Best Hip Thrust Machines for a Home Gym

1. Our Picks at a Glance

Two dedicated machines, a hip-thrust platform, a purpose-built bench and one commercial machine for those with the space and budget. The short version: theTitan Standing Hip Thrust Machine if you want heavy plate-loaded work in a smaller footprint than a seated machine; the BootySprout if the machine has to fold away; and the Bells of Steel Soft Glute Bench if you already own a barbell and plates and simply want the set-up to stop wobbling.

Every pick here sells for $100 or more. If you are still deciding whether a dedicated machine is worth it at all, the section onbarbell and bench alternativesexplains what a good bench, a pad and a set of bands can do for far less.

2. The 5 Best Hip Thrust Machines

The cards give the figures that the maker and an independent source agreed on, the price we saw and who each machine suits. Where only the maker published a figure, the card description says so. Weight capacities on hip thrust machines are quoted in several different ways — plate capacity, maximum user weight, combined capacity, static capacity — so read the label on each number before comparing two machines.

Two of the five are not dedicated machines in the strict sense: the RitFit is a platform you load yourself and the Bells of Steel is a bench. They are here because, for many home gyms that already own a barbell, they solve the actual problem — an unstable set-up — at a fraction of the cost and floor area of a full machine.

3. How We Chose These Hip Thrust Machines

We have not tested these machines. They were chosen from published specifications, maker and retailer listings, warranty terms and independent hands-on coverage, checked on 19 October 2026, and the claims on this page are limited to what those sources support. Each product had to be on sale under its current name on that date, cost $100 or more, and cover a different way of loading the hip thrust, so that the five together span the real choices: plates, bands, a platform, a bench and a commercial machine.

Recalls. We searched the US Consumer Product Safety Commission recall database for every brand on this page and for the brands we considered and left out: Titan Fitness, BootySprout, RitFit, Bells of Steel, Nautilus and its commercial parent Core Health & Fitness, Booty Builder, Lifepro, Signature Fitness and Mikolo. None had a recall covering a hip thrust machine or bench. Titan's only fitness recall was a 2018 recall of weightlifting safety straps for its racks; Nautilus and BowFlex recalls cover treadmills, dumbbells, home gyms and ellipticals; and Core Health & Fitness's 2017 recall covered Inspiration cable crossover and adjustable pulley machines, not the Glute Drive. We also searched the CPSC database by product type and found no hip thrust recalls.

Deliberate exclusions. The Bells of Steel Hip Thrust Machine, which Garage Gym Reviews rated highly, was listed as sold out at $1,259.99 on Bells of Steel's store on the day we checked, so it is not carded; if it returns, note that Bells of Steel describes the second version's 600 lb figure as the combined capacity of the weight horns. Booty Builder makes the machines many commercial gyms use, but its home page and product pages list no prices, so there was nothing to compare. Lifepro's GluteBlast is a popular folding band machine, but its maker's page would not load for us, so we could not check its figures; Lifepro's only recall was of a sauna blanket, in 2025. And several plate-loaded machines sold mainly on Amazon under brands such as GMWD, Signature Fitness and HVO had no maker site or independent coverage we could find, so their capacities would have been listing claims only.

4. Band vs Plate: How the Load Feels

The biggest decision is not the brand but the source of resistance, because bands and plates load the hip thrust in different parts of the rep.

Plates: heaviest at the bottom and middle

A plate has the same weight throughout the rep, but how hard it is to move depends on how far the load sits from the hip joint horizontally. On most plate-loaded machines the effort is substantial from the bottom of the rep and stays high through the middle. Plates are the better choice for heavy, low-rep strength work, because you can add load in small, exact steps and you know exactly what you lifted last week. They are also what you need if you want to push the movement hard over months: every machine here that takes plates allows several hundred pounds.

