Bridging- Pros & Cons

When it comes to fitness there is one subject that very few talk about (mostly in martial arts) and thats bridging: Hands alone, head alone and hands/head. There are many people who believe bridging isnt good for you and you're going to snap your neck and ect. These are the people that never bridged in their life and want to give other a bad rap about it cause they feel if they can't do neither can anybody else. Now lets take a look at the pros and cons of bridging and see what we can come up with.

Pro- When done properly it energizes the body by releaving nerve force which causes new life in the bloodstream and to the organs of the body.

Con- First who start out will be fearful of being upside down and are not used to being bent backwards.

Pro- Builds strength/flexibilty/endurance throughout the whole body and with the proper breathing it can a calm and relaxing exercise

Con- Causes of bit of pressure to the head even in the proper position and the trainee must caution himself to not over do it.

Pro- After a period of training and mastering certain elements of the bridge the trainee can use to develop the body and the thickness of his/her neck .

Con- Most people don't see how it builds neck strength and do it improperly.

Pro- Once going through the process of bridging gymnasics (kick over and falling back) the trainee has a key sense of kenistetic awarness of his/her surroundings.

Con- People get scared of not knowing how aware and strong they can be and want to avoid the bridge.

There are many more but i'm sure you can come up with a few more. No matter how you put bridging works like a charm but it isnt for everybody and thats ok we need different structures and people feel limited to what they can really accomplish if they look hard enough. For me I love it and wouldn't be anywhere without it and all its elements and still got a bit more to learn but hey we all have to learn something. Bridging to me makes me feel like a million bucks, if I can pull off a 3 min. back bridge or hold a good gymnast bridge everything else seems easy cause not only is it challenging it builds character.

Once you get over the fear then you know you've come a long way. Keep learning and keep challenging yourself cause thats the only way to grow.

If you want to learn more about the bridge look up these sites that I feel are best to look. For Matt Furey's site go to his daily archives at the bottom of the site and you'll see some bridging articles, great reads. For the other site look for posts in the forum and there should be some there.

www.mattfurey.com

www.bronzebowpublishing.com

Advanced Bridging Course

Yours in Power & Might

Ben