ADL#3: Why Crawling Still Matters Beyond 50: Plus Workout

If you've been following our posts, in this edition I thought it would be a bit of fun to head back down to the floor and do a movement that most of us haven't done since we were a little toddler and in our childhood years, and that's crawling.

Yep, it's a move that we can still do as adults and one that one simple pattern works so many things. It trains our core, our shoulders, our hips, and our brain, because we need coordination with our upper and lower body as we make our way across the floor.

So think of crawling as a kind of floor version of walking, and if you throw in about 30 seconds of crawls a few times a week, it won't be such an effort to get down there when you really have to, whether you have a fall or you need to clean.

Watch: Why Crawling Still Matters After 50: Strength Training for Floor Transitions (11mins)

Press play or keep reading, either way, you’ll master this essential ADL move in under 10 minutes.

Ready, let's jump into the 'Why Crawling Still Matters Beyond 50: Plus Workout' lesson:

So, in this post along with the why, you'll learn some crawling mobility exercises you can do at home, and then we'll wrap up with a simple five-minute at-home workout that keeps you crawling well and pain-free.

WHY Crawling Still Matters + Real-Life Implications:

Now, whether it's playing on the floor with the grandkids, gardening pain-free, or ensuring you can get help if you have a fall, crawling is a very powerful tool in your strength toolbox. Let's have a look at the different different real-life crawling scenarios, along with how you can strengthen you crawling ability .

Pre-Exercises: Sore Wrists & Table Progression

Now I'm aware that some of you, when you're crawling, may find that this wrist extension position, ie. with wrists at right angles to arms, may cause pain and/or discomfort. Particularly those with arthritis, or those with extremely weak wrists.

Some of you with arthritis may not find that very comfortable and you may want some support.

• So you can get little wrist supports from a sports store. So they just help to keep your wrists in good alignment.
• And the other thing you can be doing is a pair of dumbbells. So doing our crawl with dumbbells could work a bit better for you because they do keep your wrists in a better alignment.

If you are brand new to crawling and you feel like you can't get to the floor yet, get a sturdy table.

• Stand back a little bit away from it
• and just walk your hands out along the table
• coming down with those hips
• but don't drop them too far down.
• So just while you're in a straight line and then walk yourself all the way back and try again. So core is on, belly button's pulled in.

This might be before you get down to the floor and start crawling. This might be the way that you start.

Crawl #1: Basic (Baby)

Now I know this won't work for some of you with not good knees, but it's simply where we crawl.

• We can crawl forward, we can crawl back, we can crawl sideways and we can crawl diagonally

Now this crawl is one that I've often done with clients who didn't crawl as a baby because they never got that cross body coordination as a tiny baby.

And they have spent their whole life uncoordinated. So they needed to play sport at school. They were never picked in the sports teams and maybe they are training with a personal trainer and they just don't connect their head with their body.

Getting them to crawl again can be a really great way to connect things in. So that can be a really good one to start with.

Crawl #2: Bear

Again, if you're having discomfort with your wrists, use to tools Coach Sheree suggested earlier.

• So we're simply going to take those toes under, our hands stacked under our shoulders for a start
• Our knees come up off the floor
• and we're going to take a hand and a foot
• hand and a foot and that bottom is off the floor.

• So we're not trying to be right up in the air, staying a little bit low, we can go back as well.
• VARIATIONS: From there, we can go to the side and go into the side.
• We can even take this with our legs going around in a 360° circle
• If we come to the side, we can actually cross our hands. That changes the dynamics a bit more, but otherwise just calling to the side, calling to the side, calling around, calling around 

And it certainly gives you a good workout.

Crawl #3: Reptilian

So the next type of call that we're going to do is a lot harder.

• We're staying as low to the floor as we can with this one. May as well start in a plank position. So we're going to stay low to the floor
• Not going to drop those hip
• And not going to have our bum way up in there.

• Low to the floor. And from here, we're just going to start to make our way along the floor
• Now, when you get a little way along, you can be coming back, but just trying to stay nice and low to the floor.
• VARIATIONS: And then you can be going sideways with that as well. Really, really tortures that core

What you need to avoid doing, and I'll show you from the front because it might be a bit easier for you to see

• Is I'm staying low, but try not to get those hips going right over like this, side to side, because then we overwork the prime movers and we can't maintain good core integrity with that.
• So you're trying to stay low, but just going to just keep yourself really straight. So those hips stay nice low to the floor, but we're just not going to take ourselves swaying too much side to side.
  

Crawl #4: Crab

So our next crawl is just one where we start on our bottom, our hands kind of out to the back, and we're simply going to lift up from here.

• Now from here, we can be crawling forward, we can be crawling back. It's the same sort of thing. We have a hand and a leg, and then as we come back, a hand and a leg and hand a leg.
• So same sort of thing, but we're just trying to stay with our hips up. If your hips can't stay up, you can drop them down a bit, but you just don't want your bottom on the floor. Now, again, from here, we can go sideways.
• We can go sideways. So whichever way you want to go, certainly working my shoulders, but this is quite a bit of wrist working out as well. So you can decide which way you want to go there, take it back and forth, just maintaining integrity.

As soon as you start to feel grabbing pain anywhere, it might be your shoulders with this one, come down, have a rest, but certainly a good one to be able to work your way along.

And now, join me now for a short workout, doing all the crawls. I'm going to be rolling these crawls in a few different ways and having a bit of fun with it.

Workout: 5-Minute Repeatable Routine

Enjoy this crawling strengthening workout, that Coach Sheree has put together, to compliment this Why Crawling Still Matters Beyond 50: Plus Workout, post.

For a WARM-UP do some on the spot marching, with arms moving/swinging for 2-3 minutes before you start the workout. The warn-up intent is to simply get the blood flowing across your body and muscles.

This crawling strengthening workout has been designed for those who struggle with everyday crawling movements, and know they need to gain the strength and mobility to the gain freedom, independence and safety they desire.

Final Thoughts

Well done. I don't know about you, but I just worked it really hard then.

So I hope you enjoy that workout and remembering that if your wrists aren't great with the extension, you can use some dumbbells or some handholds. So let me know how you go and I'll see you next time.