The single leg glute bridge has been a staple in physical therapy clinics and sports
performance centers for as long as I can remember. After graduating from physical
therapy school in 1997, the glute bridge was one of my most prescribed exercises.
However, it wasn’t until a guy by the name of Bret Contreras (aka: the Glute Guy) came
along and started publishing work around 2006 on a new and improved glute bridge
called the Hip Thrust.
Glute bridges are performed with the shoulders on the ground; what distinguishes the
Hip Thrust is that the shoulders are elevated on a bench which gives users an
increased range of motion and allows them to load the pattern with a barbell or
dumbbell. I loved this concept and used it with myself and some of my clients but many
of them complained about pain around the scapula region from the pressure of their
shoulders on the bench. I thought to myself, there has to be a better way, and I went
into my lab (ok, it was a dusty garage in Carbondale Colorado.) I went to work on
designing the first ever plate loaded Hip Thrust machine called the Glute Drive. I
licensed the machine to Nautilus and it is now on 6 continents and has shaped and
toned more glutes than I ever thought possible.
The only drawback to my Glute Drive and numerous other Hip Thrust machines that are
now on the market is that they are limited in scope. These machines only train the
glutes in the sagittal plane of motion (up and down) and the move is performed in a very
stable environment which means there is no balance challenge. The limited scope of my
machine got me thinking, could the glutes be trained in other planes of motion and could
balance challenges be introduced for greater proprioceptive carry over to the balance
challenges commonly seen in daily life and sports?
Enter the Glute Slide, my latest “mad scientist” experiment.
The Glute Slide allows the glutes to be trained in the frontal plane (side to side) in
addition to the sagittal plane. The side-to-side motion trains a different part of the glutes
and gives the user a real life feel of changing direction (imagine moving laterally on a
Pickleball court or carving turns on the ski slope.) Additionally, with the use of an
adductor block, the Glute Slide can even train the inner thighs, commonly referred to as
the groin muscles. These muscles are important for sports performance, injury
prevention and even looking good on the beach; just ask Suzanne Somers (for those of
you old enough to remember the ThighMaster?)
So which machine is best, the Glute Drive or Glute Slide, and what should you be
using? Ideally, BOTH! Obviously, there is an inherent challenge in having multiple
pieces in your home gym, but in an ideal world wouldn’t it be great to go from a sagittal
plane hip thrust exercise, like the Nautilus Glute Drive (hammering the gluteus
maximus) and then go to a Glute Slide Lateral Slide and work on the gluteus medius and quadriceps? One of the benefits of being the inventor of both pieces of equipment
is that I have them both in my garage gym. However, if I had to choose one piece, the
Glute Slide is smaller, less expensive, more versatile, easily portable and one can still
train loaded hip extension. Additionally, most folks already have other things in their
gym that allow for loaded hip extension; for instance, a Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat
or a Single Leg Step Up work really well at targeting the glute max. The comparison
chart below does a good job of highlighting the differences between each piece so you
can make your own decisions based on your space, budget and needs.
Regardless of what you choose, training the glutes in multiple planes of motions, at
varying speeds and loads are critical for optimal performance, durability and aesthetics.
For more information on each machine please visit Glute Slide and Core Health & Fitness.
Get After It Everybody, Pete Holman
