About the Bear Crawl
If you have done bear crawls, you might be having flashbacks of sweat and tears and punishment from a high school coach. The bear crawl is a full body, energy intensive exercise that lends itself well to group application.
But have no fear! The bear crawl is a great exercise that is beneficial to almost everybody, not just high schoolers! It is equipment free and has many modifications to suit your goals and space.
What is the Bear Crawl?
The bear crawl is a traveling movement on all fours. It can be done quickly, like a run, for conditioning goals. It can be done as I’ll show you here, with smaller movements for a focus on the trunk. There are many ways to do a bear crawl well. In this case, you’ll take smaller steps and more precise movements. This will also allow you to do the bear crawl inside, where you might not have as much room as on a large turf.
To Do the Bear Crawl
- Set up on all fours (4 point position)
- Keep an active, neutral, flat back
- Pick your knees up off the ground about an inch
- Travel forward, taking very small (2 inch) steps
- Deliberately keep your trunk engaged, as opposed to loose and flopping around
- Reverse and travel backwards
Try It and Let Me Know!
Try out the bear crawl and let me know how it goes! It’s tougher than it looks so be prepared to work!
Happy training!