Crawling is a fantastic movement and also a foundational movement. It’s the first thing we figure out after learning to roll over. And believe it or not, you can still get a lot of benefits from crawling
The Benefits Of Crawling
Crawling is a surprisingly good workout. After 30 seconds of hand-foot crawling, you’ll have all kinds of places burning and tired. That’s because every stride you take crawling, you lose two points of support.
This forces your hip and shoulder to stabilize your whole body on the two points of support you still have. Resisting the rotation around these two points takes a lot of strength and coordination.
Crawling teaches a contralateral movement pattern that is the norm in many other movement patterns including walking and running. Contralateral means opposite hand and foot.
For example, when you step forward with your right foot, you swing your left arm forward. If you have a problem with this pattern while crawling, it will also create problems in these more advanced movement patterns.
Crawling is also a useful movement. You can use it to go under a low object or to go up or down a steep incline. We don’t need to do this much in our modern environment, but this is a recent development. Our bodies still need this movement pattern to stay healthy.
Do you have experience with crawling? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
Good stuff