*The neck bridge gives back more than it takes. The deadlift requires such a massive investment of tension that its specific benefits are overshadowed by the full body fatigue it creates. It is a known paradox of weightlifting that some of the heaviest deadlifting is accomplished by those who frequently train less fatiguing auxiliary movements and rarely deadlift in practice.
*Bridging requires no more equipment than an open space of floor, padded according to preference. The deadlift requires solid ground, a long bar, expensive weights, and a space to store equipment.
*The bridge provides a safer opportunity to practice tension over a longer period of time in an optimal position for building strength and flexibility. A typical set of bridges lasts 1-3 minutes with the neck, spine, and hips at full extension. A typical set of deadlifts lasts 30 seconds and works the muscles at only partial extension.
*The grip is a weak link for the deadlift which can potentially reduce load on the spinal muscles. The bridge requires only the posterior chain muscles to activate and is not limited by grip strength.
*The bridge builds proportional strength through the entire back of the body. The neck, back, legs, and calves share the weight of the body equally. As a result, strength and muscle gain is uniform across all these regions. By contrast, the deadlift stresses the lower spine to a greater degree, resulting in muscle imbalances between the upper and lower spine as a result of different leverages across vertebrae.
*Bridging applies static force to closed spinal discs which reduces the likelihood of acute injury. Deadlifting applies dynamic force to open spinal discs, which can result in slipped discs during forced reps.
*In this author's experience, greater muscle is gained from deep nasal breathing in a neck bridge for only 3 minutes once per week than from deadlifting 285 pounds 25 times twice per week. A bridge held long past the point of muscle burn acts as a potent stimulus for human growth hormone. The arms, legs, hips, back, neck, and shoulders grow thicker for days after a bridge workout. By contrast, the deadlift more easily elicits cortisol production as a result of overtraining due to excessive weights, resulting in only localized muscle gain overshadowed by full body stress and fatigue. In other words, the bridge can build more muscle mass with less effort and less training time.
*The bridge with deep breathing increases metabolic endurance by pairing slow oxygen intake with high oxygen expenditure. The stretched rib cage simultaneously makes breathing more difficult which builds the strength of the respiratory muscles while stretching lung capacity. Discipline is increased as a result of controlling pain and panic to breathe deeply at a set cadence.
*The bridge can make a trainee taller with age. The deadlift compresses the spine to progressively reduce height.
*The bridge can convert into combat specific ground drills for grapplers and build a thick neck for better knockout resistance in stand up fighters.
*The bridge, when trained hard, results in the feeling of "walking like an old man." This means that the exercise fatigues and strengthens those muscles which regulate posture and walking. As such, training with the bridge can prolong one's mobility into old age by progressively strengthening those areas which atrophy to produce geriatric weakness and abnormality of gait.
*The neck bridge alone can prevent and cure cricks in the neck, sprains of the small muscles of the neck, back aches, pulled muscles in the back, and knee pain. All joints benefit from bridging.
*The direct structural integrity of the spine built through bridging prevents injury more effectively than the "bracing strength" built through weightlifting which requires attention and focus to increase intra-abdominal pressure and brace the spine. Acute spinal injury is unexpected by default, so bracing should not be used as an injury prevention tool. Structural integrity built through bridging is a better insurance policy.
*The benefits of bridging are general, holistic, and greater than the sum of training investment (the spinal muscles only support bodyweight for 3 minutes, once per week, yet muscle mass is disproportionately increased). The benefits of deadlifting are specific, isolated, and less than the sum of training investment (the spinal muscles support hundreds of pounds, multiple times per week, yet muscle takes a long time to grow). As such, bridging constitutes a practice with far reaching benefits, while deadlifting constitutes an exercise with narrow, strength based applications.
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