Exercise library

How to do the Barbell Glute Bridge

A intermediate compound exercise using barbell, working the glutes.

Primary musclesGlutes
Secondary musclesCalves, Hamstrings
EquipmentBarbell
LevelIntermediate
TypeCompound
ForcePush

Steps

  1. Begin seated on the ground with a loaded barbell over your legs. Using a fat bar or having a pad on the bar can greatly reduce the discomfort caused by this exercise. Roll the bar so that it is directly above your hips, and lay down flat on the floor.
  2. Begin the movement by driving through with your heels, extending your hips vertically through the bar. Your weight should be supported by your upper back and the heels of your feet.
  3. Extend as far as possible, then reverse the motion to return to the starting position.

Tracking it in OneRep

Add the barbell glute bridge to a routine and your previous weight and reps sit beside every set, so the decision to add load is made by what is already on the screen rather than by memory. Exercise history and volume trends are one tap away, and logging works offline for the gyms where signal does not reach.

Because OneRep tracks food on the same timeline, a stall on this lift can be read against what you were actually eating that month — which is the difference between a programming problem and an eating one. More on that in tracking progressive overload without a spreadsheet.

Where the instructions come from

The steps above come from free-exercise-db, a public-domain exercise dataset. They are general guidance, not coaching for your body: if a movement hurts, stop and get someone qualified to look at it.