Balance Trainer Single Leg Hip Thrusters
The Balance Trainer Single Leg Hip Thruster is a unilateral lower body exercise that strengthens the glutes and hamstrings while challenging core stability. By positioning your upper back on a balance trainer, this movement increases range of motion and recruits stabilizer muscles more effectively than standard floor bridges.
Because this is a unilateral movement, the AI tracks performance data for each leg individually to identify strength asymmetries and prescribe volume adjustments to correct them. By analyzing your HRV and sleep quality, the system can detect central nervous system fatigue that might compromise your balance, potentially suggesting stable regressions when recovery is low. Additionally, the app learns your specific RPE patterns for hip extension exercises, ensuring you maintain the correct intensity for glute hypertrophy without overstressing the lower back.
Form Cues
- Position your upper back securely against the center of the dome
- Tuck your chin slightly toward your chest
- Drive firmly through the heel of your working foot
- Squeeze your glute maximally at the top of the movement
- Keep your hips level and square to the ceiling
- Don't push through your toes or lift your heel
- Don't hyperextend or arch your lower back
- Don't allow the hip of the non-working leg to drop
- Don't rely on momentum to swing your hips up
- Don't let your working knee collapse inward
Common Mistakes
- Arching the lower back overly
- Pushing primarily through the toes
- Tilting the pelvis sideways
- Placing the back too high on the dome
- Rushing the eccentric lowering phase
Muscles Worked
This exercise primarily targets the gluteus maximus to drive hip extension, while placing significant demand on the hamstrings for assistance. The instability of the balance trainer forces the core stabilizers, particularly the obliques and transverse abdominis, to engage deeply to prevent rotation and maintain spinal alignment throughout the set.
Primary
Secondary
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