or from the front, respectively). Here are some examples:

Vertical upper push: Overhead presses

Vertical upper pull: Chin-ups, pull-ups and pull-downs

Horizontal upper push: Any type of chest press or push-up

Horizontal upper pull: Any type of row

With lower-body movements, however, it’s a little less clear.

Some say it doesn’t matter because muscles can only “pull” on bones; they can’t push. While true, I still believe we need a classification system to organize our programs.

Some say anything that involves “triple extension” (i.e., hip extension, knee extension and ankle plantarflexion) to lift a load is a “push.” But both the squat and the deadlift are triple extension exercises, yet we call the squat a push and the deadlift a pull.

Some choose to use the terms “hip-dominant” and “knee-dominant” instead, but I don’t think this really solves the problem either. With this distinction, any multi-joint exercise that emphasizes hip extension more than knee extension would seemingly be a pull, and any movement that emphasizes knee extension more than hip extension would be a push. Seems to be a solution at first, but let’s look a little more closely at some movement patterns.

With the deadlift, we clearly have a pull. The load is being “pulled” from the floor in toward the body, and hip extension is clearly emphasized more than knee extension because the moment arm is much greater when measured from the hip than the knee.

That is, the perpendicular distance from the line of force created by the bar to the hip is longer than that from the bar to the knee, so hip extension must be emphasized more to lift the load. No problems here.

But what about the squat??

Assuming the above technique, in the front squat, the anterior bar placement forces a more vertical torso and the hips stay under the bar, creating a longer moment arm from the knee than from the hip. This would make the front squat a “knee-dominant” exercise, or a lower-body push – so we’re okay there, too.

But the moment arm in the back squat is actually greater from the hip than from the knee when the bar tracks appropriately over the backs of the balls of the feet and the lifter sits the hips back in the descent. Hip extension must therefore be emphasized more than knee extension to lift the load. This would presumably classify the back squat as a “hip-dominant” exercise – yet we call it a push.

We also call split squats and lunges lower-body pushes. When looking at the moment arm, this makes sense: Assuming a vertical torso position, the moment arm is greater from the knee than the hip, so knee extension is emphasized more to overcome the load. But if you’ve ever done any of these “pushing” exercises, you can attest to the fact that you often feel them more in your glutes than in your quads (especially the next day). Does this mean that hip extension is actually the primary joint action in these exercises? Are these, too, actually “hip-dominant” pulls?

And what about slide board reverse lunges?

The load and the moment arm don’t really change from the standard version, but you emphasize hip extension more to “pull” your back leg forward and stand up, as opposed to “pushing” into the ground. So is it a push or a pull??

According to THIS LIVESTRONG.COM ARTICLE, lower-body exercises are characterized as such:

Lower push: “Lower-body pushing exercises include vertically and horizontally loaded movements. Single and double-leg vertically loaded pushing exercises work the quadriceps, adductor magnus and soleus muscles…Horizontally loaded lower-body pushing exercises target the gluteus maximus, hamstring and calf muscles.”

Lower pull: “Lower-body pulling exercises emphasize hip extension and knee flexion movements. Hip extension leg pulling exercises activate the gluteus maximus, hamstrings and adductor magnus muscles…Knee flexion lower-body pulling exercises activate the hamstrings, hip adductors, sartorious and calf muscles.”

Well, that doesn’t help much…By these definitions, back squats and slide board lunges could be either be vertical lower-body pushes or lower-body pulls.

And that brings us back to the question at hand: What about the hip bridge?

A bridge is both a horizontally-loaded exercise that targets the gluteus maximus, hamstring and calf muscles (i.e., “triple extension”) AND a hip extension exercise. By these definitions, it, too, could really fall into either category.

My thoughts: Intuitively speaking, I’d have to say the hip bridge is a push (so does the LIVESTRONG article). Specifically, it’s a horizontal lower-body push. After all, you’re “pushing” the load of your hips upward (though horizontal to the body) against the force of gravity. But for the purpose of program design, I group it as a pull because it’s “hip-dominant” (so does THIS PRESENTATION from athletesperformance.com) – and here’s why:

Let’s not forget that the whole point of having a movement classification system is to assure balance about our joints when writing and reviewing our exercise programs. The fact remains that gravity is always “pulling” us down into flexion, creating a greater need to train the extensor muscles on the posterior side of both the upper and lower body – those that “pull” us back into an upright posture.

The primary joint action in the hip bridge is hip extension and gluteus maximus is the prime mover – so I don’t think there’s any question that the hip bridge works the posterior chain. And if we agree that we should do more “pulling” exercises that target the posterior chain to offset the negative effects of gravity and our flexion-dominant modern lifestyles, it makes more sense to me to group the “hip-dominant” hip bridge as a lower-body pull so that it shows up more often in my clients’ programs than exercises that train the front side of the body. Same goes for a quadruped hip extension (which could also be categorized as a vertical lower-body push).

That’s my argument and I’m sticking to it!

Comments welcome.

P.S. In my programs, slide board lunges are grouped as pulls but back squats are still grouped as pushes. When I come up with a good reason for it, I’ll let you know what it is.

Same goes for why Steven Tyler was allowed to sing our national anthem.

Go Patriots.

Filed under: exercise programs, exercise Q&A, fitness commentary, strength training