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Old Forum Programming OS Crawling

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Jeff

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I have discovered that Leopard Crawling can be a really tough exercise for me.  So tough that five sets of crawling 60 feet forwards and 60 backwards can be a workout all by itself.  Leopard Crawling has a host of benefits.  It can be healing to the body while also strengthening.  Geoff and Tim challenge people to work up to crawling ten minutes straight.  If you are crawling with proper form, and keep the hips and shoulders level to the ground, ten minutes can be very challenging.  Geoff said that crawling builds work capacity, and makes everything else easier.

All that being said, how would you work crawling in with S&S?  Since Leopard Crawling is tough enough to be its own workout, I wouldn't want to combine it with a S&S session except for a small amount of crawling as a warmup.  Would it make sense to have separate days designated for more challenging crawling sessions, maybe alternating days of crawling with S&S?  Or would that diminish the results of S&S?

I know that too much variety can be a bad thing, and it is generally best to stick with a program.  But it almost looks to me like these two things could be complimentary to one another.
 
One of my favorite combinations would be to do a getup left and right, crawl 20-30 paces with a chain.. I do 3-5 sets..
 
Crawling, like any exercise, CAN be done as a really tough workout, or can be done in an "easy strength" fashion. You could do it for 1-10 minutes either instead of or in addition to the S&S warmups, you could do it after S&S and have it be self-limiting, you could do it at a separate time of day from your S&S session, or you could do 3, 4, or 5 days a week of S&S, and 1, 2 or 3 days of crawling and other OS resets. Mark's suggestion is another possibility, although I personally wouldn't recommend that unless you're already at the simple standards of S&S.

Pick an approach, implement it for a couple of weeks to a couple of months, and reassess. Keep a log, and review it at the end. Decide what your goals and priorities are, and then the programming becomes a lot easier.
 
Might want to check out this article, outlines a couple of different ways to program: http://www.t-nation.com/training/reflexive-strength-and-spider-man
 
Jeffrey,

One other thing to consider, which Geoff and Tim have mentioned and I have found to be true, is that crawling doesn't have a very high recovery cost. Even if it feels hard while you are doing it, you can still come back and go hard again the next day. And it doesn't seem to interfere much with recovery from other activities either. Of course, if you're just breaking in to crawling or do a really extreme amount, this may not hold true.

I generally do leopard crawling as a finisher after whatever else I am doing that day, mixing in sets of forward/backward, lateral and axial leopard crawls.
 
I warm up with short runs of Spider-Man Crawls forward and backward x 4 each about 25 feet. Then a short rest of 1 minute or so. Then I hit my 5 goblet squats and start on my swings.
 
You can do them on separate days--no need to too much together.Use the crawl day for rolling and other active joint mobility.Try this one--put your feet against a thick tree--the higher they are the easier.Then,use your hands  to circumvent the tree-in both directions.You will learn full body tension in a hurry.
 
"It can be healing to the body"

What do you mean by this and what goal are you using crawling to try and achieve?
 
s f - I really like that tree idea, will try that tonight.  I use crawls as my cool down after S&S and I love them, not too far - just a couple of laps around my first floor, small house, so probably a 200 foot crawl.  For my second training session I take the dog for a 2-4 mile walk and incorporate a few sprints, then when we get home I play around with the battling ropes to break a good sweat, tonight I will try a lap around the tree.  thanks!
 
Jeffrey,

KBs and OS compliment each other VERY well.

If you wanted to do both on the same day - crawling and S&S, you could.

Do what I often do:

Separate the two.

I'll often do OS in the morning for 5-10' (crawling) and then traditional strength work in the afternoon. My lifts keep going up.
 
Geoff,

I hate to ask, but how much crawling in the morning?

Does 5-10' mean 5-10 minutes?

Does that work as well as a morning cup of coffee for getting going?
 
If you are doing a crawling workout separately, spare a thought for some other types of crawling, or movements, animal moves or primal moves, that get forgotten about but are great to do aswell. Try crawling on a bar, a low one to start, or on a kerb, fence etc. crab crawls are brutal for triceps, kongs or monkeys, great for hip mobility and explosiveness. Duck walks, seals. I'm very S&S only at the moment but a favourite mix and match workout I do is, pick a crawl for 20m, roll out of it, sprint 50m, walk recover. Same movement but done backwards, roll, sprint. Again same move sideways. Another movement, repeat process. 10 or so. I used to do this at higher intensity, run recovery and longer sprints until goosed but keep it all fresh now, well when I was doing them More frequently last year. Good on the beach. Very parkour like but really old school too. Minus the sprints it is my old judo warm up from 35 years ago. Very easy to adapt/vary. I know it isn't very specific but I like it as an easy, fun thing to throw in the mix from time to time and it makes me feel younger than I actually am.
 
"my old judo warm up from 35 years ago"

and no shrimp crawls?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHwfPzXDU84
 
I decided to clear my training slate and crawl 10 minutes every day for the month of February with no other training. Halfway through February, I made it to 10 minutes nonstop and now I’m at 16-17 minutes nonstop.

My practice has evolved to 3 different versions - usually done repeating every 3 days.
Day One - nonstop
crawl randomly switching between forwards and backwards around the house, garage and driveway until I can’t stand it and have to look at the stopwatch.

Day Two - slow crawls
3 seconds between setting hand & foot down
x20 forwards + x20 backwards + 1 minute shake out
# of sets = total time from Day One

Day Three - longer sets
X minutes backwards - shake out until breathing normally
X minutes forwards - shake out until breathing normally
X = total time from Day One ÷ 4
repeat twice

I begin each session with a few minutes of OS resets and finish with: 20 minutes alternating between a squat and the OS-TV-watching-position while meditating; finishing with a few minutes of Brettzels.

The above may look “programmed” but my actual practice is much more relaxed and random - the only thing I keep rigid is 10+ minutes each day. Haven’t missed a day and intend to keep going until….?

I must admit the one mile spiderman crawl is certainly intriguing.
 
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