Developing flexibility in your body is a necessary and essential part of a healthy lifestyle. And the basis for any athletic body is not at all biceps and toned buttocks, but a strong and flexible back. One of the main exercises for working with spinal trainers is called the bridge. This gymnastic element, familiar from childhood, is extremely effective when performed correctly and regularly.
It is necessary
Practice mat, gymnastic mats, wall bars
Instructions
Step 1
It is important to get up on the bridge correctly, understanding what kind of load the muscles and ligaments of the back, arms and legs receive. To study this element, it is advisable to contact a trainer at any fitness center, this will help to avoid various injuries. You can get up on the bridge only after all the muscles and ligaments of the body are completely warmed up, otherwise damage cannot be avoided. You can warm up the joints and muscles of your back, arms, and legs with a few general exercises. Warm up for 5-7 minutes, then proceed directly to the exercises that will be necessary to prepare the main element - a gymnastic bridge. Above all, pay extra attention to assistive exercises.
Step 2
Exercise 1. "Cat"
Starting position: Get on all fours with support on your knees and palms. Make sure your knees are exactly under your hip joints and your palms are exactly under your shoulder joints. Bend your back up, aiming your spine to the ceiling, lower your head down. Hold for 5-6 accounts. Change the position of your back by bending down. Hold for a few seconds and bend your back up again. In this way, alternate the position of the back, preparing the muscles and ligaments for further, stronger load.
Step 3
Exercise 2. "Fish"
Starting position: lying on your stomach, arms extended forward. At the same time, raise your arms and legs as high as possible and keep them in this position for 6-8 counts. It is important to lift not with a jerk, but smoothly with the effort of the muscles, and the arms and legs should be straight.
Step 4
Exercise # 3
Starting position: kneeling, feet shoulder-width apart, arms raised up. Smoothly tilt back, trying to touch the floor with your hands. It will not work the first time, so you need to do the exercise over and over again.
Step 5
Exercise 4. "Box"
Starting position: lying on your stomach. Place your hands at hip level and straighten them, bending in the back, body up. Next, try to raise your hips and bend your knees. Stretch your head towards the toes.
Step 6
Exercise 5. "Bridge"
After completing the previous 4 exercises, try making the bridge itself. Lie on your back. Bend your knees, place your palms near your shoulders or slightly lower, with your elbows up. This will be your starting position. Now gently and simultaneously straighten your elbows and straighten your knees, while bending in your back. Fix this position for a few seconds, preferably 15 breathing cycles (inhalation-exhalation). It is very important for the correct execution of the bridge to fully extend the arms at the elbows.
Follow the described complex until you feel confident in the most difficult stages. Once you are comfortable enough to stand on the bridge from a prone position, start mastering this element from a standing position. To do this, you will need a wall bars, but in the absence of one, you can get by with a simple wall.
First, also do the preparatory exercise for the bridge. Starting position: stand with your back to the Swedish wall or an ordinary wall at a distance of about 1 meter, feet shoulder-width apart, arms up. From this position, lean back, arching your back and resting your hands on the wall. Fingering with your hands on the wall (better, of course, on the slats of the Swedish wall), gradually lower yourself into the bridge. If you feel that there is strength, climb back to the starting position also along the wall. But at the first executions of the exercise, it is permissible to get up from the bridge, lying with your back on the floor, since the load on the arms is very large. Take several of these approaches. It is important to consolidate this embodiment of the bridge, because it is on it that the complete implementation of this gymnastic element is based.
Step 7
You can approach the final stage of learning to stand on the bridge only when you are free and comfortable to perform all the above exercises. For insurance, the first attempts to enter the bridge are recommended either with an assistant (coach), or at least on a gymnastic mat.
Starting position: standing facing the assistant, feet shoulder-width apart, arms up. Tilt the body back, arching your back, and stretch your hands behind your head, the assistant should at this moment support you under your back. Hold for a second in the slope, then gently lower yourself into the bridge. Stand for a few breaths, then try to get out of the bridge yourself. To do this, push off the floor with your hands and tighten your abs strongly, return to the starting position.
The first few times, your assistant should help you to get up by lightly supporting you under your back. When you are ready to do this on your own, you can easily perform both the descent into the bridge and the ascent back. Here, as in any previous exercise, it is important not to rush and do everything gradually, slowly, clearly realizing the capabilities of your body at each stage of training.
Step 8
In parallel with training your back flexibility, you need to develop its strength. To do this, you need to perform exercises for pumping the broadest, rhomboid muscles, trapezium and the mass of others. A trainer will help you compose a full set of workouts, it is undesirable, without special knowledge, to start pumping your back on your own in order to avoid injuries and uneven training of different muscle groups.
