ABSOLUTE ASCENDANCY

Commencing operation . . .

Do you know the German suplex? That move on wrestling shows where the attacker grabs someone from behind and flings them over? The advanced bridge is more or less the ending position of the German suplex. A warning in advance; do not to attempt this stretch if you have a sore neck because you will be placing significant pressure in that region. This is an excellent stretch though especially if you want to build a stable neck. As a fighter, it is essential for my neck to be both flexible and strong as it can be prone to get knocked around the place during sparring sessions or fights. It is also an excellent stretch to do for jiu-jitsu training to prepare the neck for grappling. The bridge will also stretch out the chest, abdominal, quadriceps and shins as well.

Understandably this exercise may be too difficult to achieve at first. An excellent place to start is with a regular bridge where you first lie down on your back. Then bend your knees and raise your hips so that only your arms, shoulders and the end of your neck and head are on the ground. Placing your palms on the ground behind your head with your fingers pointing towards your heels, propel your shoulders off the ground and slowly increase the weight bearing down on the back of your head and palms. If this is still too difficult, then you can lower your shoulders to the ground and focus on pushing the hips upwards while keeping your knees bent. You can also lie on top of a gymnastics ball to help relieve the tension throughout your body

Once you have mastered the basic bridge, you can try the advanced version which is pretty much the same as the basic version except that you either grab the back of your ankles or cross your arms above your chest. The only points of contact with the ground should then be your feet, and the back of your head. An additional step is to go up onto the balls of your feet and then slowly rock back and forth by flexing your feet and rolling the back of your head. It is natural for the hips to drop while maintaining this posture, so make a conscious effort to keep your hips up nice and high.

Mission complete – Overlord Drakow signing out.