Bodyweight training can (and probably should) be the foundation of any home workout.
No matter where you go, what equipment is or isn’t available, bodyweight based exercise is a card that can be ALWAYS be played.
There many ways to design and organize a bodyweight workout.
Varying the tempo, joint range of motion, training on one leg, changing levels, balancing, transitions between exercises are all ways to keep bodyweight training fresh and effective.
Today’s workout is non-traditional, imagine that.
If Yoga, locomotion, and calisthenics got together, partied and made a baby, this flow would be the result.
Flow training is like a more dynamic form of Yoga.
I find myself sharing a lot of slow-tempo movements and flow sequences on YouTube and Instagram.
Subconsciously, it might be a knee-jerk reaction to counterbalance all of the high-intensity training videos out there.
Removing momentum from movements can reveal strengths and weaknesses with regard to what positions and motions you own versus what you don’t.
Here’s the bodyweight flow:
This flow is designed to be mirrored on the right and left side and can be performed as a warm-up or as the workout itself. Changing legs on the single-leg squat will keep you alternating sides.
If you choose to use it as a workout, set a timer and keep working for the duration non-stop.
Aim for 20 minutes. If you get 20 minutes, go to 25 minutes, 30 minutes, etc.
You’ll be exhausted (in a positive way) moving like this for long periods, and it might be an eye-opening shift away from high-intensity training.
Muscles will fatigue and heart rate will elevate, even though you’re moving slow and steady.
This flow is low-impact on the joints but does require a decent amount of joint mobility.
Focus on momentum free movement.
Especially with the modified hip CARs (controlled articular rotations). Do your best to ONLY articulate the hip joint without changing posture to do so. Obviously, in the video, I’m moving elsewhere but the goal is to keep the movement at the hip.
CARs are incredible for joint health, especially the hips which are supposed super mobile, but oftentimes aren’t.
Most people lack mobility at key joints like the hip, which forces other joints to try and pick up the slack, but so commonly ends up creating greater issues (aches, pains, injury).
MyDailyMobility.com is a really good follow along resource to keep up with daily mobility work. The guys upload new workouts all the time. Last time I checked they had 5 months’ worth of workouts for customers.
Similar to resistance training (muscle) and cardio (endurance), mobility must be practiced consistently for maintenance and improvement.
Use it or lose it.
[You can see me lose balance returning to the single-leg stance. I could have reshot the video and uploaded a perfect rep, but I decided to keep the original because this flow will test your balance.]
After the single-leg deadlift (Warrior 3 to the Yoga peeps) descending to the floor gracefully is the next order of business. While this flow is controlled, learning how to fall is a skill people could really benefit from, especially older folks.
Lowering down to the floor stress your pushing muscles and core. You’re basically hitting the brakes on the way down, and stepping on the gas to stand back up.
Lastly, expect the final move to make you cramp at the hips. It’s aggressive. Squat down, lift the hovering leg as high as possible and REACH.
Find the floor, transition through the middle and get deep into the Cossack squat.
Flow completed.
Stand up and start over.
Movement sequences like this are perfect for a home workout.
No equipment is needed, it’s just bodyweight, balance, expressing strength and mobility while flowing into and out of various body positions.
🤔 Want to make this flow harder? Add a weight vest,slow down the tempo ever more or speed up the tempo and move quicker.
👉 Make sure to check out more M(EAUX)TION fitness content on Instagram and YouTube.
Warm-ups are an INCREDIBLE 15-20 minutes to make mobility gains, nourish joints, rep out isolated movements/activation drills, playfully engage in movement sequence or explore other movements that peak one’s curiosity.
I used to dread warming up before workouts, as most people probably do.
Warming up seemed like a barrier to the productive section of the workout.
A period of time where I’d swing my arms around a little bit, bounce on your toes, a few neck rolls, get my hype playlist dialed in and throw a few shadow punches.
This used to be me.
I’d drudge through a smattering of hand-selected, mindless dynamic stretches, mini band walks to “wake up” the glutes, and finish strong by mobilizing the ankles and T-Spine.
I elevated my heart rate, initiated a sweat and feel focused, so the warm-up boxes must all have checkmarks ✅, right?
In my mind, the answer to that question was, “Boxes check, good to go. Moving on to the sexy part of the workout. Exertion.”
Re-Establish the Purpose of the Warm-Up
People generally think of warm-ups as a stimulus to awaken and prime the body for more aggressive exercise, be it resistance training or cardio conditioning.
This isn’t the wrong way to view things by any means. Elevating the heart rate and increased body temperature is still important.
But the warm-up can serve as a vehicle to make incremental (valuable) gains in other areas. Mobility, movement transitions, balance, coordination, etc.
The problem, rather a common perception, is that investing time in a progressive warm-up seems like a waste of time.
No muscle pump? It must be a waste of time.
Lungs not burning? Surely time is being wasted.
“Let’s get this over boring-ass sh*t over with so I can start making my gaaaiiinnnzzzz”.
For clarification, “Gainz” generally describes the usuals for most people:
Fat loss
Muscle or strength gain
Losing weight
General fitness improvement
Big bouncing pecs, softball-sized biceps, and curvy butts, etc.
I think we can do better with our pre-workout warm-up routines.
We can do this by integrating joint mobility training, moving limbs through disadvantaged or strict patterns of motion, movement exploration/play, flow sequencing, transitions, etc.
Today, it’s really hard to see where my warm-up stops and the workout begins.
The days of twirling arm and leg swings are long gone. I’ve traded them for slow and controlled mobility drills, where I attempt to express the true joint range of motion I have ownership over, and fighting to earn and expand that gradually.
Rather than flailing my arms around in circles for 10 reps and calling it good, I’ll crush a tennis ball and draw the largest possible circle with my fist (from front to back) doing my best to stay avoid moving body parts to draw that circle.
These mobility drills involve articulating joints through a maximum controlled range motion. It’s simple, but not easy. Each repetition is painfully slow. You can find a lot of these drills on my YouTube page.
A while back, I uploaded a YouTube video demonstrating 14 different warm-up exercises to prepare the entire body for a workout.
Here is the video…
Exercise order:
1.Shoulder CARs
2.Spine CARs
3.Hip CARs
4.Dowel Assisted Sissy Squats
5.90/90 Series (transfers, lift offs, hovers, etc)
6.Prone Swimmers Hovers
7.Bodyweight Squats
8.Bodyweight Lunges
9.Bodyweight Push-Ups
10.Side Kick Throughs
11.Crab Reach
12.Back Bridge
13.Scorpion Reach
14.Cossack Squat w/ Horse Stance Pause
Take notice of all of the joint articulations, slow tempo movement of arms and legs through challenging patterns, bodyweight exercises and movement combinations.
It’s all there.
Basic joint mobility work, ground-based conditioning, and exploratory movement training can really have a significant impact on your movement capacity, joint health, and performance.
In time, movements that once plagued you or simply felt impossible, begin to feel very achievable. Joints feel buttery. Your body is changing. Adapting to the stimulus.
If you’re training 4-5 days per week, sectioning off 15-20 minutes to warm up with a few of the exercises featured in the video can add 60+ minutes of unique training to your regularly scheduled workout regimen.
This adds up.
Daily, the full-body approach to warming up is my personal preference. Even if the day’s workout is mostly upper body, I still deliver a stimulus to the hips, knees and ankle joints.
Conducting total body maintenance has made my body feel better at 35 years old then I did when I was supposedly at my “peak physical condition” in college.
Nothing against people who opt for upper and lower body splits, but I prefer a daily micro-dose of joint articulations and full range movement.
Find what works best for you.
It might not be what works best for me… and that is ok.
How long should a warm-up be?
Working through 14 exercises generally takes 15-20 minutes, depending on reps and tempo per exercise.
Should it always take 15-20 minutes?
No. Starting out, expect it to take longer because you won’t know what the hell you’re doing.
Time will decrease as you become more familiar and waste less time setting up.
