The Benefits of the Bear Crawl

In this video, Jesse Dietrick, CSCS, Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, shares the benefits of crawling and how to perform a bear crawl.
Three benefits from bear crawls are mobility & stability, coordination, and strength. It is important to maintain a balance of both mobility and stability as one is not more important than the other. The bear crawl demands proper mobility to do a crawl and also helps re-enforce stability in hips and shoulders.
The crawl helps develop coordination with reciprocal arm and leg movement. You will find it more difficult to crawl backwards as opposed to forwards as visual sensory feedback is not available thus making the bear crawl a great exercise to develop coordination. Maintaining this proper sequence of opposite arm and leg movement can help anyone, whether athlete or weekend-warrior, work on coordination and improve movement efficiency.
Finally, strength is improved through the bear crawl as it is a total body movement that challenges you head to toe. There is demand placed on the upper and lower body as well as demanding great trunk stability.
Perform this exercise within a structured strength and conditioning program to maximize benefits. If you have any further questions or want any information, you can contact us at www.FitnessQuest10.com.

[@carnivalgods4573]

Great exercise to have in the tool kit! Today I did 3 sets of backwards bear crawls, pull ups, jump squats and added a couple of single leg finishers. Enough to make this 50 year old just about hurl. Best part no gym required just a nice park atmosphere!

[@danteassad5296]

That’s a great workout, no matter the age 👍🏻

[@justgofitness3952]

Love it, keep the videos coming Jesse!

[@jessedietrick840]

Thanks Justin! Same to you!

[@DariiaDziuba]

thanks for the tips!

[@jordanvernon9342]

love this exercise

[@smartaclesllama8677]

Jordan Vernon you have no joy in your life if this is something you don’t hate

[@johnford5568]

thanks for the video. just added these to my warm up routine. At 58, best to include mobility and stability. Glad gyms are providing open areas now. For 'warm up', burpies, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, jump rope, air squats, broad jumps, run in place, do them all, move the body, train the brain. Don't wait to have a fall and break the hip. Get on the ground now and crawl. Switch to full body workouts daily, hide the bro split inside of full body workouts by emphasis. Life is full body, not split.

[@user-uv8rn4nd8n]

you spittin rn 💯💯🔊

[@derekknight3769]

Thanks

[@dee8857]

1st time I did bear crawls I felt in my body all week.

[@softwareshinobi]

good shit

[@JayVincentFitness]

So Jesse, the main purpose of the bear crawl is to stimulate what improvements exactly? The static contractions in the shoulders and quads seem to stimulate strength improvements to an extent but as motor efficiency improves as the exercise is continuously introduced it seems that without progressive changes in the stimulus (making it more challenging) the benefits from a bear crawl would seem to be short lived. Your thoughts? Thanks for the video.

[@ThAsocialypseNow]

you can use bear crawl handles

[@isisdaddy1]

The real way to test your theory is by doing some yourself.

[@crusher5434]

I don't know, Jay. I don't believe it would be short lived. That would be like saying push-ups would be a short lived gain when you can just keep on doing more and more as they become easier. I would think the same would ring true for bear crawls.

[@kylephaneuf9975]

Go bear crawl for 1600m and lemme know how easy that was.

[@dstir66]

Great video, my only objection is that you state this exercise is good for "every client and athlete" . I agree if my client is an athlete this is a good exercise however if my client is just your everyday mom who just had a baby, or an man trying to exercise for the first time since college I would not introduce this to them. So I guess what I am saying is if I made this video I would not say "every" client but specific clients who have demonstrated that can do progressive exercises well before attempting this one.

[@isisdaddy1]

I think that even an out of shape person can go in either direction once or twice before gassing out. This practice will enable them to perform more as they go.

[@MMABeijing]

maybe that s good for average joe, but not for crossfitters who have fucked up shpulders

[@crusher5434]

I see your point. I have a few older clients that would struggle with this movement just because of their limited mobility.

[@morenoh149]

Side bear crawl twist

[@Beprot]

i got a 6 pack in 2 days doing this exercise

[@vidstarr]

No, really.....honestly?

[@JayVincentFitness]

vidstarr you can't be serious right

[@itzsouloflol]

Totally not a scam*

[@S4V3GU1D3]

I see no lie, do it sideways ,backwards , crab walks up and down a hill

[@vdavis55]

I did too...only itt was still under my layers of fat. Lol!

[@anora4929]

Handsome

[@yussepig6629]

Cute

[@jae4073]

Does it make my fat guts smaller?

[@chickenstrangler3826]

Lifting heavy burns fat. Bear crawls are beneficial but if you're targeting fat loss include some weights and I'm say keep the reps 6 or under.