Booty Sprout Review – MUCH better than I thought – 2024
Last updated on August 29th, 2024 at 02:09 pm
What the heck is a powerlifting bodybuilder doing with a psuedo As Seen On TV butt blasting device like the Booty Sprout? Great question!
Key Notes
The Booty Sprout makes Hip Thrusts doable in a tight space. The bands are great, it stores away easily, and can handle significant weight. Keep your expectations realistic for sub $200 piece of home gym equipment, but this works.
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Over the last few years my wife has been extremely consistent in the gym. She has a decent amount of focus and drive, but any hiccup in her workout and it crashes. Her motivation drops, her intensity plummets, and we are looking at a lackluster workout and subsequent results. Every time I programmed hip thrusts, an exercise she actually enjoyed doing (and the results), she HATED the set up. For good reason too.
Setting up a bench against something strong enough to not move, along with getting a barbell set that won’t roll, can be loaded, you can get under correctly, in our tight garage space was a HUGE annoyance. Shall I say, a pain in the ass?
…and I cannot lie
I’m also personally a huge fan of hip thrusts. Doing them regularly and training that terminal hip extension relieves back pain. It also seems to strengthen my squat and deadlift, and improves my posture. But the time invested to load up an accessory movement like this and make it effective was less than ideal.
There are definitely options out there for dedicated hip thrust benches, such as rack attached versions, or machine versions, or even just dedicated benches. But you have a few downsides to each of those that still doesn’t entirely solve the problems we were facing. Dedicated floor space for the more impressive units, lack luster loading abilities for others, the commercial options were crazy expensive. I needed a hip thrust solution for the common garage gym application. Not for a commercial gym or bedroom booty blast session (that’s what she said).
Boom!
Then one day in the end of August I saw Chad Wesley Smith of Juggernaut fame post a video of his gym that included a magical looking hip thrust contraption. I thought to myself “If Chad deems it worthy in his gym as a world record powerlifter, it might just work for me.” I asked him what it was, got a reply, and I ordered it later that week. So here we are, about 4 months in, with 1 to 2 workouts a week on the Booty Sprout (with me and my wife) ready to dig into the details.
The three big wins for me, in why we purchased the Booty Sprout, were:
- It could fold up for storage, be moved around, set-up, used, QUICKLY!
- It was rated to 400+ pounds, with their own social media and website claiming they’ve loaded up to 1000lbs.
- It had built in band hooks which meant hip thrusts could be performed without NEEDING a bar, dumbbell, or other weights (you still can, just that you have some easy options).
Did it hold up to those goals? Let’s see.
Build
Frame
The Booty Sprout frame is constructed of two pieces of metal. First is the 1.75in by 1.75in thick piece that wraps around the back side. Then the 1.25in x 1.75in thick piece that wraps around the front side. When folded out entirely the unit is a rectangle oval type shape (the 1.75in is how high off the ground the metal frame sits).
While in storage mode, the Booty Sprout is 29in wide by 28in long, and 8in tall (due to the pad). When set up, it is 29in wide by 42.5in long, and 17in tall (again, the pad). The frame also has some built in hooks to attach the bands to, one on each side of the unit.
The basic Booty Sprout order comes with three bands and a “wrap” to go around the bands to help make it a little more seamless when you have a number of bands loaded up at once. The frame isn’t taking any direct beatings unless you are tossing it around, so the paint should hold up well, and while the frame certainly doesn’t “fit” in a gym full of 3×3 11 gauge steel, I’m pleasantly surprised by it’s abilities (more on that as we go).
Use
We primarily use the Booty Sprout on our horse stall mats, but have used it on the bare concrete. No issues with either as the unit has some rubber grips on the underside, so regardless of where you plan to get to work, this should accommodate your environment.
The foot platform and the back pad on the Booty Sprout fold in with a pop-pin, so you have a pretty easy piece to store and move and stow away, either flat on the ground/shelf or standing up against a wall. The adjustments function like most gym equipment, and the knurling is a nice surprise for something a little more “home” than “gym”.
