Martial Conditioning: Crawling

Intro: While the bridge can work the entire posterior chain through a mere static hold, the leverages of the body demand more difficult tactics to work the anterior chain.  Otherwise, simply holding downward dog would be sufficient anterior training to guarantee martial strength.  One of the best drills for anterior activation is crawling.  This movement conditions just about every muscle in the body while developing many athletic skills at once.

Muscles Worked: All of them.  All joints of the body are used simultaneously with the core stabilizing throughout.  The wrists, forearms, shoulders, back, abs, chest, entire arm, entire leg, hips, and even the feet and ankles all increase in strength and flexibility.

Why Crawl?: Crawling is one of the most fundamental human movements.  As a result, all of us are primed to crawl and the crawl constitutes a building block of all other movements.  Crawling contralaterally (alternating left leg/right arm and right leg/left arm) improves neural strength and endurance as well as coordination and balance.  Myofascial release can occur due to a rebalancing of muscle groups and the reclamation of functional movement patterns.  Joint injury becomes less likely due to the unpredictable, repetitive pressures encountered during crawling.  This competency at absorbing irregular shock is known as reflexive stability.  The lack of an eccentric movement means that crawling will not result in excess soreness and will not interfere with any existing routine.  Wrestlers and other specialists in ground game can develop sport specific movement skills with little more than crawling as a strength and endurance base.  Indeed, learning to crawl as easily as walking can exponentially increase one's wrestling endurance.  Those who find direct core work boring can maintain and increase midsection stability through daily practice of crawling progressions alone.  Those who wish to maintain or build upper body muscle tone will find crawling thickens up the arms, shoulders, chest, and back just as well as a daily regimen of basic calisthenics with the added advantages already listed.  Finally, crawling is an exercise in humility and is therefore well suited to a 'covered fist' approach to the martial arts.  Few would be tempted to brag about how far they crawl per day or how weak they feel when they get done.  Consequently, crawling can develop great power without corresponding hubris.  The human body, being descendant from quadrupedal relatives, contains many vestigial structural imbalances due to incomplete optimization of the human frame for bipedal motion.  Crawling develops and maintains patterns of muscle mass that can prevent structural imbalances and weaknesses caused by bipedal patterns of muscle atrophy.

Progressions: The Soldier Crawl: This initial variant is the first form of locomotion we all learn.  It consists of contralaterally (left arm/right leg, right arm/left leg) moving oneself over the ground with opposing elbows and knees.

The Knee Crawl: By extending the contralateral crawl to the hands and knees, the strength demands are increased.

The Bear Crawl: This method consists of crawling contralaterally in the downward dog position on the hands and feet.

The Leopard Crawl: Again, on the hands and feet, this method involves flattening the back and bringing the knees forward between the elbows.  The legs are bent and the arms are kept straight.

The Tiger Crawl: Exactly the same as the leopard crawl, except the knees are brought outside the elbows.  The legs are bent, the arms are slightly bent.

The Alligator Crawl/Spiderman Crawl: This final progression of crawling consists of remaining in a low plank, or the bottom of a pushup and crawling contralaterally.

In all variations, the greatest benefits are derived from crawling as quietly and quickly as possible for approximately 100 yards, and never to failure.

One modification of the crawl involves crawling isolaterally, or with the same side arm and leg propelling the body.  This variant is not recommended due to its inferior coordination, balance, and midsection strengthening benefits.  To advance the crawling progressions more beneficially, crawl backwards, sideways, uphill, and downhill. 

Likely Results of Crawling:
The results of crawling greatly depend on the physical build of the trainee.  Larger trainees will become bear like.  Smaller trainees will become cat/monkey like.  One's habits of movement will influence which traits one acquires.  As such, crawling is in close accord with animal metaphors of martial development.