Barbell Glute Bridge and Range of Motion
When browsing YouTube you can find some pretty impressive barbell glute bridge demonstrations with heavy loads. But if you pay careful attention, you will notice the range of motion (ROM) isn’t very good in many of these lifts.
Though you want to show incredible feats of strength and impress all of your friends (or just yourself), it’s important to note that as that weight goes up, if your ROM goes down, the exercises is far less effective in activating and strengthening the glutes (which is the entire purpose of doing these in the first place).
That’s because when it comes to bridging exercises, your glutes achieve their greatest activation at the end range, or top, of the motion. If the weight you use during the glute bridge is so heavy that you can’t reach end range, then your glutes will not fully activate, which decreases the power of the exercise.
Here is an example of this:
To the naked eye, this looks like a darn good demonstration of gluteal prowess. However, to the discerning glute connoisseur, we can see all sorts of things wrong in this video.
Before I dissect this, it’s highly impressive that he’s doing this without a bar pad. Rock on. Onto the bridge itself. As you can see, he is barely lifting his hips off the ground, making his ROM rather short. His glutes don’t have enough power to push the weight to lock out position where maximum activation occurs.
In his case, he needs to drop the weight, pull the hips up higher, and squeeze his glutes hard at the top. If this isn’t happening, then the exercise lacks effectiveness. You can think of it much is the same way as we think of squats that go above parallel, or a deadlift that isn’t pulled past midrange.
A cue for effectiveness: there should be no ability to smile and laugh at the end of this exercise. Only breathlessness and a slight amount of tears. Your glutes should cramp up and burn as you hit your strongest point. If they don’t, you aren’t getting your hips high enough.
This may take a while to master, so it’s best you start with lighter weight and work your way up to heavier bridges. As the weight increases, your range of motion should stay the same. If it doesn’t, then you aren’t ready to graduate to a heavier weight. This is fine as the entire purpose of the exercise isn’t to see how much many bone-crushing pounds you can slide onto a barbell, but how much brute force you can develop to thrust the bar into the air.
The only way your glutes are going to grow stronger, rounder, and more muscular is through full activation during exercises. Keep that in mind as you progress with your bridging exercises.
Another thing I noticed, which I haven’t seen before, is the half-pipe he has built for his weights. It seems he set this up to prevent the weighted barbell from rolling down his body as he bridges up. I think they are more of a hindrance than a safety mechanism. Not that you ever would, but don’t do this.
Okay, onto the right way to bridge. I filmed this video yesterday during the last set of my glute bridges. You can see from this angle how high my hips come up relative to the previous video. In this instance, the weight is almost too heavy to get full activation. I was going for my max here (total ego thing). I still had excellent ROM and got a good squeeze at the top. As you can see, toward the end of the set I had to rest longer. My glutes were firing so hard that cramping set in, making it nearly impossible to do another rep. This is a good thing.
Here is another great video demonstrated by my friend Marianne Kane of Myomytv.com. She bridges 300lbs. with excellent form. From this angle you can see how high her glutes come off the floor.
With heavier sets, it’s more common to not bridge high enough. However, when doing lighter sets of glute bridges, often the ROM is too far. This recruits the low back muscles rather than the glutes and hamstrings. As you can see in the photo below, her back starts to bow to the point where she is recruiting more low back and less glutes. (not what you want)
To prevent this, make sure you are squeezing in the glutes. You should not feel your low back working at all. If you feel your low back muscles firing, then you are likely arching a little too far. Decrease your arch by slightly flattening your back out, then really focus on pulling up with the glutes. Squeeze those cheeks really hard at the top to prevent your other muscles from kicking in.
It may take some practice to get this right. Be conscious of what muscles you are using when bridging so that you build the best glutes possible.
Love,
Kellie
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27 Responses to "Barbell Glute Bridge and Range of Motion"
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Bret Contreras says: January 27, 2012 at 3:54 pm
Awesome!!!
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Kellie Davis says: January 27, 2012 at 8:16 pm
Thank you!
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Marianne says: January 27, 2012 at 4:04 pm
Excellent topic Kellie! Thanks for the inclusion … hopefully no one will notice my purple head :-/ LOL
You have seriously strong glutes btw, very impressed with you as always <3
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Kellie Davis says: January 27, 2012 at 8:16 pm
Ha! I sure didn’t. I just noticed a super gluteal goddess! xoxo
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Ann Wendel says: January 27, 2012 at 5:28 pm
“A cue for effectiveness: there should be no ability to smile and laugh at the end of this exercise. Only breathlessness and a slight amount of tears.”
I love this quote!
Have a great weekend!
