Bodybuilding veteran Lee Priest sees the value in just about every exercise except one. On April 21, 2025, he explained why it’s best to avoid hip thrusts, adding that other movements like squatting and lunging are superior options.
Before social media existed, Lee Priest built a cult-like following in the bodybuilding scene, largely due to his shredded physique and massive arms. He competed for three decades and tested himself against icons in the sport, like Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, and Flex Wheeler.
Exercise selection played a crucial role for Priest, who needed compact muscle volume to compete against the best. While he’s open to learning new tricks inside the gym, he stands by many fundamental exercises that helped him craft his legendary physique. Given that, he decided to enlighten fans on why they should steer clear of the hip thrust.
Lee Priest Reveals Whether You Should Avoid Certain Exercises, Disapproves of Hip Thrusts
In a recent YouTube video, Priest singled out hip thrusts as an exercise to avoid, mainly because you can reap greater benefits from squats or lunges.
“Hip thrusts, that’s probably the only one because you can get the benefits from squatting, lunging, and whatever.
It’s really not needed and the amount of people I see people using on that, especially girls, when you see the amount they are putting on and just bouncing and banging, I’m thinking their lower back in a couple of years is going to be shot.”
He wouldn’t outright advocate against deadlifting from the floor, but said he preferred to do them right beneath the knee using a power rack instead.
“There’s some exercises that I see that I don’t do, but work for other people. Like deadlifting from the floor, I never liked that so I did just beneath the knee in a power rack, I found that better to me off the floor, just didn’t like it, didn’t feel it that much.”
He adds that sometimes it’s not about avoiding exercises, but rather executing them properly to avoid injury.
“I wouldn’t say there’s some you should avoid, but just doing a simple exercise, if you’re doing a fly, I’ve seen some go too far back and stretch their arms right back and take their arms out, overextend, and then you could snap something. I wouldn’t say there’s any I’d say to avoid, but I’d say if you’re going to do exercises, do them correctly,” he shared.
In addition to sharing his thoughts on training methods, Priest has opened up on nutrition strategies. He recently compared the benefits of carnivore diets versus conventional diets. Overall, he prefers a balance between his carbs, fats, and protein in retirement.
Despite no longer competing, Priest’s voice still carries considerable weight since hanging up his posing trunks. He believes most exercises have merit, but identified hip thrusts as one to avoid.
Watch the full video from the Sam’s Fitness – Gym Equipment YouTube channel below:
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