Fitness ABC – Letter B
Letter B in the fitness ABC stands for BRIDGE. Now normally I don’t deal with exercises that involve getting on the ground, but I’ll make an exception in this case. The Bridge exercise detailed here is going to work your belly, butt, hips, arms AND back; in other words, it is a real all-rounder!
Bridge Exercise
Those of you familiar with yoga or Pilates may be saying “that isn’t the bridge – that’s the reverse table top…” Let’s just break this down. Normally, the bridge exercise starts with you lying flat on the ground with your legs bent. Then you would ONLY lift your glutes (hips/butt) off the floor, pushing with your heels, so your body is straight from your knees to your shoulders – but obviously on a diagonal. If a train was to try and run across you at this point however it would fall into the water! The version Polz has chosen to illustrate is indeed often referred as the reverse table top (for quite obvious reasons) – but it is still basically a bridge.
Reverse Table Top Exercise
Simply sit on the ground as the young lady is going in the picture (although you might like to have your fingertips point the other way (i.e. forwards). Then, as with the bridge detailed above, engage your glutes (butt muscles) and raise those hips up. Your upper body is just pivoting on those shoulders – it’s all in the hips. Keep the shoulders over the wrists, but otherwise you are simply trying to make yourself look like a table! Pause a little at the top, then lower down and repeat ten times or so – it is quite a tiring exercise so two or three might be enough to start with.
Visualize your exercises with Fitness ABC
(With a nod to the German original text) The bridge has broken, but you’re not bothered. You just lift up the belly and build the bridge again!
If you’re someone who loses interest in exercise shortly after starting, then exercises such as this, ones that work multiple muscles, are great to have in your routine.
Come on, what are waiting for, the 3:52 is stranded due to the bridge being down…
Richie