Bands: lightest at the bottom, heaviest at the top

A band pulls harder the more it stretches, so a band hip thrust is light where your hips are low and hardest near lockout, where the glutes are fully contracted. Many lifters like how that feels — the top of the rep is where the glutes do most of the work in a hip thrust — and it is kinder at the bottom, where people tend to lose position. The trade-offs are that a band's tension is approximate, it changes as the band ages and with how far it is stretched for your height, and you cannot add load in small steps. BootySprout's own figure is about 45 lb per band; a reviewer at Reviewed could not measure that but found one band too light and two a real challenge.

Mixing the two

Four of the five products here have band pegs or rings as well as, or instead of, plate loading. Adding a light band to a plate-loaded thrust makes the top of the rep harder without adding load at the bottom. It is a useful tool once you have learned the movement, but it makes progress harder to track, so change one variable at a time. Our guide to thebest resistance bandscovers loop bands that fit standard pegs.

In practice: if you mainly want higher-rep glute work in a small space, bands are enough for a long time. If you lift heavy elsewhere and want the hip thrust to keep pace with your squat and deadlift, choose plates.

5. Seated, Standing, Platform or Bench

Hip thrust equipment comes in four basic shapes, and each suits a different room and a different lifter.

Seated plate-loaded machines — the Nautilus Glute Drive, the Bells of Steel and Booty Builder machines — recreate the classic floor hip thrust: you sit with your upper back against a pad, a belt or lever arm runs across your hips, and plates hang on horns at the sides. They are the most comfortable way to go heavy, and the largest. The Glute Drive is 60 by 62 inches before you add room to load plates.

Standing machines such as the Titan turn the movement upright: you stand on a platform, brace your thighs against a pad and drive your hips forward against a loaded lever. The appeal is a smaller footprint and an easy entry and exit; the catch is that the movement feels different from a floor hip thrust, and some lifters find it harder to feel the glutes at first. If you can try one at a gym before buying, do.

Platforms such as the RitFit PHM02 and the BootySprout give you a back pad and somewhere for your feet on one frame, so nothing slides apart. The RitFit takes a barbell, bands or both; the BootySprout uses bands only.

Benches are the simplest upgrade. The common problem with hip thrusting off a normal flat bench is height and stability: standard benches are around 17 inches tall, which is too high for many shorter lifters, and a light bench slides backwards under load. A dedicated hip thrust bench fixes both. If you would rather have one bench that does everything, our guide to thebest weight benchescovers flat and adjustable benches and how to stop them sliding.

6. Pad, Belt and Footplate: What Makes One Comfortable

Comfort is not a luxury on a hip thrust machine. If the pad digs into your hips or your back slips off the edge, you will stop the set before your glutes do, and the machine ends up as a clothes rack. These are the parts to look at.

• The hip contact. On a barbell thrust this is a bar pad; on a machine it is a padded belt or a lever pad. The wider and thicker it is, the more load you can tolerate. Garage Gym Reviews found the belt on the first Bells of Steel machine too long to tighten properly on shorter testers, which Bells of Steel says it changed on the second version. Ask how short the belt adjusts if you are petite.
• The back pad. A pad that pivots with you, as on the Glute Drive and most seated machines, supports your upper back through the whole rep. A fixed pad works if its edge sits just below your shoulder blades. RitFit quotes 100 mm, about 3.9 inches, of foam on the PHM02's back pad.
• Pad height. The pad should meet the bottom of your shoulder blades when you sit on the floor or platform. Too high and you crunch your neck; too low and you slide off. The Bells of Steel bench solves this with removable 4-inch blocks; Titan's standing machine has six thigh pad heights.
• The footplate. A wide platform lets you set your stance and move your feet forward or back to shift the work between glutes and hamstrings. An angled or raised footplate, as on Booty Builder's machines, can deepen the bottom of the rep. Check that the platform has a non-slip surface.
• Edges and finishes. Garage Gym Reviews' testers taped over sharp footplate edges on one machine they used. Small things like that are worth checking on arrival, especially with children in the house.

Grippy vinyl helps you stay in place but can pull at bare skin. Training in long leggings or shorts that cover where the pad meets your hips is the cheap fix.

7. Footprint and Floor Space

Hip thrust machines are bigger than they look in photographs, and plate-loaded ones need room on both sides as well as their listed footprint.

