SlendHer

Helping You Get A Slimmer, Fitter Body

  • Start Here Now
  • About SlendHer
  • Write for Us
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Women's Fitness / Best Glute Bridges for a Better Body

Best Glute Bridges for a Better Body

By Carrie Anton Leave a Comment

Best Glute Bridges for a Better Body

Pop quiz: What lower body exercise works and tones your buns, strengthens your core, helps you run faster and jump higher, and has lots of variations to keep things interesting?

If “squats” were the first thing to come to mind, you’re not wrong. All of those benefits can be associated with the stand-up-sit-down style exercise. However, the answer we were actually referring to is “glute bridges.”

What Are Glute Bridges?

Best Glute Bridges for a Better Body
Basic glute bridges are a great exercise, but don’t overlook how the variations can better you body.

If you’ve never done one before, a glute bridge is an exercise where you lie on your back with your arms flat on the ground at your sides. Your knees are bent and your heels are about a hand-length away from your butt. Lifting your toes slightly off the floor, you begin the effort by powering through your heels to lift your butt off the floor and raise your pelvis toward the sky so that your front body from your knees to your collar bones is nearly one flat plain. After contracting your glute and ab muscles and holding at the top for a few seconds, you then slowly lower down to complete one rep.

How Glute Bridges Make for a Better Body

Any exercise done while lying down is A-OK in our book, but don’t let the relaxed position fool you. In addition to the glutes (as the name implies), glute bridges are a great way to strengthen and tone your hamstrings, lower back, and abs. And because so many people spend so much time hunched forward–working on the computer, texting on a phone, or driving in a car–glute bridges also double as a mobility exercise to help open and stretch your hips and front body, while also preventing lower back pain.

Beyond a better body, another advantage of glute bridges is they can be done just about anywhere at anytime without the need for any equipment (unless you want to up the challenge level, that is). Even better? With the number of glute bridge variations available, it’s a versatile exercise of which you (and your body!) won’t bore.

Best Glute Bridges Beyond the Basics

Best Glute Bridges for a Better Body
Bring your core in on the lower body fitness by adding a bit a on-the-ball balance to your glute bridges.

Since we already covered how to do a basic glute bridge, let’s add some fun to your fitness and cover the variations you can add in with ease. On your next lower-body or full-body workout day, pick one or two of the following, and complete three sets of 15 reps each (15 reps on each leg if the variation is single-leg based).

  1. Single-Leg Glute Bridges: Keeping your knee bent, lift one leg off the floor so that the shin is parallel with the floor. Complete the up-and-down motion powering through the grounded heel until all reps are complete. Repeat on the other side.
  2. Marching Glute Bridges: Using the same motion as the single-leg glute bridges, after one rep, switch the raised and grounded legs so that your are doing the next rep on the opposite side. Keep alternating back and forth, completing 15 reps on each leg.
  3. Medicine Ball Glute Bridges: Instead of your feet being flat on the floor, place your feet on top of a medicine ball. (Note: You don’t need to lift your toes up for this version). To help with balance, spread your arms out wider on the floor, going as high as making a T-formation with your upper body. Complete the lifting-and-lowering reps, engaging your core as you go for best balance.
  4. Exercise Ball Glute Bridges: Using a large exercise ball, bend both legs at a right angle and place the back of your heels on top of the ball. Raise up and lower down, in the same motion as the basic exercise, but using your abs and core to help steady your body on the ball. To up the intensity level of this version, complete the reps on a single leg before repeating on the other side.
  5. Weight Glute Bridges: Go beyond body weight by placing a barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell, or barbell plate on your pelvis (with padding from a towel or folded yoga mat, if needed). You can also add resistance with a band, anchoring it at your sides under your hands so that tension is created across your pelvis before lifting into the bridge position. Start with a low weight or resistance, and work your way up as the effort becomes easy.  

With so many choices from which to choose, don’t just find the one glute bridges exercise you like best and stick with it. For a better body, your muscles will grow best if you keep them guessing with different movements–and that goes for glute bridges or any other exercise you make part of your strength-training and fat-burning program.

What is your favorite way to work your lower body? Tell us in the comments!

Carrie Anton (270 Posts)

Carrie Anton is a freelance writer focusing on health, fitness, and sports. She's been published in Self, Women's Health, Oxygen, and Maximum Fitness.


Filed Under: Featured, Women's Fitness Tagged With: abs, core, exercise, exercise ball, fitness, glute, glute bridge, glute bridges, hamstring, lower back, lower body, medicine ball, pelvis, squat, strengthen, tighten, tone, workout

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search SlendHer

Categories

  • Fat Loss
  • Featured
  • Health News
  • Healthy Eating
  • Women's Fitness

Popular Articles

Does Running Burn Belly Fat

Does Running Burn Belly Fat?

  Do you keep running on the treadmill hoping it will lose the fat around your waistline? You’re not alone in this mission, many … Continue Reading

FreeExercise

How to Exercise for Free (or Cheap)

Being active and keeping fit can be done on the cheap or, in some cases, for free. If you are looking to tighten up the budget, or simply don’t … Continue Reading

7 Carbs Workout

7 Carbs to Power Your Workout

Carbohydrates are an important food for the body, not only just for fuel. They are a source of nutrition that are necessary for your body to … Continue Reading

Our Latest Posts

  • Acupuncture for Migraines: Does It Work?
  • Does Exercise Boost Immunity?
  • What are the Best Natural Immune Boosters?
  • 9 Herbs for Healthy Kidneys
  • Can Estrogen Dominance Cause Weight Gain?

Copyright © 2025 · Contact Us · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Log in

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok