Gymnastic Bridge Progressions

[Mitchell Rabushka]

Can someone please enlighten me with the basic progressions to performing a gymnastic bridge. This guy does an excellent job and I'd like to be as good as him some day:

http://gymnasticswod.com/content/bridge

I don't have much experience so I would like to know the progressions starting from an easy first step then progressing to more difficult steps. Thanks.

[Blairbob]

Check my youtube in my signature. I made an old bridge progression video. Parts of it need to be reshot like the bridge wall walks, but you get the basic idea. I guess I could have added a back bend kickover or back walkover but there is plenty of video on that.

[Mitchell Rabushka]

Blairbob,

Thanks for your reply, but I can't even do the first step in your video properly. How do you get the shoulders, back, etc that flexible to begin with? Should I just keep practicing the first step in your video until I get it right or are there optional easier steps to get me up to speed. For example, The book Convict Conditioning (which I don't view as the bible) and a gymnast I ran into one time mention this as a preliminary step to master:

.

So, I'm looking for the easiest progressions to start with so I can build up my strength and flexibility with proper form and to avoid injury.

Should I stick with the first step in your video or backup to something easier? Thanks.

[Cole Dano]

Rev Plank, Arch Body Hold, Yoga Cobra Pose, Shoulder Bridge, Yoga Down Dog, Stand and arch back eventually to partial or full wall walk, are some good preparatory movements.

In bridge itself, the foot elevated version will make it much easier to open the shoulders. But do so general opening work first, bridging can be hard to go into when cold if you're not used to it, so doing the above first is a good idea.

[Blairbob]

When dealing with 4yo or 40yo beginners, I start off with an elevated bridge of some kind. We might do shoulder bridges (glute bridges) but virtually anyone can do those. However, some kids will do head bridging and headstands with no problems on their own but in general, KAT, treats that as an exception and a not a rule and to tell them not to but some kids do them anyways.

Do you see that blue block I did the block Press HS off of? That's what I use. Kids or adults lay on it and then reach for the floor. For those 4-6yo, I might use something smaller because it's too tall and they get scared of sliding off the edge that much. For adults, I might use the block on a different side so it's as tall as necessary if they are very inflexible, weak or big.

At home this gets tricky. Most beds will work unless you sleep on just a mattress or futon. If you can pushup to a bridge from the floor, you could use an ottoman or couch for your feet but that's not your problem.

Some beginners can not push up from the head bridge because their shoulders are too weak or too tight. For little kids sometimes they are too weak; for adults sometimes they are too tight in their shoulders.

You can also try Bridge Wall Walks for beginners.

Another tool for those at home is to get one of those yoga/balance balls. Lay on them, then bridge. In gymnastics, we might have balls but most little kids would have the ball slip from them. We do have octagonal barrels that are quite handy though anywhere from as high as your knee to shoulder.

[Joshua Naterman]

Consistently using shoulder and chest opening stretches is very important. I show the chest and anterior shoulder capsule openers in my shoulder video, but you also need to do posterior capsule stretches, internal rotation stretches ("sleeper stretch" but keep shoulder blades RETRACTED), and lat stretches.

[Mitchell Rabushka]

When dealing with 4yo or 40yo beginners, I start off with an elevated bridge of some kind. We might do shoulder bridges (glute bridges) but virtually anyone can do those. However, some kids will do head bridging and headstands with no problems on their own but in general, KAT, treats that as an exception and a not a rule and to tell them not to but some kids do them anyways.

Do you see that blue block I did the block Press HS off of? That's what I use. Kids or adults lay on it and then reach for the floor. For those 4-6yo, I might use something smaller because it's too tall and they get scared of sliding off the edge that much. For adults, I might use the block on a different side so it's as tall as necessary if they are very inflexible, weak or big.

At home this gets tricky. Most beds will work unless you sleep on just a mattress or futon. If you can pushup to a bridge from the floor, you could use an ottoman or couch for your feet but that's not your problem.

Some beginners can not push up from the head bridge because their shoulders are too weak or too tight. For little kids sometimes they are too weak; for adults sometimes they are too tight in their shoulders.

You can also try Bridge Wall Walks for beginners.

Another tool for those at home is to get one of those yoga/balance balls. Lay on them, then bridge. In gymnastics, we might have balls but most little kids would have the ball slip from them. We do have octagonal barrels that are quite handy though anywhere from as high as your knee to shoulder.

Thanks for the tips. I saw the blue block in your vids FILE0028.MOV and FILE0029.MOV. So if I understand you correctly you use these to gain shoulder mobility. Are these done in reps or as a hold? Is there an angle threshold you look for?

By the way I tried Bridge Wall Walks and I cannot go all the way down to the floor. I am keeping my feet pointed straight ahead and tightening my glutes somewhat to protect my lower back both of which I think limit my flexibility a little bit. Please let me know if either of these is incorrect.

[Joshua Naterman]

When dealing with 4yo or 40yo beginners, I start off with an elevated bridge of some kind. We might do shoulder bridges (glute bridges) but virtually anyone can do those. However, some kids will do head bridging and headstands with no problems on their own but in general, KAT, treats that as an exception and a not a rule and to tell them not to but some kids do them anyways.

Do you see that blue block I did the block Press HS off of? That's what I use. Kids or adults lay on it and then reach for the floor. For those 4-6yo, I might use something smaller because it's too tall and they get scared of sliding off the edge that much. For adults, I might use the block on a different side so it's as tall as necessary if they are very inflexible, weak or big.

At home this gets tricky. Most beds will work unless you sleep on just a mattress or futon. If you can pushup to a bridge from the floor, you could use an ottoman or couch for your feet but that's not your problem.

Some beginners can not push up from the head bridge because their shoulders are too weak or too tight. For little kids sometimes they are too weak; for adults sometimes they are too tight in their shoulders.

You can also try Bridge Wall Walks for beginners.

Another tool for those at home is to get one of those yoga/balance balls. Lay on them, then bridge. In gymnastics, we might have balls but most little kids would have the ball slip from them. We do have octagonal barrels that are quite handy though anywhere from as high as your knee to shoulder.

Thanks for the tips. I saw the blue block in your vids FILE0028.MOV and FILE0029.MOV. So if I understand you correctly you use these to gain shoulder mobility. Are these done in reps or as a hold? Is there an angle threshold you look for?

By the way I tried Bridge Wall Walks and I cannot go all the way down to the floor. I am keeping my feet pointed straight ahead and tightening my glutes somewhat to protect my lower back both of which I think limit my flexibility a little bit. Please let me know if either of these is incorrect.

That is correct, you should only go down as far as you are comfortable. Over time that will become a longer and longer distance until you are walking all the way up and down.

[Mitchell Rabushka]

Consistently using shoulder and chest opening stretches is very important. I show the chest and anterior shoulder capsule openers in my shoulder video, but you also need to do posterior capsule stretches, internal rotation stretches ("sleeper stretch" but keep shoulder blades RETRACTED), and lat stretches.

Your youtube vid "Fix your shoulder pain! Part 1" is awesome.

The stretches gave an old shoulder injury an amazing feel good stretch. I now believe the shoulder was injured due to poor posture which as your vid explains is a problem for a lot of people and most of them probably don't even know it is an injury waiting to happen. I didn't.

So I couldn't wait to watch Part 2, but I couldn't find it on youtube. Can you please point me to it? Thanks.

[Joshua Naterman]

Part 2 exists in the future

[Blairbob]

I used to tell Erik to try to get his hands as low as his shoulder at first with locked out arms. I'd rather see straight arms instead of having him go all the way down to the floor with bent arms. He could, but it was better for him with straight arms (and he really hated them, really).

To note, he could barely do a bridge on the floor. Well, make that a good bridge with hands shoulder width so he would go wide. Somehow, he could manage a bridge kickover but he was quite strong for his small size ( 4 and a half feet, 55lbs@10-11yo) as he could lever and planche. So basically, he could kickover with brute force (and a really crappy active split as he had no front split to talk of).

I use the blocks as I said for beginners. I never used it as my earliest bridge might have been in HighSchool during Karate circa mid 90's. Whether I ever bridged before that is hard to determine. My dad says we might have done hand bridges in judo but probably not head bridges because I was too young at 6 and he would have been pist.

I just use the blocks to elevate the feet. At first they just lay on it with their hands on the floor. Eventually or when they can, I have them push their shoulders off the block so their shoulders are open and hips and butt are in the air. They can usually kickover or pull their legs to the floor from this position if their arms are strong enough to support them. Otherwise have them roll over to their stomach to dismount the block.

Quite often in gymnastics I would have the kids do about 3-5 bridges in their warmup and 5 bridge kickovers off a block or floor or back walkovers for my boys. I use something pretty similar for girls but quite often for girls in their floor complex they will do back walkovers across the floor when they can. This is roughly an intermediate level skill. Not terribly impressive but takes some decent flexibility.

They would often do 10 rocks in bridge, hold bridge for 10 seconds twice and maybe some bridge pushups focusing on opening their shoulders but bare in mind they have been doing bridges every workout eventually for a few years.

For a novice, I might treat it like an FSP with 60 seconds of volume. I would actually start out at 30 seconds and build from there. For rank beginners we generally start with holds of 5-10 seconds, 3 times and maybe just twice if you are doing other bridge drills but this is probably due to time constraints. It is something like handstands that can be done a lot. Like handstands, too much too soon could lead to capillary ruptures in the eyes that handstand work can do to adults. I've never seen it happen to kids, though. They have reported pressure to their eyes but I never seen a capillary rupture with any teenagers. Could happen if you had a big teenager.

One day maybe you'll be able to hold for 5 minutes ( I broke that once and had a lil kid break over 7 as we used to have bridge contests - they completely used to tucker them out ) as I have done once. Bare in mind, I rarely ever hold them for longer than 15 seconds. They get annoying as hell and there is only so much time to program for them in a gymnastics workout.