Dumbbell · intermediate · chest
Dumbbell single leg glute raise holds with chest press
Also called Single-leg glute bridge chest press, Bridge floor press, One-leg bridge dumbbell press, Glute bridge chest press, Single-leg bridge floor press.
You hold a single-leg glute bridge and press a dumbbell in each hand up from your chest while your hips stay lifted. The chest does the work, with the front of the shoulder assisting and the triceps straightening the elbows. The glutes never change length here: they lift the hip once and then hold it for the whole set. And because your shoulders are still on the floor, your upper arms land before the dumbbells get low, which makes this a floor press with a bridge underneath it.
How to do it
- Step oneLie on your back with one knee bent, the other leg extended, and a dumbbell in each hand.
- Step twoDrive the hips upward into a single-leg glute bridge and hold the position.
- Step threeWith your hips elevated, press both dumbbells upward from your chest until arms are fully extended.
- Step fourLower the dumbbells back to your chest and maintain the single-leg bridge throughout.
- Step fiveComplete the desired number of presses before switching legs.
What usually goes wrong
Each starts with what you would notice.
Your hips sink a little each time the dumbbells come down.
WhyLowering the dumbbells puts more of your weight back through your shoulders and gives you something to think about at the far end of your body. The hold has no reps to count, so it is the half that drifts.
FixChoose the hip height on the first rep and hold exactly that one. If it is lower on rep 6 than it was on rep 1, rep 6 was a different exercise.
Your bridge gives out long before your chest does.
WhyOnly one of the two halves can get heavier. Dumbbells go up in weight whenever you want. A bridge held on one leg is loaded by your own body over one foot, and there is no way to add to that without letting the hips down.
FixMatch the dumbbells to what the hold can survive, or run the two apart: press where the weight is the limit, and load the hip with something across it where the hip is the limit.
Your elbows reach the floor and each rep starts with a small bounce off them.
WhyThe floor is where the descent stops, at roughly a right angle at the elbow, and it is easy to let that contact turn into a rebound that starts the next press for you.
FixTouch down with the back of the upper arm and pause there before pressing. If the pause is what ends the set, the rebound was doing more than you had credited it with.
You cannot press anything close to what you handle on a bench.
WhyTwo things are in the way and only one of them is your chest. The floor removes the bottom of the range, so each press starts higher than it would on a bench. There is also no bench to drive your shoulder blades into, so the push back goes into the mat and into a hip you are holding up.
FixNothing here needs correcting. Keep these numbers apart from your bench numbers, because the two are not covering the same range.
What it is for
The single leg glute raise holds with dumbbell chest press combines a single-leg glute bridge hold with a chest press to simultaneously develop the glutes and pectorals. The elevated hip position requires core and glute endurance throughout each pressing repetition.
Questions people ask
- What muscles does the single-leg glute raise hold with chest press work?
- Doing the work: the chest presses, the front of the shoulder assists and the triceps straighten the elbows. Holding position: the glute of the supporting leg keeps the hip up without changing length, the muscle at the side of that hip keeps the pelvis level, the hamstring of that leg does more of the holding than the name of the exercise suggests, and your abs stop your ribs flaring as you press.
- Is this a chest exercise or a glute exercise?
- The chest is the muscle doing repetitions, so as an exercise it is a chest press. The glutes hold one position for as long as the pressing lasts. The catalog record behind this page is filed under chest and names the glutes as the target, which is part of why the question comes up, and by the test this site uses the muscle doing the work is the chest.
- Why can I press less than I can on a bench?
- Mostly the range. Your shoulders are on the floor, so your upper arms land before the dumbbells reach the depth a bench allows and every press starts higher up. When a dumbbell floor press was compared against a barbell bench press, chest activity came out lower for the floor version, though that comparison changed the implement as well as the position, so read it as a direction rather than a measurement of this exercise.
- Does the floor limit the range of motion?
- Yes, and it is the defining feature of pressing from this position. The back of your upper arm reaches the floor at around a right angle at the elbow and stops there, so the deepest part of a dumbbell press is not available. Whether that costs you anything depends on whether you wanted that part.
- Do my glutes get anything out of this?
- An isometric hold at one hip angle. Isometric training has been shown to raise strength mostly at the angle trained and the angles next to it, so this trains keeping a hip open at the top rather than extending it through a range. It is also loaded only by your own body over one leg, with no way to add to that without ending the hold.
- Which leg should be down?
- The supporting foot is the one you press through, and the other leg stays extended and off the floor. Do all the presses with one leg supporting, then swap and match the number. If the second side is harder, run both at what the harder side can hold with the pelvis level.