The glute bridge is an excellent addition to a program focused on getting a bigger butt and athletic performance. But they are hard to perform in a crowded gym or with a lack of weight and equipment.
Further, injuries preventing you from loading it can force you to look for alternatives. So here are the best glute bridge alternatives that work similar muscles and are loaded without compressing the spine.
Table of Contents
11 Best Glute Bridge Alternatives
Hip Thrust
The number one glute bridge alternative is the better version of the exercise—the hip thrust. The bar travels a greater distance during the hip thrust than the glute bridge, meaning more range of motion and, therefore, a better muscle-building stimulus [1].
However, you won’t be able to load as heavy as the glute bridge.
The upper glute shelf is heavily targeted with both movements, with the hip thrust activating slightly more quads than the glute bridge [2]. Here’s how to do it:
- Sit on the floor with your back against a bench. Roll the barbell so it is in the crease of your hips. Use a barbell pad or mat to cushion between you and the barbell.
- Bring your feet flat so your shins are vertical at the top of the movement. Shift your back up the bench so your shoulder blades are against the edge.
- Drive through your heels and squeeze your glutes at the top.
American Hip Thrust
The American hip thrust allows you to lift more weight than the traditional hip thrust since the moment arm is shortened due to being higher up the bench. You’ll also feel a better glute burn doing this. However, the setup can be more difficult as you climb up the bench. Here’s how to do it:
- Sit on the floor with your back against a bench. Roll the barbell so it is in the crease of your hips. Use a barbell pad or mat to cushion between you and the barbell.
- Bring your feet flat and shift your back up the bench so it’s against the bottom of your ribs and your elbows are resting on the bench.
- Drive through your heels and squeeze your glutes at the top, creating the movement from your pelvis anteriorly and posteriorly tilting.
B Stance Hip Thrust
The b-stance hip thrust is a pseudo-staggered stance hip thrust. It allows you to preferentially target one leg while having the benefit of lifting on two legs. This means you can use heavier loads to target one leg as less stability is needed. Here’s how to do it:
- Sit on the floor with your back against a bench. Roll the barbell so it is in the crease of your hips. Use a barbell pad or mat to cushion between you and the barbell.
- Bring your feet flat so your shins are vertical at the top of the movement. Shift your back up the bench so your shoulder blades are against the edge. Slightly stagger your feet so one foot’s heel is in line with your other foot’s toes.
- Drive through your heel of the closest foot and squeeze your glutes at the top.
Single Leg Hip Thrust
The single-leg hip thrust can’t be loaded as heavy as the bilateral version but will light up your glutes. Loading is more difficult since you’re off-center, making barbell loading nearly impossible. Using a dumbbell or sandbag, in my experience, works best. Here’s how to do it:
- Sit on the floor with your back against a bench. Bring your feet flat so your shins are vertical at the top of the movement. Lift one leg off the floor and keep it at a 90/90° angle.
- Drive through your heel of the closest foot and squeeze your glutes at the top.
Single Leg Glute Bridge
Another way to add variation within your training is to train on one leg. Instead of performing glute bridges with two legs, do it single leg. It challenges the glutes differently, having to stabilize the hips and knee, activating the smaller glute muscles, the glute medius and minimus.
Because it’s single leg, you don’t need as much load, making it home gym friendly. Here’s how to do it:
- Lie on the floor with your feet flat. Lift one leg off the floor and keep it at a 90/90° angle.
- Drive through your heel and tilt your bum forward. This will posteriorly tilt your pelvis, giving you better glute activation. Squeeze at the top and slowly lower the weight to the floor.
Frog Pump
The frog pump is a special glute bridge alternative as it simultaneously places the hips into external rotation and extension. These are the primary functions of the glutes.
However, the range of motion and loading potential is small, so it’s used as a burnout/pump exercise instead of a main glute exercise. Here’s how to do it:
- Lie on the floor with the bottoms of your feet together. Your knees will be flared out in a butterfly position with your hips externally rotated.
- Push through the edge of your feet to raise your hips and squeeze your glutes.
Cable Pull Through
The cable pull-through is the standing glute bridge. I’m not a fan of this exercise as it is difficult to load heavy enough to make it worthwhile. If you try to load it heavy, it’ll pull you off balance toward the cable column.
Therefore, you’re limited by load. However, you can get a strong glute and hamstring stretch vital for growing these muscles. Here’s how to do it:
- Place the cable at the bottom of the cable column. Attach the triceps rope. Face away from the cable column and pull the cable between your legs.
- Walk forward to create tension in the hip hinge position. Thrust your hips forward and squeeze at the top, keeping the arms in place. Slowly push your hips back to feel the glute and hamstring stretch.
