Glute Bridge
You lie on your back with your feet planted. From there you drive your hips up as far as they go — driven by your glutes, with your abs lightly braced. At the top you squeeze your glutes hard, then lower your hips slowly again.
The glute bridge is hip extension in its simplest form: you lie on the floor, your back is supported, your knees keep their angle — and the only thing that moves is your hips. Because nothing needs balancing and no load sits on your back, you can focus on one thing: squeezing your glutes and driving your hips up with them.
That is exactly why Andreas puts it right at the start. If you can extend your hips deliberately here, you carry that feeling into every other exercise — into the hip thrust, the Romanian deadlift, every staircase you climb.
From the studio: For Andreas, the glute bridge is the exercise his clients use to learn to switch their glutes on in the first place — with a hand on the glutes giving the feedback. That's his observation from the studio.
Starting position
Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor — about hip-width apart, heels close to your body. Your arms rest on the floor beside you — or you put a hand on your glutes to feel whether they're really firing. That's how Andreas shows it in the video.
Before your hips go up, brace your abs lightly. Then drive your hips up as far as they go: at the top your knees, hips and shoulders form one line, and your weight sits on your heels and shoulder blades.
With no added weight, or with a dumbbell or a plate on your hips: the starting position is always the same.
The three cues
- Brace your abs lightly, then drive your hips up from your glutes — as far as they go
- At the top, squeeze your glutes hard, as if you were trying to crack a nut between them
- Slowly up, slowly back down — your hips never drop to the floor
Common faults
| Fault | How to fix it |
|---|---|
| Your feet are too far away — your hamstrings take over as you drive up, often with a cramping feeling | Bring your heels closer to your glutes, roughly under your knees. Then your glutes do the work. |
| Your lower back takes over at the top — your hips go past the line into an arch | Brace your abs lightly and come up only until your knees, hips and shoulders form one line. The tension comes from your glutes, not your back. |
| Your knees drop inwards or fall outwards | Keep your knees hip-width apart and in line with your feet. If that doesn't hold, do fewer reps — the line matters more than the number. |
| Your hips stop short of full extension | Pause briefly at the top and squeeze your glutes. Only once your hips are fully extended do you start lowering. |
| Your hips drop on the way down | Lower slowly, drive up under control. The way down is part of the rep. |
| Your weight is on the balls of your feet | Shift it onto your heels. It's fine for your toes to lift slightly — that's when your glutes do the work. |
Variations
| Variation | When to use it |
|---|---|
| No added weight, hand on your glutes | You learn the feel: abs lightly braced, glutes squeezed, hips up. Your hand on your glutes tells you whether they are really firing. |
| No added weight, 10 to 20 reps | What we do in the studio: slowly up, slowly down, 10, 15, 20 reps. Once you can do 20 clean reps comfortably, you move on. |
| With a dumbbell or plate on your hips | Your first load across the hips. Not a big resistance — but clear feedback on where the movement comes from. Both hands hold the weight in place on your hips. |
| Glute bridge leg raise | The glute bridge leg raise is an exercise in its own right: your hips stay up and one leg extends forward at a time, without your hips dropping. It comes once 20 clean reps feel easy. |
Reps and load
Start with no added weight and work into the range of 10 to 20 reps — across two to three sets. Every rep slowly up, a brief squeeze at the top, slowly back down.
Once 20 clean reps feel comfortable, a dumbbell or a plate goes on your hips — and the same range starts over. The rest between sets can be short, a minute is enough; the exercise fits well at the start of a session, before your hips move on to the hip thrust or the deadlift.
Which muscles do the work
| Muscle | Role | What it does here |
|---|---|---|
| Glute max M. gluteus maximus | Prime mover | Extends your hips and drives them up — the engine of the exercise |
| Hamstrings Mm. ischiocrurales | Synergist | Assist hip extension — more so the further your feet sit from your body |
| Adductor magnus M. adductor magnus | Synergist | Pulls from the inside of your thigh to help extend the hip, especially out of the bottom |
| Glute med M. gluteus medius | Stabiliser | Keeps your knees tracking hip-width and your pelvis level |
| Abs M. rectus abdominis | Stabiliser | Holds the line at the top and stops your lower back arching past your hips |
| Spinal erectors and multifidus M. erector spinae, Mm. multifidi | Stabiliser | Keep your trunk as one piece while your hips extend beneath it |
| Quads M. quadriceps femoris | Stabiliser | Hold your knee angle while your hips come up |
Your glutes do the moving; your trunk holds the shape. Where your feet sit helps decide who works: heels close to your body and the work lands in your glutes — feet far away and your hamstrings take over. Your abs make sure it's your hips that extend at the top and not your lower back.
Ways to do it — on video
The equipment changes, the movement pattern stays the same. What you learn on the cable applies to the band just as much — only the resistance differs.
No added weightStandard
The studio standard and the entry point for everyone. This is where you learn to squeeze your glutes and drive your hips up with them — your hand on your glutes gives the feedback.
With weight on your hips
Once 20 reps without weight feel easy. A dumbbell or — as Andreas shows in the video — a plate rests on your hips, held in place with both hands. Not a big resistance, but clear feedback.