Back Pad
Attached to this frame is the back pad which is a firm pad with a cover, attached to a post which folds down using a basic pop-pin. The pad is just shy of 22in in length, and 6in in diameter. The pad is firm but comfortable, regardless of what we have thrown at it. I don’t see this breaking down or falling apart any time soon, so I’d give this a very solid rating.
There is a YouTube review of someone showing his pad falling apart entirely, even receiving a replacement pad. I took mine off and there are ZERO signs of issues. So I don’t know if they made some minor changes to the design, he got a lemon, or he was insanely rough on his, but seriously, no problems at all.
I’m actually surprised at this, since even the pads made by legit gym equipment manufacturers are often either too firm or too weak. Booty Sprout did something really right here. I think it is the fact that they definitely didn’t skimp on the size of the pad.
Thick and long in all the right places, just how a butt blasting machine should be. And of course the added cover is a nice touch, as this should eat up any sweat you manage to put out, could be washed and cleaned if needed, and easily replaced as well. I don’t see any of that being a necessity, but solid options instead of a fully encased unit that has to be 100% replaced.
Foot Platform
Then you have the foot platform for the Booty Sprout which is made of a particle board / plywood type board on the exact opposite end of the back pad. The foot platform is 25.5in wide by 14in in length. The foot pad is a little, meh. First off, it would ideally have a slight incline to it. That would make the movement more knee friendly and more glute dominant.
The wood piece itself is the only thing showing any wear, mostly because it has this laminate cover on it. Guaranteed that will be replaced in the coming years with a tougher piece of plywood. We also added some grip tape, just to make sure you don’t have any sliding issues. Again, slick wood laminate and sweaty feet of any kind isn’t a great combo, especially since if your feet slipped during a rep you’d be in some serious trouble (remember, your body anchors the entire unit down). The good news is that the back pad plus the platform work well to give you some extra ROM on the unit.
Not Great
I do have a slight knock on the placement of the pop pin for the foot pad. It is RIGHT where a flat piece is to keep the unit from unfolding too far, and where it functions, it creates a pretty realistic pinching point. I feel like this position could have been selected a little better. The other downside with the pop pin here, is that there is some play to the pin and the hole.
Enough that it creates some slack in the unit during transport. Not only does this make it less mobile in general, it again creates a possible pinching hazard which is less than ideal, especially if you plan to place the unit up on a storage shelf like I do.
Bands
The other key piece to the Booty Sprout are the bands. They have a built in carabiner on each end, have the nice cover so in case one happens to snap you aren’t going to lose an eye or a testicle, and they are rated at 45lbs a piece, so the equivalent of a plate. These are seriously solid and well built bands. Don’t expect to use them for pretty much anything else in your gym, as they are VERY much made for this purpose only.
Also, don’t expect to use other bands with the Booty Sprout, mostly because of the length needed. A normal sized band used for accommodating resistance like the ones sold by Rogue or EliteFTS is going to be WAY too long. And the short bands are going to be WAY too short. But again, seriously solid bands fit for purpose. Since they have no rubbing points or friction placed on the band anywhere, I can’t see them wearing out or breaking any time soon which is a nice alternative to the typical accommodating resistance bands that seem to need replacement every couple of years.
Band Wrap
The wrap for the bands on the Booty Sprout kicks in once you get to about 4 or more bands. It almost gives it a barbell feel. The only downside here, is I can see it might not work if you were getting into the 10+ band range. Very simple, wraps around the bands and holds them all into one “piece”.
Overall Build Comments
The Booty Sprout is fairly light, weighing in at ~25lbs. This is to make sure the unit can move with relative ease, which again is a big selling point in a space cramped garage gym setting. The downside to its ability to move is that it “feels light”. This sounds weird, because you want it to feel light for the sake of mobility, but heavy and secure during use. That is a REALLY tough combo to nail. You don’t want to be hauling a 200+lb machine all over, but you also don’t want to feel like you are going to snap the thing in half.
