I’ve written a guest article for my friend Rob Drucker over at Old Time Lifting. You’ll learn:
The Wrestler's Bridge, not just for wrestlers...
- What the bridge is good for
- How almost everyone neglects to train one of the most important parts of their body
- How to get started in the wrestler’s bridge
- Where to go once you have some proficiency
- My own personal, advanced, bridging workout
- And more
Check it out.
How to Master the Wrestlers Bridge
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise by on May 28th, 2010. Comment. 
While I believe everyone (except a select few with spinal problems) can and should get the benefits of bridging exercises I recognize that this move is certainly not for everyone.
I’ve taken to bridging skills over the years supporting ever increasing weights while in a wrestlers bridge. This move is just a support, holding the weight in place. The limitation before was getting the weight into place. Unless I had a training partner this was impossible for me to do as I increased the weight I could hold. Now that I have a power rack my previous limitation is gone.
Though to be honest with you I shouldn’t have gone for this weight. Although I had kept up in my neck work I hadn’t really worked the support in awhile. And normally when I do this I hold for time, usually 30 seconds.
But I had the power rack and I got excited. After a few warmups sets I did this. With 275 lbs. it was much closer to a max attempt than I should have gone. Oh well. I pulled it off with some effort, but no problems.
Like I said before, this isn’t for everyone (and I do plan to support more weight in this move than anyone else.) But if you want a strong neck and spine there’s plenty of work to do before you even approach this level. My Advanced Bridging Course will get you going building the needed strength and flexibility.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Barbells and Dumbbells, Bodyweight Exercise, Feats of Strength, Oldtime Strongmen, Videos by on Mar 13th, 2010. 3 Comments.
425 lbs. held in a wrestler's bridge
There are many ways you can strengthen the neck. Here are a few basic exercises you can do.
Bridging – To me this is the king of neck strengthening exercises. But it gives you much more than that. It build flexibility and works the spine as well as the whole body. In fact, I devoted an entire course to bridging exercises and many variations. Work into it slowly, but over time you’ll build a neck strong enough to scare people. (And I mean STRENGTH, not size.)
Shrugs – Shrugs of many variations (my favorite is the trapbar) primarily work the trapezius muscles. Being that this is right next to the neck and the muscles cross over this is a good neck exercise. Go heavy!
Neck Isometrics with Hands – You can work your neck quite well with just your hands. To the front, to the back and to the sides. Resist with your hand as you move your head back into place.
Plate lifting – I learned this one from Mike Bruce. Lay across a bench, placing a plate across your forehead (you may want to fold up a towel as a pad to make it comfortable), using your hands to keep it balanced, but drive with the power of your neck. You can do this from the rear and to the sides as well.
Harness lifting – If you have a head harness or lifting strap you can lift weight in a variety of ways.
That’s a number of neck strengthening exercises I’ve given you now let me tell you how I do it. While I gave you many exercises I mostly just do bridging variations. I’ve done a 10 minute wrestler’s bridge on a couple occasions. But that took too long plus it wasn’t as much resistance as I wanted so I started adding weight. My current best is the 425 lbs. pictured on this page.
I typically train my neck twice a week. I usually do a single set each of two different exercises. All my neck training in about 5 minutes a week.
Simple exercises = BIG results. This is a missing key to training almost everyone neglects. Don’t let that be you.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Barbells and Dumbbells, Bodyweight Exercise, Strength Training Concepts by on Feb 10th, 2010. 3 Comments.
No I’m not talking about spending 4 hours in the gym that wear you down instead of building you up. That kind of stuff will be talked about some other time.
What I am talking about is a certain kind of strength training. The kind that leaves behind a pile of destroyed, mangled, ripped and shredded stuff.
In my last post I talked about the satisfaction that I and many others get from bending steel. One of the main causes of this is that you have something tangible and material afterwards. If you break a PR in the press or squat it is great, but unless you snapped some pictures or video then it is just in your mind and your sense of accomplishment.
Bend a new piece of iron or tear a deck of cards in half and you have the results left over. Not knocking any other lifts but these few give you something to look at, after the feat is done
I don’t hang on to everything but as a habit I keep my firsts and my records. I also have a few souvenirs from other people.
One of my favorites is a phonebook torn by John Wood at a seminar I attended. If you haven’t seen his sites then be sure to check them out. A good starting place is http://www.oldtimestrongman.com/blog/
The phonebook itself isn’t so impressive, but the manner in which he did it was. While in a wrestler’s bridge with someone standing on top of him he tore three phonebooks in succession. In this position he had to tear the books above his head, meaning without bracing. Truly a extraordinary stunt.
The first time I ever ‘performed’ I gave the remains of my feats to some young girls near the front of the stage. Twas a great feeling seeing them carry around the objects all night long.
My collection has just begun but you gotta start somewhere. If you haven’t, then what are you waiting for?
In case you’re wondering I do recycle the phonebook remains. Whether they actually can use them or not I do not know for sure.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Feats of Strength, Hand Strength, Oldtime Strongmen by on Sep 27th, 2007. Comment.
