Training and exercise these days has become a tad too complicated and has led to a large amount of misinformation. Thank you internet! Every coach, girl with that perfect figure, and meat head screaming his face off about Monday=chest day has left people wondering what the hell to do. It’s no wonder that people get to the gym, turn their brain off and just hit the elliptical.
Today, I want to talk to you about the benefits of animal movements and why you can get fit AF doing them;specifically the one we love at C.P.
Bear Crawl.
Animal movements are great. Why….
Other than the obvious benefits pointed out up top, the coolest part of the Bear Crawl (animal movements) are there 0 barrier entry level. What do I mean? Well, animal movements are super easy to scale and anyone, regardless of fitness level, can do some variation of them.
Check out the variations that I have below. These videos show the most basic to some of the most challenging ways to do a bear crawl, so that you can get the most out of it, never get bored, and work at a level that is appropriate for you.
Bear Hold
Bear Crawl Forward
Lateral Bear Crawl
Box Bear Crawl
Now that we have the basic understanding of what the variations and progressions look like, let’s talk about how to get FIT AF with them. A while back Super Coach Pat Eble wrote a blog on the 5 Movements everyone needs to train. (Read it here: http://www.coreprinciples-sc.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4216&action=edit). If you are willing to dive deep into his blog and are a super gym goer than you know that the bear can be considered a core development exercise and can be placed in between the two power movements, towards the back end of your strength section or in your conditioning.
Now to uncomplicate this friggin thing, for those of us who just want to get a good workout in, my suggestion would be just do the damn thing anywhere you want. Do it at the beginning of your warm-up, during your treadmill runs(off the treadmill please). During the times you are breaking from squatting, deadlifting, benching, or rowing. During a wedding, if you think it’s appropriate to do so. The point!!! Just Do IT!!!!!
Ideally, if you want to develop strength in the Bear Crawl, do it early in your session in between lifting weights and avoid jumping your heart rate up too high. A good rule of thumb for strength on that is 30 seconds or less or about 10-12 steps(5 breaths if you are just doing a hold). To burn fat with that bad boy, place it during your conditioning sets(that’s when your heart rate goes up a lot) and increase the time that you perform the movement about 30 seconds or a little bit more. Remember you can also couple movements to make it even more interesting, like doing a Bodyweight squat (air squat for those of us who are millennials) for 10 reps and then performing a bear crawl for 10 steps.
Finally, do it anywhere and everywhere you can. You get strong, lean, and somewhat mean when you give yourself the opportunity to do activity anywhere and anytime you can. If you wake up in the morning and have 5 minutes, do a few bear crawl sets, however you desire. I promise by the end of those 5 Minutes, if you are not feeling it, well then call me sally and say I am a liar.
For more on this, hit up Core Principles Strength and Conditioning Facebook page or email us at Info@coreprinciples-sc.com
Best,
Coach Jim