The good news is, once you add your own weight, the Booty Sprout is stuck in place. No extra movement at all when it comes to the basics of doing hip thrusts. That is for me and my wife, regardless of how much we load it up with. You do have to be careful to get your feet on the platform, and back on the pad before attempting to “thrust” at all. Again, this thing is light so your body weight is the main anchor to keep it on the floor and in place.
If you were to try and thrust with your feet on the ground instead of the platform for example, you’d launch the damn thing right into your backside. Not the right butt burn we are looking for.
Take Home
So the take home on the mobility of the Booty Sprout and overall build is… in the home gym environment we often trade some aspects of equipment for the sake of space. This is no different. A perfect world would have dedicated space for a hip thrust machine/bench with a loaded bar ready to rock, but that isn’t happening any time soon for most of us.
Let’s dig into the performance side of the Booty Sprout before I make my final call.
Performance
The Booty Sprout build is obviously important as it impacts performance. If you have a shoddy build, you won’t be able to do anything meaningful with it. But the real deal comes down to, how does it work out for hip thrusts in general. Can it handle hundreds of pounds, big athletes, little athletes, etc.
The short answer is, it works surprisingly well. My best lifts to date include a 550lb squat and 555lb deadlift, and using even 4 bands was rough out of the gate. That is the equivalent of 180lbs of band tension. After regular use I’m now doing multiple sets of reps in the 8-15 range with 4 or 5 bands. For the sake of science I loaded up all 9 of my bands for 405lbs of band tension and went to work.
I couldn’t really “lock out” the terminal hip extension here, but managed a handful of reps. Since I use this as an accessory, and the real goal of hip thrusts is that full extension at the top, I’m not using 9 bands anytime soon in my workouts.
Room To Grow
So I have a decent amount of growth potential here without coming anywhere close to even the rated weight limited, let alone the likely true limit of near ~1000lbs. I was seriously shocked at how difficult the bands were out the gate. You can apply some of that to me not doing hip thrusts regularly, but still, it was a nice sign to not walk in and automatically destroy 400+lbs.
And the fact that my wife and I who are a solid 6 inches and 100lbs difference in dimensions, have both used it and felt solid and ready to rock, is probably one of the best things I can say about it.
Unless if you are a glute specialist working with Bret Contreras and regularly pushing 400+ on the hip thrust, I think the Booty Sprout is going to be more than sufficient for the majority of people. 400+lbs is going to be enough for an accessory lift where common rep ranges are 5 to 20 for multiple sets.
Bands Are Good
Bands have their drawbacks, as they work in the accommodating resistance framework. With typical bands at the bottom of the lift you have little to no tension, and a TON at the top. The good news for us, is that this matches the strength curve and ideal training application for the glutes. You don’t have a whole lot going on from the floor in a hip thrust, most of the booty building is going to happen at that end range where the bands are working double time.
Even with that said, the bands are pretty tight. There isn’t a ton of slack so even at the beginning of the rep you have a decent amount of band tension. So, if you are a full range of motion or nothing else kind of person, or worried about the carryover to your barbell thrust, don’t fret, you aren’t leaving a bunch on the table.
I tested the Booty Sprout with a barbell, again, for science! I managed 4 plates a side for 405 for a handful of reps. The set up wasn’t great, just because the barbell hip thrust is a pain to set up in my space, but it worked. The Booty Sprout had no issues, even holding still on the slick concrete floor with all that weight. It also tells me that the band tension is pretty damn close to true weight, since my reps were fairly close to each other.
More Options
On the topic of bands, I think they really need to sell a 15lb band. Jumping from nothing to 45lb could be too much for some athletes, and jumping from 45, to 90, to 135, etc. can be a HUGE jump. Think about that in typical lifting stances. If you hit a solid set of 10 with a weight, and you had to jump 45lbs on the next one. That could drop your reps from 10 to 2, or even make it impossible.
They have a 70lb band, but that is still 25lbs for a jump, and to use it for warm-ups or progressions would require you to unhook the 45, use the 70, unhook the 70 and hook up two 45s, etc. Using 15lb bands would mean you have 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, and so on. 15lb jumps would be seriously doable, and owning 2 of the 15lb bands would mean you have an infinite 15lb increase paired with the number of 45s you need.
