Duration exercise

Bear Crawl form, muscles worked, and workout tracking

The bear crawl is a quadrupedal locomotion drill performed on hands and toes with the knees hovering just above the floor, working the core, shoulders, quads, and hip flexors while demanding contralateral coordination. Coaches program it for timed conditioning intervals, warm-ups, and trunk stability work because it trains the core to stay rigid while the limbs move, a quality that transfers to nearly all athletic movement.

Bear Crawl illustration

How to do Bear Crawl

  1. 1Start on all fours with hands under shoulders and knees under hips, then lift your knees an inch or two off the floor onto your toes.
  2. 2Brace your core and keep your back flat, as if balancing a glass of water between your shoulder blades.
  3. 3Crawl forward by moving your opposite hand and foot together in small, quiet steps.
  4. 4Keep your hips low and level; do not let them sway side to side or pike toward the ceiling.
  5. 5Breathe steadily throughout the interval and maintain a smooth, controlled pace for the prescribed time, crawling backward or turning as space requires.

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Track Bear Crawl in Plates

Save this movement to a workout template, log sets and rest periods, and keep your training history in one focused gym tracker.