VIDEO: Certified He-Man: Episode 3 - Gymnastics Bridging

[JoeJustice]

Just in time for Christmas! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

Joe Justice: Certified He-Man Episode 3

k1TeTT2QQBQ

Got a new, improved intro thanks to my disembodied alter ego and I'm tackleing a subject that's more on the advanced side. I tend to keep my instruction geared more towards the beginner trainee, so I figured it was time to do something a little tougher. There are few exercises that are more rewarding in regards to pure athleticism as bridging exercises. But they are not easy!

If you're up for it, give these exercises a chance and let me know what you think!

-Joe

[GB]

Joe,

That was great!

GB

[Andy62]

Really impressive.

[jonlclay]

Joe,

You make it look easy, that wall crawl was great.

Jon

[GJR]

Joe,
Who are you talking to there???....the Wizard?

Thought you guys would get a kick out this and get a sneak peak at the sign that hangs outside of JP's office.

Enjoy!

Gregory

http://www.bronzebowpublishing.com/images/various/Wizard.jpg

[tom]

Good ideas and entertaining as usual. Now I want to try bridges again.

Shoes slamming on an interior wall? Ha! If you don't have a garage, I suggest training only in hotels or friends' houses. I'll skip that one and try the rest. It does look impressive, though.

Keep up the good work,
Tom

[bennyb]

That was a kick ass video Joe. I liked the demonstration. The Gymnastic Crawl was pretty good considering a guy your size i'm very impressed. I miss doing that exercise.

[JoeJustice]

Thanks everyone! I really enjoyed working on this video. I told John I figured I should actually try to put a little effort into one and he said, "Oh like you haven't already." HA! I'm glad you guys enjoy the videos but they are way below my standards, this one is getting closer. One day, though, I'm going to spend more than a single day working on one.

Joe,
Who are you talking to there???....the Wizard?


Oh yeah... it's the Wizard, baby!! Pay no attention. :rotfl:

Hey Tom, it's funny you mention slamming my feet. I'm usually a MUCH softer touch with my kick-up to a wall, but I always do it barefoot. I's pretty incredible just how heavy your shoes feel when you're not use to having them on and doing a move like that!

-Joe

[MikeNY]

Joe great video. The Bridge Crawl looks like something from a Zombie movie. Joe just a recommendation use socks and don't mark the wall.

[John Peterson]

Hey Joe,

You are in awesome shape my friend. You have been mastering the maximum of functional strength and fitness. GREAT JOB! Incredibly well done.

---John Peterson

[Greg Newton]

Hey Joe,

That was a fantastic video. I liked the transition photos. Also, that is superb athleticism from a former nonathlete. You ever wonder where the jocks you went to high school are today so that you could go by their house and challenge them to do what you can do now?

[JoeJustice]

Hey Greg, I never really had any kind of rivalries or bad blood with any of the jocks in high school. So I don't have any animosity towards them. Dunno if I'm just an affable chap or if we just didn't have many meatheads per capita. People I didn't get along with in High School were all preppy wannabees. I doubt I'm every going to challenge them to any competitions :)

There was one girl who was use to try to make fun of me a lot. It never bothered me, I don't care what people say about me. One day her friends had done something to her, I don't know what, and I saw her crying in the back of a class. I went back and talked to her, at first she was scared because I think she thought I was up to some kind of trick, but we ended up getting along and talked for awhile. She was on the Yearbook committee and later that year she asked me if I would write a quote for the yearbook. I wrote a paragraph and the editors like it so much they made it the opening of the senior section. I actually got several complements about that at the 10 Year Reunion, people had forgotten about it until the reopened the Yearbook in getting ready for the reunion.

I like to be open to people. Grudges never pay off, I never think about people who have wronged me. So I could never do something just to show someone else up.

I will say that when I was in high school and you asked me what "athleticism" was I would have probably said, "Looking like Hulk Hogan or Arnold Schwarzenegger". I never had any concept of what true athleticism really was. (I didn't help that I was blind and one eye and couldn't catch a ball)

-Joe

[eclectic one]

That was impressive; I do a lot of hand bridging, but have never tried "falling back " into one.

Keep up the good work!

[JoeJustice]

FYI, Falling back into a bridge is called a "Back Bend"

-Joe

[MikeNY]

Joe you are a real man, High School should be what you made it and you took the High Road. Not surprised you enjoy a joke and you get along here with everyone. Now you have the body and strength to go along with the warrior spirit for the warrior is the protector. That vidoe show a young man in the prime of health, barely one out of 50,000 men could even try that. Joe you make us proud to know you.

[JoeJustice]

Mike, you're makin' me blush, brother! :embarrassed: Thank you for the kind words, I really do appriciate them.

Donna, the real "trick" to moving your body backwards is to follow you hands with your eyes. Never look up or away. The same thing is key for doing a back handspring. Even with a tuck (backflip) you should see the ground during the maneuver.

The other trick, I suppose is making sure you have the prerequisite strength and flexibility to do it. :rofl:

-Joe

[duff]

I love these "Certified He-Man" videos, Joe. And thanks for reminding me of wall walks and the things one can learn to do with bridging. I'll have to try a wall walk or two again soon.

