How Crawling Heals the Body

The first time I crawled as an adult was about 10 years ago.

I followed these guys on YouTube called Dark Side Strength. Their approach was improving strength training from a movement prehab method.

They used a lot of quadruped positions for better neutral spine and joint function. In one video, they talked about... crawling.

At this time in my life, I was pretty broken.

Pain in my hips, lower back, and patellar tendinitis in both knees.

Yet I was still trying to squat and deadlift heavier and heavier weights.... *sigh*

I felt weird getting on the ground and crawling for the first time.

"Shouldn't I have a weight on my back at least?"

But immediately something felt.... 

Right.

I started using it as a warmup for every lifting session and spent more and more time with my hands on the ground.

Eventually, I started researching more about crawling.

I came across Tim Anderson's book "Original Strength" where he teaches the use of developmental movements (crawling, rocking, rolling over) to bring our bodies back into balance and alignment as adults.

Literally mimicking the steps babies go through in their own development.

The more I played with these movements, the better my body felt.

I was slowly losing the urge to lift heavy weights and I was gaining an appreciation of moving like a functional human.

At this point, I was sold on using ground movements to feel pain-free and to move better.

But I was also a 25-year old dude who wanted to train and push myself.... not just rock my hips back and forth on the ground :)

This led me to discover people like GMB Fitness, Ido Portal, Vahva Fitness, and gymnastic training methods (amongst others).

In the course of a year, my body went from broken down always needing to foam roll and stretch to....

Pain-Free.

Now, I was free to push myself into skills like handstands and calisthenics, advanced animal movements, and even light acrobatics.

10 years later and I've explored the bodyweight movement culture in and out.

But the thing I believe most in is the basic crawl.

No matter if you're into... Kettlebells, Calisthenics, Barbells, Steel Mace, Bodybuilding, Climbing, Dancing... Crawling has a place in your practice.

Crawling honors our evolutionary past and seems to train our natural human movement better than anything else.

And with such a big epidemic of inactivity and pain in our modern culture...

It can HEAL your body.

That's my opinion anyways... and if you want to hear my thoughts on HOW it heals your body...

You can see more here ⬇️

This video is special to me. I appreciate you all who give it a watch 🙏

Josh