All this being said, the more volume with most of these exercises, the merrier.
How many reps per exercise?
In the video, I demonstrate 2-3 reps per exercise.
I reduced the reps to keep the video moving along and lower the boredom factor. Plus, uploading a 20+ minute video to YouTube can be full of problems.
Increase the reps to 8-10 per side for each exercise.
Progress through all 14 exercises, one after the other, non-stop until the end.
Of course, pause and rest as needed, but don’t waste too much time.
Keep the show moving.
Reminder…
This warm-up shows 14 different exercises.
Only 14. There’s a mountain of other effective warm-up exercises not shown in this video.
I simply wanted to share an example of a total body warm-up routine.
There are many other incredible mobility drills, activations, locomotion exercises and ground-based movements not included in the video.
A total body warm-up can be organized a thousand different ways.
Should all warm-ups look like this?
They don’t have to.
Some days my pre-workout build-up consists of jumping rope for a few minutes paired up with crawling. Other days I’m in the mood for ground flow, swinging kettlebells, rolling around on the floor, wall assisted handstands, etc.
I like to mix it up.
It doesn’t always follow this 14 exercise recipe.
On days where I am engaging in a long slow cardio session, I’ll climb on my air bike and ride. No warm-up at all.
The message of this post is to audit your current warm-up routine and observe if you’re breezing through a below-average pre-workout warm routine.
Are you undervaluing warm-up time? Is there room for improvement?
I’d bet there is.
I used to overlook my warm-ups, and I’d guess a lot are doing the same.
Time is a valuable commodity and goal achievement is important.
Warming up with greater purpose can help to accelerate the time it takes to reach physical goals, keep your body feeling good and leverage your time in the gym.
The lizard crawl is a total body locomotion pattern, made popular by Ido Portal.
As great as lizard crawl exercise (bodyweight only) is, there are simple ways to make it harder if you’re interested, and that’s what this post is about.
Crawling exercises can be progressed similarly to a squat, deadlift, bench press or any other traditional resistance exercise.
The key is increasing the challenge somewhere, somehow. Make it harder.
Progressive overload (adding weight) is a key strategy to continue building fitness, especially strength. It keeps you in progress mode.
Exposing the body to progressively greater demands (movement complexity, load, etc) is a pathway to build strength and mitigate injury.
Weak bodies seem to be at a higher risk for injury.
If a given stress overloads tissues beyond their capacity, injury often results.
This is an over-detailed article about my experience adding weight to the infamous lizard crawl, the “king” of locomotion training.
Progressive Overload
Know your options.
Conventional methods of progression include:
Add resistance
Add repetitions
Increase training frequency
Increase volume (sets x reps x resistance)
Decrease rest periods
Halts in progress require a quick audit and a few simple decisions.
Training the same movements with the same weight, time under tension, reps/sets, etc… will yield the exact same results.
And if this seems like common sense, please considered common sense is not always so common.
Adding more weight to a lift, movement or locomotion pattern is not ALWAYS the answer, but more often than not, it is a solid solution to many of the problems people encounter in their training.
Don’t be afraid to increase the load, incrementally and intelligently.
As highlighted in the title of this blog post, I chose to add weight to the lizard crawl as the mechanism of progressive overload.
From sloppy to strong…
When I finally decided to attack the lizard crawl pattern, adding weight was the last thing on my mind.
Early on, even simple crawling patterns exposed my sloppy technique, lack of endurance and heavy-handed/footedness.
Crawling short distances (15-20 yards) wore me out quick. It was humbling. I felt weak. My story is similar to others I’ve heard and read about across the internet. A strong guy in traditional lifts who could not move well on the ground without weight.
Strict crawling drills crushed me. Moving naturally with detailed precision is HARD.
I experienced a pretty dramatic change in movement quality by practicing basic crawling patterns like Beast Crawls (forward, back, and lateral) and Bear Walks.
I’d section off 10-15 minutes of EACH workout for crawling practice, and I still do to this day.
Gains with the basic locomotion patterns evolved into disadvantaged crawling in low positions.
With near daily practice, I became extremely efficient with lizard crawling. My body acclimated and now understands the demands. Adaptation is a beautiful thing. If you want something in the gym, attack the shit out of it. Be relentless.
Crawling distances increased, tempo and pattern variations were added along with introducing crawling backward.
I reached a point where adding more volume became a time suck and borderline ineffective.
Lizard crawling requires a low-to-the-floor body position, aggressive joint angles and a constant on/off body tension from head to toe. The upper body and core demands are intense. Plus, it’s easy to get twisted up with hand and foot placement.
The lizard crawl pattern connects traditional strength work with movements that exist in between. The transitions, gracefulness, soft interactions with the floor, twisting, turning, propelling the body from point A to point B.
The Weighted Lizard Crawl
I have to believe people have added weight this pattern before the writing of this blog post. If not, I am a visionary
Regardless, I was humbled by this movement progression.
I added a 40lb weight vest and a pair of 10lb ankle weights around each leg. A simple weight vest is a very natural tactic to add weight to movements while keeping the hands free.
The weight vest loaded the upper body/torso, while the ankle weights challenged the lower body. Adding the ankle weights is a simple way to load the articulating motion of the hips.
This articulating motion is similar to hip CARs, but a bit less isolated and strict.
When weight increased with any exercise, generally reps/sets, duration, time under tension need some relief. Usually, it’s just for a short time to give the body an opportunity to execute quality work, avoid unnecessary training injuries and adapt to the stress.
Keeping all training variables the same would be too aggressive and unmanageable.
Factoring this in, once I added the weight, I immediately decreased the distance of the crawl and increased rest periods.
Previously, my average bodyweight lizard crawl distance was around 40 yards, broken up into a 10-yard crawl forward/10 yard crawl backward (twice down and back).
For the weighted lizard crawl, I more than cut that distance in half, crawling roughly 10 yards (5 yards forward and backward). On this day, I worked a total of 6 sets. It was enough to leave soreness in the days afterward.
I’d recommend anywhere from 5-8 sets of 10-15 yards of a technique-driven lizard crawling.
As I mentioned before, adding load commonly means taking longer rest periods in between efforts.I wasn’t super detailed on the rest periods, but they were long enough to feel damn fresh.
There is absolutely no need to rush this. Do it right, or don’t do it at all.
There are plenty of weight vest brands to choose from, but MIR is a trusted name and I couldn’t be happier with my MIR weight vest. It’s durable and the short version is awesome.
Arguably, ankle weights are, well, ankle weights.
Although I did get a nice product referral for the Valeo ankle weights from a great trainer in Philadelphia. My only advice here is to size up and buy heavier than you’d think. Also, buy a set that has adjustability (ability to remove the weights). You can always lighten them up if needed, but it’s nice to have heavy ankle weights if needed.
So, I added weight, should you?
The crappy (but honest) answer is, maybe or maybe not. It depends on your experience and goals.
Have you played around with increasing distance and tempo using bodyweight only?
If not, start there.
Initially, leverage basic lizard crawl variations. Gradually add distance and play around with tempo.
Practice lizard crawl press ups, modified range of motion crawls. Place emphasis on body position, technique, timing, and mechanics.
Aim for efficiency.
People like to knock efficiency in training, but the fact is being inefficient at everything wastes precious energy.At some point, you want the work being performed to feel natural.
When it’s natural and fully integrated into your body, it’s useable in the real world.
Adding load to the lizard crawl, in my opinion, increases the challenge exponentially. Far beyond anything I’d experienced before.
Once you’ve added weight, expect the silky smooth crawling technique disappear.
You’re fully engaged in a hybrid variation of resistance training now. Ha.
Muscles and joints will need some time to fully understand the stimulus and adapt to it.
Just getting started with crawling?
If you’ve not yet added crawling exercises (even the basics) to your workouts, you must. Just try it. There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain. Don’t make the mistake of marrying any particular tool or method. Explore everything and integrate what’s useful.
