How to Do Thrusters: Technique, Benefits, Precautions & More

This is some text inside of a div block.

December 31, 2021

min read

This is some text inside of a div block.

views

Home

/

The Meaning of Thrusters

A thruster is a compound exercise often practiced by martial artists and athletes. It includes a mix of an overhead press and a front squat. A part of the CrossFit workout, the thrusters are actually a full-body movement. Since thrusters work on your whole body, you do not need to be an athlete to benefit from thrusters. Along with improving athletic performance, thrusters workout actually help in improving day-to-day activities by increasing your overall strength and coordination.

Thrusters Benefits

After knowing the meaning of thrusters, now it is time to jump to its benefits. While practicing DB thrusters workout, you engage many body joints and combine the two exercises namely overhead press and front squat. Here is a list of some well-known thrusters benefits:

Squat thruster increases your heart rate and this, in turn, improves both cardiovascular performance and cardiovascular fitness. Since you lose a high number of calories while doing thrusters exercise, you can also do this as a weight loss exercise.
Regular practice of squat thrusts exercise can significantly improve your intermuscular coordination and movement efficiency. With both these benefits, you can do your office or home chores easily.
If you have to burn your calories, you have to lift less weight and increase the number of reps in your dumbbell thrusters workout. But you can also increase the weight of your barbell or the dumbbell and build your muscles. Or you can try a variation like hip thrust for burning calories at a high rate.

How to do Thrusters

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do thrusters the right way:

Hold a barbell with an overhand grip while standing straight with your feet and hands at a shoulder-wide distance to each other.
Keep your spine straight and draw back your shoulders.
Now, bend your knees a little and do not lock them while performing the exercise.
Keep your feet under the bar and lift the barbell to either the level of your collarbones or above shoulder level.
Engage your core, bring your elbows underneath, and expand the chest while lowering down the body to a squat position.
By engaging your core muscles, you can turn out your knees a little if you want to increase your stability.
Lift your elbows, press your legs against the ground, and get into a standing position quickly.
Now, extend the barbell overhead while keeping the hips in alignment and engaging your glutes.
Stretch your arms and lean your head forward until your ears come exactly in front of your biceps.
Bring back the head and lower down the barbell to the level of your collarbone.
Repeat this exercise in a continuous motion to get the best results.

Thrusters - How to Perfect the Form

Here is a list of tips that will help you perfect the form of thrusters exercise and avoid the most common mistakes:

If you are a total beginner, you can start thruster cross fit by using an empty barbell. This will teach you the proper technique without putting pressure on your muscles.
Use a large-sized mirror to check that you are performing dumbbell thrusters exercise the right way or not. If you do not have a large-sized mirror at home, you can film yourself with a phone and watch the video later.
Never rush doing squat thrusts exercise when you are working with weights. A little hurry can make you lose control and cause injury to your legs.
Maintaining a strong core while practising DB thrusters help you control your body weight and movement.
If you do not have barbells or dumbbells at home, you can use cinder blocks or sandbags to practice this dumbbell thrusters workout. The change in the weight will create only a little change in your momentum and balance.
Do not overthink whether you have to do dumbbell thrusters or barbell thrusters. If you are just starting the exercise, you can pick either dumbbell or barbell and get almost similar results.
You can synchronize your breath with dumbbell thrusters exercise movements. Breathe in when you squat and breathe out when you do the overhead press.
Never hold the weight too tight or you will end up with tired forearms. You can relax the grip most of the time in the DB thrusters workout. The only time you have to tighten it is when you do the overhead press.
Some people choose a certain level of weight and stick to it throughout the month. Your body strength can vary each day. So, lift the weight according to the comfort of your body on any particular day.

Precautions And Safety Points

Safety should always be your priority whenever doing workout at home or at the gym. And you need to take special care of safety when you are working with weights while practising barbell or DB thrusters. Here is a list of some precautions and safety points that will help you stay safe:

Always practice thruster cross fit as one fluid exercise instead of two segregated exercises. Some people stop after performing squats and lose their momentum. If you want to get the most out of a squat thruster, you have to keep the momentum and do it as one fluid movement.
Do not use only shoulders while lifting the weights in the dumbbell thrusters. You can engage your glutes, hips, and legs to easily lift the weight.
Once you have lifted the weight while doing the barbell thrusters, do not move it in front of you or it will push you to bend your body.
If you choose extra weight by mistake and lose your balance in the middle of the thrusters workout, try to fall backwards and throw the dumbbells away from your body. This will protect your legs from getting injured.

Conclusion

If you are bored of your workout that includes all the too-common exercises, thrusters can be a good choice of adding some fun. Once you learn the technique and get comfortable doing thrusters, do not forget to increase the weight to get bonus benefits.

Top Search Terms For Yoga