Crawls

[fredhutch]

I sometimes have included bear crawls with dumbbells, something I learned from Nick Nilsson. He says to use ankle weights too but I don't have those. Great abdominal workout. My only question though is if you do so much bear crawling, are you working the front of your body more than the back and creating muscle imbalances?

[Deleted]

Feb 14, 2019 16:31:34 GMT fredhutch said:

I sometimes have included bear crawls with dumbbells, something I learned from Nick Nilsson. He says to use ankle weights too but I don't have those. Great abdominal workout. My only question though is if you do so much bear crawling, are you working the front of your body more than the back and creating muscle imbalances?

Nick Nilsson is a freaking beast. Bear Crawls are phenomenal but I would agree with hutch here about if you do too much it could create imbalances. Add in Crab Walks and that might help balance out the areas of the body needed like the shoulders, back, triceps and hips.

[fredhutch]

Yeah, Nick has some great ideas, he's totally dedicated to training, and he's a real gentleman. His books are great.

[jrmeatplow]

I do lots of crab walking when I do my crawls. Crawling dragging chains is a beast of an exercise, especially backwards bear crawling dragging chain. Nothing pumps my traps and shoulders up like this does.

[Michael]

I would have had the same question as Fred if that was all someone was doing. But as You guys said You do crab walking. All interesting stuff, thanks for sharing.

[jrmeatplow]

Feb 14, 2019 21:24:35 GMT Michael said:

I would have had the same question as Fred if that was all someone was doing. But as You guys said You do crab walking. All interesting stuff, thanks for sharing.

Yeah, this isn't all I do. This was just a conditioning workout for BJJ. 

I should also say that if you have crawled and haven't felt it in your back(traps and lats) you haven't crawled long enough.

[mr potatohead]

Feb 14, 2019 22:13:10 GMT jrmeatplow said:

I should also say that if you have crawled and haven't felt it in your back(traps and lats) you haven't crawled long enough.

Does your dad crawl, jrMP?

[jrmeatplow]

Feb 15, 2019 8:50:58 GMT mr potatohead said:

Feb 14, 2019 22:13:10 GMT jrmeatplow said:

I should also say that if you have crawled and haven't felt it in your back(traps and lats) you haven't crawled long enough.

Does your dad crawl, jrMP?

he doesn't at the moment or at least I don't think he does. He has in the past though. I do my conditioning on off days. He just trains with me 2x per week for the heavier stuff. He does swing a 32kg between 100-300 swings per day and he does hard walks daily climbing the mountains where we live. He told me last night that he hit his first set of 50 reps with the 32kg KB swing Wednesday.

[Michael]

That's pretty cool Your Dad and Yourself do that. I'm assuming Your Dad does two hand Swings? Nice job by him! KB swings are a favorite of mine. Two hand swings are great for Your back if done right without some of the ridiculous form You see around the internet.

[mr potatohead]

Feb 15, 2019 11:45:09 GMT Michael said:

...... Two hand swings are great ........

I like them and heavy. I use my 110# DIY KB. (pic in the workshop)

...... some of the ridiculous form You see around the internet.

Maybe because many people use their upper body to drive, or help to drive, the motion, instead of driving it with the hips/midsection and just holding on, letting their arms go along for the ride. When done correctly, a two-hand KB swing is a hip thrust move.
If the hips don't make the weight swing up as high as you think it should, stop thinking.

[Dave Reslo]

I don't do any crawls but sometimes on the hills I have to progress on all fours, this ends up tiring out the chest muscles a lot without bothering the shoulder or elbow joints, although it's certainly not a convenient setup.

[fredhutch]

Furey said in one of his books that the Shaolin monks did a bear crawl (on hands and feet) down a long flight of steps. I tried this and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be...if you want to try it I suggest finding a set of two or three steps to work on at first, or use a regular stairway and start at the bottom, going up just a step or two and back down. You don't want to start at the top of the stairway and have your arms give out half way down...speaking from experience. Could also do these on a hill, of course...which might be a little easier.

[bob44]

I had a workout I did weekly or every other week during the warm weather. It was on a 1/3 mile hill. I would do 4 sets of: 25 uphill burpees, bear crawls downhill back to the starting point and then sprint back uphill to where I left off and start the next set. The downhill crawling would tire out my shoulders on each set. I haven’t done this for over 8 years. I think I got smarter.

[Deleted]

Feb 15, 2019 22:57:20 GMT bob44 said:

I had a workout I did weekly or every other week during the warm weather. It was on a 1/3 mile hill. I would do 4 sets of: 25 uphill burpees, bear crawls downhill back to the starting point and then sprint back uphill to where I left off and start the next set. The downhill crawling would tire out my shoulders on each set. I haven’t done this for over 8 years. I think I got smarter.

That's freaking nuts man. That takes some serious guts to do. Smartening up can be a good thing and doing what's best for you is smart.