[tom]

Wow. That was humiliating.

I used to do those bridges no problem. A couple or three months ago I messed up my shoulder going crazy on a dip/pull-up tower all of a sudden. For the last several weeks there has been no pain in my shoulder, even after a bad week of baseball throwing soreness. I thought I was all cured.

Anyhow, I just got down to do some of those variations on the video and couldn't even do a simple bridge. My right shoulder said no way. It was one of those things where the bodypart doesn't even try because it knows it will get hurt. Not a single one. Jeesh.

Oh well. I guess that simplifies my near-term goals.

Tom

[JoeJustice]

Tom's near term goal: He-Man Certification!!

-Joe

[tom]

Certificates? We don't need no stinking certificates!

At my age, Sonny, I've lost more certificates than you'll ever own.

Still . . . . . it's humiliating.

[Greg Newton]

Hey Joe,

Thanks again for posting that video. Being under the weather today, I decided to play around with wall walking and bridging. It wasn't easy at first, but I did my first wall walk today. It helped limber my wrists, shoulders and back. I also did my first nose to mat (well close to nose to mat) bridge today. I see what I have been missing.

By the way - I was just joking about playing havouc with the jocks from high school! However, there was an excellent episode of 21 Junp Street where everyone shared their bully story. Johnny's Depp's character as a child was terrorized by an eight year old girl who was bigger than him and who bullied him because she liked him. Richard Grieco's character as a child wore leather and had spikey hair. He slugged his bully.

Peter Deloise on the other hand was still tormented by the unfinished business of a bully who terrorized him from grade school to high school. He finally decided he was going to look this guy up after years of regrets and torment from what happened back then. The bully who had beaten, stole, and generally made his life beyond miserable turned out to be a angry, short, pockmarked, cigarette coughing wreck with a nagging wife. When he finally met him face to face, he didn't have the heart to tell him who he was, much less punch him out.

The guys who tormented us weaker mortals in high school and grade school often had lives that turned out tragic. The same with the girls who thought they were all that and more. I have lived to see the lives of some of those I had problems with and I wouldn't trade places.

[Newman]

Great flexibility & great video Joe. I was never able to do bridges, but after watching your video I tried the tricks that you showed & I was able to do bridge. From now I am gonna try it very often.

Thanks a lot
Newman

[jeremyelder]

As someone who does video production for a living, let me say, "NICE JOB!" This was entertaining and informative. I think these exercises will help me build up strength and flexibility for the "nose to matt bridge."

[Nathan]

As I said on Facebook. Awesome job Joe! And thank you for taking the time to make that video, I truly enjoyed it!

---Nathan

[b38]

Truely inspired Joe! Thanks for taking the time to create these videos.


All the Best!

Bill

[tom]

Humiliation as motivation: All right, I tried the bridge again today and got it. I'm just real careful with my recently healed shoulder.

Yippee! I'm gonna be certified.

Again.

Still?

Tom

[JoeJustice]

The certification's in the mail! Just keep an eye out for it... it'll be any day now.

-Joe

[Greg Newton]

Hey Joe,

I want to thank you again. I was a little worried about my cervical vertebra, because I've had problems before with bridging from old injuries, but my neck felt great last night. My shoulders as well. I am planning to use the wall walk and the bridge as a warm up from here on out.

Have to laugh though. I fell a couple of times trying to get the coordination down for the wall walk.:laugh: It had more to do with the fear of bending backwards than anything else. Once I got it, I got it.

[VRT Man]

Joe, thanks for the instruction. Nothing better than to see it demonstrated in a video, and I too have tried it and succeeded; not the first time, nor second, nor third, but it took four times.

And I feel great for doing it.

I, too, was harrassed as an adolescent from a couple of tough-assed greasers, and had a nose and a left thumb broken in fights (lesson learned: NEVER do a left haymaker until you get it down right. Connected with my thumb instead of my fist). Point being is one of these guys is now bald and fat, and when I saw him at a school reunion, I knew that with the shape I was in, I could've (if I wanted to) KO'd him in under 20 seconds. But good thing we've both outgrown that. It was more pity than an old grudge, because he looked pathetic.

Real fitness allows you to have a lifetime of high self esteem.

The wall walk and bridging add to gymnastic elasticity.

--Greg Mangan

[tom]

Digging back a little far, it seems. I think I'll put a three year back limit for myself.

My goal is to never look back.

Tom

[Scott Silva]

Great video, great skills Joe!

Finally got to see it at my local library today, can't at home cause I'm still in the stone age with dial-up...

[JoeJustice]

Hey! Wackybaby got a new name!!

Okay, has anyone tried the Bridge Crawl yet?

-Joe

[tom]

Got back my bridging, thank you, but I have to have my hand at a very specific position or the shoulder impingement will catch. Ouch. Not worth it. It will loosen up eventually.

Tom

[bennyb]

I love the bridge crawl....Makes the crab walk look weak lol....Its fun doing stuff like that, exorcist come to life man. The farthest i've gone in that position is about 30 ft the most and then collapse. Its a full body workout to say the least.