I talk about crawling patterns often.Progressive crawling is excellent for building natural movement strength, endurance, and skill.If you’re an avid lifter, add 5-10 minutes of crawling to your warm up.
Unsure where to start with crawling?
Vahva Fitness and my YouTube channel are great resources to get exposure to crawling. Anyone interested in ground-based movement training of any kind is referred to Movement20XX.
My YouTube channelis LOADED with videos. There’s plenty to watch, not a ton of boring commentary and I am always available for questions and conversation. Simply enter the “crawling” into the search bar.
Closing Thoughts…
The purpose of this article is to introduce people to one simple strategy of increasing the difficulty of the lizard crawl.
Start with bodyweight based lizard crawl variations.
Don’t be a dumbass.
Earn tougher movement progressions by practicing the basics.
I referenced several good resources above, make sure you check those out.
Lastly, leave a note on your experience, I love hearing from people.
Natural movement flow is a key training element missing from most people’s fitness regimens.
Including movement combinations, ground-based exercises and sequences bridge the gap between linear resistance training and natural movement.
Practicing exercises in isolation essential for developing performance.
What is isolation?
Deadlifts, front squats, push-ups and pulling without the addition of any add-on exercises, using a work-then-rest format, is isolation.
You’re isolating an exercise and performing it for a set number of sets, reps and rest.
In a separate blog post, I dove deeper into Ido Portal’s general training template, which included an overview of his methods following this approach:
Isolation 👉 Integration 👉 Improvisation
Walk into any gym, and you’re likely going to see people exercising in isolation.
Perform a set of deadlifts, rest, check Instagram, a sip of water, then back to the next set of deadlifts.
This is the isolation phase of movement training.
Movement Flow
If you’re looking to add a fresh challenge to your workouts, combining exercises together to create movement flow sequences is a great way to do that.
Several years ago, I started mixing and matching traditional movement patterns and non-traditional exercises together to create 2 or 3 exercise flow sequences.
Here’s an example:
Gym workouts and real-world movement can be very different experiences.
While I value pursuing a mechanically perfect squat, do I ever stop to align my feet before squatting in a real-world scenario?
NEVER.
The modified squat I’m using in a real-world situation is often combined with 1 or 2 other movements.
Squat down, lunge up, twist and carry.
It’s rarely every just a perfect bodyweight squat in the real-world.
One goal of controlled environment training (aka gym workouts) is maximum transferability.
We lift and conditioning with the idea that it will enhance the physical moments (daily tasks, sports, and recreation, health, etc) help us improve the functionality of our body.
Yet, natural bodyweight movement is completely absent from most workout templates.
Crawling, climbing, rolling, navigating changing levels (laying to standing, fall training, etc), rotation or fusing exercises together in a pre-planned movement sequence or improvised movement work where you don’t know what’s coming next.
Practicing how to transition efficiently and effectively between two different body positions or patterns just makes sense to me.
Benefits of Movement Flow Training
👉 Improve movement IQ (confidence, dissipating fear of unexplored positions and tasks).
👉 Coordination and skill-building.
👉 Improving spatial awareness and how to transition between movements.
👉 Strength at more angles and positions.
👉 Injury mitigation via conditioning tissues to handle stress.
👉 Improve mind-body connection
👉 Control over one’s bodyweight.
👉 Fun, refreshing, never boring.
Movement flow is very challenging for the mind, which to me, is one of the greatest benefits of flow work.
While you’re learning a flow, you really have to think it through to execute it properly and avoid getting twisted up, trips and falls.
“Ok, so my hand goes here, foot over the top, create tension, then relax, drop down, etc…”
The elevated thinking involved with a lot of ground-based movements is a major benefit.
Plus, introducing flow training is refreshing and fun.
Hours in the gym working the same exercises, chasing the numbers (weight increases, more reps, more sets, faster finishing times) can get quite bland.
Remaining excited every to move every single day is best for the long-term.
5 Bodyweight Movement Combinations
#1Parallette Bar Pass Through to L-Sit
Parallette Bars are inexpensive to buy and easy to build from PVC pipes.
Start in a push-up position, passing the legs through the middle of the parallettes right into an L-Sit.
If an L-Sit is too aggressive, transition into a tuck position instead.
Hold the L-Sit for a 2-3 second count, then reverse the motion back to the start position.
Perform 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps.
No parallettes?
Chairs, stools or yoga blocks a good equipment substitutes.
#2High Bridge Rotation to Lizard Crawl
A reasonable looking back bridge used to be impossible for me. My body was stiff as a board and incapable of arching through the spine. My shoulders lacked mobility, etc.
Using dedicated joint mobility drills really accelerated the process, expanding the positions I was able to get into and out of, but bulletproofing my joints as well.
MyDailyMobility is my recommendation for mobility conditioning.
Today, I practice some variation of back bridging in nearly every workout, either as maintenance or to make progress.
High Bridge Rotations require an adequate amount of spinal extension, shoulder mobility, stability and strength, which is why I recommend adopting a mobility program to accelerate the process.
From an exercise progress perspective, practicing basic back bridges is the starting point.
Adding in the rotation will come after.
Transitioning out of the high bridge rotation can be a dizzying experience. Refocus your vision, lower down and crawl lizard-style.
The lizard crawl is an amazing strength and conditioning exercise.
Perform a push-up, hop forward into a deep squat position, place the hands on the floor slightly behind the butt cheeks as the legs extend and LIGHTLY tap the floor with the heels.
Reverse the flow.
Keep the sprawl motion soft and graceful.
#4Lunge to Pistol Squat Flow
Lower body training is essential for health and performance.
Our legs need to be strong and well-conditioned, but also mobile and capable of expressing strength and stability throughout a large range of motion.
This combination connects two movement patterns:lunges and squats.
During the transition from front to back, do your best to avoid making contact with the floor.
This is one combination probably best executed for reps.
3-5 sets of 6-10 reps per side will work.
#5Lizard Crawl + Low Scorpion
This lizard crawl + low scorpion combination is a unique, high-value movement combination.
There’s no beginning or end with this sequence, which makes it a great bodyweight-based cardio alternative.
This flow is relatively compact, making it perfect for a small home gym or other imperfect training spaces.
Practice this sequence for repetitions or time.
I like to set a timer and go. Not having to keep track of reps allows me to focus on what my body is doing.
Time-wise, I’ve used this flow for 5+ minutes continuous and it’s a challenge every time.
MOVEMENT20XX
Fusing movements together to create flows is a great addition to traditional lifting and cardio, and is sure to bring a refreshing challenge into workouts.
If you want to learn more about movement flow training, I highly recommend checking out the MOVEMENT20XXprogram from Vahva Fitness.
MOVEMENT20XX is one of the best movement-based products I’ve come across.
Eero Westerberg did a brilliant job organizing and communicating the techniques of each exercise, how to create flows and leverage this method of training to build a high functioning body.
The Crab Reach is a great bodyweight exercise with a whole bunch of options of use before, during and after a workout.
For a simple bodyweight move, this exercise offers a lot of benefits.
Benefits of the Crab Reach
Posterior chain activation and hip extension
Active Thoracic Mobility
Anterior body stretch (hip flexors, quads, torso)
Shoulder stability/endurance emphasis in loaded shoulder
Trunk rotation
Right and Left Side
Low-impact
Combat Sitting
The Crab Reach is a great exercise to battle/off-set the negative effect of long duration sitting.
It’s not “the cure”, the only tool or the “best” tool, but it’s a good one to implement on a regular basis.
Reversing aches and pains caused by primarily long duration sitting requires dedication, discipline, and volume.There is no quick fix.
A quick hip flexor stretch, thoracic mobilization, and glute bridge are not going to cancel out 8+ hours of sitting in the same turtle-like, wound up position.
Body restoration takes time, effort, consistency and volume.Lots of repetitions, likely lots of time and an aggressive mindset.Assuming you’re doing everything right, expect improvements over time.
