Bear Crawl Exercise Variations

 The Bear Squat

Continuing the bear theme with other kinds of exercise is not tricky: there are all manner of other moves linked to the powerhouse predators, some more tenuously than others (the jury’s out on the “wading into a stream to catch leaping salmon in mid-air with your teeth” regime).

One move that’s fairly hard to imagine an actual bear doing, but that is a worthy addition to any workout, is the bear squat. Start in the bear position, supported by your hands and toes with your knees off the ground. Then straighten your legs and lift your hips towards the ceiling. Once your legs are straight, slowly return to the starting position. Aim for 20 reps of this quad-buster as an excellent way to break up your bear walks.

Leopard crawl

This is also known as the beast walk or crawl, but let’s try to keep it to specific animals rather than generic beasts, shall we? The main difference between the leopard crawl and the bear crawl is the height of your hips. In the former you keep them low as you move around, whereas in the bear crawl you push your hips up to look more like a bear, and also to increase the load on your shoulders and arms. With the leopard crawl you also move opposite limbs at the same time, which will test your co-ordination as much as it does your core strength.

Bird-dog

If you want to exercise on the spot but still strengthen your core in a way that will help you perform animal crawls in the future, the bird-dog is the move for you. For those who don’t know, a bird-dog is a pooch bred for hunting, rather than one with wings. That information won’t really help with the exercise, but it’s good to know that there aren’t terrifying winged dogs flying around the countryside.

Get on your hands and knees. Lift your right arm and left leg and point them straight out in front and behind you respectively. Then bring them back down and do the same with the opposing limbs. Make sure your torso remains still and your hips stay level throughout. 섯다 족보

Crab walk

Admittedly, we’ve dropped a long way down the food chain here, but copying the humble crab can benefit your body just as much as mimicking the mighty bear. Sit on the floor with your feet out in front of you and your palms on the floor behind you. Push your hips up, then scuttle around on your hands and feet. As with the bear and leopard crawls, muscles all over the body have to work to keep you moving in this position, with your shoulders, triceps, quads and hamstrings all feeling the heat in particular.

Crocodile walk

Perhaps the toughest movement of all, and one to attempt once you’ve thoroughly mastered the bear and leopard crawls. Start in a top press-up position and then drop your chest down until it’s as low as it would be at the bottom of a press-up. Move by bringing your knee up to your elbow, moving the opposite arm forwards at the same time.