Explained in full
Why the glute bridge comes first for Andreas, how your glutes drive your hips up while your abs stay lightly braced — and when the dumbbell goes on your hips. · 1:35
Seeing it done right is not the same as doing it right
Video, cues and variations take you a long way. What they cannot give you is an outside eye at the moment the movement isn't quite there yet. That is what training with me is for — in the studio or in a workshop.
See the workshopsNew exercise pages are added all the time — the newsletter keeps you posted.
Sources
Ekstrom RA, Donatelli RA, Carp KC. (2007). J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 37(12):754–762. DOI: 10.2519/jospt.2007.2471 — Measures muscle activity in nine bodyweight rehabilitation exercises in 30 healthy adults (19 men, 11 women), including the double-leg and single-leg bridge. The bridge stayed below 45 % MVIC in every muscle measured — glute max and med, hamstrings, abs, spinal erectors, multifidus — which is why the authors file it under endurance and stabilisation training rather than strength building. That is why this page describes the glute bridge as an entry and activation exercise — and the road to more strength via added weight and the hip thrust. There's no direct measurement of the Academy's readership — ages 40 to 60, training two to four hours a week; what carries over here is the classification, not the exact numbers. (Evidence type: EMG)
Youdas JW, Hartman JP, Murphy BA, Rundle AM, Ugorowski JM, Hollman JH. (2015). Physiother Theory Pract 31(6):418–427. DOI: 10.3109/09593985.2015.1010672 — Measures six bridging variations to a neutral hip position in 26 healthy adults (13 men, 13 women), on a stable and an unstable surface. The multifidus worked steadily at around 29 to 36 % MVIC in every variation, glute max peaked at 32.6 % (single-leg bridge, stable), and the hamstrings were higher than the glutes in every variation. The unstable surface brought no advantage. The basis for listing the multifidus as a stabiliser in the muscle table — and for showing the exercise on the floor on this page, not on a ball. (Evidence type: EMG)
Boren K, Conrey C, Le Coguic J, Paprocki L, Voight M, Robinson TK. (2011). Int J Sports Phys Ther 6(3):206–223. PubMed 22034614 — Compares 18 rehabilitation exercises for glute max and glute med in 26 healthy adults (24 analysed). Simply squeezing the glutes — with no movement at all — reached a peak of 81 % MVIC in glute max, placing it among the five strongest exercises in the study. That is why 'squeeze your glutes as if cracking a nut' is the central cue on this page: the squeeze is the exercise, the hips follow it. (Evidence type: EMG)
Hollman JH, Berling TA, Crum EO, Miller KM, Simmons BT, Youdas JW. (2018). J Sport Rehabil 27(2):138–143. DOI: 10.1123/jsr.2016-0130 — A randomised controlled trial in 30 active women with a mean age of 24, two visits one week apart. With verbal and tactile glute cues, glute max activity in the bridge rose from 16.8 to 33.0 % MVIC; the hamstrings, however, rose too, from 16.5 to 29.8 %. The cues strengthen the whole hip extension, not only the glutes. Supports Andreas' hand on the glutes and the 'squeeze' cue as the centrepiece of the coaching cue on this page — and explains why foot position is needed on top to take the hamstrings out of the picture. (Evidence type: RCT)
Ho IMK, Ng LPC, Lee KOL, Luk TCJ. (2020). Res Sports Med 28(4):484–497. DOI: 10.1080/15438627.2020.1777552 — Measures the double-leg bridge at four knee angles from 40 to 120 degrees in 25 physically active men. The more the knees were bent — that is, the closer the heels to the body — the harder glute max worked and the less the hamstrings and spinal erectors did; biceps femoris activity fell with a very large effect. The basis for 'heels close to your body, roughly under your knees' and for the 'feet too far away' error on this page. (Evidence type: EMG)
Lehecka BJ, Edwards M, Haverkamp R, Martin L, Porter K, Thach K, Sack RJ, Hakansson NA. (2017). Int J Sports Phys Ther 12(4):543–549. PubMed 28900560 — Measures five single-leg bridge positions in 28 healthy adults aged 18 to 30. With the bridging knee at 135 instead of 90 degrees, hamstring activity fell from 75.3 to 23.5 % MVIC while glute max and glute med were preferentially activated; the study was prompted by reports of hamstring cramping. Confirms for the single-leg version what Ho 2020 shows for the double-leg one — and supplies the cramping feeling in the 'feet too far away' error. (Evidence type: EMG)
Kennedy D, Casebolt JB, Farren GL, Fiaud V, Bartlett M, Strong L. (2024). Sports Biomech 23(12):2935–2949. DOI: 10.1080/14763141.2022.2074875 — Compares the barbell glute bridge on the floor with the barbell hip thrust in ten men. The floor version reached higher values in glute max (upper and lower fibres) and a higher mean in glute med; the hip thrust was higher in the quads. A small sample; used to place the loaded glute bridge as a full route to hip extension — the 'with weight on your hips' variation is not a makeshift for when there's no bench. (Evidence type: EMG)
A note on context: EMG studies show which muscles an exercise recruits — that is a good reason to pick it, but it does not replace adjusting things to the person in front of you. See a doctor for persistent or severe pain.