Crawling
Crawling is a fundamental movement pattern that just about everyone should be doing. Unfortunately, just about everyone hates doing them. That’s too bad, because they are great for shoulder health, core stability, coordination, as well as ankle, big toe, and wrist mobility.
Before getting too excited and crawling the length of a football field it is important to first master the starting position (also called a bear plank):
- Start on all fours with hands under the shoulders and knees under the hips.
- Keep your chin tucked, back flat, and shoulders packed (pulled down and back/not shrugged to your ears).
- Press your hands and toes firmly into the ground and elevate the knees 1-2 inches off the ground.
Once 3-5 sets of 10 to 20 second holds feels comfortable you can try adding in some movement.
I like to start people with a side-to-side crawl. There aren’t many ways to do it without falling over, so try not to overthink it, but the sequence (for moving left) goes left foot, right hand, left hand, right foot. Go slowly and move just one limb at a time. It’ll seem awkward at first but become second nature after some practice.
People usually want to rush these and scoot across the floor as quickly as possible, but if you want to get the most from crawling you need to slow down. Along with increasing the chances of losing your lunch, going fast with sloppy technique only reinforces bad movement patterns and doesn’t actually strengthen your core and weak links.
Be intentional about what you’re doing. Think smooth and controlled, and imagine yourself gliding across the floor. The hands should remain beneath the shoulders and knees under the hips the entire time. The back should also be flat like a table. Imagine balancing a full bucket of water on your back and not wanting to spill a drop.
Crawling makes a good warm up for strength or endurance training, but you could also include them at a faster pace in conditioning circuits once you can do them under fatigue with good form. Try varying it up with some front to back crawling as well, or using a light weighted vest for an additional challenge.