This exercise is an essential part of training for people who engage in martial arts, especially if you’re doing any type of wrestling. It’s also one of the basic exercises for gymnasts, and chances are you will come across the wheel pose in yoga practice as well. The bridge push up works the entire body but the muscles that get the most amount of workout are your shoulders, back extensors, hamstrings and glutes. Doing bridge push ups also improves your flexibility dramatically especially in your hip flexors, abs, and chest.

The practical use of bridge push ups is that you can use them as bodyweight exercise alternative to deadlifts. Some people may say, why do I need these as an alternative if I can just do deadlifts? They’re so much easier to learn.

The answer is because you may not always have an access to weights, so if you’re traveling and relying on bodyweight workouts, you may want to learn a few tricks to improve your fitness even further doing highly functional exercises such as the bridge push ups, which will also improve your athleticism.

Progression:

1. Bridge modification – halft bridge with your hands clasped under your back to get your chest up

2. Reverse plank (alternating hand positions)

3. Bridge on exercise ball

4. Neck Bridge

5. Bridge hold (wheel pose) for 30 sec

6. Bridge push ups on exercise ball

7. Bridge push ups

8. Bridge push ups on yoga blocks for more shoulder mobility and range of motion

Once you progress to this point, the fun does not stop here. There are all kinds of variations and exercise combos you can do, but we’ll definately talk about those in one of the upcoming Warrior Wednesdays.

If you’re a ZGYM member I have a Bridge Push Up workout for you today where you’ll be able to use any of these easier modifications you just learned and have fun with them.