Landmine Single-Leg Hip Thrust
What Is the Landmine Single-Leg Hip Thrust?
Landmine Single-Leg Hip Thrust is a compound exercise that primarily targets the glutes and also engages the hamstrings, the adductor magnus and the hip stabilizers that keep the pelvis level. It is an intermediate-level movement in which one end of a barbell sits in a landmine anchor and the loaded end rests across your hips, so a single planted foot has to drive the whole hip extension while the other leg stays off the floor.
Anchoring one end changes what the bar can do. It cannot roll sideways off your hips or slide away down your thighs, it travels on the arc the anchor allows rather than straight up, and you can get under it and out from under it without having to balance it over one leg first. That makes this the most practical way to put a real load on a single-leg hip thrust: the bar largely holds its own line, so the set is about keeping the pelvis level rather than about managing the weight.
The number on the bar is not the load on your hips. The anchor carries part of the weight and the bar meets you at an angle, so a landmine loaded to a given figure does not feel like that figure on a straight bar across the hips. Treat it as its own lift with its own logbook rather than trying to match what you use on the Barbell Hip Thrust, and expect the ceiling to be set by the last few degrees of hip extension rather than by getting the hips off the floor.
It suits lifters who can already hold a level pelvis through a set of unloaded single-leg reps and who have run out of dumbbell before they have run out of glute. Build up with Bodyweight Single-Leg Hip Thrust and Dumbbell Single-Leg Hip Thrust first, and keep the heavy two-leg work going alongside it with Barbell Hip Thrust or Barbell B-Stance Hip Thrust. Three sets of 8 to 12 reps per side, placed after the main squat or hinge, fits most glute programs.
Muscles Worked
- Gluteus Maximus
- Primary
- Biceps Femoris
- High
- Gluteus Medius
- High
- Adductor Magnus
- Medium
- Gluteus Minimus
- Medium
- Semimembranosus
- Medium
- Semitendinosus
- Medium
Instructions
- Anchor one end of a barbell in a landmine attachment, or wedge it into a corner with a towel around the end.
- Load plates on the free sleeve and set a flat bench in line with the bar, far enough back that the loaded end reaches your hips.
- Sit on the floor in front of the bench with your upper back against its long edge, at the bottom of your shoulder blades.
- Slide the loaded end over your legs until it sits in your hip crease, with a dense pad between the sleeve and your hips.
- Keep a hand on the bar so it stays centered over your hips.
- Plant the working foot flat, close enough that the shin will be near vertical at the top of the rep.
- Lift the other foot off the floor and hold that leg with a soft bend in the knee.
- Tuck your chin, brace your abs and let your hips settle just above the floor.
- Drive through the working heel and let the bar follow the landmine's arc until your torso and working thigh form a straight line.
- Squeeze the glute at the top with your ribs down and both hips level, then lower under control to just above the floor with the free foot still off the ground.
- Finish the reps on that side, set the free foot down, lower your hips and slide the bar off before switching legs.
Common Mistakes
Sleeve parked on the pelvic bone
The loaded end sits on the bony ridge of the pelvis instead of in the soft hip crease, which bruises the bone and puts the load further from the joint it is meant to drive.
Bench set at the wrong distance from the anchor
Too close to the landmine and the loaded end lands on the stomach or ribs, too far and it slides down onto the thighs, and either way the hips never get a clean line of drive.
Letting the free hip drop
The unsupported side of the pelvis sags or rotates toward the working leg, which cuts the working glute's range and hands the difference to the lower back.
Finishing the rep with the lower back
The ribs flare and the lumbar spine arches to buy the last few degrees of the lift instead of stopping where the glute can hold the position.
Working foot planted too far forward
A foot set out ahead of where the knee will sit gives the hamstring most of the hip extension and is the usual reason it cramps before the glute is tired.
Loading it like a straight-bar hip thrust
Copying the plate count from a barbell hip thrust ignores that the anchor carries part of the weight and the bar arrives at the hips on an angle, so the two numbers do not mean the same thing.
Injuries
Landmine Single-Leg Hip Thrust is a low risk exercise when performed with proper technique. The hip travels through a short arc against a bar that is anchored at one end, so nothing is held overhead, nothing is stacked on the spine, and the bar cannot roll off sideways while your hips are underneath it.
The complaints that do come up are bruising where the sleeve meets the pelvis, soreness in the lower back when the last few degrees of the rep are bought with a lumbar arch instead of hip extension, and cramping in the hamstring of the working leg. Put a dense pad between the sleeve and your hips and settle it in the soft hip crease rather than on the bony ridge of the pelvis. Finish the rep where you can still hold your ribs stacked over your pelvis, and if the hamstring cramps before the glute is tired, walk the working heel in closer to your hips.
The setup is worth two minutes of attention. Check that the bar end is fully seated in the anchor, or that the corner you are using really traps it, before you load the free sleeve; brace the bench so it cannot slide out behind you; and keep a hand on the bar so it stays centered over your hips for the whole set. At the end of the set, put the free foot back on the floor first, then lower your hips and slide the bar off with both feet planted.
Regress to Bodyweight Single-Leg Hip Thrust or the Dumbbell Single-Leg Glute Bridge while the pelvis still tips or rotates, and move to Machine Single-Leg Hip Thrust if the bar is uncomfortable on the hips at the loads you need. Stop the set for pinching at the front of the hip or groin, for pain that centers in the lower back rather than fatigue in the glute, and the moment the free side of the pelvis starts to drop.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Q: How does the weight compare with a straight-bar hip thrust?
It does not compare directly. The anchor carries part of the load and the bar arrives at your hips on an angle, so the plates you load here and the plates you load on a straight bar are two different numbers. Keep a separate log for this lift and progress it on its own.
- Q: Do I need a landmine attachment?
No. Wedging one end of the barbell into a corner works, with a towel or an old sweatshirt wrapped around the end so it does not mark the wall or the floor. Check that the end is genuinely trapped before you load the free sleeve.
- Q: Why does my hamstring cramp instead of my glute working?
It is nearly always the working foot sitting too far from your hips, which hands the hamstring more of the hip extension. In healthy young adults doing unloaded single-leg bridges on the floor, bending the working knee to 135 degrees instead of the usual 90 cut biceps femoris activity from 75 percent of a maximum contraction to 23 percent, while gluteal activity held at roughly 47 to 58 percent. Walk the heel in closer to your hips and see whether the cramping stops.
- Q: Is this easier than the barbell single-leg hip thrust?
Easier to manage, not easier on the glute. Unlike the Barbell Single-Leg Hip Thrust, the anchored bar cannot roll off your hips and you can get under it and out again without balancing a loaded bar over one leg, so more of the set goes into hip extension. The working hip still produces every rep on its own.
- Q: How should I program it?
Three sets of 8 to 12 reps per side, after your main squat or hinge, suits most glute programs. Start each set on the weaker side and give the stronger side only what the weaker one managed, so the gap closes instead of widening.