Yeah back to the hip thrust argument - there's such a big variation into what people "consider" to be a hip thrust. I was watching LBSS's videos of his hip thrust, and he uses such short ROM. When I do the hip thrusts, I go to full hip hyperextension (I try, at least), pause there for a second or two, then go all the way down. I don't go 1 cm and then back up, I go all the way down so the plates touch the ground, and then do the exercise again. Plus sometimes I feel the exercise in the lowerback, meaning I wasn't actually using my glutes properly/I wasn't getting into posterior pelvic tilt, I was trying to "back extend" - so the completely wrong movement, and also with injury potential.
Sometimes I like to just touch the ground with the plates and go straight back up, so that I maintain continuous tension in the glutes for the entire set, sometimes I rest the barbell on the floor for a second and do the next rep (maybe I'm repositioning my back on the bench etc). But there's a tremendous amount of difference in TUT (or the total amount of time it takes me to do say 5 reps) vs what I've seen around here, with 1-inch humps of the bar being called "hip thrusts". Certainly a lot less time spent per set for the same amount of reps, a lot less stretching of the glutes, a lot less range of motion etc.
This makes me think about chinups or squats or whatever - when you ask someone how many chinups they do, they might say "15". When you tell them to show you how they do them, they do 2 inch chinups (similar to 1/4 - 1/8 squats that you see the regular gym idiot do).
So yeah, it seems that we have completely different understanding of what a properly performed hip thrust is. And yeah, there's definitely variation going on depending on how you position yourself.
I remember doing the hip thrusts with Olympic lifting shoes on (I think LBSS did so, too) and they felt totally different than the same exercise without OL shoes on. I even reported that to Bret Contreras some time ago (I think he said he hasn't studied the difference).
Also, you can kind of push through the "toes" (or the front part of the foot) or through the heels. Personally, I feel weird pushing through the heels. You can also kind of pull the ground back with your feet while in that position (although that would activate the hamstrings as knee flexors, especially when the bar is resting on the floor and the hamstrings are not in active insufficiency).
So I agree, there's a ton of stuff going on with the hip thrust. I think properly performed KB swings would do a lot of good for maxent, as would depth jumps for height with a target straight overhead (this will force him to hip extend a bit more, IMO, than a regular DJ that for him would be so quad-dominant).
