Learn how rolling and crawling exercises can improve health, prevent injuries, and maintain mobility.
In our fast-paced culture, we often skip the basics for flashy techniques. In martial arts, music, nutrition, and exercise, we crave the impressive and trendy, neglecting fundamental skills.
This leaves gaps in our abilities, especially in basic movement fluency. Before using weights or machines, mastering body movements is crucial. Many athletes have impressive muscles but lack basic functionality, leading to injuries.
We lose natural movement skills due to sedentary lifestyles. Revisiting childhood stages like rolling, crawling, standing, and walking can reset our movement vocabulary, keeping us pain-free as we age.
As we grow older, maintaining movement is essential. Fear of falls is common among the elderly, and basic skills like getting up from the floor are vital. Studies show that the ability to stand without using hands can predict longevity. Floor exercises, though sometimes seen as undignified, are crucial for long-term health.
Getting started
To get started, find a comfortable space with padding, like a gym mat. If needed, have a spotter assist you. You can also begin on a bed if getting to the floor is challenging. Start slowly and focus on maintaining proper form while moving to and from the floor.
The hard roll
The Hard Roll is a great place to start when doing floor work. The idea is to separate your body into to upper and lower halves and see if you can perform bilateral rolls using just one portion of your body.
- Lie flat on your back with your arms overhead and and legs flat on the ground. I want you to image that you are numb from the waist up and only have use of lower body. Using only your legs, see if you are able to roll over onto your stomach and then back onto your spine. Then try rolling the opposite direction. Be cognizant to keep your upper body completely limp and lifeless and not to use any momentum.
- Repeat the exact same process as step one except this time I want you to imagine that you are lifeless from the waist down and can only use you upper body to perform the rolls. Most people will find this version much more challenging.
Crawling
Crawling is an extremely important skill in human movement fluency, and one that is often glossed over or discounted by over-involved parents who are rushing their young children to walk so they can brag to their friends about how little junior started walking at 2 months while reciting Shakespeare and playing the violin. Studies show that children who skip the crawling phase of the neuro-developmental Sequence often show a marked movement incompetency as adults.
Regardless, many people have not come down to the floor and crawled in many years. Not only will it make your core stronger and your body work together more seamlessly, it will also stimulate your brain, improve your balance and assist you in being able to get on and off the floor with ease. Below is an easy crawling progression that you can follow. As with any exercise, make sure you are competent with and can proficiently perform the movement before progressing to a harder variation. Progressing yourself too quickly with poor movement quality will only make you worse and reinforce bad habits.
Quadruped with alternating hand raises
Get on all four with arms directly beneath the shoulders and knees directly beneath the hips about shoulder-width apart with the toes tucked (plantar flexed). Make sure your spine and pelvis are neutral. Throughout this entire drill I want you to imagine that you are balancing a full glass of my favorite beer on your low back. If your pelvis shifts and you spill my beer, I’ll get very angry, and many push-ups will be in your near future. From this position slowly alternate lifting one hand on and off the ground. Everything should remain neutral. Again, don’t spill my beer.
Quadruped with alternating limb lifts
Get into the same position as above, but this time, when you raise your hand off the ground, lift the opposite leg at the same time (e.g. right hand and left leg). Make sure the hand and leg leave and return to the ground at the same time. Keep the spine neutral and pelvis quiet.
Quadraped with alternating limb left-knee up
Repeat the exact drill as above with the exception that the knees stay off the ground the entire time. Feel the burn.
Full crawl
Once you have mastered the above three drills you are ready to progress into full crawls. There are an endless number of crawling variations, some of which include crawling forward, backwards, sideways, bear crawls, dragon crawls, etc. The possibilities are endless, so have fun with them! Doing crawl variations can act as a great warm-up before workouts.
Have fun filling those “gaps” in your movement fluency and try adding some of these fun floor variations into your daily routine and I bet you’ll be surprised by how great you feel!
Sources:
Barreto de Brito et al., Ability to Sit and Rise From the Floor as a Predictor of all-cause Mortality. European Journal of Cardiology, December 13, 2012.