Ann
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Kellie Davis says: January 27, 2012 at 8:16 pm
Ha! I just couldn’t believe how much that guy was laughing at the end of his video. I am usually a little blacked out and have snot running down my face.
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Scott Tousignant says: January 27, 2012 at 6:39 pm
Outstanding!
Another thing that I noticed from the first video is that the guy appears to totally relax his glutes during the eccentric portion of the movement, allowing the weight to come crashing to the ground with little to no activation of the glutes.
I love the 2 videos demonstrating the proper form. Very inspiring. Now I’m pumped to go crush another workout in the gym.
Thanks for the lesson Kellie.
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Kellie Davis says: January 27, 2012 at 8:15 pm
You are very welcome, Scott!
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Melek says: January 27, 2012 at 7:44 pm
Hi super woman ! Is it ok that when we are lowering the barbell, first one side touches the floor and then the other side ?or shall we try to lower both sides at the same time (By lowering the weight) in terms of prevent injury? Can this be dangerous for us? Thank you x
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Kellie Davis says: January 27, 2012 at 8:15 pm
Hi Melek! You want to lower the bar down evenly. However, you may find sometimes during your initial couple of reps that you are still working out exactly how to place the bar on your hips. The barbell might sit unevenly causing you to lower one side sooner than the other. This can be corrected with a minor adjustment. I think you see that on rep #2 in my lift. Hope this helps!
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Mike says: January 28, 2012 at 7:39 pm
Do you think this exercise is better when the shoulders are supported on a bench? Bret Contreras calls them hip thrusters.
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Kellie Davis says: January 31, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Hi Mike! Those are two different exercises, each with their own benefits. I am an advocate for adding both to your programs.
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Melek says: January 28, 2012 at 10:34 pm
I will try my best! Thanks
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Alicia D. says: January 29, 2012 at 8:03 pm
Super love the videos of you and Marianne, I’m seriously awed. And that airplane hanger of a gym you have, wow. Got space?
The feisty, half-piping, pseudo-lifing kid is pretty happy with himself and made me smile in spite of the fact that a reaction like that would probably just encourage him. Quick, somebody take a plate off each end of that bar and let the man actually get a real rep in. I can’t tell but is he wearing a weight belt for hip thrusts? Kids these days…
I could guarantee that my low back would remind me of it’s limitations whenever I did, not sure what it’s called, double elevated hip thrusts (back and heel on benches), but never bridges off the floor. And just as you explained I oftened used weight for the bridges but rarely used much weight for the elevated moves so I probably was going up so high that my low back was taking over. In fact I eliminated those for a while in lieu of high-box step ups because of my back. Nice reminder, thanks!
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Kellie Davis says: January 31, 2012 at 10:08 pm
Yes, when I first started the hip thrusts my low back would over compensate. It takes a lot of concentration to recruit the glutes.
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Kellie Davis says: January 31, 2012 at 10:08 pm
BTW, I saw a guy in my gym wearing a belt and wrist straps for chest supported rows. So, it’s not just kids.
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Tony Gentilcore says: January 30, 2012 at 12:02 pm
Great post, and a nice reality check for many trainees (and coaches) out there. Internet high five Kellie!
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Kellie Davis says: January 31, 2012 at 10:08 pm
Thanks for popping over!
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Julissa says: January 31, 2012 at 3:08 pm
Hi Kellie! Awesome post. What do you think or how do you feel about hip bridges/thrust on a Stability ball?
Thanks
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Kellie Davis says: January 31, 2012 at 10:11 pm
Well, they can certainly work without weight, but I think once you load up things may get awkward. More glute recruitment occurs when you are on a stable surface.
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Karine says: January 31, 2012 at 9:26 pm
Awesome post, thank you!! This made me realize I have been using a bench that is way too high for me! I am super psyched to use a lower bench next time I do hip thrusts to see how my numbers and performance improve!
Fantastic work in your video above – truly inspirational!
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Kellie Davis says: January 31, 2012 at 10:12 pm
I have the same issue, Karine. The benches at my gym are far too high, so I just reduce my ROM and don’t touch down at the bottom of my hip thrusts.
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Vivaca says: January 31, 2012 at 9:35 pm
Great post, thank you! Are bodyweight bridges and thrusts safe while pregnant?
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Kellie Davis says: January 31, 2012 at 10:13 pm
Absolutely! They will help so much by reducing low back pain associated with pregnancy, and help strengthen and stabilize your hips… which translates to an easier pregnancy. The stronger these muscles, the better equipped your body is for carrying your baby. Congrats on your pregnancy! How exciting!
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Gabe says: February 2, 2012 at 9:20 pm
Excellent post and very handy tips! Just wanted to say though, the bad bridger was using a bar pad, albeit a small one haha.
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