Most people slump like a turtle while sitting. Sitting like a slouchy turtle for 8-10 hours per day, 5 days per week isn’t good for our bodies.
We become the positions we use most.
Fill in Gaps with Movement Training
Strength and conditioning built from traditional resistance training can benefit greatly from practicing multi-planar movements like the crab reach.
Deadlifts are great. Chin-ups are great. Rows, push-ups and rotational core training are all great.
These are fundamental movements to build a strong body.
But there are movement gaps leftover from each of these exercises.
Once you’re on the floor crawling, transitioning between locomotion exercises, you find out pretty quick there’s a difference between squatting up and down with lots of weight on the bar and moving gracefully through space.
It’s humbling.
Exploring bodyweight oriented movement is a key piece of the fitness puzzle that will improve your movement IQ and create a well-functioning body.
What’s a well-functioning body?
Strong (proportionate to what a person needs to thrive in daily life), mobile, confident in many different postures/positions/patterns, conditioned, free of aches and pains.
Ground-based conditioning is a great way to backfill any gaps resistance training is not designed to address.
Free-flowing, multi-planar fitness.
Practicing postures and movement patterns less common to daily life.
Improving strength, mobility and stability in uncommon movements make everyday exercises feel easy.
Rotation
Looking at the average person’s exercise favorites, it’s usually a shortlist made up of linear resistance training and a sprinkling of cardio.
Break out of the linear matrix.
Every repetition of Crab Reach moves the body through a multi-planar, active range of motion.
Through the range of motion, the body will extend and rotate.
The twist is visible from the hip flexor, moving diagonally through the mid-section to the loaded shoulder.
How to Use Crab Reach in Workouts
Ground-based bodyweight movement is extremely versatile.
Keeping it simple, here are a few different options to integrate the crab reach into daily fitness:
In the warm-up
Filler exercise during a lifting session
As part of a flow sequence
Crab Reach can be practiced in isolation or as a combination.
I recommend practicing new movements in isolation to increase focus on technique.
Practicing an exercise in isolation is better to understand the mechanics and demands is best.
Isolating the exercise will give you the opportunity to focus on the mechanics of the movement and spatial awareness.
Warming Up with the Crab Reach
Movement flow exercises are perfect for pre-workout warm-ups.
These movements are generally dynamic, full range of motion exercises that require movement into and out unique body positions, angles and tempo.
Crab reach can serve as a valuable movement prep before exercises like deadlifts or kettlebell swings.
Crab Reach as Part of the Workout
Positioning the Crab Reach as part of a Tri-Set is a great way to isolate and practice the exercise while staying active/productive during a strength training session.
Here’s an example a simple Tri-Set:
Exercise A) Front Squats
Exercise B) Chin-Ups
Exercise C)Crab Reach
Crab Reach acts as a non-competing exercise with the front squats and chin-ups.
Focus on a slow and controlled tempo through the fullest range of motion you can make happen.
After you are feeling good about the mechanics, increase the volume.
Don’t be shy about bumping up the reps to 15-20 reps per side. Setting a timer can be a nice option.
Not interested in counting reps?
Set a timer and go. Alternating right and lefts for 2-5 minute timed sets can free’s you up from having to count reps.
Summary…
Bodyweight ground-based movements are effective for building strength, mobility, endurance, and movement IQ
Crab Reach is a versatile exercise that can be performed anywhere and anytime.
Benefits of the Crab Reach include posterior chain activation, anterior body lengthening, thoracic mobility, body awareness in space.
The Crab Reach is great to include in warm-ups, during the workout or as flow training.
The Crab Reach is an effective exercise to help mitigate aches/pains from sitting, restore function.
Want to Go Deeper? Check This Out…
Vahva Fitness has created a fully streamable bodyweight-based movement program called Movement20XX.
The movement curriculum in Movement20XX is progressive, challenging, and scalable for beginners, intermediates and all the way up to people seeking movement mastery.
Movement training is easily scaled to suit each person’s skill level.
Movement20XX is one of a small number of hand-picked online fitness programs I support.
Mixtaping different disciplines of fitness to create unique workouts is a hobby of mine lately.
Yesterday, I found myself short on time. I had roughly 20 minutes to make some workout magic happen. Assessing the previous day’s workout, I decided on two modes of exercise:
The Lizard Crawl
Rowing
The goal: total body training effect (in under 20 minutes)
Short burst workouts are a perfect solution to time-restricted days. Days where I’m tight on time, but high on motivation. “Short”… not be confused with “easy”.
Generally, shortening a workout means the intensity gets cranked up to offset the decreased volume and duration.
It involves crawling forward (or backward) in a low prone position, much lower than a traditional bear crawl. The Lizard Crawl is a total-body exercise, well worth learning and working through the progressions.
Most people will feel limited by their upper body strength when Lizard Crawling. The strength needed in this particular range of motion may need some acclimation.
That being said, there are plenty of Lizard Crawl variations to accommodate any skill level.
Here’s an example:
The Lizard Crawl, though graceful and rhythmic when performed by great movers, sucks the life out of you across even moderate distances. It’s a very complex and demanding pattern.
Rowing, on the other hand, is, well, rowing.
The rowing erg is beautiful in its simplicity, yet brutal in its ability to break a person’s soul at higher intensities. Though machine-based, rowing is one of those near total body activities that I cannot recommend enough. Rowing is primarily a posterior chain, upper body pull/lower body push action.
A quality rowing erg will cost you some cash, but across the long-term, it is well worth the investment.
Turns out, the Lizard Crawl and rowing compliment each other perfectly.
I’ve created workouts in the past using short distance Lizard Crawls and 250-meter row intervals, but never beyond that distance. The 250-meter is a fantastic distance for an all out sprint.
Today I increased the challenge a bit, bumping the row up to 500-meters.
Here’s how the workout was structured…
Lizard Crawl for 20 yards
+
500 meter Row
Repeat for 6 rounds.
Rest for 60-90 seconds in between each round.
That’s it. Two movements and roughly 18 minutes of time to work with.
Warm-up with something, anything. A jump rope or some simple dynamic movements will work fine. I do not advocate skipping warm-ups all of the time, this situation is unique, an outlier.
A cheetah doesn’t ask a Gazelle for a chance to warm-up before pursuing it for nearly a mile, it’s worth considering a human may not always have adequate time to warm-up.
Many times, doing less things, but doing those things better makes for the best workouts.
Aesthetics and performance are built incrementally, piece by piece, workout by workout.
Thoughts and Suggestions…
Find a pace on the rower a few levels below your personal best. I aimed for a 1:35 min/sec pace for the 500-meter intervals, knowing that my best 500 meter was roughly 1:27 min/sec.
Why do this? Because you will not be able to maintain a personal best pace for 500-meters across 6 rounds, with incomplete rest periods and lizard crawling before hopping on the rower. Setting a challenging pace just below your best will get the training effect you’re after and allow room for progression in the future.
After standing up out of the rower, expect your heart rate to be sky-high. 60 seconds of rest will not feel long enough, and it shouldn’t. It’s incomplete rest by design. Use every second to collect yourself before the next round. Walk around slowly, stay upright and slow your breathing.
Keep in mind, a 500-meter row is not an easy distance to row on its own. Adding pre-fatigue in the form of a Lizard Crawl will zap you.
When rest comes to an end, force yourself into the Lizard Crawl. You’ll want to rest longer in later rounds but don’t. Stay strict. When rest is over, settle your breath and start crawling immediately.
Anticipate the first few rounds of Lizard Crawling to feel great, followed by a steep drop off.
If the full Lizard Crawl is too aggressive, scale it back. Head over to my YouTube page and search “Lizard Crawl”. You’ll find a bunch of different Lizard Crawl options I’ve played around with.
The push-up is a fundamental human movement pattern effective for building athletic performance and improving aesthetics.
Calisthenic exercise solutions are HOT right now, and for good reason.
