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Lower back, hips, knees and ankles

Bridge: Classic Hold

Actively strengthens your posterior chain: glutes, hamstrings, and back muscles, through hip extension, building the power that supports your spine and pelvis.

Stability / Core20 to 60 seconds
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How to do it

  1. 1

    Lie on your back with your knees bent

    Feet flat on the floor, about hip width apart, heels a comfortable distance from your seat. Arms rest by your sides with the palms down.

  2. 2

    Press through both feet and lift your hips

    Push evenly through your feet and let your pelvis rise until your knees, hips and shoulders sit in one long line. The lift comes from your hips opening, not from your lower back bending.

  3. 3

    Keep your ribs soft and your waist long

    Think of the front of your hips lengthening rather than your back arching. If the effort moves into your lower back, stay lower.

  4. 4

    Hold, then lower one part at a time

    Hold for 20 to 60 seconds with comfortable breathing, then set your back down gradually to the floor. For less, lift only a small way, hold a block between your knees, or move your feet a little further from your seat.

What to watch for

Getting higher by arching the lower back instead of extending the hips. If your lower back is doing the lifting, come down until your hips lead again.

Ways to adjust it

  • Mini bridge
  • Supported bridge
  • Supported
  • Block between knees
  • Adjust foot position

If this one is too much today

Try the gentler version instead. It asks less of you and does much the same work.

Other ways to do this movement

Every version below is the same movement set up differently, so one of them usually suits. See all Bridge versions in one place, ordered from gentlest to strongest.

Before you try it

Move within a range that stays comfortable. Stop if this brings on sharp pain, dizziness, or symptoms that travel down an arm or a leg, and speak to a clinician before repeating it.

Also part of sessions for

MenopausePerimenopause

Each of those explains what the condition is, what the published guidance recommends, and where this movement fits.

One movement is a start. A session is the thing.

A few questions about your body and how it is today, and Vinys builds a session around it, including which movements to leave out.

Start your first session

From the clinically authored Vinys movement library.