Establishing Normative Values and Clinician Assessment Accuracy for the Single Leg Bridge Endurance Test

Background The Single Leg Bridge (SLB) is widely prescribed for core and posterior chain strengthening, but normative endurance values are lacking. Establishing benchmarks may enhance rehabilitation, performance screening, and injury risk assessment. Hypothesis/Purpose The purpose of this study is two-fold: The first is to establish normative values for the SLB endurance test, which physical therapists can use as a reference for rehabilitation. The second is to evaluate whether visually assessing SLB form loss is as accurate as using an app with angle detection in measuring the total duration of SLB during endurance testing. Study Design Cross-sectional study Methods Participants were recruited through flyers and word of mouth on the Georgia Southern University campus and within the Savannah community. Participants were excluded if they had medical conditions or recent injuries that could affect single-leg bridge performance. All participants completed a standardized warm-up, followed by a single bilateral trial of the SLB test. Endurance time was recorded using clinician visual estimation and the Angles App, which identified >10° hip deviation from starting position. After excluding outliers, descriptive statistics established normative values, and Pearson correlations assessed agreement between methods. Results Seventy-seven asymptomatic participants (mean age 20.3 years; 77.7% female, 17.3% male) participated in the study. Adjusted normative values were 65.2 seconds (SD=32.7) for the dominant leg and 63.9 seconds (SD=33.7) for the nondominant leg. Strong, statistically significant correlations were observed between clinician visual and app-based measures (dominant leg: r=0.815, p < 0.001; nondominant leg: r=0.837, p < 0.001). Conclusions This study provides the first normative SLB endurance values for healthy young adults. Findings demonstrate that clinician visual estimation strongly aligns with app-based analysis, supporting use of the SLB test in clinical environments where technology access may be limited. The SLB uniquely challenges posterior chain and gluteal endurance under unilateral stabilization and may complement existing core endurance assessments.