Lifting weights and running on the treadmill is not the only way you can get your weekly doses of strength and cardio. Is a pound just a pound? When it comes to weight training, Yes!!!. And who cares how you get your heart rate up, just get it up!! Here is how. Bear Crawls.
Doing the bear crawl is that exercise that will kill two birds with one stone. All you need is your bodyweight. Bear crawls benefits anyone who needs to workout. They can be performed anywhere, even in a small apartment or hotel room. Push your furniture out the way and lets start crawling like a bear.
What Is Bear Crawls and Why Are They A Good Workout?
Bear crawls are a pivotal part of the functional fitness program that focuses on the maximum usage of quadrupedal and ground movements to strengthen your entire body. This exercise engages almost every muscle joint of the human upper body making it the perfect compound exercise without using weights.
If you are bored with squats, sprints, curls, and presses, it’s time to move to bear crawls. If one has to define bear crawls in the simplest terms, it would be ideal to say that bear crawls are somewhat of an advanced version of a moving plank. Much like the plank, a bear crawl also engages the core muscles, but since it also involves moving, a bear crawl forces the performer to use their core more intensely to maintain balance.
Bear crawls have witnessed a sudden surge in popularity. Suddenly, almost all knowledgeable trainers and coaches have jumped on the bear crawl endorsement bandwagon. Why? Primarily because the fitness devotees are being seen making a deliberate shift towards full-body and functional exercises that prepare the body for day-to-day tasks. Doing the bear crawl is a cheap way to get a good workout.
What Muscles Are Used in a Bear Crawl?
The bear crawl is primarily a strength- and mobility-enhancing exercise and thus effectively uses almost every single muscle group in the body. Abdomen, shoulder, chest, glutes, and legs are the primary muscles used during this exercise. In fact, you are using all these muscles at the same time. It also increase joint mobility in the hips, wrists, spine, ankles and the knee.
A Step-by-Step Guide to How to Do a Bear Crawl?
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Doing a bear crawl is not complicated. But it is very challenging. The critical thing to remember is maintaining the right posture to maximize the movement pattern. However, the wrong position while doing bear crawls can easily lead to injuries.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to how to do a bear crawl. Before you attempt the bear crawl make sure you warm up your muscles and stretch for 5 -10 mins before attempting.
1. Start in a crawl position. Your hands should be directly underneath your shoulders, and your knees should be placed under your hips. You will be on all fours just like a bear.
2. Stabilize your spine and elongate your back. The key idea is to engage the abdominal muscles to their maximum capacity. Do not attempt exercise until you are body is stable.
3. While maintaining stability slowly lift your knees off the floor, stay on your toes, while still in the crawl position. Move out your right arm, left leg and starting crawling. Knees should not touch the floor. Start crawling.
4. Cover whatever your distance you can cover comfortably and rest.
5. Repeat as many times as you can
How to Make Bear Crawls More Advanced?
Once the basic move becomes easy peasy, now its time to advance to more challenging steps. Now try these advanced versions.
1. Go Faster. Or for a longer distance. Get competitive and race a friend.
2. Pull something by securing a backpack to your back or a rope attached to a heavy object. Wear a weighted vest.
3. If you think you have perfectly mastered the basic bear crawl, it’s time to move to the next step. Instead of doing a basic bear crawl, make it tougher by simply lifting one hand and the opposite leg off the ground. Be sure to maintain crawl position
4. A spiderman crawl is another variation of the standard bear crawl which can be performed by bending your chest closer to the ground while crawling.
5. Don’t have a lot of time? Bear crawls are ideal for High-Intensity Interval Training Crawl for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds. Repeat for about 20 mins duration no more than two times per week.
6. Add it to your circuit training. For example , Burpees, Bear Crawl, Jumping, Jacks, Squats. Rest after the first set and Repeat four times.
7. Do backward bear crawls
What Are the Benefits of Bear Crawls?
If you have been looking for reasons to include bear crawls in your routine, here are a few:
1. Bear crawls help you build total body strength. While most exercises focus on a particular group of muscles, the bear crawl is one of those few exercises that use almost all muscle groups. It forces your core to work harder, which makes it an excellent strength-building exercise.
2. As previously mentioned, bear crawls engage more than one joints. The work of these joints is pivotal to ensuring perfect stability while doing a bear crawl. Thus, this exercise also enhances muscle coordination and mobility.
3. Crawling around without the support of your knees on the floor will undoubtedly get your heart rate up. You can even go faster and turn it into a high-intensity workout.
Getting your weekly dose of exercise should not be difficult if you include bear crawls in your routine. All you need to do is get on all fours and start crawling like a bear.