Push-ups are a premiere bodyweight-based upper body exercise capable of building useable strength, endurance and sculpting a lean physique.
It’s easy to get stuck doing the same variation of push-ups, which can make training dull and potentially lead to skipping workouts. There’s a whole world of push-up progressions and variations worth exploring.
The draw to bodyweight based training makes sense. First and foremost, bodyweight training is FREE.
Second, bodyweight training is natural movement. How? Why? It’s just you managing your own weight against gravity, which makes this form of exercise pretty damn realistic for everyday life.
Seems logical to improve one’s ability to handle their bodyweight in various positions and patterns. The ability to press oneself up from the floor (to do other things like crawl or walk, etc) helps us stay mobile and live life.
Bodyweight training can be as advanced as a person wants, or going the other direction, scaled for any beginner.
Push-ups, squats, lunges, crawling and vertical pulling exercises pull-ups/chin-ups are the foundation of before external weight ever enters the equation.
Traditional Push-Ups…
When someone says “push-ups”, a lot of people immediately picture a max set of pumping up and down. And yeah, you’re right, these are definitely push-ups, but these are just one variation done in isolation, in one body position, to nausea.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the traditional push-up, but you’re leaving out a lot of AWESOME variations if you stop exploring there.
It’s a reasonable thought that many people would find a renewed interest (and results) in controlled physical activity if they delved a bit deeper into the hundreds of different push-up variations that exist.
The traditional push-up doesn’t (and shouldn’t) be the end of the road variation-wise, which is why I’ve had some serious motivation to share exercise variations lately.
That being said, pay your dues with traditional push-ups before departing for the “sexier” variations. The basics are the fundamental pillars from which all other movement is built.
The Often Forgotten “Secret”…
There’s no special “secret” sauce in fitness, only what you know and what you don’t know.
And you don’t know what you don’t know.
If there is a “secret” to push-ups, it’s that they are often overlooked and forgotten during workout exercise selection. Our eyes drift to objects of weight or other fancy gadgets instead of down at the floor where we can assume the position and start doing work in less than 2 seconds.
It would seem that push-ups are perceived to be rudimentary, lacking effectiveness or “only for beginners”.
If you find yourself thinking about push-ups in this way, I once again encourage you to dig into this article (and future articles) to explore and try every variation I’m about to share.
I guarantee you’ll be humbled by the potency and cognitively stimulated during most of these variations.
Adding weight to a push-up is a common strategy to improve upper body strength, and indirectly, improve core strength at the same time.
But what about pushing up in odd body positions?
Having fully adopted and integrated ground-based movements from both Ido Portal and Animal Flow, I’ve been exploring different variations of pressing up from the floor at known and unknown (improvised) times throughout a workout.
This post is all about some of the push-up variations I’ve been toying around with across the last 10-12 months.
Watch the video, read the short description then give it a try.
Explore what YOU can do.
#1 Resistance Band Assisted One Arm Push-Ups
Resistance bands are a brilliant tool to make exercises like chin-ups/pull-ups, single leg squats or single arm push-ups more palatable. The band reduces the amount of weight the working arm must move during the exercise, which is often enough to make the exercise manageable.
I value eccentric-only variations, but there is so much value is being able to go through a full range of motion, with a little less weight.
#2 Lateral Push-Ups
Traditional push-ups are a great exercise and should be taken as daily medicine, but pressing up from a variety of positions will expand your body’s movement IQ. The traditional push-up is very linear and can become boring in time.
Lateral push-ups put your body in a squat position, which from the get-go is unique. The “fall-out” requires rotation of the torso and soft hand placement.
Lightly touch your nose to the floor, press back up into the start position. Performed rhythmically and for long durations, lateral push-ups will tire you out.
Aim for 6-8 reps on each side, but don’t be scared to work these for even longer sets.
#3 Stationary Low Lateral Shifts
The low lateral shift was my first personal experience with a hybrid push-up. Hybrid, in the sense that there is no upward/downward motion, yet many of the same muscles involved in push-ups are being worked.
Considering most people find themselves weakest at the bottom of a push-up, this exercise will challenge you to the maximum since you’re hovering at that depth.
Cues: Shift your body side to side without making ground contact, yet avoiding the imaginary “razor wire” above you. If you’re familiar with “Archer Push-Ups”, you’ll notice the body position is similar. The difference is you are not pressing in this low lateral shift, the tension is high and constant throughout the work set.
Aim for 3 sets of 5-8 shifts side to side.
#4 Dynamic Low Lateral Shifts
I could have tagged this exercise as “Traveling Low Lateral Shifts”, but dynamic sounded more professional and the definition of dynamic fits perfectly:
– relating to forces producing motion. Often contrasted with static.
This exercise is a stationary low lateral shift but now you’re moving across space. I would consider this an introductory exercise to Ido’s locomotion training, though still falling into the Isolation category.
Cues: Stay off the floor, but don’t rise too high.
Start slow, maybe traveling 5 yards down and back. Work up from there, as far as you can handle.
#5 Beginner Lizard Crawl Push-Ups
Lizard Crawl push-ups are a great way to practice pressing in a non-traditional body position.
The full Lizard Crawl is one of the best exercises I’ve added to my personal workouts in years.
Of all the exercises in this post, Lizard Crawl Push-Ups require the least amount of strength, which doesn’t mean they are easy peasy, but you’ll likely be able to work these for higher repetitions. Anywhere from 10-15 repetitions per arm.
*** If you want a humbling experience, I do suggest you attempt a full Lizard Crawl to gain some perspective on how difficult the movement pattern is. Normally I wouldn’t recommend this, but being a body weight crawling pattern performed 2-3 inches from the floor, I see no real danger in trying it. You’re either going to have the strength, mobility, and coordination to do make it or you’re not.
No equipment required…
With the exception of the resistance band for assistance on the one arm push-up variation, all of these exercises require no equipment.
This gives you an opportunity to test these exercises in your next workout.
If you travel frequently for work, congrats, you’ve got some new push-up variations to play around with your hotel room or the hotel gym.
Don’t procrastinate, get after it.
To learn more about Ido Portal and my interpretation of the Ido Portal Method,check out this post.
In the gym, accelerating the process of fat loss is simple.
But, like anything unfamiliar, how to go about achieving fat loss can be confusing from the outside looking in.
What exercises should I choose? How many sets/reps of each? How much weight should I use? How many days per week? How long should the workout last?
These are all great questions. If you’re asking them, you’re on the right track.
In the gym, maximum metabolic disruption is the name of the game.
In 30-45 minutes, you should be able to train nearly every muscle, priming it for fat loss and lean muscle layering.
Do more work in less time to create a global training effect.
In some cases, you may do more work in the same amount of time, which is still a form of progress.
I tricked you, I’m sorry…
In a way, I tricked you into reading this article by including “best exercises” in the title.
For that, I sincerely apologize. But to be honest, saying oneexercise is going to magically burn all the fat off your body is a complete lie.
One exercise won’t do it.
What we could say is some exercises are a much better choice for fat loss, and even going a bit further we could say the combination of several exercises in a workout session will give your body the best opportunity to eliminate unwanted fat.
Generally speaking, multi-joint compound exercises get more muscles working together are better than isolated exercises which have only one joint moving and fewer muscles.
Important thought: The best fast loss exercises are also the best exercises for almost any fitness goal.
Just as no single exercise is going to melt fat from your body, no single workout is going to burn all of the fat off your body.
A series of smart workouts will accelerate the fat loss process.
It’s all about creating a training effect.
How can workouts help with fat loss?
Burn calories at time of workout (thermic effect of exercise)
Increased calorie burn after workout (EPOC)
Build lean muscle (requires more calories to maintain itself)
Increase resting metabolic rate (60-80% of all calories are expended at rest)
How do we create a fat burning state in the gym?
