Dumbbell Single Leg Hip Thrust

What you'll gain

• Loads one glute at a time without needing a barbell or a rack.

• Finds and trains weak sides that bilateral thrusting hides.

• Adds a pelvic stability demand on top of straightforward hip extension.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. 1

   Sit with your upper back against the long edge of a bench.

2. 2

   Rest a dumbbell across the crease of your hips and hold it in place.

3. 3

   Plant one foot flat with the shin vertical under the knee.

4. 4

   Lift the other leg and hold the hip at roughly 90 degrees.

5. 5

   Drive the planted foot into the floor until your torso is parallel with the floor.

6. 6

   Lower your hips under control without letting them rotate, then repeat.

Common Mistakes

• Letting the hips drop or rotate toward the free leg, which loses the unilateral load.

• Arching the lower back at lockout instead of finishing with the glutes.

• Feeling the movement in the lower back, which signals the pelvis is not tilting under.

• Loading it before the bilateral version is solid, which just shifts work to the hamstrings.

About This Exercise

The dumbbell single leg hip thrust removes half the base and keeps the load. Your upper back rests on a bench, a dumbbell sits in the hip crease, one foot drives into the floor and the other leg is held with the hip at about 90 degrees. Everything the bilateral version does for the glutes now falls on one side, which is why lifters find weak sides quickly here. Keeping the hips level rather than letting them drop or rotate is the whole skill, and the abdominals hold a posterior pelvic tilt so the lower back does not finish the rep. For a library this is the unilateral glute clip that needs no barbell, so it works in home and small studio programming. It fits dumbbell filters, glute and single leg blocks, and imbalance correction content where each side is trained separately.

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