Measure the working area, not just the frame. A plate-loaded machine needs space either side to slide plates on and off: allow at least the diameter of your largest plate, about 18 inches for a standard 45 lb plate, plus room to stand. On the Glute Drive's 60-inch width, that turns a 60 by 62 inch footprint into something closer to 8 feet wide in practice. Treat that as arithmetic from the stated width and a typical plate, not a maker's figure.

Compare footprints like for like. From the makers' figures on the day we checked:

• Nautilus Glute Drive: 60 in. wide by 62 in. long, 252 lb.
• Titan Standing Hip Thrust: 37.75 in. wide by 46.5 in. deep, 157 lb.
• RitFit PHM02: 61.9 in. long by 26.9 in. wide in use, 3.72 sq ft stored upright.
• Bells of Steel Soft Glute Bench: 28 in. wide by 23.75 in. deep, 66.1 lb.

BootySprout does not publish its dimensions on its product page, only that it folds; measure the space you have and ask before ordering if it is tight.

Protect the floor. A loaded machine concentrates a lot of weight on small feet, and plates set down on the floor between sets do the damage. A section of rubber flooring under the machine and the loading area is worth it; our guide togym flooringcovers thickness and the difference between mats and tiles.

Plan delivery. The heavier machines ship freight on a pallet. Booty Builder lists its Platinum V4 at 431 lb shipping weight, and the Glute Drive ships at 305 lb. Check whether the price includes delivery to your door or just to the kerb, and how you will get it into a basement or garage.

8. Do You Need a Machine? Barbell and Bench Alternatives

A dedicated hip thrust machine is a single-exercise purchase, and that deserves an honest look before you spend $1,000 or more.

If you already own a barbell, plates and a bench, the cheapest upgrade is a thick bar pad and a way to stop the bench moving — wedging it against a wall or a rack, or a bench designed for the job like the Bells of Steel. The remaining annoyance is rolling a loaded bar over your legs, which bumper plates make easier because their larger diameter lets the bar clear your thighs. Our guides tobumper plates andbarbellscover both.

If you have a rack and train heavy lower body already, a seated machine makes most sense when hip thrusts are a staple of your programme, several sessions a week, and the barbell set-up is the thing stopping you. Our guide tosquat racks for a home gymcovers the rest of a lower-body set-up.

If you are building a first home gym, a hip thrust machine is rarely the first thing to buy. A bench, adjustable dumbbells and a set of bands train the glutes well, and a guide like ourhome workout equipment overviewsets out a sensible order of purchases.

If your goal is glute growth, remember that load matters more than the machine. Walking on an incline works the glutes harder than walking flat, but as our article onwhether incline walking builds glutesexplains, progressive resistance training is what drives growth. A machine that makes you more likely to do the hard sets is worth its price; one that sits unused is not.

9. Before You Buy a Hip Thrust Machine

1. Decide bands or plates. Use the section above. If you are unsure, a machine with both plate horns and band pegs keeps your options open.
2. Read the capacity label. Plate capacity, user weight, combined and static capacity are different numbers. RitFit's 1,000 lb figure is static; Titan's 440 lb is plate capacity with a separate 300 lb user limit; the Glute Drive's 360 lb is its maximum load.
3. Check fit for your height. Look for an adjustable pad or belt, and ask the maker if you are under about 5 feet 2 inches or over 6 feet 4 inches.
4. Count your plates. Plate-loaded machines need Olympic plates with 2-inch holes. If you do not own them, budget for them; our guide to weight plates compares iron and bumper options.
5. Measure the room with loading space. Add plate clearance on both sides, and check the ceiling if you use a standing machine.
6. Read the warranty and return terms. Titan lists one year; RitFit three years on the frame; Bells of Steel one year on its bench. Returning a 150 lb machine is expensive, so know who pays.

If you want a broader machine that includes some glute work alongside everything else, our guide tohome gym machinescompares all-in-one systems, and the sibling guide toleg extension machinescovers quad and hamstring isolation.

10. Frequently Asked Questions