There are a few time-tested methods to jumpstart the fat burning process:
Higher Intensity Interval Training (cardio conditioning)
Multi-joint Resistance Training (muscle conditioning)
Multi-Planar Ground-Based Movement (muscle and cardio)
Be inefficient.
The combination of all of the above.
High(er) Intensity Interval Training
“High” is going to vary from person to person. What may be “high” for me might be too high for you, or vice versa. Instead, I choose to refer to interval training as “high(er)”.
For the purposes of this article, let’s refer to high intensity interval training as cardio dominant activities where you exert at intensities that causes your body to go into oxygen debt during the intense work sets.
This type a training has a precise work:rest format that can be monitored by time or a heart rate monitor (beats per minute).
Rowing, biking, running are amazing activities for interval training which have a higher emphasis on cardio conditioning.
Multi-Joint Resistance Training
Resistance training with BIG movements like squats, swings, pressing and pulling increases the thermic effect of activity (calories burned during exercise) and metabolic rate. Resistance training also builds lean muscle which requires more energy to maintain and repair post-workout than fat tissue.
Multi-Planar Ground-Based Movement
At risk of sound cliché, ground-based movement is the new kid on the block. It’s a brilliant paradigm shift in how practice fitness, building movement capacity and improving strength and cardio.
Ground-based movement is a very broad description for low position drills like crawling, rolling, bounding, hand balancing, yoga, etc. Much of the modern ground-based movement training has been led by Ido Portaland Mike Fitch (creator of Animal Flow).
Inefficiency
The more inefficient you are at an exercise or series of exercises, the harder your body has to work to complete those exercises. Muscles fatigue faster and more energy (calories) is expended doing the work.
*** If you’re going to leverage inefficient exercise, make sure you have some kind of prior background experience with that exercise. Don’t jump into a set of kettlebell swings midway through a workout if you’ve never swung a kettlebell. This poses a high potential risk of injury. Not worth it.
Instead, re-visit exercises you haven’t included in your training sessions for a while. You’ll still know how to execute exercise technique, but your body will have lost it’s efficiency.
Nutrition Scolding…
[No fat loss article would be complete without giving a head nod to importance of nutrition. Creating a caloric deficit, eating mostly plants with adequate amounts of protein and hydration with low/zero calorie beverages (aka: water) is in fact the magic behind much of losing body fat.
Keeping calorie expenditure higher than calorie intake, along with choosing nutrient-dense foods and beverages that will sustain your activity level and nourish your body post-exercise is the path to fat loss.]
Progressive Overload and Baseline Fitness Testing…
Progressive Overload is a foundational principle to all movement training.
To help decide the appropriate amount of progressive overload needed for each exercise (and shape the structure of your workouts) it is important to establish a baseline of your movement capacity.
A baseline fitness test gives you information (however painful of a reality it might be) on where you are starting from, so a plan can be organized to make future progress.
A baseline fitness test can be very simple:
How many strict bodyweight push-ups, squats, lunges, chin-ups/pull-ups can you do?
How long can you hold a front plank, side plank, dead hang from a bar?
How many burpees can you do in 60 seconds?
How far can you bear crawl before stopping?
Once you’ve got a baseline, you can pinpoint not only the exercises, but sets and reps, time under tension, rounds, rest periods and duration.
Here are my picks for 10 best fat loss exercises…
Burpees (total body)
The burpee might be the single most hated exercise on this list, which why it deserves first mention. Burpees are a total body movement that combines a hip-hinge, plank, push-up, squat, and jump, all in one shot.
Burpees are a logical choice for this list because they are a bodyweight exercise, which means you can do them anywhere and anytime.
Workout challenge:How fast can you complete 100 burpees?
Animal Crawling (ground-based total body)
I’d bet a lot of fat loss articles don’t include crawling as a valid form of exercise to burn fat, but it is.
Basic crawling variations like the bear, ape and crab are examples of beginner locomotion drills that will challenge your core and upper body endurance like little else.
Ground-based bodyweight workout programs like Animal Floware built animal-based exercises, designed to reconnect your body’s natural ability to navigate movement on the floor.
Even if you’re tight on space, find a way to include crawling in your next workout. Over time, you’ll notice crawling more consistently will do wonders for increasing shoulder health, upper extremity endurance and integrated core control.
If you want to dive into the world of ground-based movement, check outAnimal Flow.
Workout challenge:Bear crawling work capacity (4 rounds)
Round 1: Strictbear crawl as far as possible (measure by distance or time)
Round 2: Rest 30 seconds and repeat for 3/4 distance or time.
Round 3: Rest 30 second and repeat for 3/4 distance or time
Round 4: Rest 30 seconds and repeat for 3/4 distance or time.
Turkish Get-Ups (total body)
Turkish Get-Ups (TGU’s) is a layered approach to moving from lying flat on your back to
Go from lying on your back to standing as efficiently as possible… with weight in your hand. In slang terms, this what a turkish get-up accomplishes.
Inside of a turkish get-up, you’ve got many exercises: cross-body diagonal abdominal crunches, static overhead weighted holds, lunges, windmills, hip lifts.
A turkish get up is a movement sequence with many layers, all of which can be practiced on their own to enhance your TGU proficiency.
Workout Challenge:Complete 10 minutes of Turkish Get-Ups(continuous)
Kettlebell Snatches (ballistic total body)
Kettlebell snatch workouts are legendary for boosting conditioning and burning fat. The ballistic nature of the snatches coupled with the large amount of muscles used makes the training effect incredible.
Even 1-2 minutes of aggressive snatches will leave you gasping. The design of the kettlebell and the exercise technique of the snatch allows for a natural flow from rep to rep.
Personally, I’ve rarely seen my heart rate climb as high as it does when snatching a kettlebell.
This means a large amount of work can be done in a short amount of time.
Workout Challenge:Secret Service Snatch Test (SSST)
Thrusters (total body)
Squat and press, squat and press, squat and press.
“Thrusters” are the combination of a squat and an overhead press. Fusing squats and presses together creates a massive training stimulus. Thrusters are pure work, which no real-time to rest between each repetition.
Thrusters can be performed using a variety of training tools: kettlebells, barbells, sandbags or dumbbells. All provide a slightly different look at the same exercise.
Workout Challenge: Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes, complete 10 thrusters.
Kettlebell Swings (ballistic lower body pull)
Kettlebells by design, are naturally a great tool to burn fat.
Similar to kettlebell snatches, there is a tremendous amount of muscle tension throughout the entire arc range of motion in a kettlebell swing. Speed of repetition and muscles engagement create a training effect unlike any other fitness tool. When the hips get involved in an exercise, it usually means a global training effect.
The sandbag is one of the most underrated training tools out there. Unlike a barbell which has rigid structure, sandbags are constantly shifting and changing shape. This requires your body to make constant adjustments to these shifts and shape in real-time. Whether you’ve got 100lbs in a sandbag or 100lbs on a barbell, weight is weight. But, I guarantee you a 100lb sandbag is going to feel a lot heavier than a 100lb barbell.
Mix up how you hold the sandbag when squatting. Bear hug, front rack, underarm hook and shouldering will challenge your body in very different ways.
Workout Challenge: DescendingSandbag Squats
Set #1: Complete as many reps of sandbag squats as possible without rest.
Set #2: Rest 45 seconds, now complete half the reps of Set #1.
Set #3: Rest 30 seconds, now complete half the reps of Set #2.
Set #4: Rest 15 seconds, now complete half the reps of Set #3.
Chin-Ups/Pull-Ups (upper body pull)
No fat loss article would be complete without mentioning vertical pulling exercises like chin-ups and pull-ups. For many, these will be the most frustrating exercises on the list because they are frequently the weakest lifts on the list.
Exercise regression is the path to your first chin-up/pull-ups and exercise progression is the path to building on that achievement. If you can’t yet execute a full range of motion chin-up/pull-ups, you’ve got a couple effective options: decrease the weight being pulled or practice one phase of the exercise.
