The Ultimate Crawl

Categories: Uncategorized Jan 08, 2014

The Ultimate Crawl

It is no secret, I'm a "crawler." I think crawling is not only a tremendous reset, but it is also a tremendous strength builder. I believe this because I have experienced it. I know the strength yielding benefits of crawling. I have crawled a mile or two in my day. Literally.

There is one type of crawl, however, that I think deserves extra attention when it comes to crawling for strength: The Uphill Backwards Spider-man Crawl, The UBSC. The UBSC is probably the most challenging crawl a person can engage in for the purpose of strength training. It is not only challenging in a physical sense, but also in a mental sense.

When you are crawling backwards, uphill, your body starts to cry out for you to stop.

Why?

Because it is hard.

In fact, it is so hard, it never gets easier. You just get stronger. What I mean is that I have been performing this crawl for about three years, and it always feels the same. It is always hard. It is always a challenge.

The UBSC is the ultimate crawl. If crawling glues you together, and it does, then the UBSC is the "super glue" of crawling. If you try this, you will discover your lats and obliques muscles, perhaps for the first time. You will start to understand how crawling ties you together. If you try this more than once, you will also discover that you are strong, really strong. The UBSC will give you superhuman strength (the Strength of superheroes) and it will make capable.

Capable of what?

Whatever it is you want to do!

If you are curious, and you want to give it a try, this video will show you what it looks like:

https://youtu.be/KF5cxq_fR4g

If you have access to a hill, you have to try this crawl. If you are not strong enough in the beginning to spider-man crawl backwards up a hill, work on spider-man crawling down a hill. This alone, is a great way to build strength. And it is quite surprising how demanding a downhill grade can make spider-man crawling. Once you get a little stronger, try baby crawling backwards up the hill, like Dani did in the video. As your strength increases, you will be able to spider-man crawl up the hill backwards. Treat it like strength training. When you need to rest, you rest.

Give this a crawl a shot for a few weeks. You will discover your superhuman strength.


If you would like to know more about crawling and how to use it to develop superhuman strength and how you can unlock the superhero inside of you, check out our book Original Strength Performance, or come to one of our workshops near you.

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