You can do this outside (if you don’t mind people staring) or inside the privacy of your home. It seems like a simple exercise, but it’s far from easy. It’s crawling. But unlike babies, you work hard to keep your body on the floor. You never lift your butt in the air to make the crawl easier.
You may have noticed that you make a kind of ‘X’ pattern when you walk. As your right foot moves forward, so does your left arm. Take a step with your left foot, and your right arm moves forward. This is the same pattern you want to make as you crawl. Reach forward with one arm, and put the knee forward on the other leg. You’ll have to train yourself to do this without lifting any part of your body up off the surface.
Picture what happens to your joints and muscle tendons as you do a flat crawl this way. You reach forward into a stretch with your arms. You bring one knee up and press down on it to move your body forward even more, stretching the ligaments and tendons of your lower body. Those white tissues become more flexible as they are stretched, improving your athletic range of motion. The ligaments holding the joints together become stronger. Because you’re doing this in a flat ‘X’ position, you are also putting physical coordination into your muscle memory. In any athletic activity, you’ll be able to reach or leap further because of your crawling training.
You should feel the movement in the muscles of your core. Flat crawling can only be accomplished by using the obliques on each side of your body; the abs, spinal erectors, and the muscles of your chest and back, all of which are part of your core.
Next, work on crawling faster. Start by creating a ‘path’ through your home. Time how long it takes to crawl the full distance of that path. To go faster, you’ll need a quality that makes everyone a better athlete — intensity. Intensity is really just a stronger form of concentration, but it’s a quality that will help you in any sport you play. You can actually see intensity grow in the eyes of elite athletes as they get close to the finish line. Track athletes at the Olympics show it very clearly.
If you’re crawling with intensity, no other thought should enter your mind except what you’re doing — moving one arm, moving the opposite leg. Stretch out as far as you can with each part of the movement. Concentrate on moving further, and faster, each time. Compare your speed to see if you’re continuing to improve your time.
At first, you may not see a difference in your overall athletic ability. But soon you’ll notice changes. You’ll have more power when you throw a ball. You’ll be able to bike up a hill with a harder push on the pedals. No matter what your sport, you’ll have more physical coordination and be a much better athlete than you were before you started crawling.
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Wina Sturgeon is the editor of the online magazine Adventure Sports Weekly
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