Stretch band-assisted chin-ups/pull-ups will decrease the amount of weight you’re required to pull on each repetition, making the exercise more manageable. Wrap the band around the bar overhead, then down around the shin of a flexed knee or way down around your foot.
If don’t have a stretch band, you can still make gains by practicing one phase of the exercise, the eccentric or lowering phase. Start at the top of the chin-up/pull-up and lower yourself to the bottom as slowly as possible. Eccentrics are well-known for producing muscle soreness, you’ve been warned.
Workout Challenge:Perform a 1-Minute Chin-Up
Push-Up Variations (upper body push)
Push-ups are my choice for best upper body pushing exercise. Pressing exercises can be split up into two categories: vertical and horizontal. Vertical pushing extends the arms overhead and horizontal pushing extends the arms out in front of the body.
Push-ups can be done anywhere, anytime with no equipment. The variations are seemingly limitless. The basic traditional push-up is a fantastic choice for metabolic workouts, as it requires little thought and set-up, yet worthy training stimulus to the core and pushing muscles of the upper body.
Workout Challenge:Perform 15 push-ups every minute on the minute for 10 minutes (150 total reps)
Lunge Variations (lower body pull)
Lunges are lower body exercise to train primarily the hips, hamstrings and adductors.
Lunging is unique because it has many variations. You could lunge front to back, side to side, rotationally, explosively, moving across a distance, on an incline or decline, or stationary if space is limited.
Adding external weight to a lunge will challenge the core and grip muscles. External weight could be placed in several positions: arms hanging at the sides, chest height in a racked position, arms extended overhead, resting on the shoulders or varied (one arm hanging down, the other supporting weight overhead)
If you want to go hands-free and make lunging more natural, a weight vest is a great option.
Being able to lunge successfully becomes more important as we age, to preserve and extend quality of life. Most times we get up off the floor into a standing position, we are essentially performing a variation of a lunge.
Splitting your stance (not to be mis-read as “splitting your pants”) reduces the width of your base of support which increases the instability. L
Generally speaking, if you want to make a lower body exercise more challenging without adding weight, here is how you do it:
Option 1: Narrow the distance of base of support (squats)
Option 2: Stagger the base of support (lunge)
Option 3: Stagger AND narrow the base of support (inline lunge)
Option 4: Partial support (rear foot elevated split squats)
Option 5: Unsupported Singleleg base of support (single leg deadliest or pistol squat)
I know option 4 and 5 are not technically a lunges, but the point was to lay out a nice progression to follow.
Workout Challenge:How far/long can you lunge walk with 15 lbs (females) or 30lb (males) in each hand?
High Plank Rows (upper body pull)
Rowing while supporting yourself in a high plank position is a humbling experience, particularly for your core muscles. Dragon flags and toe-to-bar are hyped as being incredible core strength builders, but high plank rows may make you rethink core training altogether.
Alternate each arm while rowing. For added challenge, pause the motion when the hand reaches your side, lower slowly. The body tension needed to perform this drill is incredible. You’ve got to be rigid from head to heel, front side and back side.
Workout Challenge: Perform 20 repetitions of high plank rows on each arm.
Try the workout challenges!
Most of the challenges require less than 15 minutes of your time, and will be a good eye opener to the possibilities. The workout challenges can also serve as baseline numbers to assess progress down the road.
The training options are only limited by your creativity.
Now you can mix and match these 10 exercise to create effective workouts.
How to create a fat loss workout?
Choose one exercise from each of the following movement patterns:
Upper body pull
Upper body push
Lower body pull
Lower body push
Total Body or Core Exercise
Hybrid movements like burpees or thrusters combine several movement patterns into one exercise, compounding the amount of work being performed. Most people will find hybrid exercises like thrusters to exhaust the body much quicker than if you performed a set of squats and overhead presses on their own.
How many reps per exercise?
Play around with reps. Vary them high, very them low. Generally, anywhere from 8-15 reps will provide a good training effect.
Personally, I prefer keeping the reps on the lower side so I can increase the amount of weight for each exercise. I have found the training effect to be profound with lower reps and higher loads.
How many rounds?
Rounds are the cycles through each exercise and reps per exercise.
Generally speaking, a great workout at the right intensity should go anywhere from 4-8 rounds, rarely more.
If you’re able to push passed 8 rounds with ease, it’s probably time to increase the weight used or the complexity of the movement.
How much rest between rounds?
Again, this will vary depending on fitness level. However, 30-75 seconds is a good target amount of rest between working sets. As your body adapts to the stress, you’ll find it’s necessary to decrease the rest in order to keep progressing.
In tough workouts it might not feel like it, but the human body is brilliantly designed to adapt to physical stresses.
You train and break down, you recover, regenerate and grow.
Here’s another idea for resting between each round, descending rest periods.
For example:
Round 1: Rest 25 seconds
Round 2: Rest 35 seconds
Round 3: Rest 45 seconds
Round 4: Rest 55 seconds
Round 5: Rest 65 seconds
Round 6: Rest 75 seconds
Using this rest period structure, you’re challenging yourself harder on the front end of the workout since rest is far shorter but the work remains the same. As you progress through the rounds, your rest periods lengthen to accommodate the accumulating fatigue.
Start right now!
Don’t read this and forget about it. Read it, write it down and do it today or tonight.
You have everything you need to organize several of these exercises into a workout conducive for burning fat.
Don’t over think it. Choose exercises for each of exercises, 1-5 above and you’ve just designed a workout to torch fat.
The goal of this article is to present several of my homemade lizard crawl regressions to get a newbie acclimated. Most of these drills were designed to help myself better understand the mechanics of the lizard crawl, and I’d like to share them with you…
The Lizard Crawl exercise, from my point of view, is the king of the ground-based locomotion drills. It’s a monster of an exercise, best broken down into digestible segments if you’re a beginner to such training.
Lizard crawling is jam-packed with physical benefits that spill over into all other areas of one’s physical practice. The lizard crawl will test joint range of motion and stability, muscular endurance and strength, core strength/stability/endurance and motor control all in one shot.
Another positive side effect of lizard crawling is conditioning. It’s pure work when you’re inefficient and learning. Expect to be winded with heart rate will be soaring after several yards.
Although a successful lizard crawl is a total body effort, the upper body is tested to a great degree. The lizard crawl elicits a similar training effect to more common crawling variations (bear, crab, etc) and progresses it a step further.
Remaining in the low position for the duration of the crawl is what does most people in.
A full blown lizard crawl is deceptively difficult. Watching someone like Ido Portal lizard crawl (a world class movement practitioner), it’s easy to think, “Doesn’t look too bad, it’s just crawling, I could do that”. And maybe you can. If so, good on you.
But for most people, the mechanics are complex. As mentioned earlier, joint position and range of motion, the timing of the hands and feet, core activation in difficult positions may completely foreign.
Foreign = struggle bus.
I do suggest you watch several of these videos and test abilities to give yourself a baseline for improvement.
Even if you’re able to crawl several feet on both sides, the next challenge is to add some distance to the movement.
Without further ado, here are few more lizard crawl variations to slip into your workouts demonstrated by yours truly…
Lizard Crawl Variation #1 – 2 Hands + 1 Foot
In this variation, keep two hands in contact with the floor while practicing hip range of motion and foot placement. Softly move the knee up beyond waist height and place the ball of the foot on the floor. Lower into the bottom of the push-up, chest hovering roughly 2 inches above the floor. Pause, looking forward, return to the start position.
Lizard Crawl Variation #2 – Soft Arm Reach
Introduction to reaching with the lead arm. We will remain stationary for the time being. Expect the complexity to ramped up significantly once movement is introduced. This variation involves a soft slide of the lead arm, straight out and back in. This also provides some sensation of what it will feel like supporting the body on one arm, another challenging aspect of the lizard crawl.
Same exercise cues as the previous variation, lower step with the leg, plant with the ball of the foot, lower down with control, but now slide the hand out softly. Breathe.
