The thruster is a spicy CrossFit creation that combines a front squat and a push press. When done well, the thruster is a smooth, cyclical movement pattern that bestows tremendous fitness benefits on the athlete.
A rep in the thruster starts with the athlete standing tall with a barbell racked on the shoulders as in the top position of a front squat. The athlete initiates the movement by executing a front squat. As they rise from the bottom position of the squat, they rapidly extend the legs and hips to impart force on the barbell and drive it directly overhead to full arm lockout. This constitutes one thruster rep. To link thruster reps, the athlete brings the bar from overhead back down to the shoulders. The instant the bar settles on the shoulders, the athlete descends again to the bottom of a front squat.
Learning, practicing, and mastering the thruster enhances all ten General Physical Skills CrossFit aims to develop:
- Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance – Lightweight to medium-weight thrusters for high to medium reps pack a potent stimulus for improving endurance through high-intensity intervals.
- Stamina – As reps in the thruster accumulate, the legs, shoulders, and trunk are taxed heavily, developing muscular endurance in these areas.
- Strength – Heavy thrusters build full-body strength with the front squat and the push press, stimulating every muscle group.
- Flexibility – The thruster requires great flexibility around the ankles, knees, hips, and thoracic spine for the front squat and around the shoulder for the push press. Refining thruster mechanics improves flexibility around all joints.
- Power – The transition from the front squat to the push press trains the athlete to exert power as they aggressively extend their legs and hips to drive the bar overhead.
- Speed – When the mechanics of the thruster are dialed in, this movement can be cycled quickly. Speed is maximized by an explosive drive out of the bottom of the squat to launch the bar overhead, immediately returning the bar to the shoulders once the arms have locked the bar out overhead and descending into a front squat the second the bar has settled on the shoulders.
- Coordination – Developing a smooth transition from front squat to push press demands great coordination and only increases as reps are linked together.
- Agility – A smooth thruster eliminates pauses between the front squat and the push press, the return of the barbell to the shoulders, and the descent into a front squat for the next rep. A properly executed thruster is fluid.
- Balance – The athlete’s balance is challenged through the full range of motion in the thruster. At the bottom of the front squat, the athlete fights the weight from pulling them forward. At the top of the movement, the athlete must finish with the bar directly overhead, fighting the tendency of the weight to finish out in front.
- Accuracy – The transition from the front squat to the push press and the push press back to the front squat requires great accuracy in terms of hand and elbow position as well as bar placement on the shoulders.
While this list of benefits is impressive, the greatest value of the thruster is its ability to move large loads over long distances quickly. Each thruster rep moves the load racked at the shoulders from a standing position to the bottom of a front squat, back through the standing position to a position all the way overhead. Add in the fast cycle time of linked reps with light to medium loads and the thruster generates very high power output, or intensity. This ability to generate power makes the thruster a potent tool for helping athletes achieve any fitness goal.
Whether an athlete wants to improve health markers, decrease body fat, get in shape for a sport, or complete an arduous ruck or race, a good dose of thrusters in workouts as varied as Fran, a 1-rep-max thruster, or Kalsu will help them get there. Results from hundreds of thousands of athletes who have completed millions of thruster reps provide compelling evidence that devoting time to developing sound technique in the thruster and using this movement frequently is a great way to forge elite fitness.
About the Author
Stephane Rochet is a Senior Content Writer for CrossFit. He has worked as a Flowmaster on the CrossFit Seminar Staff and has over 15 years of experience as a collegiate/tactical strength and conditioning coach. He is a Certified CrossFit Trainer (CF-L3) and enjoys training athletes in his garage gym.
The Thruster: A Potent Tool with Broad-Reaching Benefits