45-Degree Hip Extension
Reviewed by Bryan Cortez, MS
Clear the hip crease, hinge deep, and finish with the hips—not the low back.
Demonstration
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Physique Skool is filming one canonical demonstration per exercise. Until this movement is published, use the setup, execution, common errors, programming, and substitutions below.
Browse Physique Skool on YouTubeHow to do it
Setup
- Set the pad just below the hip crease
- Anchor the feet and soften the knees
- Cross the arms or hold a load against the chest
- Brace enough to keep the rib cage and pelvis organized
Execution
- Hinge forward through the hips
- Descend until the glutes and hamstrings are lengthened without losing control
- Drive the hips into the pad to rise
- Finish tall without arching past neutral
Common Errors
- Placing the pad over the abdomen
- Turning the rep into repeated lumbar flexion and extension
- Locking the knees hard
- Throwing the torso upward
Cues That Work
- Hip crease clears the pad; fold at the hips; finish tall, not arched
No-Fly Zone
Avoid a pad that blocks hip flexion, dropping into uncontrolled spinal rounding, or finishing by leaning beyond a neutral hip-extended position.
Programming
Sequence priority
Flexible
It follows heavier squats or hinges well because the support lowers balance demands while the lengthened hip position still supplies meaningful local work.
Progression
Model — Double
Fallback model — Double
Keep pad height, foot position, hip depth, and neutral finish fixed; reach the top of the rep range before increasing the held load.
Best program fit
Legs
Load increments
If it hurts
Pain is information, not a challenge to push through. Stop the set if pain is sharp, worsening, or changes how you move. These are exercise-selection options, not medical diagnosis or rehabilitation advice.
Work down this list in order. Stop at the first change that removes the pain.
Step 1
Setup tweaks
Use bodyweight and shorten the descent until hip motion can be separated from uncontrolled spinal motion.
Step 2
ROM / tempo / bias
Add a one-second pause in the lengthened position or slow the return before adding weight.
Step 3
Implement swap
Romanian deadlift, cable pull-through, or glute-focused back extension with a different bench angle.
Substitutions
Approved fallback
Romanian deadlift, cable pull-through, or glute-focused back extension with a different bench angle.
The Evidence
This setup emphasizes hip extension from a flexed position, but glute versus hamstring contribution changes with knee angle, pad geometry, spinal strategy, and individual anatomy.
SFR — 1.8
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