Lizard Crawl Variation #3 – “Alligator” Arms and Legs
To give you a taste of some dynamic movement, here is the short-arm variation of the lizard crawl.
I refer to it as an “alligator” progression. The idea is to reach with a limited range of motion, keeping the elbows flexed and close to the rib cage. This elbow position is far more manageable versus reaching out into full extension.
Also, notice the limited range of motion on the foot placement. Plant with the ball of the foot, stabilize and gain control, breathe, now move the hands and support. Slowly move forward, don’t rush it.
This variation is a humbling introductory training stimulus to the full lizard crawl. Many will begin to understand the sheer complexity of the lizard crawl pattern after trying this.
The path to improvement is practice. Don’t be discouraged by your initial attempts. It may be a frustrating experience, even if you consider yourself to well conditioned.
It’s common to find joint mobility, stability, core strength and endurance to be lacking, all of which can be practiced using the three progressions I’ve shared.
Practice the progression that allows for technique achievement.
Each will lead you to the next and continual progress will be made.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Ido Portal Method training philosophy, check out this popular article I wrote several years ago…
“Animal Flow is an innovative fitness program that combines quadrupedal and ground-based movement with element from various bodyweight-training disciplines to create a fun, challenging workout emphasizing multi-planar, fluid movement.”
If you’ve been hunting for a movement system to deepen your understanding of Ido Portal’s locomotion exercises, Animal Flow is the system to follow.
Animal Flow’s training methodology embodies the evolution my own fitness practice has experienced over the last several years.
The “your body is a barbell” is cliché statement, but a true statement about bodyweight training. Everywhere you go, no matter what the circumstance, bodyweight training is a tool to be leveraged.
Don’t stop at isolation…
A lot of people stop the bus at basic bodyweight training: push-ups, pull-ups, squats, lunges, etc. I have nothing against basic bodyweight training because it’s brutally effective for improving performance, it’s free and it’s arguably the most functional form of resistance training.
You can live a great life by hammering away on basic bodyweight movements.
However, as I mentioned in my post “Basics of the Ido Portal Method”, a lot of people have an innate desire to explore what’s beyond isolation movements.
After a while, it’s common to feel like your workouts are being reduced down to numbers (quantified progress): more reps, more sets, more time, etc.
There’s nothing wrong with quantified progress. Quantifying your workouts practice is a great way to measure improvement or stagnation. Scanning your numbers can help you evaluate if your current training plan working the way it should.
It’s not much different than following a recipe in the kitchen.
But there is another realm, one where you’re moving without being restricted to reps and sets and time.
This realm explores your body’s movement capacity through space.
Some of these body positions are common and familiar, some are not. Training uncomfortable positions is important to prepare the body for unpredictable scenarios.
Movement capacity development.
Ground-based movement training benefits ANYONE and EVERYONE. Why? Because it is life played out through the movement lens. Everywhere you go, your body is right there with you.
Comments in REDare my interpretation and elaboration on those points.
What comprises the Animal Flow program?
“Animal Flow includes a wide range of exercises and movement combinations that are grouped into six components, each designed to elicit specific results. The six components can be mixed and matched in many ways, and you can incorporate one, some, or all of them in your workouts! The six components include:
Wrist Mobilizations
“Wrist Mobilizations include a range of simple exercises designed to increase the flexibility and strength of your wrists, which is particularly important for any practice where you are spending a lot of time on your hands.”
– Although most of human life is spent either sitting or standing, training the hands/wrists/arms to tolerate a more robust range of motion and loading stress in various positions is important.
Our wrists and arms aren’t designed to hang at our sides or flexed up on a keyboard for all day every day. Hanging, brachiation, crawling, climbing are all activities humans should be able to do.
More specific to the Animal Flow program, wrist preparation ensures your body is prepared to handle the load stress.
Activations
“Activations are static holds we perform to connect the body before we start our practice. Examples include Static Beast Hold, Static Crab Hold, and Limb Lifts.”
– Activating dormant muscles is helps protect our bodies against acute injury and chronic aches and pains. It boosts our ability to accomplish common daily tasks efficiently.
This is sometimes referred to as “pre-hab”. Again, cliché, but important.
It’s not necessary to suffer an injury to begin paying attention to muscle activation. Basic maintenance can keep a person functioning on a high level without pain or risk of injury.
Imagine how much better a squat would be if your glute muscles knew they were supposed to participate in the exercise.
Isolated activation exercises remind these muscles they’ve got an active role in the exercise to come.
Form Specific Stretches
“Form Specific Stretches are full body stretches that start in an animal form and then move through a wide range of motion. This increases your mobility and flexibility throughout the entire body. Examples include the Ape Reach, Beast Reach, Crab Reach and Scorpion Reach.”
– Stretching is not dead, so don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Mis-directed, poorly performed stretches are dead. Stretching areas that don’t need to be stretched is dead.
Smart, intelligent stretching in combination with passive and active mobilization techniques are a smarter way to achieve a more functional range of motion. Hello, KinStretch.
Traveling Forms
“Traveling Formsare exercises that mimic the movements of animals. You’ll start with the “ABCs” – Ape, Beast, and Crab – to get you going on these full body conditioning moves. The traveling forms are essentially how we move like animals to improve the function of the human animal.”
– The human body is designed to navigate many different forms movement.
The ability to handle your body while performing uncommon movement tasks (example: crawling) beyond standing and walking will serve you well across life. It gives quality to your years.
Crawling (and the many variations of crawling) is a major component of Traveling Forms. Yes, this is a similar crawling we do as infants. Funny how we regress back to our earliest forms of movement as a reset later in life.
Crawling is an under-estimated, challenging form of movement that trains the body to handle unique body positions, transitions, upper extremity loading and core activation.
The other, a less scientific reason to crawl, is it’s fun. Plain and simple. Crawling is an uncommon activity that is fun. Life’s too short to not have fun.
Fact: a person is more apt to stick to training if there is fun involved. Prove me wrong.
Switches and Transitions
“Switches and Transitions are dynamic movements that we perform one after the other, creating the “flow” of Animal Flow. You can transfer from one form to another, or repeat the same one as a drill. Examples include the many variations for Underswitches, Side Kickthroughs, Front Kickthroughs, and Scorpions.”
– Combining 2-3 exercises is a great way to create a training effect beyond what’s possible by practicing only one drill in isolation.
Transitioning from crawling, to kick throughs into hollow-body rocks will challenge your body to adapt to several different patterns and planes of movement and muscular stress.
These sequences can be practiced for extended periods of time to increase the demand on endurance and cardio.
A workout becomes an experience at this stage. Switches and transitions is where people begin noticing they’re having fun.
Flow
“Flow: Your Flow is where the real magic happens. You’ll combine the Animal Flow moves by linking them together in a fluid sequence, seamlessly transferring energy from one move to the next. Flows may be a choreographed sequence practiced over multiple sessions, or may be created freestyle!”
No secrets here, it will take dedicated practice and patience to arrive at the “flow” stage. Those who stick to the plan will make the gains needed to begin moving freely, improvising each movement as you go.
Like words making a sentence, exercises stitch themselves together, “flowing”.
In sync, the mind and body connection is extremely powerful. Flow a physical demonstration of a mind that is free.
Bringing it home…
A balanced approach of traditional resistance training, gymnastics, and ground-based exercises can make a person dangerous. Each philosophy improves the others.
If you’re a fan of Ido Portal’s methodology, Animal Flow is a logical training system to look into.
Ido hasn’t produced a product for the masses yet, and I suspect he will never release a product.
The current options to train under the Ido Portal Method are private online training or attendance of a seminar. Not ideal and both cost a small fortune. Ido is in high demand right now.
You could always cherry-pick drills from YouTube videos (as I have done), but you’ll never progress as quickly as if you were following a system.
Training systems are designed with an end goal: results.
If you’re interested in expanding your movement capacity, check out: Animal Flow 2.0
M(eaux)tion Fitness 