Back Extension
The back extension is like a straight-leg glute bridge done face down. You can modify this to smash your glutes more than your lower back. It’s a variation I’ve used extensively and how I teach to do the back extension with my athletes.
Further, compared to the reverse hyper, we see 23% greater gluteus maximus activation [3]. However, the severe limitation of this study was the same load being used for both exercises.
Here’s how to do it:
- Squeeze your glutes as you thrust your hips through the pad. This will stop you from raising your shoulders as the primary way to move. At the top, continue squeezing.
- Slowly lower yourself to the bottom position.
KB Swing
The KB swing is the fast version of hip extension. You get a brutally fast stretch of the hamstrings and glutes as the kettlebell swings between your legs before you rapidly thrust your hips, engaging the glutes and hamstrings.
A light 16 kg kettlebell elicits similar glute activation as a percentage of maximal voluntary contraction to hip thrust with a 10RM load [5][6].
Here’s how to do it:
- Initiate the kettlebell swing by pushing the hips back while maintaining soft knees. Thrust the hips forward and squeeze your butt hard.
- Your arms should remain loose, and the power from the hips will dictate the height of the kettlebell swing. Not from raising the kettlebell with the shoulders.
- As the kettlebell returns, hinge at the hip to have the kettlebell pass as close to your crotch as possible.
- Rapidly reverse the downward momentum to upward propulsion.
Reverse Hyper
The reverse hyper was created to help lower back pain in elite Powerlifters. It requires a special piece of equipment, but it makes an excellent glute bridge alternative if you have it. Especially if you suffer from back pain.
One study loaded the reverse hyper to match the subject’s upper body weight when performing the back extension with no load [4].
They found peak muscle activation of the glutes was more significant than the back extension, concluding that the reverse hyper is more intense than the back extension when using similar loads.
Here’s how to do it:
- Squeeze your glutes to initiate the movement. Don’t go so far that you need to hyperextend your lower back. Just far enough to squeeze the glutes hard at the top.
- Control the weight down.
Swiss Ball Hip Bridge
Using the Swiss ball, also known as the stability ball, adds another difficulty layer, having to control the ball from rolling. Because of the added stability component, it’s inferior to the traditional glute bridge for building muscle.
However, curling your legs trains your hamstrings for more variation to hit your posterior chain. Here’s how to do it:
- Lie on the floor and place your heels on the Swiss ball with your legs slightly bent. Push through your heels to raise your hips.
- Repeat the movement or curl your heels to your bum for a hamstring exercise.
What Makes A Good Glute Bridge Alternative?
A great glute bridge alternative can’t be any exercise that works the glutes. It must train the glutes in the same force vector. The major advantage of glute bridging is it’s loaded anteroposteriorly (back to front), removing spinal loading.
It’s why exercises like deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, good mornings, and leg curls didn’t make this list. Because these exercises are axially loaded (top-down) or predominantly target the hamstrings.
Everything on this list is loaded similarly to the glute bridge, so if you use it for a specific reason, it won’t aggravate an old injury or interfere with the rest of your training program.
Summary
These exercises make excellent glute bridge alternatives within your commercial or home gym. As always, what you choose is equipment and space-dependent. However, every alternative on this list is loaded similarly to the glute bridge, giving you a biomechanically similar exercise.
References
1. Zabaleta Korta, A. (2018). Biomechanical effects of Hip Thrust and Glute Bridge on hip extensors.
2. Kennedy, D., Casebolt, J. B., Farren, G. L., Fiaud, V., Bartlett, M., & Strong, L. (2022). Electromyographic differences of the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, biceps femoris, and vastus lateralis between the barbell hip thrust and barbell glute bridge. Sports Biomechanics, 1-15.
3. Lawrence, M. A., Chin, A., & Swanson, B. T. (2019). Biomechanical Comparison of the Reverse Hyperextension Machine and the Hyperextension Exercise. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 33(8), 2053-2056.
4. Cuthbert, M., Ripley, N. J., Suchomel, T. J., Alejo, R., McMahon, J. J., & Comfort, P. (2021). Electromyographical differences between the hyperextension and reverse-hyperextension. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 35(6), 1477-1483.
5. Van Gelder, L. H., Hoogenboom, B. J., Alonzo, B., Briggs, D., & Hatzel, B. (2015). EMG Analysis and Sagittal Plane Kinematics of the Two‐Handed and Single‐Handed Kettlebell Swing: A Descriptive Study. International journal of sports physical therapy, 10(6), 811.
6. McGill, S. M., & Marshall, L. W. (2012). Kettlebell swing, snatch, and bottoms-up carry: back and hip muscle activation, motion, and low back loads. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 26(1), 16-27.