You'll find out how to do five different bridge exercises in this
video. The bridge exercise is great for
targeting a few different things with the one exercise,
glutes in particular so the back of the hips.
It will also target the pelvic stability, the lower back and the hamstrings.
Knowing a few different variations of the bridge can really
help with the variety of your exercise routine.
My name's Claire. I'm a Physiotherapist from Physiofit Health.
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our videos. Here are your five bridge variations to
try. The first one, this is your Basic Bridge
and it can actually be fitted into two different
subcategories. So the basic bridge first variation
is an Articulated Bridge. Your start position is where you're laying down
flat on the mat, your knees are bent, your feet are on the mat and you've got
an imaginary bit of velcro that is down the spine so that bit of velcro is now
stuck to the mat that you are on. You're thinking about engaging your glutes so
you're squeezing your glutes together, tuck the tailbone underneath
and you're gonna lift your hips all the way up. You're gonna stop
when you feel the pressure in and around the
shoulder blades and then you're going to lower yourself back down
in reverse, so you're trying to put the upper back
down onto the mat before you then put the
lower part of the spine back down. Try this a few times, it's a little bit of a
work in progress if you haven't done this.
It's aiming to really work on the flexibility of the spine as you're
trying to raise yourself up and then lower yourself back down
again. Keep an eye on your knees, you've got imaginary drinks on your
knees. You don't want to spill them, it just helps to keep these legs still
whilst you're working around the glutes, pelvis, and the spine. The
second variation for your Basic Bridge is
where you start in the same position, start in that rest position,
your back's down flat, your knees are bent, feet are flat on the floor.
You're just thinking about these hips as a hinge.
You're thinking about squeezing your glutes together and then you're gonna
lift these hips all the way up and then all the way back down again.
Whilst you're doing these two variations, I'd suggest getting that brain thinking
about where you're feeling any activation. Are you feeling it more
around the glutes, the back of the hip or are you feeling
it more in your hamstrings, which are the back of
your thighs? If you want to bias the glutes a little
bit more, you're going to walk your feet in closer towards your body
and repeat. If you want to get your hamstrings then you're going to walk
your legs your feet further away from the
body and do the same movements. Try out both feet
close to you, feet further away just to see where you're feeling the
majority of work. Your second bridge to try, this one brings in
a little bit of hip rotation. You're gonna start in your
rest position, back's down flat, knees are bent, feet are
flat and you're gonna raise yourself up into your bridge position. This one,
you're gonna draw attention to your right knee, you're going to
place an imaginary drink on that knee that you don't want to spill
and then your left one starts facing up towards the
ceiling. You're going to breathe out as you float that knee out to the side
and then bring that knee back to the start position,
breathing out as the knee goes away from the body, you're breathing in as it
returns. If you want the visual imagery, you are
in a narrow corridor. So with that left knee, you're going to float the knee out
to the side, you're going to touch the side of the walls of that corridor
and then you're breathing in as it returns up. Repeat on both sides
and whilst you're doing this movement you are checking that your hips are
staying nice and level, that you're not dipping one or the
other and the knee that isn't moving stays
really still. Once you've done your repetitions on each side then you can
obviously lower yourself down and move on to
something else. Your third option for the bridge. This one, you
can use a band, a stretchy resistance band. I
would suggest using a blue one as it's fairly strong or even
a grey one and that is stronger still, depends how
much of a workout you want to be honest. You are going to start by
bringing your knees together, knees and feet together, you're going to loop the
band just above your knees, tie in a double
knot. Make sure it's really tight so that it doesn't ping and then you're
going to get yourself set up in your start position for the bridge.
If you're laying down flat, your knees are bent, your feet are flat,
you're one of your legs about hip width apart with this one.
Now with the band looped around your knees,
you might find the tension in the front band.
Bring this knees together to
a certain extent. You're going to fight against that and
try and bring these knees so that they at least point
up towards the ceiling. If not ever slightly
even further pointing out to the side, you're keeping these knees in that
position as you are raising yourself up into your bridge and then lowering
yourself back down again. The reason you're
putting the band around your knees with this exercise is it will just
increase the work of the muscles on the side of the hip because throughout the
whole of the exercise you're fighting against the band. These knees are coming
out nice and wide, that's where it targets the muscles at
the side of the hips and pelvis. The fourth exercise
for you to try. Again you can use a band for this and
again I'd suggest one of the stronger ones.
These muscles are quite large, they're power muscles so you really want to
get them nice and strong. Set yourself up for this one
in your start position so you're laying down flat on the mat, your knees are bent,
feet are flat with the band. You are now going to get that
looped over the hips and the pelvis and you're going to
anchor it with both hands either side. Once you've done that
then you can lift your hips up into your bridge and then you can lower yourself
down again. The reason that you're getting the band
over the hips and the pelvis is it just increases the challenge for you lifting
the hips up and it will make the muscles work just a
little bit harder. Your fifth exercise to try out
is one that is quite challenging to do but it's worthwhile giving it a go just
to see if you're able to. You're in your start position so you're
laying down on the mat, knees are bent, feet are flat. You're
going to lift your hips up into your bridge position,
really thinking about engaging the glutes and you're going to take more
weight onto your right leg and then you're going to peel that left
one off and you're gonna straighten that left leg
and then you're gonna pop that left one down. Keep your hips raised
and then you are going to straighten your right leg.
Bend your right knee, put your foot down flat and then you can lower yourself all
the way back down again. Something to watch out for when you do
this exercise, you've got your hips raised, you're
really wanting these hips to be nice and level. There's a tendency or there's a
potential that if you lift your left leg
then you might dip down on that on that left side or you might find that
the right and the left side of the pelvis they're not as level
as they were, really fight against that you're wanting
them to be as level as you can do whilst you're
lifting one of the legs up. Those are your
five suggestions of bridge exercises to try out.
Some are harder than others, you're always wanting that quality of movement.
I'd certainly suggest checking them all out just to see if you can or you can't
do them perhaps you can try a different bridge
exercise a day or alternatively choose a week you can do
the same bridge exercise that week and then you can change it in the following
week. Subscribe to our channel and we'll see you soon!