Glute Bridge

beginner · isolation

Setup

Lie on your back on a mat with your knees bent and both feet flat, hip-width apart. Draw your heels in until your fingertips just touch them when your arms rest along your body.

Execution

Press your lower back gently into the mat and brace your belly so the ribs cannot flare.
Exhale, squeeze your glutes first and only then lift your hips off the mat.
Rise until shoulder, hip and knee sit on one straight line, and do not chase any extra height.
Hold for one beat at the top, feeling the work in your glutes rather than your lower back.
Inhale and lower over 2-3 seconds, touching the mat before the next rep.

Breathing

Exhale as the hips rise, inhale as they come down. Breathing out on the lift is what lets the deep belly and pelvic floor work together.

Quick cues

Brace your abs, don't arch.
Drive down through your heels.
Bring your heels closer in.
Hold one beat at the top.
Burn in the glutes, never the back.

Common faults

Fault: Arching the lower back at the top instead of squeezing the glutes
Fix: Pull your ribs down and stop a little lower, at the height where the glutes squeeze hardest.
Fault: Feet parked too far out, which cramps the hamstrings
Fix: Draw the heels in until your fingertips can touch them with your arms straight.
Fault: Heels tucked so far under that the quads take over
Fix: Step the feet out half a foot until the effort moves back into the glutes.
Fault: Bouncing up and down without pausing at the top
Fix: Count to two at the top of every rep and cut the reps to a number where that pause survives.
Fault: The knees falling inward as the hips rise
Fix: Loop a band above your knees and press out against it for the whole set.

Equipment

bodyweight, mat

Muscle groups

glutes, legs, core