Drop into Bridge

The TB series ends on a wall walk with the expressed purpose of eventually being able to bend back into a full ROM Bridge and eventually pull yourself back to standing unassisted. 

 

My question is if this is the expressed goal of the TB series then are wall walks the most effective path?

 

There is no question in their effectiveness in building flexibility. But on the strength side of things wouldn't elevated hands-free drops into bridge (with hands-free rise to standing), while slowly lowering the height of elevation be more effective at building the necessary strength for this movement? 

 

It just seems that the use of the hands for assistance in wall walks detracts from the back strength required for backbends. 

 

Thanks!

As you get stronger, you should be putting less pressure on the wall to make it more of an active exercise. 

 

(My thoughts are) The advantage of the wall walks, is that you are able to scale the exercise as needed. As you walk down the 

wall, your feet should be walking out too to reflect your current level of bridge mobility.

 

If you wanted to add some 'drop downs' use an appropriate height that you can still maintain control when lowering the body

(you should 'lower' the body, not drop). And then place them at the end of the Stretch workout, once you've completed the rest of the stretch series.

 

These are just my thoughts, I would be very interested to see what the mods say

lately i've been playing with pulling from elevated bridge to handstand and down to forward bend. the straight arm elements will have a different effect than the bent arm pressing, for sure. i still am working upto 10 bridge pushups with full ROM at the top. currently 6-8reps.

another thing you could do is simply stand at any given distance from the wall, given your mobility and back bend only by bending through the thoracic spine first and pushing your hips forward without compensating too much with your lower spine. I do these from time to time to see how the elevated bridges and wall walks have affected me. so far, i still get completely smoked by the wall walks by the time i get there, so i've only put serious time into elevated bridges, pushups, shoulder taps and pulling out of elevated bridge to handstand and down to forward bend while focusing on keeping open shoulders.

it's a bitch and a half. but the most helpful bit of information i've received and applied is the working on smaller manageable bits than focusing on whole movements with subpar execution. the wall walks are there for a reason, but don't feel you have to over reach to perform them all if you struggle with a few. when i say struggle, i don't only mention fatigue, i mention the ability to do the exercise with all the cues thoroughly embodied. if you have the shoulder flexion, how is your extension? stretching out my delts and biceps have helped a lot in gaining more shoulder flexion. the hip extension is also helpful to learn how to press through the glutes strongly and stretch the anterior portion of the hip. last is keeping some degree of abdominal pressure to avoid excessive lumbar extension.

if you have all these factors down, it'd be understandable that your bridge warmup would consist of 10 reps of front walkovers and 10 reps of back walkovers each with a pause in handstand and a controlled unassisted ascent.

as Coach said in the Denver Seminar last June, "Enjoy. ;)"

What would you define as good shoulder extension and flexion? 

Sean Hunter said:

The TB series ends on a wall walk with the expressed purpose of eventually being able to bend back into a full ROM Bridge and eventually pull yourself back to standing unassisted. 

 

My question is if this is the expressed goal of the TB series then are wall walks the most effective path?

 

There is no question in their effectiveness in building flexibility. But on the strength side of things wouldn't elevated hands-free drops into bridge (with hands-free rise to standing), while slowly lowering the height of elevation be more effective at building the necessary strength for this movement? 

 

It just seems that the use of the hands for assistance in wall walks detracts from the back strength required for backbends. 

 

Thanks!

Don't forget about the iM's in F4. It is covered there.

Sean Hunter said:

What would you define as good shoulder extension and flexion?

for starters, open shoulder without load. eventually we want enough trap strength to do handstands and bridges and getting from one to the other. FL iM's, H1(pe's and iM's), the TB series and HBP will all develop this in due time.

for shoulder extension, we will eventually doing german hangs so passive flexibility from a 90 degree bend is for starters and then getting it a bit more open in the direction of german hangs. the supine shoulder extensions from TB, iM2 from H1 and the F3(4?) manna iM's deal with more advance shoulder extension.

its all covered, you just gotta find what pace to personally set for yourself and post form checks for assistance when you need it, even if its just to get the moderators / GB coaches / GB Trainers thoughts on it.

Sean Hunter said:

The TB series ends on a wall walk with the expressed purpose of eventually being able to bend back into a full ROM Bridge and eventually pull yourself back to standing unassisted. 

 

My question is if this is the expressed goal of the TB series then are wall walks the most effective path?

 

There is no question in their effectiveness in building flexibility. But on the strength side of things wouldn't elevated hands-free drops into bridge (with hands-free rise to standing), while slowly lowering the height of elevation be more effective at building the necessary strength for this movement? 

 

It just seems that the use of the hands for assistance in wall walks detracts from the back strength required for backbends. 

 

Thanks!

 

Dropping into bridge, no.  Slowly lowering into bridge, yes.

 

The hands on the wall only are an issue if you are using them to provide too much assistance.  They are there to provide the absolute minimum assistance needed.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

So, should we progressively lower the height we start using the stall bars/wall as assistance, so that we eventually build up to a full back bend?

Edoardo Cagnola said:

So, should we progressively lower the height we start using the stall bars/wall as assistance, so that we eventually build up to a full back bend?

 

Doesn't really matter if you lower the height of the start of the assistance or gradually reduce the assistance provided by the arms; both get to the same place in the end.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thanks for the clarification Coach!

I have a question actually. I'm able to push up into bridge with my feet together and currently working to maintain shoulders over or past hands while working my hands together (surprisingly hard to maintain the thoracic bend doing this). However, when I do a back limber my feet tend to slide out near shoulder width. Think its just balance and habit. ...

Am I fine to continue working lower to bridge-- back to standing while making efforts on getting my foot position correct, or is it necessary to establish that perfectly while elevated then reducing elevation?

I suspect it's six of one-half a dozen of the other but I'm not 100%.

As your back limber strength improves, you will be able to bring your feet together.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

No issues then, thanks Coach