Barbell glute bridge

Barbell, pad

Barbell glute bridge, end position — Images: Free Exercise DB (public domain)

Lie on the floor with a padded barbell across the hips, knees bent and feet flat, and drive the hips up. A shorter range than a hip thrust with no bench needed.

Pad the bar over the hip crease
Drive through the heels, ribs down
Squeeze the glutes at the top, lower under control

Movement

Pattern: Hip extension
Type: Compound, several joints move
Sides: Both sides together
Equipment: Barbell
Variation of: Glute bridge

Muscles worked

Main movers get full credit for a set, helpers half.

Lower body

GlutesMain
HamstringsHelper

Ratings

Scores 1-5 averaged over sources. Tap a rating for the claims behind it. Claims are our summaries of the linked sources, fact-checked by AI.

Muscle growth higher is better4.0
Very good; among the better picks for the muscle. 1 source.
By muscle: Glutes 4.0 (1).
- 4/5 Ten men: barbell glute bridge gave higher upper and lower glute max EMG than the barbell hip thrust. Kennedy et al., Electromyographic differences of the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, biceps femoris, and vastus lateralis between the barbell hip thrust and barbell glute bridge. @ Abstractfor glutespaperMechanism2022checked by AI