Exercise Guide

Bear Crawl

Crawling on hands and toes with the knees hovering. Full-body conditioning that hammers the shoulders and the anti-rotation muscles at once.

BeginnerPlyometricsPushCompound
Form
Bear Crawl - Start position
Start
Bear Crawl - Mid position
Mid
Bear Crawl - End position
End

Illustrations by Bryl Lim for Workout Guide, after Everkinetic. Used unchanged under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Details

Primary Muscle

Core

Equipment

Bodyweight

Difficulty

Beginner

Category

Plyometrics

Force

Push

Mechanic

Compound

Secondary Muscles

ShouldersQuads
How to Perform
  1. 1

    Start in a bear plank with your knees hovering just off the floor.

  2. 2

    Move your right hand and left foot forward together, keeping your hips low and level.

  3. 3

    Follow with your left hand and right foot.

  4. 4

    Keep crawling for the target time or distance, then crawl backwards.

Tips
  • Small steps keep the hips quiet; long reaches make you waddle.
  • Keep your head neutral and look just in front of your hands.
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