The Benefits of the Bear Crawl

Improve athletic performance

The Bear Crawl is a quadrupedal movement, using all four of our limbs. This exercise enhances proprioception (our awareness of our body in space) and strengthens the cross-lateral muscle groups called slings, which are required to run and walk. As proprioception improves, so does movement skill acquisition and hand-eye coordination—this means better golf/baseball/racquet swings, improved weightlifting technique, and ability to track balls in flight. Strengthening our slings can help tremendously in other areas of athletic performance, including squatting, sprinting, and everyday activities like carrying groceries and shovelling snow. Bear Crawls are great on their own or as part of a warmup to more advanced athletic training. No matter your ability, Bear Crawls will help you become more athletic! I have been training for almost 20 years and still incorporate Bear Crawls into most of my workouts.

Improve lower back pain

Weak muscles and insufficient ligament tension can lead to back pain. Once back pain sets in, staying immobile can make it worse. Bear Crawls allow you to strengthen the muscles and ligaments in your hips and core without compressive forces on your spine. This makes it a great way to reduce and prevent back pain. If you are dealing with back pain, be sure to talk to your doctor before starting a workout routine—but in many cases, the Bear Crawl is a safe and effective way to deal with back pain.

Tone your core

Most people think of core training as endless planks and crunches. Not only are these boring, but the Bear Crawl is actually a better option. The Bear Crawl is a dynamic exercise challenging the core on multiple planes of motion. As a result, you'll develop your rectus abdominis, transversus abdominis, internal oblique, and external oblique—and that's just the core muscles! Your core gets a workout while you're burning fat. As your core muscles get toned, they become even more visible because of your lost body fat!

Build muscle and burn fat

The Bear Crawl primarily targets your shoulders (anterior and posterior deltoid), core, and quads. Your chest, back, triceps, hips, and glutes are the secondary muscles worked. The reverse Bear Crawl will challenge your shoulders more, and a lateral Bear Crawl targets your chest and back. Put them all together with a Bear Crawl 2-step box:

Take 2 steps forward, 2 steps to the left, 2 steps back, and 2 steps right—that’s 1 rep. To build muscle, do 4 to 6 reps using slow, controlled movements, followed by 60 seconds of rest. Repeat this 3 to 6 times to build muscle in your quads and shoulders!

If you're looking for a body weight exercise for high-intensity interval training (HIIT), look no further. The Bear Crawl uses a lot of different muscles, burning glycogen and requiring your heart to pump blood almost everywhere in your body. This exercise is low impact, so it saves your joints and is much more forgiving if your form breaks down, compared to high-impact movements like sprinting and burpees. The Bear Crawl provides the intensity of burpees without the impact! Try 3 minutes of Bear Crawls followed by 1 minute of rest. Repeat 5-10 times for a simple and incredibly effective fat-burning workout!

Free, safe, and portable

Perhaps the best benefit of all is that the Bear Crawl is free, safe, and portable. You don't need to buy any equipment because your body weight provides the resistance. You remain close to the ground while doing the exercise, so if anything feels off, it's easy to stop—nice and safe. Plus, you can do it anywhere, even a small apartment or hotel room, making it my favourite vacation workout.

The Bear Crawl is safe and effective. Everyone can do it, and everyone can benefit from it. Join our 21-day Bear Crawl Challenge, and start seeing the benefits almost immediately.