Possible for alternatives to some movements in The Bridge?

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Couldn’t find this clearly explained elsewhere, was hoping to get official word from the authors.

I was wondering about the possibility of slightly changing some of the movement selection described in The Bridge program ( https://www.barbellmedicine.com/the-bridge/ )

  • Pin Squat: I am not sure I understand why you would do this movement as described, instead of just doing a low box squat. Could I swap this for a low box squat? My gym only has one rack with pins that would work with this, while it would be easy to get a low box with any other rack

  • Pin Bench: again, equipment issues; I dont have any way to set up a bench in a rack with pins, as described. I am not really sure how I would do any similar substitute either, like a 1-board press, since I can’t hold a board to my chest by myself while benching and my gym benches do not have safeties, etc… Is there an alternative that can be performed solo without a bench in a rack?

  • Pendlay Row: I have tried many times over the years but have never been able to get a decent load on these types of rows due to the issue to maintaining stability needed to perform the movement. Would a cable row or even dumbell row work?

2

Hello!

  1. Pin squat and box squat are not equal or close equivalents really. If you can’t pin squat, we’d have you do 2 ct paused squats.

  2. You can do a 2 ct paused bench for the pin bench.

  3. It seems unlikely that you can’t Pendlay row, and I’d have you work on that, but you can certainly do another row variation.