After loading the unit up with 9 bands, I could see a benefit in a REALLY heavy band, say 135lbs? Assuming it would be useable at all, that would allow you to cut down your bands pretty heavily for the bigger sets, which less bands is more comfortable than more bands.
Carabiner
Continuing on the band note, we’ve found that it is seriously helpful to hook up an extra carabiner to each side of the Booty Sprout when using multiple bands. The logic here is that if you have 4 bands for your working set and need to stand up between sets (say a superset or just to walk off the booty burn), you have to unhook all 4 bands individually… OR you can unhook all 4 bands with one carabiner. Adding the second carabiner keeps you centered on the bands instead of a little crooked.
All of that said, the take home for performance is, it does what it is supposed to do, and looks to be ready to handle that from my family and friends for years to come.
Additional Notes
You can also use the Booty Sprout for Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats. Simply toss the back foot on the pad, front foot on the platform, and go to work. It is a quick enough set up, I might set it up JUST for that, even if I wasn’t doing hip thrusts that day. And much more comfortable and supportive than a traditional bench set up.
You COULD use it for a bunch of other exercises. Banded curls, RDLs, and other various things. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it unless it is your only option as you HAVE to stand on the foot platform to make it work, which isn’t always the right stance with the bands for different exercises. But say you tossed this in the car for a road trip, you could definitely make it work in a pinch for a number of things including rows, lunges, and more.
Variations
You can also use the unit for hip thrust variations that don’t include the bands. Bar (as mentioned), dumbbells, whatever. I’m not likely to spend much time doing those myself, again due to this being an accessory exercise for me and the set up time required compared to the bands is just too much. But if you are a hip thrusting machine and like variations in your routine, you can mix and match to your hearts desire. I’d be very interested to see how the Booty Sprout mixes and matches with something like a smith machine.
My daughter is 4 years old and regularly tries to use our gym equipment, with mixed results. The Booty Sprout works for her, kind of. Because of the length of the foot platform to the back pad, she can’t fully reach which means she can’t use any bands. She probably isn’t quite strong enough to hit a 45lb band yet anyway, but you do need to have some minimum height to be able to use the unit.
There is probably some maximum height restrictions there too if you start exceeding the 6ft mark by much. This is common with most “home gym” items, as they are tailored to the average height American. So if you are under 5ft or over 6ft, check your dimensions first.
The “Other” Booty Sprout
While finishing up the review, one of my followers on Instagram brought the Thruster Lite from Bret Contreras to my attention: https://www.bretcontreras.store/products/thruster-lite-fitness-product
Keep in mind, I haven’t handled it so I am commenting based on looks and general assumptions. The units are VERY similar in basic build. The dimensions are within inches of each other, the size, shape, everything looks very close. So I think it is going to come down to some specific details here.
The Thruster Lite doesn’t fold up as much as the Booty Sprout as the frame doesn’t fold in half. This is a con from a storage stance, but likely a pro from a performance stance. Less moving parts means more stability.
It does have the the pad get out of the way, which means it could fold up on a shelf or under a bed or whatever fairly easily, so it would depend on your specific storage and portability needs. Slight nod to the Booty Sprout in one direction, and slight nod to the Thruster in another.
Weight
The Thruster weighs almost DOUBLE what the Booty Sprout does, which I would assume comes primary from the fact that the foot plate is steel, opposed to the plywood material. This could be a problem in terms of movement. If you have to grab this from a high shelf, or move in and out of your car, that extra size and lack of folding could be a deal break.
But, the more robust foot platform likely addresses my concerns of the Booty Sprout’s cheaper wood platform falling apart. The added grip tape is a big win too, so you don’t have to do that yourself. I doubt the 45lbs the unit weighs is going to be enough to overcome the downsides of mobile units, so we are back to… one win for the Booty Sprout, one for the Thruster.
Aesthetically, the Thruster Lite certainly looks more like something that belongs in a garage gym. The appearance is more gym than home, which is a nice bump over the Booty Sprout. If you are keeping it in your house, this might be a little different, but I think the Thruster is a better fit visually for the garage.
