1Lower back arches at the top
What you see: The hips go too high and the low back takes over.
The fix: "Tuck it." Lift only as high as your glutes can take you with your ribs down.
Form guides · Hinge
The glute bridge: hips up, back quiet.
The simplest way to wake up your glutes, if your lower back stays out of it.
What good looks like.
Lying on your back, you drive your hips up until your shoulders, hips and knees make a line. It trains your glutes and hamstrings, and it is one of the first moves a trainer reaches for when the glutes are not doing their share. The catch: the low back loves to steal the movement.
- Feet flat, hip width apart, heels close enough to touch with your fingertips.
- "Tuck it" first: flatten your low back into the floor before you lift.
- Drive through your heels and "squeeze your glutes" to lift.
- Stop when your shoulders, hips and knees line up.
- Knees stay in line with your feet, not falling in or out.
- Head and neck relaxed
- Hips lift, back stays flat
- Knees in line with the feet
- Drive through the heels
The faults a trainer sees most
What goes wrong, and the cue that fixes it.
The cues in quotes are the words Brad Glaser uses with his own clients.
2Knees move inward
What you see: The knees fall in toward each other as the hips rise.
The fix: "Knees out." A band just above the knees gives you something to push against.
3Hamstrings cramp
What you see: The backs of the thighs grab and the glutes stay quiet.
The fix: Bring your heels a little closer to you and drive through them.
4Rushing
What you see: Bouncing the hips off the floor.
The fix: "Hold the top." Pause and squeeze for a count of three, then lower slowly.
Make it easier, make it harder.
Easier
- A smaller lift.
- Arms pressing into the floor for support.
- Fewer reps with a longer pause.
Harder
- Single-leg bridge.
- Shoulders on a bench: the hip thrust.
- A weight or band across the hips.
Move within a range that feels comfortable, and stop any exercise that hurts. Have a health condition, or been inactive a while? Ask your doctor what is right for you first. VeraForma is coaching, not medicine. It does not diagnose, treat or cure anything, and it does not replace your doctor or physio.
Let your phone coach it.
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Not sure which of these faults you carry? Your free movement screen: one squat on camera, and the faults a trainer would name, with the angle drawn on your body.
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More form guides
Built by Brad Glaser · NASM Master Trainer · NASM-CPT, CES, PES · 20+ years · has certified 100+ personal trainers.
He owns a personal-training studio in Southern California. The same method he uses standing next to a client, built into the app.
Train it right, free.
Scan to open it on your phone.
Free account, no card. Brad's questions. One squat on camera. Then your results.