Woman, 24, snaps her hip in half attempting exercise practiced by millions

A Californian personal trainer has revealed how she suffered a life-changing hip injury after performing an exercise practiced by millions in pursuit of a big booty.

Kristina Schmidt, 24, of Malibu decided to start trying out barbell hip thrusts after seeing her favorite fitness influencers praise it endlessly online. 

The exercise involves holding a weighted barbell across the pelvis and thrusting it in the air at hip height while the upper back rests against the bench. 

It is done to build the glute muscles in the leg, giving the desired ‘thick’ look to the lower body, and also indirectly target hamstrings, quads and calves. 

After seeing great results and being able to lift more than ever, Schmidt soon completely incorporated the exercise into her regular gym routine. 

She quickly added 66 pounds (30kgs) onto her weights – working her way up from a 242 pounds (110kg) to 308 pounds (140kgs) hip thrusts. 

However, things took a turn for the worse when she began feeling ‘agonizing pain’ in her right hip two months after she started the exercise.

She was soon left with debilitating pain, a massive hip fracture and was forced to undergo surgery. 

‘I wanted to look cool in front of my powerlifting gym friends. 

However, she was soon left with dehabilitating pain, a massive hip fracture and was forced to undergo surgery 

‘In January I was only lifting 110-120kg and then by March it was already up to 140kg, which in hindsight was probably way too fast. It was too much,’ Schmidt explained. 

The young trainer recalled the day she realized that there was something wrong with her right leg – noting that she was ‘crying with every single step’. 

‘I remember going on a car trip with my friends and I couldn’t walk. I was crying with every single step, my hip felt like someone was trying to tear my leg off. It was a horrible pain, I couldn’t stop crying and my friend had to carry me into the house.’

Schmidt was then taken to a doctor for an MRI scan and discovered she had a stress fracture on her right hip due to lifting excessively heavy weights in incorrect form. 

Doctors also found small cracks in her bones around the ‘neck of her femur and hip joint’.

She said: ‘The space between my hip bone and femur shrank so much that my bones were grinding on each other.’

The exercise involves holding a weighted barbell across the pelvis and thrusting it in the air at hip height while the upper back rests against the bench

A hip fracture can only be treated with surgery but the type of surgery required depends on the severity and type of the bone crack. 

The two most common fracture surgeries are a hip replacement surgery and a open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF). 

In a hip replacement surgery, parts of the bone or the entire hip may be replaced with artificial components. 

While in an ORIF surgery, screws, pins, plates or a metal rod are placed into the thigh bone to secure the broken pieces in place while they heal.

However what was meant to be a simple surgery to fix Schmidt’s hip turned life-threatening after she ended up with a bacterial infection in her hip. 

The infection caused the synovial fluid which is meant to lubricate and cushion the hip joint to turn orange – causing septic arthritis, described as an infection in the synovial fluid and tissues, as well as borderline blood poisoning. 

Borderline blood poisoning, also known as sepsis, occurs when the bacteria causing an infection in another part of the body enter the bloodstream. 

As a result, she had to undergo surgery to clean the wound and was then placed on a three-month course of antibiotics. 

Scans showed that she had ended up with a stress fracture on her right hip lifting excessively heavy weights in incorrect form

A hip fracture can only be treated with surgery, however the the type of surgery required depends on the severity and type of the bone crack

She explained: ‘I needed surgery to clean out the joint and after that I was on crutches and still could not walk for weeks. 

‘I was put on antibiotics for months, which destroyed my gut microbiome, weakened my immune system, and triggered a domino effect of other health issues.’

Since her accident, Schmidt is trying to raise awareness and asking others to not follow advice on social media blindly.   

‘I just saw people doing the hip thrust online. I never saw people talking about what to do if you’re more quad dominant, like I am.

‘It was more of a one-size-fits-all approach, like “if you want big glutes then you should do this”. But not everybody has the same muscular genetics.

‘Nobody talks about the slow burn of injuries like a stress fracture – which unlike an actual fracture can often go unnoticed – and how it leads to a domino effect of other health issues.

However what was meant to be a simple surgery to fix Schmidt’s hip turned life-threatning after she ended up with a bacterial infection in her hip

Since she shared videos of herself hip thrusting and details about her accident on Instagram, tons of viewers have come together to appreciate her openess and share their own stories

‘You have to be quite careful about what you see online now. Just because it works for one person, doesn’t mean it works for everyone. 

‘Having guidance from someone who is certified and who knows what they’re doing is really important.’

Since she shared videos of herself hip thrusting and details about her accident on Instagram, tons of viewers have come together to appreciate her openess and share their own stories. 

One user wrote: ‘Just to be safe: this happened because u used too much weight not because the exercise is bad, right? Lmao’

While another commented: ‘Everyday on this app I unlock a new fear.’

Since her accident, Schmidt is trying to raise awarness about her accident and asking other trainers to not follow advice on social media blindly

One quipped: ‘I had a similar thing, my quads were way stronger than my hamstrings and glutes, and one day I stood up at a park and tore and sprained all my ligaments and tendons in my hip flexor… work out ur bum guys.’ 

‘THANKYOU FOR THIS POST. I WILL NEVER EGO LIFT OR EGO EXERCISE. Thankyou for your reminder,’ a grateful gym-er also said. 

Schmidt was studying Japanese language, politics and economics at Hokkaido University in Hokkaido, Japan at the time. 

The former English teacher has started personal training as well as gaining nutrition qualifications and is due to be fully qualified in May 2025.