Custom Bands
It appears like you still need some custom bands for the Thruster. Each band claims to be about 75-100lbs of resistance. Going off my notes for the Booty Sprout bands, I think they are missing a HUGE gap here. To jump from bodyweight to 100 to 200 to 300 lbs of tension is odd. There has got to be some adjustments in the middle there.
The unit is set up to handle four bands total, which means you might be maxing out with the current bands at ~400lbs of tension. The site doesn’t mention a weight limit at all, but I’d have to assume it would be AT LEAST comparable to the Booty Sprout, potentially more due to the added heft of the unit. The key piece is going to be the two posts for the back pad.
That said, I actually don’t see an option to buy extra bands. It comes with two, and that seems to be your limit. Maybe I’m missing something? The way the band hooks up looks like you might be able to use the Booty Sprout bands, so we might now have a 100lb band, plus a 45lb band, getting us closer to some valid jumps.
The Thruster comes in at $219, which is the unit plus two bands. The Booty Sprout is about $70 cheaper, even after getting ALL of the bands I got, I was only $10 over the Thruster (not including shipping and tax). So the Thruster certainly appears to be a more robust unit, potentially, but you are going to pay for that.
Why Had I Not Seen This?
I’m actually shocked I’ve never seen the Thurster before. I follow Bret and have done so for YEARS. We have his Glute Loops and love them. I went through his Instagram and could barely find any mentions of the unit, so I’m not sure what the deal is there. If I had seen this, I probably would have bought it, just because I like Bret and the work he has done over the years.
Maybe one day I’ll track one down, or all of you can convince Bret to send me one for a side by side comparison. In the meantime, we’ll have to settle for the above comparisons. No clear winner, just some pros and cons for each to consider.
Final Thoughts
I have a very specific layout and need in my garage gym, just like most people do. So seriously think about your options and needs before buying any piece of equipment, regardless of the price.
I wanted something that would allow me and my wife to do hip thrusts consistently without a huge amount of set-up, but it had to stow away on my mass storage unit. It also couldn’t cost a ton, and it needed to be able to handle the progressions in weight required for me and my wife. If you currently don’t like hip thrusts, don’t do them often, see no need for them, etc. Skip the Booty Sprout.
If you do them regularly and have no issues with the set up, skip the Booty Sprout. If you have a dedicated machine or bench for hip thrusts and have the space and budget to do so, skip the Booty Sprout. The Booty Sprout is 100% meant to tackle the needs I outlined originally of space and set-up while still being fairly solid in the performance category.
For Us
The Booty Sprout costed $259.53 USD, and that was after taxes and shipping, the included booty sprout and 3 included bands and adding 6 additional 45lb bands to our order (total of 405lbs of band tension). The unit folds up and stores away very easily, taking less than a minute to go from storage to use, and back again. The bands are robust, the overall build is sufficient enough to do what it needs to do while remaining mobile. There are a few small items I believe they could improve, including the slack in the pop pin, the quality/longevity of the footplate, and adding a 15lb band option.
But overall, that price is ridiculously low considering how the other options I considered were nearly as much and would require more set up and weren’t really “meant” for hip thrusts, as much as I’d be makeshift DIYing a solution, or would require us to get REALLY creative with storage. It does its job, it looks like it will for the foreseeable future, we have plenty of room to grow with it, and it is stupid easy to put to work.
Wrap Up
Probably the best thing I can say is… both me and my wife have consistently done hip thrusts every week since we got the Booty Sprout. As simple as that, it has allowed us to include this beneficial exercise in our routine consistently, which is the entire point!
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Joe Gray
My name is Joe Gray - aka Gray Matter Lifting - and I've been lifting at home since 2013. In that time I've built a badass gym, deadlifted over 600lbs, helped grow r/Homegym to over 1 Million subscribers, created the Garage Gym Competition and written a ton of posts here on this site. I love the Garage Gym Community... If you do too, I hope you stick around.
