Tutorial: How to correctly perform a Floor Bridge

Today we bridge the gap and we show you how to perform the floor bridge. This lower back stability exercise has a number of useful progressions and variations that will improve your strength.

WHAT

The floor bridge is a hip and lower back stability (and hip mobility) exercise that has several useful progressions and variations.
It can be used within a warm-up, cool down or the main workout.

HOW

Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Place your arms on the floor by your sides.
Engage the core and set the shoulders. Press the feet into the floor as you raise the hips up. Keep raising the hips until there is a straight line between the shoulders, hips and knees. Pause for a moment before returning under control.
Repeat for reps or time.

WHY

Strong and powerful hip extension is an essential requirement for many daily and sporting activities. These activities include lifting, squatting and jumping. If this movement becomes limited or inhibited, the result is often a loss of strength/power and compensatory movement – which may lead to pain and injury.
Prolonged seated postures can regularly contribute to shortening and tightening of the hip flexor muscles. Over time, this can reduce the ability to extend the hips and weaken the glutes, hamstrings and lower back muscles. Use the floor bridge as part of an overall strategy to restore hip joint mobility and stability by strengthening the critical hip extensor muscles.
It’s worth noting that the floor bridge is most effective when combined with stretching/releasing of the quads and hip flexors. Exercises such as the quad foam roll and hip flexor stretch will help to open up the front of the hip. This new range of motion will give the floor bridge more range of motion in hip extension.

There are several useful progressions for the floor bridge that can support further development of the hip extension.

The floor bridge hold is a progression that requires holding the top position of the bridge for up to 60sec – developing static postural control.

The single-leg floor bridge increases the demands on the core muscles and can be useful for those with asymmetrical hip extension caused by an injury.