Come Crawling Back for More!

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This entire week I’ve been playing with cross crawl and crawling exercises my private clients, from age 25-75, and have seen rapid improvement in balance, coordination, rhythm, flow, strength, and endurance. (Learn more about the benefits of crawling in my last article) The best part is that there is something incredibly joyful about these natural movements. No matter how challenging the variation, every client was smiling and/or giggling through out (bonus abdominal work!). As promised in my previous article, below are images and descriptions of two of my favorite YTU exercises for you to start playing with cross-crawl patterns and crawling.

Frog Crawls:
Sara Frog Crawl 2You will need a blanket and a hard surface floor.
Begin face down with your inner knees on a generously folded blanket (just the ends, for extra padding). Prop yourself up on your forearms with your hips, knees, and ankles at a 90 degree angle. Your spine is straight, and your tubular core is activated to maintain spinal stability. Crawl (opposite arm and leg), propelling yourself from the strength of your glutes and deep hip flexors, as you pull with your arm. Continue crawling forward, always maintaining the cross crawl pattern (opposite leg and arm crawling forward).
This is an excellent strengthener for the obliques, transverse abdominus, lats, serratus, glutes, psoas, and more!

Bicycle:
Sara Bicycle 2Begin lying on your back with your hands interlaced underneath your head, and your legs at tabletop.
Inhale and curl your entire body into a flexed shape, pulling your elbows and knees together like a cannonball. Exhale and twist the left elbow towards the right knee, as you straighten the left and hover it above the mat.
Inhale to pull back to your cannonball shape, and then exhale to twist towards the left, as you straighten your right leg.
Continue to alternate sides.

 

Hopefully both of these exercises will help to strengthen the cross-crawl pattern in all of your movement exercises. Happy crawling!

 

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