The average person today leads a life which involves both disuse and misuse of the spine. They spend their days doing repetitive jobs slumped in front of computer screens or over desks with terrible posture which misaligns their spinal column; then they go home and slouch on the sofa in front of the tube. As a result, civilians are suffering more back problems and ever, and people are now getting disc degeneration in their thirties.
Bridging—even just once per week—prevents all these problems. It realigns the vertebrae into the correct position, and strengthens the deep muscles of the back responsible for proper posture. Even the bones become stronger over time, with the practice of the bridge. The discs in your back are made of cartilage, and like all cartilage, they have very little blood flow. Instead, they receive their nutrition from liquid in the joints, called synovial fluid. Because it’s not associated with the circulation, fresh fluid can only reach the joints when those joints move around. Bridging removes waste and sends plenty of nutritious fluid to the discs, healing them, preventing degeneration and ensuring maximal health. Strong spinal muscles can reduce the likelihood of slipped discs, and even help fix the condition.
Aside from the above benefits, bridging will make all your athletic movements more powerful. Bridging is the ultimate exercise for the spinal muscles. But as well as being the primary exercise for the erector spinae, bridging develops practically every other muscle in the body. The arms and legs get work in pressing the body away from the ground, and the shoulder girdle and upper back get a fantastic workout in the process, too. The entire front side of the body—usually stubbornly tight in male athletes—gets a maximum stretch. Areas which particularly benefit are the knees, quadriceps, hip flexors, abdominals and chest. The unique overheadand-back movement during bridging removes calcium deposits in the shoulders and makes the torso very supple.