Bridging Gymnastics Here I Come Baby.......

[bennyb]

Did some work with Logan today and wanted him to help me with my bridging specifically falling back into a bridge. As much as I have worked on it I know I got a lot of work to cover but right now from learning from him I'am improving far faster then I have ever done. We practiced falling back, holding certain positions and such but one thing I felt was lacking was falling into a bridge kicking over and kicking back. So I decided to have him show me a thing or 2 now mind you we didnt have elevated platforms for me to progress with it was only three things, grass, a small mat and our bodies. So I fell back into a wrestler's bridge head and hands and attempted to kick over.

Logan told me that I have the flexibility but need to learn the explosiveness. So after many tries I gave up but according to him I got some air on a few of them. We practiced other stuff like handbalancing and chatting about the old-timers but I knew something inside of me was saying I will kick over. So after doing many things I decided to attempt this again, I fell into a wrestler's bridge head and hand, rocked a little and like a burst of energy........I DID IT!!! I kicked over and I kicked back in 2-3 sets of 1-2 reps. I was in shock. I have never done this before in my life and now I finally did it. This made my day for sure and from now on I'm gonna rule over this.

May I remind you guys again that I had no platforms to progress with and I'm well over 220 pounds. I don't know anyone my age or older and my size that can pull that off the first time around. Not to brag but I feel like i'm in a class thats very unique. After doing this I wanna do more and learn more so by this time next year i'll be kicking over blindfolded (slight exaggeration) but dang i'm excited.

[mike]

Awesome! it must be great having someone who is really knowledgable in the 'learning outside of a gym' area to help you. I'll need to find someone in LA who has similarly acrobatic goals to keep up with you.

Also do you work all these skills at the same time, as in - are you still practice hammer levering, phonebook tearing and bending while you learn new bridging skills? or do you take time off of those in order to focus on newer skills.

[bennyb]

I'm gonna still be working on the levering, bending and tearing but not as often as the bridging gymnastics.

[gruntbrain]

I'm impressed but not inspired to go beyond the safe practice of bridging where my agility( lack of) wont injure me

[bennyb]

After taking my final and doing a hard breathing workout, I decided to give the bridging gymnastics a shot today on the mats and to my surprise I was kicking over and back in a bridge a lot more consistantly. I couldn't believe what I was doing, my teaching never heard the term bridging gymnastics so I wanted to show her what it looked like and after 2 or 3 kickovers and back she thought I was nuts. I love doing this its fun.

[bennyb]

Hey benny out of curiosity what are you studying at uni ??? anything health and fitness related?
sorry if this is to nosey.

and your doing an awesome job on those bridges mate. your teach is right you are nuts, or you are just alot braver and stronger then me :). or maybe a little of both :):)


Tom

Tom,

Im not studying anything at the moment just finding as many conditioning classes I can get my hands on. It takes a lot of confidence and a will to go beyond just olding a bridge. Holding it is one thing, kicking over and back while in it is a whole different ball game in of itself.