Video: How to Have Fun on All Fours with Crawling Exercises
We adults don’t spend a lot of time on all fours and you know the old saying, use it or lose it! So, here are three fun movements you can practice if you don’t want to lose the ability to play on the floor with your kids, pets, or just for fun.
Brock Armstrong
Crawling is a great way to maintain strength, mobility, and coordination. By adding these movements to your exercise program, you will benefit in many ways. Crawling is used in training for football, rugby, and the military.Â
I know, I know. Crawling around on the floor isn’t the coolest thing you can do to stay fit. But it is a basic human movement that remains important even after we have successfully learned to walk. Doing some crawling, including crawling exercises like these, promotes and maintains proper movement patterns and challenges our strength and stability. That’s why I think these three crawling exercises are a great addition to anyone’s exercise program.
Crawling movements in this video:
- Inch Worm
- Bear Crawl
- Crab Walk
The Inch Worm covers all the bases: core, arms, chest, and upper back. This exercise strengthens your anterior chain muscles while stretching your posterior chain muscles. Not a bad combo!
The Bear Crawl strengthens and increases endurance in your arms, shoulders, and chest. They also improve your overall core function and stability
The Crab Walk targets the shoulders and triceps because they are supporting your upper body. Your hamstrings and quads get involved in supporting your lower body. Right in the middle, your abs and glutes work to keep your hips up.
The higher you hold your hips, the more work your core will have to do. So keep ’em high!
Unsure about crawling?
If you are skeptical about whether crawling can be a great form of strength and mobility exercise, check out a football practice. You are likely to see professional football or rugby players crawling on the field during practice. They use this movement to help build lateral strength and the ability to transfer power from the lower body to the upper body.
If you are skeptical about whether crawling can be a great form of strength and mobility exercise, check out a football practice.
You may also have seen soldiers crawling as part of their basic training. As they say, “Keeping low can keep you alive,” and I couldn’t agree more.Â
Including these in your movement and exercise repertoire is not only fun but will help you keep your mobility and stability at their best.
About the Author
Brock Armstrong was the host of the Get-Fit Guy podcast between 2017 and 2021. He is a certified AFLCA Group Fitness Leader with a designation in Portable Equipment, NCCP and CAC Triathlon Coach, and a TnT certified run coach. He is also on the board of advisors for the Primal Health Coach Institute and a guest faculty member of the Human Potential Institute.Â